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

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TheGreatGreen said:
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.
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Everything you said is based on you and your experiences.

I've played gigs with the OG 5150 where guys in the other bands had SLO's or Boogies and they're asking what I'm doing because it sounded so good. Never failed, "what else are you using"...nothing, gain is just from the amp. Same with the JVM, opened for a band one time and that guitarist swore I was using something more than just the amp. I pointed to my board, there's no OD on it. Friend of mine who played with Thousand Foot Krutch, Boogie deal used to come see one of my old bands and he'd hound me about my gear and I'm like you're looking at it.

It's not about refusing and has zero to do with "principle". Look at it from someone else's point of view, if I can get the tone I need i.e. guitar/amp what is the big deal. It's certainly not a big deal to me with guys who have to have an OD...as I said above, whatever works for you is what works for you. I would just rather not deal with it. Trust me, if "to me" plugging into an 800 with an OD(grew up doing that) was the tone I'm after then that's what I would be doing.
 
jabps said:
Everything you said is based on you and your experiences.

I've played gigs with the OG 5150 where guys in the other bands had SLO's or Boogies and they're asking what I'm doing because it sounded so good. Never failed, "what else are you using"...nothing, gain is just from the amp. Same with the JVM, opened for a band one time and that guitarist swore I was using something more than just the amp. I pointed to my board, there's no OD on it. Friend of mine who played with Thousand Foot Krutch, Boogie deal used to come see one of my old bands and he'd hound me about my gear and I'm like you're looking at it.

It's not about refusing and has zero to do with "principle". Look at it from someone else's point of view, if I can get the tone I need i.e. guitar/amp what is the big deal. It's certainly not a big deal to me with guys who have to have an OD...as I said above, whatever works for you is what works for you. I would just rather not deal with it. Trust me, if "to me" plugging into an 800 with an OD(grew up doing that) was the tone I'm after then that's what I would be doing.
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I mean, everything everyone says is based on their own experiences.

However I never said you or anybody else absolutely needs to use a boost or OD because my personal experience has been good with them, nor am I doubting you can get great sound without one. I often don't use OD pedals either. But saying that using an OD pedal is one of many valid options is not the same thing as telling you that you absolutely need to do it.

I said I don't think it's a good idea to categorically limit yourself by cutting yourself off from options. I do think it's fairly wrongheaded to approach guitar rigs thinking "this amp needs to be exactly what I want without any 'help' from an overdrive pedal or else I can't be inspired playing it because that means it's not 'a good amp' because a good amp ought to do this or that out of the box" etc.

I'm saying do whatever it takes to get the sound you want. Not always, but sometimes "boosted amp X" is just going to sound better than "non-boosted amp Y" so you might as well acknowledge that possibility.
 
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Another benefit with these amps is that, when replacing power tubes, you don't need a matched quad for a 100w or matched pair for a 50w. Each side is independently bias'able. You could put a cleaner preamp tube like a 12AU/T7 in V1 and use a pedal to color. I don't care much for the red channel, but the green channel can really do a lot. I also don't care for having a reverb tank in the headshell on the JCM2000s or the internal reverb on the newer ones. If you want reverb, a pedal is better for these amps.
 
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Rick Lee said:
Another benefit with these amps is that, when replacing power tubes, you don't need a matched quad for a 100w or matched pair for a 50w. Each side is independently bias'able. You could put a cleaner preamp tube like a 12AU/T7 in V1 and use a pedal to color. I don't care much for the red channel, but the green channel can really do a lot. I also don't care for having a reverb tank in the headshell on the JCM2000s or the internal reverb on the newer ones. If you want reverb, a pedal is better for these amps.
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This reminds me I bought a 12at7 to try to taper the red gain or whatever it does but I’ve not tried it yet, I gotta do that
 
TheGreatGreen said:
I said I don't think it's a good idea to categorically limit yourself by cutting yourself off from options. I do think it's fairly wrongheaded to approach guitar rigs thinking "this amp needs to be exactly what I want without any 'help' from an overdrive pedal or else I can't be inspired playing it because that means it's not 'a good amp' because a good amp ought to do this or that out of the box" etc.

I'm saying do whatever it takes to get the sound you want. Not always, but sometimes "boosted amp X" is just going to sound better than "non-boosted amp Y" so you might as well acknowledge that possibility.
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First paragraph I have to disagree with in terms of how that applies to me. I don't look at it as limiting at all, I look at it as something that I want in an amp. I mean if I still owned every amp that had to have an OD my collection would be vast. I don't want that. I'm not into collecting amps. It's why when I find something that works for me I generally stick with it for long periods. I'm not a player who needs this style amp for this or this style for that...I have always used what I use for whatever I've played.

As far as doing whatever it takes to get the sound you want, I 100% agree so how is that "wrongheaded". And I also wholly agree that some amps sound better boosted i.e. Boogie Rect. I mean the whole reason I commented in this thread was to say that you need a boost with the DSL. Again more power to players who use boosts, I'm unequivocally not against other guys using boosts and alluded to that in this discussion. I'm the epitome of whatever works for you.
 
I need to fix mine . I have the bias problem , it’s a first run
 
@jabps and @TheGreatGreen

I mean, both of your viewpoints have merit - honestly, it just depends on the amp and the player, and most importantly, the situation.

I've had experiences with amps that sounded way better without a boost (larry dino, mark III coli- both amps sounded like something was taken away when you boosted it) and amps that sounded way better with a boost (SLO crunch channel plus an 808, Marshall DSL green channel plus a klone or a TC pre) - there are a million examples of both

At least for me, there's always gonna be situations where both are applicable. I imagine its the same for most players. If you're playing in a thrash band where it HAS to be tight on the low end, but your stable has rectos and SLOs, well, you probably are gonna have to boost it. If you're playing in a Ratt cover band or something where you're playing leads all the time, a boost is almost completely unnecessary.
 
Isn’t that only fixed with a new board? I’m not sure it’s a simple as bypassing and hand wiring certain traces.
 
Whatever works works, amps like a 5150 or a jvm certainly don’t need a boost to sound good, i just like the added flavors different boosts give me, id get bored quick being a one guitar/amp guy
 
Thanks so much for all the feedback and responses on this post. I picked it up last night. It's the 2005 limited edition silver and black (Like the jubilee series) half stack. Matching head and cab. Basically new old stock...not a mark on it. I have also ordered an MXR Wylde Overdrive pedal to go with it. I will post pics and a tone review in the next few days. Hope this amp turns out to be the underrated gem that many have reported it to be. Thanks again for the guidance
 
angelspade said:
Thanks so much for all the feedback and responses on this post. I picked it up last night. It's the 2005 limited edition silver and black (Like the jubilee series) half stack. Matching head and cab. Basically new old stock...not a mark on it. I have also ordered an MXR Wylde Overdrive pedal to go with it. I will post pics and a tone review in the next few days. Hope this amp turns out to be the underrated gem that many have reported it to be. Thanks again for the guidance
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That’s so cool it’s the silver series ! Don’t forget to use it with the vh4 . It’s an incredible tone
 
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