Marshall DSL?

[rabies]

are the new Laneys (VH100R? - the ones Opeth uses) as bad in terms of build quality and reliability as Marshalls?

I had one....wanted to love it, but ended up selling it. BTW, Opeth only uses the poweramp section of it....Akerfeldt runs a Boss MFX unit into the Laney....all gain/distortion comes from the Boss. the VH100r also uses a torroidal transformer, which is cheaper and more prone to issues (so I'm told). The lead channel sounds great, but it doesn't have the Marshall roar. BTW, I still own my DSL50....great amps.

that's interesting. i remember Opeth opened for Lamb of God (IIRC) a few years ago. I've seen them twice live. The singer had sick lead tones. Fantastic. But the Marshall roar is immense and hard to beat. I ran a TSL100 which some ppl hate with EMGs and it was pretty sick for rhythms.

 

[cradlefish]

My VH100R has been the best for the style of music I play and it's what my ears like to hear. It's aim my on the low mid voicing like Mesa. As for reliablity? They've been great to me for 9 years. The only problem I had during the 9 years I've own the amp was that it would change channels on it's on until I figured out that it was on of the preamp tubes. After swapping out v3 in the preamp section I've never had a problem since. Marshall has that one of a kind roar and it's tighter sounding. The Laney has more saturated distorted tones. Other than that? You'll have to play one to find out what you like better. I've owned a few DSL's, 6100 LE, 2210 and many other amps. I still have my VH100R

 

[jab]

I bought a brand new DSL 50 a little over a year ago. Somewhat of a "downgrade" from the Stiletto I was using, similar in character, but I wanted a little more authentic Marshall crunch to my sound. I think they are great amps, never a problem. Loud too so 50W is way more than enough.

I'll sell you mine for $800 shipped in U.S. When I say new, I'm talking mint condition. Paid $1200 last year because I didn't want to deal with a used one since they've been around so long, but then I ended up using Vintage Modern more than the DSL so it's just been sitting there unused. Of course I'd love to keep them all in a stable of amps because they are all unique, but no such luck.

PM if interested.

 

[rabies]

There was a local DSL 50 with MMOT available for $625 but I didn't follow up... I don't even play enough anymore for it to matter what amp i use. I actually played some metal riffs thru a line6 (headphones) with built-in effects and it sucks for blues but clean and metal not too bad.

 

[MarshMesa]

I've own a DSL 100 head for about 9 years and I've never had a problem with it. I love the amp, but like most amps out there, it's not perfect. If I could do this over again, I would have gotten the DSL 50 as I don't really need 100 watts. But here's what I think of it...

The pros:

-good authentic Marshall tone
-tons of gain (much more than I really need)
-decent clean channel for a Marshall
-fairly versatile
-EQ's are quite sensitive
-pretty good bass response
-sounds great with pedals, especially overdrives

The cons:

-The EQ is shared by both channels which makes it impossible to have the best tone on both channels
-The reverb is ok, not great, but decent for a head
-Definitely not a Fender or Mesa clean, but still is usable
-Does not really get the Mesa high gain sound no matter how hard you try
-Makes a lot of noise when traveling in a car (sounds like the amp is breaking, but it's just the reverb tank)
-Just looking at the amp makes you feel less good when you see plastic vents (the amp runs very hot)

My main complaint with this amp though is that there is a major difference in bass when you switch channels from clean to dirty. All things considered, it's a very good sounding amp. Warm tone with that slightly harsh Marshall sound... great for classic rock and some metal. Decent for blues and jazz, but probably not ideal. The gain on this amp is insanely high though. I never use the "boost" channel on this amp as it's just too much and sometimes gets a bit muddy with certain guitars. I used the regular lead channel on 6 with a boss DS 1 as a subtle boost and this amp sounded great. It's a fantastic amp for lead playing, and very solid for rhythm.

The main complaint I hear from the transformers had to do with the Dragnell parts. Supposedly the ones with the Drake transformers were more reliable, but.. I have own one with the Dragnell tfs for 9 years and I haven't had any problems with them (knock on wood).

 

[94Tremoverb]

No, it's the other way round - the earlier ones with Drakes suffered more transformer failures (although allegedly, they sounded better... but 'old ones' always 'sound better' ). The later ones with Dagnalls aren't as bad - and if you get a replacement transformer from Marshall for any version, it's a Dagnall. To be fair, they've also partly fixed one of the really nasty problems the earlier ones had - board arcing caused by an incredibly badly-designed trace layout - but not completely, and they can still fail for that and other reasons. Like I said, the majority of owners don't have problems, and if you're one of them you won't know why they have this poor reputation, but the failure rate and in particular the type of failures is still unacceptable for a supposedly professional amp from a company with the market position Marshall has, in my opinion. Ask any tech who works on them, they see the same faults over and over again and they're things that simply don't occur as often or at all on other amps, even at the same or lower price points.

 

[guitar99]

I ran a 84, 2204 jcm 800 for a few years, had it re capped obviously before I took it out on the road and beat on it. Never gave me one issue.
My back up was a dsl 100, and there were a few issues, the ohm selector was one, and the rear speaker jacks the other. I replaced them first off, and used that amp for years never having any problems. The jcm 2000 series arent marshalls top of the line by any means, and the tsl is the lowest of the 2000 series imo.

The idea that no modern marshalls are even close to mesa standards is simply not true, although I prefer the tone from my mesa's, Ive seen them to be far more problematic than marshalls when used heavily.
I know a few bands that toured their mesas into the graveyard within a year or two.
The marshall hand wired series are amazing amps, built like tanks. JVMs are great as well.

Its basically the old apples to oranges debate, and there are too many different aspects to even consider when comparing them.