My First Marshall

[Joker]

The DSL is fantastic and I love it, but if you really have your heart set on an AFD, the only remedy is an AFD. Ask yourself, will the DSL really make me happy? If not, don't waste your time and money.

 

[zepplin490]

My AFD dreams are just that dreams. I love the sounds from the AFD album and from just about everything that Slash has ever done but I also require versatility so Im gonna go with the TSL as it has a REAL clean channel with no Shared EQ compromises, the individual EQ's is a huge thing to me because on every multi-channel head that ive ever had only one had a shared and it diddnt just have inividual gain and volumes but had a Contour knob that was assignable to either gain channel so i could scoop the 3rd high gain channel, this was a workable shared EQ but even though it was a great amp i still wanted that ability to really dial in each channel seperately. Im getting the TSL wednesday and Im gonna put it through its paces, ive heard from several TSL owners that it can provide killer tones but just takes a little bit of EQ work to get to sound its best. Ive also looked into a #39 mod on the 1st gain channel in case im not happy with it.
But I think Im gonna love it and I will take the time to really dial it in!
-mp-

 

[chee16]

If you are thinking about mods then check this out
Anchor States: Tech: Amp guts - complete Marshall TSL mods
The guy plays some pretty heavy stuff but gives really good descriptions of the mods he did and what they do. The comments are full of good stuff too.

I have ordered some caps to do some mods on my 602 actually, trying to get rid of the fizz on the lead channel. If you do them right they are all easily reversable too so why not.

 

[libertarian]

My AFD dreams are just that dreams. I love the sounds from the AFD album and from just about everything that Slash has ever done but I also require versatility so Im gonna go with the TSL as it has a REAL clean channel with no Shared EQ compromises, the individual EQ's is a huge thing to me because on every multi-channel head that ive ever had only one had a shared and it diddnt just have inividual gain and volumes but had a Contour knob that was assignable to either gain channel so i could scoop the 3rd high gain channel, this was a workable shared EQ but even though it was a great amp i still wanted that ability to really dial in each channel seperately. Im getting the TSL wednesday and Im gonna put it through its paces, ive heard from several TSL owners that it can provide killer tones but just takes a little bit of EQ work to get to sound its best. Ive also looked into a #39 mod on the 1st gain channel in case im not happy with it.
But I think Im gonna love it and I will take the time to really dial it in!
-mp-

Here's my take on that: you're probably making a good choice there in that you'll still have a very versatile amp that will work for you under different circumstances. Will every sound and every option be 100%? Probably not. But does that matter?

If you're looking to record with it to get some kind of AFD style sound I'm sure any of those multi channel Marshalls will do it. And for live you'll have a lot more options available that are not easy to get from something like the AFD amp or my original JCM800 for that matter.

What I'm trying to get at: the AFD sound is only partially that amp they (supposedly) used in the studio for that album. Based on my experience so much of what the result sounds like has to do with room, microphone placement, EQ, other mixing factors, additional effects, you name it.

For my first two professional recordings (pre digital era) I went with what I had and what I was familiar with. Our excellent engineer did the rest. And later we had one of early 6100 series/30th anniversary amps. Nice amp for live but a lot of hassle to get it to work right in the studio for me. So I went back with the JCM. But quite the opposite is true for my live sounds. I had the 800 modded for my live needs and a good clean channel added that I feed a Mesa Boogie pre-amp into to have more versatility. You already have that and if you find "your voice" in it it should work for anything really.

 

[zepplin490]

Very true liberetarian all that I am looking for is a little versatility in my amp. I looked at the peavey XXX and the JSX but they just sounded fake and had no character and are pretty much Metal only amps I was actually thinking of buying an AFD100 when i first started considering a Marshall but after reading up on em and realizing that they are pretty much a 1 channel amp with 2 different modes, and while im sure you can dial out some of the dirt with the guitar knob I much perfer a pristine clean channel with a touch of reverb due to the fact that alot of the music that I play has both clean and heavier passages i could not use the afd without getting an amp switcher and run another amp for cleans. I will get the TSL dialed in I have no doubt of that I have heard many examples of TSL 100's sounding great and i know that alot of people say that the DSL's do the 80's and the TSL's are geared more towards the 90's Im ok with that ive heard alot of great tones from the 90's that came from marshalls and i would wager that the TSL can be dialed in for a petty good 80's crunch too. 1 more day...

