Re: my foot is in my mouth
I love Marshalls, but all mine are pre-1990. The DSL is a good design from a musical point of view, but the modern construction methods and the poor modern iron supplied are not suitable for high quality tube amps.
To build tube amps in England to the same standard of the original 60's-70's models would probably be cost prohibitive for most working guitarist today. I think Marshall wants to still provide tools to working musicians, and not be a boutique amp company.
In my opinion, where Marshall has made errors; is in bowing to market demands of features loaded amps, and to increasingly less expensive production methods. They need to get back to the early JCM800 construction standard of flying leads and chassis mounted componants, even if it costs a bit more on their end. Once customers are paying more than 1000 USD anyway, why skimp? Models lines like MG's and Valve States only degrade their reputation in the Market. ( Duncan needs to pull the plug on Duncan Designed too.)
The Marshall sound is essentially based around overdriving the output sections of the class AB tube amp. This is way different from the preamp driven designs demanded by modern versatility and modern high gain. The DSL is okay as a design, being essentially a more modrern, all tube, JCM800 2205/2210, but the TSL is way too complicated. When circuts are very complicated, there's just too much that can go wrong, especially with modern plug in type PCB construction.
