Sorry, long one - but worth it

[Gunny47]

Okay, I posted this on a very trusted forum that has known me for a while and knows my gear and my current decisions and what not. Some background first, I was going to get a Fender Tweed Twin-Amp (57 Custom RI) but I was going to get a Marshall TSL 122 before that until I changed my mind. I gave the Twin-Amp a fair chance by bringing it into one of those practice sound proof rooms in the back of Guitar Center and cranked it. The following talks about what I have, the Gibson GA5, and what pedals I was going to get for it. It also and more importantly talks about my next amp decision (A Marshall) which was originally meant to immitate Slash, but now a Marshall is just meant to give me a great all-around rock tone from mellow to metal. It also talks about how i gave the Marshall TSL 122 a fair chance in the practice room. Here it goes:

"O man, I gotta get a Marshall. I already got a vintage blues style amp with some nice growl and actually nice cleans. The Gibson amp I got acts a lot like a Tweed or an old Plexi, headroom but a godly crunch when drivven past 1 oclock. So I dont need to get a Tweed really, its kind of a waste of money to me being that I dont set anything in stone via recording) Ive been using the Gibson GA5 on clean a lot and its such a beautiful clean sound - pair it with my Boss GT-8 and set it to have some reverb and tremolo. Also like it with the delay and chorus or with a light flange and octave. Nice - the thing takes pedals amazingly anyway. Im gonna get some pedals for it (Vox Cooltron Brit Boost and Big Ben Overdrive, Fender Blender Reissue, EH LPB 2ube preamp, Seymour Duncan SFX-03 Twin Tube Classic Preamp, EH The Wiggler Trem/Vibrato pedal and maybe just stick a $400 Fender Reverb unit on top of it to complete the package). I can get some surf tone with it, nice jazz with the preamps on and some nice bluesy edge with the Big Ben Overdrive set at low gain levels (like a Tube Screamer) and of course, I can go over the top with the Fender Blender and go brian may with the Brit Boost.

So Ill have a nice rig with the Gibson GA5 and a crap load of the pedals. Now, i need an amp I can plug straight into with some slight heaviness and that god crunch and a great lead tone built in. Put an attenuator on top and I can get it as clipping as I want without destroying some ear drums. I need a Marshall! I want one good for some straight up rock and roll too. Maybe I can put one or two pedals in front of it just for some extra front end boost or warmth, but we'll see.

After walking in Guitar Center last night and looking at the Marshalls, I seen the one that I was going to buy for a long time the TSL 122. I was going to get this amp until I played the head paired up with the piece of **** 1960B cab with those garbage ear piercing trebly speakers. This was a few months ago already and the only reason why I dismissed the DSLs and the TSLs was because the ****ty cab gave me a bad taste in my mouth. So I tried the TSL122 combo again. I took an Iced Tea R8 off the shelf, took the amp to a practice room and cranked it! This is what they mean by Marshall! The speakers were great as I remembered from before. Not overly bright like those other ones. The speakers in the TSL 122 are like a combination between the vintage speakers in the 1960AV/BV cabs and the greenbacks in the 1960AC/BC. Nice and warm and really deliver the goods. I actually liked the clean channel on the TSL 122, it reminded me of a Tweed clean and stayed pretty clean until basically 10. Then some extra grit was added, but still not that dirty."

The rest is continued on the next post...

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Sorry, long one - but worth it

Continued from the last post, it was too long!

"The crunch channel was where it was at. Perfect Marshall crunch, even at the lower volumes. It was ****en loud that 100 watts of pure tube sound, so I kept it at like 7 or 8. I like how all 3 channels have their seperate EQ, volume and gain. It looks like there are so many knobs on it and there are! The lead channel, a little muddier, but just take some of the bass out on the amp and put the mid scoop button on and its good for some solo tone (I like my mids lowered on the solos and my mids raised on the rhythm surprisingly). The bass boost buttons are not very noticable though, maybe because I was running it at such high volumes. The mid scoop button (tone shift) on the crunch and lead channels were effective and so was the mid boost button on the clean channel. Overall, a nice amp, very loud even for gigging and such, but an attenuator will fix that problem for me.

Back to my amp decisions now. I really liked the TSL 122 combo, I fell back in love with it and besides just the sheer brutalness of it (reminds me of a Sabbath type tone, even when I was not in a lowered tuning). It looked awesome. The Marshall look is so cool, and I mean like the post-plexi era starting with the JCM 800s. Im debating between the TSL122 combo, the DSL50 (played it a tiny bit on lower volumes not cranked, but I can always order it and if I dont like it, send it back) and a JCM 800 2203X. As with those two heads, I would get the TSLc212 speaker cab which houses the same speakers that the TSL 122 has (basically a vintage 30 tone). The DSL I might not like because it has only 1 EQ for the 2 channels (2 modes each) but it (the DSL50 and the TSL cab) is cheaper than the TSL 122 and is lower wattage. I played both the DSL and the TSL at the low volumes and they sounded similar, so Id imagine that they sound similar at higher volumes too. The TSL would be still more versitile but the DSL would probably sound more natural due to the less controls. The JCM 800 2203X would sound the most natural, but it is a 1 trick pony and sounds like garbage on low volumes according to a number of reviews from the internet and magazines. I use the 2203 setting on my Vox AD15 all the time and I love the heavy sound of it. I might need to invest in a preamp pedal to get it to sound a little lighter and more suited for classic rock, but Ill have a preamp or two anyway with the Gibson amp.

So far, the TSL is winning, then the DSL close behind and then the JCM 800 a lot farther down. I heard a lot of good things about the DSL and might just buy one and if I like it better than the TSL ill keep and if not, ill trade it for the TSL. Thank you for reading my little review and any suggestions/feedback/follow-up reviews (on like the DSL head or the JCM 800) will greatly appreciated. Thanks."

So there you have it, hope you enjoyed, sorry for the length. Any feedback? Thanks!

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Sorry, long one - but worth it

A lot of folks (including myself) dig the DSL tone more than the TSL. Ultimately, you need to get what will work for you the best. If you like the TSL, go for it!

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Sorry, long one - but worth it

thanks, what are some sonic differences between the DSL and the TSLs (more mids, heavier distortion, better clean etc)? Anyone compare both of them? Any feedback from people who own them? Thanks.

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Sorry, long one - but worth it

dont want to sound selfish but bump

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Sorry, long one - but worth it

Well... your long post was very confusing to norwegian, tired little me, anyway i think i got some information out of it.

To my ears, the JCM800's (especially the old 2204's) are THE metal\rock amps. With a good set of tubes, a good guitar and a o\d pedal to boost it, you can't go wrong.

Though, i'm sure that that wasn't the question you asked. Sorry!

-Erlend

 

[casblah]

Re: Sorry, long one - but worth it

Well... your long post was very confusing to norwegian, tired little me, anyway i think i got some information out of it.

To my ears, the JCM800's (especially the old 2204's) are THE metal\rock amps. With a good set of tubes, a good guitar and a o\d pedal to boost it, you can't go wrong.

Though, i'm sure that that wasn't the question you asked. Sorry!

-Erlend

+1. A good JCM800 will punish the TSL, tonewise, IMO. The TSL's sound rather grainy to my ears. But if they work for you, go for it.

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Sorry, long one - but worth it

Thanks for the replies. Just as a reference, my style consists of a Slash style lead, an AC/DC crunch, a distorted heavier blues like a Joe Perry snarl and I was kinda looking for a really jazzy clean sound. Thats like impossible to get with one amp, so Im focusing on the Slash and the AC/DC style tone. I got my blues and clean with my Gibson GA5 with some pedals.