Marshall Tsl60/tsl100 Appreciation Thread!!

[DDJ34]

TSL100 back from the tech again(second times a charm). Dr. Tube Stable Bias kit installed, pots cleaned, main board and jacks reflowed, ANOS SED/Svet =c= quad installed.
This time he found the problem with the intermittent/disappearing output.
16 ohm connection to ground was corroded.
New jack put in.
Amp RIPS again!! I'm back in business!!

Here's a laugh!
On Saturday night after playing a couple hours, I sat down and put my Ironbird(was wearing the strap too!!) flat on my lap, leaned over forward to make some dial adjustments on my pedals...BANG!...Guitar slides off of lap and strap is set too low to stop the inevitable!...
I chipped two of the south facing points(stupid pointy guitars!)on the face of the guitar! I guess it truly is a keeper now! Lol!

 

[JacksonCharvelAddict]

I like the TSL a lot. I prefer it over the DSL. I was able to get a really sick modern gain sound out of it. I have heard they have hardware issues but sound wise I was very impressed. The 100w is loud enough to destroy a small town. Good stuff.

 

[DDJ34]

 

[DDJ34]

I lasted 55 minutes with this thing dimed in a chicago bungalow bedroom with the door closed and my ears took three days to recover. I had been drinking. Lol

 

[Dogs of Doom]

are those the original JBL woofers?

You got to plug those tweeters man! or disconnect them, to play guitar through that TSL...

 

[DDJ34]

They are the originals! And I have three backup speakers(had four, already killed one). It has a crossover in the back so I can dial them out(thank God!).

 

[JonSick]

I can't tell you how much I love the TSL100.

When I was a young guy, I somehow ended up with a TSL100 and 2x12 cab as my first big amp. There was a short stint with a Laney VH100r, but that's another story. I played that for a few years, traded it in for an Engl Powerball - a decision I wholly regret. My TSL100 was in great condition, not a nick nor a burr. But Engl I went. I liked it but had a cacophony of people telling me at gigs they couldn't hear me. This despite being loud and despite sound engineers demanding I turned down. After various experiments, I was disappointed to learn that the Powerball essentially sounds great on its own. But add in a band with another guitarist and you just aren't cutting through.

Fast forward, I traded that for a Mesa Mk4. Easily the biggest and most cutting of disappointments. It sounded bad from day 1. I traded different guitars, pickups, effects, cables, overdrives, you name it. I couldn't get over how dead sounding it was, stiff lifeless and all the while remembering the Internet folklore of "If you can't get it done with a Mesa Mk, you are the problem, not the amp!" That was pretty much the advice I took from anytime I asked about it. It led me to pretty much not being inspired to play at all and when my main band called it a day, my gear pretty much sat in a wardrobe for easily over a year with me not touching it at all. I just kinda quit playing as I figured after all these years I was just a crap player.

One day a friend of mine was doing a bar covers band. AC/DC, Bon Jovi, GnR, that sort of thing. Anyway he asked me to dep for him and I said yes for whatever reason. The band were these pro types who took things seriously and they said to use their guitarist's backline. I did a rehearsal with the Mesa, still thought I sounded like the worst player ever but for whatever reason they said I was great and I should do their gig. I thought they were going to kick me out within a half hour. In fact I'd only paid for an hour parking but as they wanted me to carry on, I just thought screw it, risk the parking ticket (which I did get) and be professional.

Anyway gig day comes and they showed up with a TSL100 half stack. There was a part of me thinking wait the Mesa is an infinitely "better" amp, surely I should have brought that. Ah well. Alls I can say, that was the most fun gig I ever played in ages. I had a blast. The set was two 90 minute slots over the whole evening and I could have done way more. I loved everything about it. I took me £120 payment or whatever (I remember I got extra than agreed because I didn't drink). Next day, fired the Mesa back up, dead, lifeless, felt horrible.

I called up maybe ten stores asking if they had a TSL100. I finally found one who was up for a trade in. They thought I was nuts. I got a used TSL100 they had and a Jackson guitar as a straight trade for the Mesa. They thought I was nuts and even had their tech look at the Mesa to make sure I wasn't trying to pull a fast one. All the way driving back, I was wondering, "What the hell did I just do?" I mean, value wise I definitely took a bath. The store definitely got the better end of the deal for sure. But got it home, fired it up, and there I was. Simply that, there I was again! The missus had to literally prize the guitar away from me.

I did look on the shop's website to see my used mesa there, just wanted to know how much I was out in cash but honestly I was happy! Do not miss that amp - or those years of being thoroughly depressed with playing - at all!

Of course that time off did hit my skills a lot. I went to a couple of guitar teachers, finally landed on a guy in Watford who was excellent, got into a new band, threw a JVM410h into the mix to use live, life was good.

I currently own four TSL100s. I've done the mainboard on all of them, true to say I've gone through around 14 in my time. Simply I knew I could fix them, found quite a few come up used as not working and sold them on. I quite like that there's at least ten or so in the wild that now work and hopefully living happy lives somewhere.

But basically the TSL100 is the amp that got me into playing properly twice! So yeah, I'm very glad this amp exists and I doubt I'll ever be without one again! I doubt I'll buy more - surely four is enough - in fact two of them I only really bought because they were broken and bargains as a result and I just never resold them - but yep. TSL100 for me.

In a way if whatever Marshall flagships next is even slightly TSL100 related, I could see myself buying one.

 

[Venire]

After 15 years, I'm getting back into playing again...anyway I remember loving my amp in the early 2000s as well as my jtm 30...both get much hate I never had a problem back then. I did change the tubes since the amps sat so long and had them cleaned up...tldr I'm looking forward to hearing what you did with your tsl

I own both the tsl100 and jtm30...I bought new and never had a problem

 

[Fisheth24]

Hey guys, haven't been around for ages, how have we all been doing?

 

[DDJ34]

Awesome!
Playing my 2005 TSL tonight.
Sounds great! Not even using OD. It is warmed up and blistering!
I wanna get another one and stereo this shit!

 

[DDJ34]

Tone Shift buttons for OD1 and OD2...
For or against, or it depends?
I find them crucial for low volume/bedroom( the ol' ladys sleeping)situations, but honestly, when you go past 6 or 7 I feel like they start to kill/damper the tone.

Anybody else?

 

[Marshallmadness]

I just spent all yesterday evening playing my TSL100 through a new cab arrangement that I finally put together after having it for years. Do I ever love that amp.

I use the tone shift quite a bit at times depending on what speakers,cabs, and music I’m playing. When I use this amp for endless mancave practicing it might be plugged into something like two 10” speaker cabs or whatever is needed and not so much the standard 412.

I discovered how to get a great SRV tone out of it using a combination of obviously a strat, the right pedals, manipulation of the crunch channel, and the tone shift. Then I can switch right into the lead channel for a seriously good Hendrix sound. So in the right situation the tone shift buttons are very useful. Sometimes the hardest part of getting a good SRV tone out of a Marshall like this is you have to dial out some of the most prominent Marshall traits and the tone shift helps greatly in my application.