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Hatsubai « The more versatile DSL100 »
Published on 05/13/11 at 17:16The Marshall JCM2000 TSL100 is the amplifier that actually helped inspire the JVM. It's a three channel amplifier with four EL34 and four 12AX7 tubes that features independent controls, a midboost, deep switch, tone shift, power reduction, output mute, reverb, line out, effects loop and more.
UTILIZATION
While the amplifier has tons of features packed into it, and they're laid out clearly, I find it is somewhat hindered with all the stuff thrown inside it. I'll get to that later in the sound section. The loop in this is decent, and it's easy to dial in a decent tone. The manual is pretty good for this, and it describes what all the various features do, how they interact with each other, etc.
SOUNDS
Despite this being more versatile than the DSL100, I find that it simply doesn't sound as good. I really think it's because they threw in all that extra nonsense that people don't exactly need. One thing is that I find the distortion to be fairly buzzy. It doesn't have that organic gain that the JCM800 has, and while it tastes boosts nicely, it just doesn't sound quite "up to par" as the DSL100 did. The clean tones on this thing are pretty weak too, but that's kinda to be expected with a standard Marshall tone stack. I much prefer a Fender or Mesa/Boogie tone stack for clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
Despite the additional features that this amplifier offers, it just doesn't seem to sound quite as good as the DSL100. Maybe it's because I'm a bit more of a minimalist that I feel that way, but it just seemed to be overall "bland" sounding. The amp needs to be boosted to get a really "good" gain tone. Stock, it has tons of gain, but I just find it to be buzzy sounding once you start cranking. These go pretty cheap on the used market, and unlike the DSL100, there's actually a reason they're so cheap.
UTILIZATION
While the amplifier has tons of features packed into it, and they're laid out clearly, I find it is somewhat hindered with all the stuff thrown inside it. I'll get to that later in the sound section. The loop in this is decent, and it's easy to dial in a decent tone. The manual is pretty good for this, and it describes what all the various features do, how they interact with each other, etc.
SOUNDS
Despite this being more versatile than the DSL100, I find that it simply doesn't sound as good. I really think it's because they threw in all that extra nonsense that people don't exactly need. One thing is that I find the distortion to be fairly buzzy. It doesn't have that organic gain that the JCM800 has, and while it tastes boosts nicely, it just doesn't sound quite "up to par" as the DSL100 did. The clean tones on this thing are pretty weak too, but that's kinda to be expected with a standard Marshall tone stack. I much prefer a Fender or Mesa/Boogie tone stack for clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
Despite the additional features that this amplifier offers, it just doesn't seem to sound quite as good as the DSL100. Maybe it's because I'm a bit more of a minimalist that I feel that way, but it just seemed to be overall "bland" sounding. The amp needs to be boosted to get a really "good" gain tone. Stock, it has tons of gain, but I just find it to be buzzy sounding once you start cranking. These go pretty cheap on the used market, and unlike the DSL100, there's actually a reason they're so cheap.