Can You Guys Tell Me A Little About The Marshall JCM 2000 DSL?

[LPMojoGL]

I had a JCM2000 DSL 50 that sounded better than a Soldano HR50 and Splawn Street Rod. I've tried to find one that sounded as good. They're def hit or miss in sound and build quality. Like the JMP/JCM 800s I've had better, but that DSL was close.

 

[dstroud]

I personally found it to sound identical to an 800, but MORE oomph on green crunch. Maybe a hair more low mids? I don't know, but it's fat sounding.

yeah more low mids, thats the voicing difference I was hearing

 

[angelspade]

Not sure why you wouldn't just use the red channel.

Totally understand that question, especially considering that I typically do not place anything in front of my amps. But in this particular case I want to try a boost. There's something about the character and feel of a mid-gain Marshall (like an JCM800) with a boost out front that is pretty special and unique. Certainly the red channel will have considerably more gain, but (in theory) will not likely respond or have the same clarity and punch as the green channel boosted. At least this has been my experience with Marshalls I have owned previously.

 

[RaceU4her]

Totally understand that question, especially considering that I typically do not place anything in front of my amps. But in this particular case I want to try a boost. There's something about the character and feel of a mid-gain Marshall (like an JCM800) with a boost out front that is pretty special and unique. Certainly the red channel will have considerably more gain, but (in theory) will not likely respond or have the same clarity and punch as the green channel boosted. At least this has been my experience with Marshalls I have owned previously.

Yeah definitely get a few boosts, SD1’s are gold with Marshalls, TS9’s work with everything, my Chiron adds the perfect “just a little more” kind of thing.. the right boost with the right amp can really take things from “eh” to this is awesome

 

[jabps]

I would jump at the chance to grab one now as well.

I am not a guy who uses pedals, for me the amp has to do everything I need it to.

My one exception to that may be reverb. If the amp doesn't already have it, I run through my Z-Verb first.

Same, I don't use an OD to hit the front end. I just simply DO NOT want to go down that path, I want the amp to give me what I need. And why I probably could never get the DSL to work for me. Green needed to be hit and the Red was sorta a mess but for whatever reason I kept trying it. I mean even right now they pique my interest.

That's why "for me" the JVM checked all the boxes...no OD needed. In fact OD1 Orange on the JVM has kept me with that amp since it came out. Still everytime I see a deal on a DSL, especially a 50W I'm almost ready to buy lol and I've heard tons of guys get great tones from them.

 

[RaceU4her]

Same, I don't use an OD to hit the front end. I just simply DO NOT want to go down that path, I want the amp to give me what I need. And why I probably could never get the DSL to work for me. Green needed to be hit and the Red was sorta a mess but for whatever reason I kept trying it. I mean even right now they pique my interest.

That's why "for me" the JVM checked all the boxes...no OD needed. In fact OD1 Orange on the JVM has kept me with that amp since it came out. Still everytime I see a deal on a DSL, especially a 50W I'm almost ready to buy lol and I've heard tons of guys get great tones from them.

I don’t understand being against using a boost? Guys have been boosting since literally the birth of distortion, I just don’t understand why restrict yourself

 

[MetalThrasher]

I don’t understand being against using a boost? Guys have been boosting since literally the birth of distortion, I just don’t understand why restrict yourself

This! I have a TSL 100 2x12 combo and for months I was just playing it without any pedals. At that time I knew nothing about pedals. Someone told me to get a TS9 and put it in front of the amp with the level dimed, tone in the middle, and drive at zero or a hair above zero. I did this with the crunch channel and I was blown away with the sound! It literally made the amp from sounding ok to holy shit why didn't I learn about this trick sooner!

 

[skoora]

DSL’s are such an “almost” amp. Horrible as a channel switcher because of the voicing disparity. They’re an amp that if it was backline or at a rehearsal space you’ll be like “Hmm, I can make that work”. But I would never want to use one if I had a choice. Agree that green boosted is better than the red channel. An interesting setting though is almost maxing the red gain on LD2 for a quasi Fu Manchu sound.

