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Marshall JCM 2000 DSL401
What is it?: An all-tube, 40W guitar amplifier.
What did it cost you?: I managed to get mine off eBay for $900AU. It generally retails for around $1300AU, making it one of the cheaper all tube amps on the market. Well, around here anyway...
How long have you owned it?: Since November '06.
The Marshall DSL401 packs 40W's of all tube amplification, making it quiet enough for practising at home, but crank the volume knobs (yes, knobs) and it can easily rival a half-stack and the drums. And of course, being and all tube amp, your unlikely to be let down by its tone - which is thanks to the 4 ECC83 preamp tubes and 4 EL84 power tubes. As with most Marshall amps, that DSL has a very UK sound with plenty of emphasis on the mid and bass ranges. That being said, it can do a very mean metal tone on the high gain channel with the mids rolled off a bit.
The amp features 3 channels clean, OD1 and OD2. These can be selected via either the included footswitch or via buttons on the amp itself. The clean channel includes the standard bass, mid and treble controls along with a gain control that allows for some slight tube overdrive. The gain channel also fattens up the tone as you turn it up, giving you a nice fat, slightly overdriven blues tone. OD1 and OD2 are the overdrive channels respectively. OD1 has more of 70s Plexi tone whereas OD2 is the high gain channel more suitable for modern rock and metal (or people who just love to saturate their tone with gain). The gain channel includes the standard tone controls along with a gain knob and volume knob. All 3 channels can be controlled via master volume and reverb controls.
My only complaint as far as the channels go is the control layout. OD1 and OD2 run off the same controls. I'd like to increase the gain of OD1, but doing so will also increase the gain of OD2. Also, the clean channel lacks a volume control. While increasing the gain increases the volume, this makes it hard to get a crystal clear clean tone at a loud volume. The only away around it that I've found is to lower the gain and crank the master volume, but you'd better make sure you lower the volume of the overdrive channels...
The amp is a combo by nature, including as Celestian 12" speaker. However, it also has a loudspeaker output with switchable 8 of 16ohm impedance. So, if the 40w of tube amplification and 12" speaker aren't enough, you can always plug it into a cab. It also includes a speaker emulated D.I output you can use to plug straight into a DI box or speaker simulator. It also doubles as a headphone jack for late night practising.
Another neat feature, that most amps nowadays have but anyway, is the series FX loop. The FX loop is usually used for time based effects like delay after the amplification stage, but you can also run other effects if you desire. An 'FX Mix' knob is included on the amp which allows you to blend in the 'wet' (altered signal from the pedals in the loop) with the unaltered 'dry' signal. I like to run my wah through the FX loop occasionally so I can blend in a light wah effect.
Pros:
- All tube amp that is loud and versatile enough for basically all applications
- Great tone albeit a bit more middy than I was expecting
- Plenty of features (well, more than enough for me anyway)
- Price (in comparison to other tube amps around the same specification)
Cons:
- Control configuration makes it hard to alter a few things without affecting something else.
- Heavy
Rating: 8/10
Conclusion: For those of us who can't afford a Triple Recto or 6505, this makes a great amp for either home practising, gigging or just jamming with friends. And hey, it's a a Marshall, so it can't be that bad.
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