Joining The Fold Soon ... Jcm2000 Dsl100

[Holzar88]

Longtime lurker here, finally making it official.

I've been wanting a Marshall for a long time, and a deal finally popped up locally today that prompted me to pull the trigger. Nabbed one of the limited edition 2009 DSL 100s (with the black piping) at a local GC for $549. Actually, I don't have it yet (layaway ... need to sell a couple of pedals), but I'm looking forward to picking it up soon.

I'll be running it through an Avatar 2x12 with Heritage 65s. My other amp is a Bogner Alchemist 2x12 combo. I've also got a modded ADA MP-1 (three tube mod) that I'll probably break out and run through it too.

Axes are a couple of '80s Kramers. Looking forward to a real-deal Marshall. Thanks for listening.

 

[Adrian R]

Cool deal... You're gonna love it! Spend allot of time with it if you can... It needs volume to sound it's best!

 

[chiliphil1]

Cool, congrats man. Those are one of the best looking amps to ever come out of Bletchley.

 

[Holzar88]

Thanks, gentlemen.

 

[RickyLee]

Welcome to the Forum and congrats.

I have both the DSL100 and an Alchemist head as well. I would like to know how the two compare when you get the chance to do it.

 

[Holzar88]

Welcome to the Forum and congrats.

I have both the DSL100 and an Alchemist head as well. I would like to know how the two compare when you get the chance to do it.

I'll let you know. I use the Alchemist exclusively as a clean pedal platform. It's got a nice 6L6 clean, and a good master volume. I find the dirty channel to be unusable. I've tried over and over again to like it, but to no avail.

 

[charveldan]

Congrats, the DSL-MLB 100 was a limited run only made for 2009 exclusively for Musicians Friend & Guitar Center.
After 2006 they fixed the dreaded bias drift issues, it is a fine amp.

 

[Mcfc_Marshall]

Welcome to the forum!

The DSL is one half decent amp that's for sure. Should sound nice with your rig.

However the DSL has always been abit of an overhyped amp In my humble opinion...It's always been a good amp that you will get you a nice sweet OD...
It's just Never been a great "real deal Marshall" and never will be no matter how much you believe that some hyped up tech guys that charge you a grand for a mod will transform it for you.

I always find myself going back to my 6100 personally, just because it sounds more "organic" and the drive sounds a bit less "buzzy sounding" than the DSL in my opinion. Doesn't mean the DSL sounds bad obviously, just tone is subjective.

However, it is one hell of a loud, fierce and gainy amp that will cut through any band situation and has the ability to completely blow more American voiced amps out of the water!

 

[charveldan]

I beg to differ with the last post. IDK how you can call the 6100 "organic" its got more motherboards that 10 home PC's.

 

[Holzar88]

Thanks again for all the "feedback," guys. I've done a lot of reading on this forum and I realize there are sort of two camps when it comes to the original DSL range, those that absolutely love it and those that think it's overrated. One thing's for sure, these amps are pretty accessible for not much money. I figure if end up hating it (which I don't expect), I should be able to get my money out of it relatively easily.

 

[charveldan]

I would just ad the first 10 to 15 years of the DSL line thet were over 2K new.

I wanted one a long time ago.

Now JCM-2000 DSL's go for $400 to $600 all day.

I would be careful buying pre 2006 models as they are prone to bias issues.

 

[Holzar88]

I would just ad the first 10 to 15 years of the DSL line thet were over 2K new.

I wanted one a long time ago.

Now JCM-2000 DSL's go for $400 to $600 all day.

I would be careful buying pre 2006 models as they are prone to bias issues.

This one's a 2009, so we should be good there. Prolly grab some NOS RFT 12ax7s to drop in and see what happens.

 

[charveldan]

Oh right-on Brother .... it will happen.

 

[RickyLee]

I beg to differ with the last post. IDK how you can call the 6100 "organic" its got more motherboards that 10 home PC's.

LMFAO!

Yeah, I have two 6100's myself and I did have a good honeymoon with one of them as it turned into my main gigging amp there for awhile. But the love affair ended sometime later as I started suspecting it needed some capacitors replaced. I did order all e'lytics caps for both 6100's and still can not get myself to undertake the major task of replacing them . . . .

 

[Mcfc_Marshall]

I beg to differ with the last post. IDK how you can call the 6100 "organic" its got more motherboards that 10 home PC's.

Fair enough man gonna but If you read my post properly, you'd know I was refering to the actual sound having more character and just a fuller more natural sounding gain sound when cranked but that's my 2 Bob on it.

 

[ibmorjamn]

What is up with the DSL prices coming down ?
I have to re- evaluate mine.
Oh and congrats !

 

[chiliphil1]

What is up with the DSL prices coming down ?
I have to re- evaluate mine.
Oh and congrats !

I think it's because of the new ones. They're $899 so not many people are going to pay $7-800 for a 20 year old version.

 

[Deep Purple fan]

Not clear why....when a guy is happy about his DSL, someone has to say the poster'sjoy is about a half a good amp and the 6100 is better? It's pure subjective as both amps have their fans and BTW, there are a hell of a lot more JCM2000 DSLs out there. I've owned both and liked both. One of the best sounding Marshall's I ever played was a JCM2000 DSL...

 

[johan.b]

The dsl is s great amp. Everybody raves about the crunch but for me the od1 is where it's at. ..depending of coarse on your guitar/pickups, but with gain at 7 i get really nice clean at 1-3 on my guitar, 4-7 jcm800 type crunch and high gain lead at 8-10. .enjoy your new amp and don't let net sayers put you down. .It's better to love than to hate...
j

 

[Holzar88]

Thanks for all the responses, guys. No worries on the discussion about the 6100. I'd love to nab one of those some day, but they're pretty rare and complicated enough (construction-wise) that I was a bit leery of it (though I know there's some great support here, too.) And I know there are huge fans of the DSL line as well as some who think it's not Marshall's best effort.

My other "dream" Marshall is a JVM Satriani, but that's a bit higher on the food chain than my meager skills at this point can justify.