 

[zepplin490]

Well guys and girls tomorrows the day!
-mp-

 

[zepplin490]

Just one question. Do V30's play nice with the jcm 2000 series?
-mp-

 

[chee16]

I would search the HUGE speaker thread, then post in there with the sound you are looking for. There are lots of guys that really like v30s, I haven't tried them.I just put 2 eminence speakers in my 602 and LOVE the result. If you read through that speaker thread though there is a ton of info.

 

[paul-e-mann]

I've never played a TSL so I'm looking forward to your comments and review. What cab and speakers will you be using with it when you get it tomorrow?

 

[zepplin490]

Right now i have 2 cabinets, A Randall Warhead cab that is a little over sized and is a straight cab with the v30's, my other cab is a B52 AT-100 Cab which has some kind of "custom 120 watt" speakers in it, but its alot punchier in the low end than the vintage 30's. But if I had to choose one it wound be the warhead with the v30's
-mp-

 

[chee16]

Depending on the impedance of the speakers (though if they are the stock speakers in a 4x12 they would probably be the same for each cab) you can always try putting 2 of the speakers from one into the v30 cab and see what you get. Although it would be a good idea to get some specs on the other speakers first as the sensitivity has to be within a couple decibels for them to sound right in the same cab.

 

[zepplin490]

I believe the impedance on the B52 is 8 ohms but there are two 8 ohm inputs on it and ive always run it with either a B52 At-100 head which has two 8 ohm outs or with my warhead cab which has a single 8 ohm input and two 4 ohm inputs. From what it looks like in the TSL manual you have single fixed 16 ohm out on the back of the TSL and 2 outputs that can run at a select able impedance that can run at either 4 or 8 ohms.. So if i use the b52's dual 8 ohm inputs and run it from the two select-able outputs on the TSL with the outputs set 8 ohms this should work? I could do the same thing with the warhead running the output at 4 ohms?
-mp-

 

[chee16]

I think it depends on the wiring in the tsl, as in if the 2 selectable outputs are wired in parallel or in series. I would definitely post this on the speaker thread or in the speaker area as Marty has a ton of tsl experience and could tell you right away.

Plus I would bet he or some of the other experienced guys could identify those other speakers for you pretty quick.

 

[zepplin490]

thanks Chee i just wrote a long ass post on the speaker thread.. hopefully i can get myself straightened around before tomorrow cuz i really dont want to blow my amp up.
-mp-

 

[paul-e-mann]

I've never played a TSL so I'm looking forward to your comments and review. What cab and speakers will you be using with it when you get it tomorrow?

Right now i have 2 cabinets, A Randall Warhead cab that is a little over sized and is a straight cab with the v30's, my other cab is a B52 AT-100 Cab which has some kind of "custom 120 watt" speakers in it, but its alot punchier in the low end than the vintage 30's. But if I had to choose one it wound be the warhead with the v30's
-mp-

I think all Marshalls like V30's its a matter if you like them. My bet is it will sound great through that cab.

 

[zepplin490]

Chee thanks a million i think i am beginning to figure out the way that each cab can be hooked up, Im still a little ignorant on the whole thing but as you said every question that ive asked over there has been answered quickly and answered on my level so i can understand it!
-mp-
and oh yeah I think i might just grab one of the line 6 spider valve cab's as they are slanted and are loaded with V30's and ive read some great thing about them and the best part is that they are cheap

 

[zepplin490]

Well I think all is straightened out with a hug thanks going out to the speaker/cab guys! I asked a million questioned and got completely confused and discombobulated but they talked me through whats behind the reasoning..
So it looks like ill either be running it in stereo through my B52 cab or mono through my warhead cab.
Shaking with anticipation
-mp-

 

[zepplin490]

Todays the day! NAD!
-mp-

 

[libertarian]

I think all Marshalls like V30's its a matter if you like them. My bet is it will sound great through that cab.

That's exactly the point. People need to try those with their specific amps. I personally could never get the V30 cabinets to work for me and prefer G12T-75 in a stock 1960 cabinet. And I also found that there is no difference in the newer Chinese version vs the older ones in the JCM 800 cabs.

 

[zepplin490]

Well Its Finally arrived just brought it up to my guitar room and hooked her up n played a little bit tweaked a few knobs. While the amp sounds killer with just a few little eq things from what I am seeing there is a lot more that it can do but damn can this thing ROAR and ive just tuned in the lead channel kinda basically and it just RIPS, damn.. and another thing i noticed after the 10 minutes of unwrapping the head (best packing job ive ever seen) I happened to notice that this one was made in the U.K. i dont know what percentage was made in the uk vs other places but its in mint condition as if it just came out of its original box.. Big thanxz to LandShark for hooking me up with a great deal!
Ill post some pics in a little bit!
-matt page-