Im looking into getting, possibly, a Marshall DSL. I've read reviews for the combos and their reliability doesn't seem very good. How are the reliability of the heads though? I'd be looking at the Marshal DSL 50 head more than the 100, I don't need 100W of power. Anyone here able to shed some insight on this? I know Jeff Beck uses one and the guitarist from Static X does too, so it's pretty versatile
How reliable are the Marhsell DSL heads?
- Thread starter BluesGuyJ
- Start date
Re: How reliable are the Marhsell DSL heads?
I'm not quite sure, honestly. I do have a story relating to it, though. My band was opening up for a concert showcasing 4 bands. One of the guitarist from another band saw my 77 Marshall JMP 2204 and commented me on my amp. He then showed me his Jcm 2000 DSL. We were talking tubes and he swore by EI/Yugo tubes and NOS Mullards. He was also bragging how his amp has this fail safe circuitry where if one of the powertubes fail, the circuitry would let him play on through the night instead of being S.O.L. He urged me to get rid of the old and to get with the new.
Not even 5 minutes after saying this, he rushes back to me and begs me to let him borrow my JMP cause his JCM 2000 crapped out and won't power up LOL.
I had a big smile on my face at this point.....
Oh yeah, even funnier..... Right before the band is about to play, he rushes back to me asks me for the amp pedal so he could switch channels on my 2204. I was like "WTF? Dude, there are no pedals for the amp. It's single channel." The look on his face was histerical! He was like "Only one channel? How am I supposed to get to the clean channel then?"
LOL
Sorry if I wasn't much help.
Tom
I'm not quite sure, honestly. I do have a story relating to it, though. My band was opening up for a concert showcasing 4 bands. One of the guitarist from another band saw my 77 Marshall JMP 2204 and commented me on my amp. He then showed me his Jcm 2000 DSL. We were talking tubes and he swore by EI/Yugo tubes and NOS Mullards. He was also bragging how his amp has this fail safe circuitry where if one of the powertubes fail, the circuitry would let him play on through the night instead of being S.O.L. He urged me to get rid of the old and to get with the new.
Not even 5 minutes after saying this, he rushes back to me and begs me to let him borrow my JMP cause his JCM 2000 crapped out and won't power up LOL.
I had a big smile on my face at this point.....
Oh yeah, even funnier..... Right before the band is about to play, he rushes back to me asks me for the amp pedal so he could switch channels on my 2204. I was like "WTF? Dude, there are no pedals for the amp. It's single channel." The look on his face was histerical! He was like "Only one channel? How am I supposed to get to the clean channel then?"
LOL
Sorry if I wasn't much help.
Tom
chcjunior
New member
Re: How reliable are the Marhsell DSL heads?
I went thru three DSL-50's over a three month period that had to be returned to Guitar Center. Two would suffer sporadic volume drops and one would start to pop loudly while I was playing. That's ultimately how I ended up playing my Soldano. I would gladly have stayed with the DSL 50 since I liked its versatility and sound....and I could've have saved myself the extra $700 and four hour round trip.
I obviously must have gotten a batch of lemons since there's been plenty of DSL 50 owners on the forum who have had no issues. But my run of bad luck with the DSL's defnitely warrants mentioning.
I went thru three DSL-50's over a three month period that had to be returned to Guitar Center. Two would suffer sporadic volume drops and one would start to pop loudly while I was playing. That's ultimately how I ended up playing my Soldano. I would gladly have stayed with the DSL 50 since I liked its versatility and sound....and I could've have saved myself the extra $700 and four hour round trip.
I obviously must have gotten a batch of lemons since there's been plenty of DSL 50 owners on the forum who have had no issues. But my run of bad luck with the DSL's defnitely warrants mentioning.
MikeS
Bengalsologist
Re: How reliable are the Marhsell DSL heads?
Haven't had any problems with mine yet. On thing about aestus's story... if the guy was raving about aftermarket tubes there may be a possibility that the installation of new equipment was done improperly which lead to the demise of the head. Who knows. And to my knowledge there is no "fail safe circuitry" in the JCM2000s. The only "fail safe" is your own knowledge about maintaning and servicing a power tube amp.
Haven't had any problems with mine yet. On thing about aestus's story... if the guy was raving about aftermarket tubes there may be a possibility that the installation of new equipment was done improperly which lead to the demise of the head. Who knows. And to my knowledge there is no "fail safe circuitry" in the JCM2000s. The only "fail safe" is your own knowledge about maintaning and servicing a power tube amp.
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