Marshall DSL100H 100 Watt 2-Channel Tube Head Reviews

5.0/5.0 based on 4 customer reviews

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Customer Reviews

Alex2002
from Mid TN USA
March 30, 2013Music Background:
40 yrs hobbyist: rock, metal, alt, blues, guitar, keys...

Learn from my work! This is one of the best rock Amps ever!

You folks are about to benefit from 15 years worth of my experimentations. I started out in '97, to learn all I could about amps and guitars, including pickups, studying various tubes, strings, the entire signal chain, the whole ball of wax. One of the things I sought out to do was replicate the sound, THE tone Jimmy Page got at the Madison Square Garden in SRTS live video in 1973.

Hint: I succeeded. I am here to tell you this is THE amplifier you need to get it done. And ON A BUDGET. Yes, there are more expensive Marshall amps that will contain more frills, more buttons and whistles, and cost you a bundle. But if you want basics, THIS is your amp.

Basic greatness and flexibility is what I meant to say. Note: to get the real goodies here in this review, you need a les paul, studio, at a minimum. With a 498t bridge and a 57 classic or 490r in the neck.

Yes, it will do the cleanest clean, like the chords to Stairway, but when you put it on ultra OD1, your overdrive will sound scarily similar to the greatest riffs on Page's famous film. Indentical if you have the chops. And on OD2 you have a setting for more flamethrowing than that. A lot more. So you get the entire gamut, from sparkling clean to torch...

Back to pickups. I tried virtually all of them in my les pauls, over the last 15 years, and while each has its attributes, and strengths, a plain 490R (or '57 classic) will suffice perfectly in the neck position, you will need an ALNICO (aluminum, nickel and cobalt) 498T in the bridge position, to get to where I wanted to go. I found that ceramic pickups, while good, tend not to be as musical, as melodic and harmonically rich as alnico magnet pickups.

With that 498T, on bridge, you will find it gives you the lead tone with snarling Gibson bite, that it takes to do the riffs of the riff master the way the SRTS presents them. Verbatim.

My earlier 1999 DSL was made in Britain, but it has the same exact general specs that this new DSL comes with. THIS amp does come with a digital reverb, the one area my DSL could have used help in. The main thing is the BEST rock tube out there: the elegant EL34 power tubes, 4-12ax7 preamp valves and the classic Marshall amp cicuitry. You can spend 10 years trying KT66's, 6L6's, 6550's, and so forth, but EL34 is your ticket to that great, unrivalled tone. Matched with a Marshall 1960A or B standard cab, your DSL100 will spark THAT tone out of your cabinet..

YOU can benefit from my expensive trials and errors. You don't have to pay to try other amps, nor other cabinets, or experiment with other brands of speakers, or buy other models of Celestions. Or have to pay a guitar tech to (repetitively) swap out a dozen Gibson or other brand pickups. I have done the experiments, the hard work for you, forked over the cash, time and time again, to learn this for you. This gear head spent 15 years working this mystery out the hard way. All you have to do is buy this amp and a few extras to get ALL the benefits of my labors. You will reap the benefits if you take these recommendations and hook it all up and discover what I discovered: this amp is at the heart of some of the greatest tones in rock's entire history! Enjoy!

Vill Duffy
from Port Saint Lucie Fl
December 31, 2012Music Background:
Weekend warrior

Best Head for the money

All around high end head with a smooth clean tone that will blow you away. Select the effects switch and you have a overdrive/distortion sound that will knock the walls down. No need to add a floor of pedals, with the selection this Marshall head has, you will find the right sound to fit every type of playing. The volume on this head will break ear drums. You cannot find a better head for the money.

James P. Antes
from Bradenton, FL
November 14, 2012Music Background:
Pro musician, recording engineer, etc.

This is a must have, go to amp!

This amp does it all! From clean as a whistle, to rocken' and rollen', to full out fire breathing monster. I saw that it was made in Vietnam and was a little put off, but don't be. I've been playing and using Marshall's, Fender's, Carvin V-3, (full stack), Line-6, Peavey 6505+, etc. for over 40 years and this amp is worth every penny. This is not an entry level amp. Although it is priced that way now. I wouldn't wait too long if your in the market for a new amp. I can't imagine they will stay at this price too long.

James P. Antes
from Bradenton, FL
November 14, 2012Music Background:
Pro musician, recording engineer, etc.

This is a must have, go to amp!