 

[angelspade]

I don’t understand being against using a boost? Guys have been boosting since literally the birth of distortion, I just don’t understand why restrict yourself

I actually do kind of understand this philosophy , and have been guilty of it myself to some degree. I typically have been drawn to versatile, hi-fi sounding heads with a ton of built in gain and aggression. but lately I have been going back a little before my time and listening to the rhythm tones of Jake (particularly Ultimate Sin era), Early Nuno and Zakk...All sound amazing and all are mid gain Marshall amps with a boost out front. I was cranking BLS Blessed Hellride album in my car the other day and listing to those super crunchy, ripping upper mids that he gets and thinking: I may need to get my hands on a Marshall and a boost pedal. Another thing that I find interesting is that some of the modern high-gainers introduced to the market recently (Hellrazor, Uber Ultra, Hermannson, Omega) and seem to be popular tend to have a bit of that "boosted" quality out of the box: extremely tight bottom end with a bit of "clank"....those edgy mids and a very crisp top end. If I had to guess this started around the Fortin era of mods and has progressed forward significantly over the last few years.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

I'm think the MXR Wylde overdrive...But the RAT sound like it may work as well.

This clip is boosted w/a ZW-44 Wylde OD. Guitar is a MIJ 1986' Charvel model 2 w/an 90's era EMG-81.
Modern EMG's lack an op amp the old ones [not made anymore] had and sound sterile to me.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

I had a DSL100 and DSL50 back when they were current. I gigged with them alot and used to sing their praises online. They were both from '98 or '99 and the bias drift issue wasn't a known thing yet. I didn't have any problems with them at all. I guess I was lucky?

Just recently, I ran across a '98 DSL50 in great condition that sounded killer. I bought it mostly because I regretted not keeping one when I had them. I've biased it up and left it run for a while, played for a while, etc... and the bias didn't drift. But that wasn't during real hard use, so who knows.

I recorded an all original CD with a DSL50 cranked into a 1960AX cab with Greenbacks and the tone is perfect.

100 watt DSL's mostly had/have the bias problem as its a heat related issue.
Over time the pre 2005 PCB composition becomes conductive from heat in the bias cicuit causing runaway bias and meltdown.

 

[mentoneman]

when they were new landau used the hundy at a bp gig and sounded like him-legendary.
then remember seeing him later on with a CA OD-100 and thinking his dirt tones were more dimensional and intense.

 

[Racerxrated]

If for some reason I had to sell my 72 Marshalls, I'd probably grab a DSL 100H to ease the pain. Until I could grab another early 70s JMP.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Same, I don't use an OD to hit the front end. I just simply DO NOT want to go down that path, I want the amp to give me what I need. And why I probably could never get the DSL to work for me. Green needed to be hit and the Red was sorta a mess but for whatever reason I kept trying it. I mean even right now they pique my interest.

That's why "for me" the JVM checked all the boxes...no OD needed. In fact OD1 Orange on the JVM has kept me with that amp since it came out. Still everytime I see a deal on a DSL, especially a 50W I'm almost ready to buy lol and I've heard tons of guys get great tones from them.

I hear what you're saying but I've never understood this mentality. Rigs like boosted vintage Marshalls, or a boosted Recto, or boosted 5150, are some of the most iconic, most hair-on-fire fun to play guitar rigs you could ever plug into.

There's just something an OD circuit does to tone that a standard gained up amp just will not do almost no matter how much gain it has on tap. There's a kind of compressed, touch sensitive, white hot sizzly thing that happens with a boost that is entirely unique to them. And it's really, really cool. Amps themselves just don't do that, unless the maker literally builds a boost into the input. But in that case is there any point to splitting hairs about how OD pedals are bad if they're outside the amp but fine if they're bolted inside and you're only given access to the on/off switch? Why limit your own options?

All I know is that my tone started to get A LOT better once I stopped treating individual pieces of gear like magic black boxes of tone I treated as sacrosanct, and demanded they give me all my tone all by themselves, and instead started treating them more like just another ingredient in a meal.

