Marshall JCM2000 TSL - anyone?

[Rich D]

Played through the 100W head with 1960 cab the other day at the local shop and was very very impressed. Not just with the singing high gain "Marshall" lead tones either - great cleans, blues-y crunch tones, etc, etc. Lots of very useful tones found in those knobs. Power reduction circuit seems to work nicely too. I've been looking for a high gain amp to compliment my Shiva and have been through a couple "Boutique-y" amps that haven't quite floated my boat in this regard. I haven't owned a Marshall since late 80's - could it be time again? Head and cab can be had for under $2K out the door.

Opinions from owners, former owners, prospective owners greatly appreciated. Thanks! :) :dude:

[Andrew]

Last year before buying my Rivera Knucklehead I was shopping around and had tried out the TSL. Like you, I was impressed with the overall tone of the amp. What I was not impressed with the quality. Every time I tried out a TSL there was some sort of technical problem; faulty footswitch, faulty channel switching, bad tubes, etc. And not all of these amps were dogs that had been on the showroom floor for a long time. Most were new out of the box, according to the shop.

Then I read a bunch of complaints on Harmony Central about Marshall quality taking a left turn in the past few years. That was enough for me to say "no" to Marshall and "hello" to Rivera.

[Baba]

I've heard the same thing as Andrew about the quality, from people I know that have had them, and yes, you'll find alot of that in the reviews on H/C.

John Phillips could also attest, from a repair standpoint, I'm sure he's seen a good few 2000 series come in and out.

As far as the tone, the clean is something most people don't talk about, it's pretty good, and the slighty overdriven tones scream vintage Marshall. They don't quite sound like a plexi, but have that signature Marshally-overdriven sound. I like the VPR switch and the Deep button, nice additions.

Nice amps, I just have heard of multiple footswitch and other problems.

[Jen]

Hello,

I own a TSL head that I use as my rehearsal, and backup amp for gigging should something go wrong with my Bogner. I've spent alot of time with the amp, so I can offer some thoughts:

The amp is a great bang for the buck. Nice crunch, and decent clean tones can be had. I did not care for the original tubes the amp shipped with, so I retubed the lead channels with the groove tubes marshall High gain kit. This really increased the overall amount of gain that could be obtained, and improved the sound quality. I also got rid of the sovtek EL34's for Svetlanas, and this seemed to smooth out some of the harshness in the tone. Even with the tube changes, the clean channel still has a bit of a high end spike happeneing, and compared to my Shiva, is still a bit harsh.

I played a few shows with the amp, and found that the footswitching is not as smooth and seamless as it is with the Shiva. It is far less fluid.....In other words, when you move between channels, the fact that you are switching channels is more apparent. Again, I'm comparing this to an amp that is 3x the price so take that into consideration. On a few occasions, the fotswitch got "stuck" and I ended up having to replace it rather quickly. In a live band setting, the amp cuts through fine. The high gain tones are very good, I love the extra lead channel for soloing, however, the clean tones leave something to be desired....they can get gritty sounding at higher volumes.

The amp has been reliable other than the footswitch...No other issues here. Overall, it's not a bad amp, and for it's price, performs well. My advice is to buy used rather than new. I paid 575 for my head, used in mint condition.

[Dan Desy]

...
Then I read a bunch of complaints on Harmony Central about Marshall quality taking a left turn in the past few years. That was enough for me to say "no" to Marshall and "hello" to Rivera.
But you did end up with both a Rivera AND a Marshall! :dude:

[Andrew]

But you did end up with both a Rivera AND a Marshall! :dude:He he. :D

[shinebox]

I had one a few years ago and while it sounded decent enough,I found it to be one of the most unreliable amps that I've ever used.On 3 different gigs the volume cut out to barely a whisper.I don't miss it athough your mileage may vary.

[Dan Desy]

The other guitar player in my band has one (the TSL122 combo).
He loves it and I think it sounds great.

He blows a set of output tubes a month (if he's lucky!), but that because of his PowerBrake... He also blew two talkboxes!

[Big Mike]

Like the others I was reasonably impressed by the sound of these amps, when they first came out. They are a huge improvement over the previous JCM900 series, and IMO also sound better than the cheaper DSLs (although I am possibly not in the majority on this). One big advantage is that they have three true channels, which means that you can dial-in your sounds without compromise.

BUT... I don't think any of the sounds are great, just good. There's nothing that really has a lot of character or 'power', IMO.

The build quality does not impress me at all, but to be fair, I haven't seen that many for repair. OTOH, for ages I kept sending potential customers straight back to the nearest Marshall dealer, since they were kind enough to give a 3-year warranty, and these amps are not fun to work on. The majority of the problems seem to be footswitch-related, although the crappy jacks used for the FX loop are an issue too. Many of the inherent problems of the JCM900 series seem to have been avoided though, and they seem more reliable despite not actually being any better built.

I just get the feeling that they're built down to cost, not up to quality. Even things like the vinyl constantly peeling off and tearing easily because it's just not stuck down properly... doesn't give much confidence that the company really cares. It's such a shame, because I used to love Marshall amps... until the day I first saw a JCM900. I would not personally own any post-JCM800 Marshall except a reissue.


Pretty much agree. Try something else. Used rivera maybe?

I'm Marshall-less for the first time in quite awhile now, just sold my DSL 50 and I really don't miss it. A bit harsh IMO.

[Chun13]

Also had a TSL 100 for a long time, t sounded well with my JCM 800 1936 cab, never had any trouble during gigs or rehearsals.

Soudned pretty good to my ears though :)

[Michael Nolan]

I have a TSL 100 Head for sale!

Email me if you think you might be interested.

[devine10]

A buddy of mine has had 4 in the past 3 years. about every 9 months something happens to them and Marshall/korg/guitar center ends up giving him a new one, everything from Blowing ALL 4 Power amp tubes at once to the jack for the footswitch. But he still loves it go figure...

[Dancing Bear]

I purchased a TSL from GC. I liked the amp and forsaw no problems. After one week i had a decided change in lead channels sound. It sounded great, the only problem was it was inconsistent. Turned out the awesome tone was being caused by internal shorting in the system.Lead and crunch were together sometimes and not others. Returned to GC and bought a Mesa.