I dunno, hearing people say they refuse to boost amps they like on principal because "the amp should be perfect out of the box" has always sounded to me like people saying they refuse to use marinade or spices when they cook meat because "the meat should be perfect on its own" but my dude the best piece of chicken in the world isn't going to taste like it's been spiced no matter how good it is or how well it's cooked otherwise.

Ok now I'm hungry, brb.

 

[Rick Lee]

The way to run these is on the green channel with the volume knob dimed and then to use the gain knob as the volume knob. AC/DC in a box there.

I've had a few and did an OT and choke upgrade on my last one. Damn, it sounded so nice. Kinda miss it, but I have too many amps. The new ones are good too, but also get a lot better with an OT and choke upgrade. Easy job and you can eBay the old OT off for almost even money.

 

[Geo]

Same, I don't use an OD to hit the front end. I just simply DO NOT want to go down that path, I want the amp to give me what I need. And why I probably could never get the DSL to work for me. Green needed to be hit and the Red was sorta a mess but for whatever reason I kept trying it. I mean even right now they pique my interest.

That's why "for me" the JVM checked all the boxes...no OD needed. In fact OD1 Orange on the JVM has kept me with that amp since it came out. Still everytime I see a deal on a DSL, especially a 50W I'm almost ready to buy lol and I've heard tons of guys get great tones from them.

I was running mine into a 4x12 with CL80's from the 80's (not the newer ones) and I found the green channel slightly dull and the red channel perfect.

What kind of speakers did you use?

 

[Geo]

The way to run these is on the green channel with the volume knob dimed and then to use the gain knob as the volume knob. AC/DC in a box there.

I've had a few and did an OT and choke upgrade on my last one. Damn, it sounded so nice. Kinda miss it, but I have too many amps. The new ones are good too, but also get a lot better with an OT and choke upgrade. Easy job and you can eBay the old OT off for almost even money.

I can see the green channel being much better with the volume up. Just like a JCM800.

 

[Briman24]

I’ll add green channel boosted. had a 2203 reissue and dsl at the same time, green channel boosted had as much ooomph as the 2203, they just had slightly different voicings

I have both also and the 800 is a 1981. Dsl is in same ballpark but feels slightly different but not much.

 

[Briman24]

DSL’s are such an “almost” amp. Horrible as a channel switcher because of the voicing disparity. They’re an amp that if it was backline or at a rehearsal space you’ll be like “Hmm, I can make that work”. But I would never want to use one if I had a choice. Agree that green boosted is better than the red channel. An interesting setting though is almost maxing the red gain on LD2 for a quasi Fu Manchu sound.

For my clean needs i just click off my boost (sd1) and roll back the guitars volume. Not fender clean but marshall clean which is good enough for me.

 

[jabps]

I don’t understand being against using a boost? Guys have been boosting since literally the birth of distortion, I just don’t understand why restrict yourself

Whatever someone wants to do is fine by me, I honestly could are less, I just prefer to let the amp do the work.

Why? It's how things used to be years and years ago when I was getting up and running. I grew up with Marshall 2203's, 2204's, Combo's, then 800's etc.. Back in the day there were few choices. I was running SD-1's, TS9's and my trusty old 250 Pre-amp. We tried all the pedals back then day from Pearl to Nady and before that all we had were Big Muffs and those LPB boosters, trying to push our little Fenders into OD. Hell, with one of my Marshalls a Non MV MKII Super Lead I was running this little Black/White DOD preamp pedal with tiny speakers built in...it was a practice pedal, then I'd goose it more with the SD-1 or the 250. Even learning the Boss EQ tricks to boost as well. So, I grew up doing what today is commonplace, there was no choice.

When the ADA MP1 came out, hog heaven. It was all there. Then the onslaught of high gain pre-amps, high amps that I went through...no OD needed. I loved it and been there ever since.

I simply don't want to deal with all the different flavors and takes on an OD when I can plug straight in and get exactly what I need. And when I have pulled out my old SD-1 or that trusty 250 and given it a go, I just prefer the amp.

There you go.