2000 Marshall JCM2000 TSL 100

Overview

This was my first ever tube amp. When I was in college, I played on a VOX AD30VT amp given to me as a gift, and while in hindsight that was a very nice amp itself, I longed for a nice tube amp and cab setup. For my birthday, my dad gave me some money and told me to go buy an amp, and since I was really into 80s hair metal at the time there was no question in my mind that I was going to get some Marshall.

Initially I was going to buy a 1982 Marshall JCM800 2205 from a local shop, but I took my guitar to the store and thought the amp sounded pretty bad, and they were not willing to discount it at all, so I kept looking. After hours and hours of research, and many other Marshalls out of my price range, I found this TSL at a Musicgoround store in Atlanta and drove up to buy it. The footswitch had some issues, but I loved the sound, so I traded my old VOX, an acoustic guitar, and few other things and took this amp home. I distinctly remember having the amp sitting on my girlfriend’s apartment coffee table, unable to play it yet, and it felt like forever before I actually got it home to a speaker cabinet and a guitar.

I spent a ton of time on this amp, and it was my only amp for many many years. It’s versatility is great but I fell into certain settings, sometimes using a for pedals, and I actually almost sold it at one point because I wasn’t 100% happy on the sound. It also required a repair, the channel switching stopped working unless you wiggled the switches in just the right way, and the footswitch cable had to be cut down to only about 5 feet in order for the footswitch to work again. Knowing what I know now, I probably could’ve repaired the amp myself but I wasn’t quite as handy with the soldering iron and wiring as I am now.

Luckily, I couldn’t sell it for what I thought was a fair price and ended up keeping it, and I spent some time revisiting it - I set all of the controls back to noon and started over. I’m so glad I did, because this is a fantastic amp and now that I’ve had a lot of other Marshalls, I still think it holds up despite its idiosyncrasies.

Right, so about the amp: it’s a 3 channel affair, with a clean, crunch, and lead. Each channel has its own gain, volume, and 3-band EQ section. The clean has its own dedicated reverb mix, effects mix, a deep switch, and presence, while the two overdrive channels share a set of those controls. The channels also have a push button control, in the case of the clean channel it is a mid boost which is great for smooth full bodied sounds or leads, and can get a little more drive with the gain turned up. On the overdrive channels, it is called “tone shift” and scoops out the mids substantially - I find this sound to be very bad although I can see maybe a use for it alongside a graphic EQ if set up a certain way. It’s also worth covering that both the Crunch and Lead channels on the TSL are the same topology as the Lead channel on the DSL model amp, which is highly regarded. The main difference is that instead of a “Lead 1” and “Lead 2” mode, the TSL splits the difference between those a bit, with the crunch channel getting a hair less gain than the lead. It does mean the TSL lacks the praised crunch mode of the DSL, since that’s tied to the DSL’s clean channel (which is not that same as the TSL’s).

The TSL also has a few other interesting features, such as an output mute, and XLR recording output, two effects loops, and a feature called “VPR” which is a power reduction option. Instead of changing the power tubes from pentode to triode or some other change, VPR is basically a fixed post phase inverter master volume. I actually find this control to be very useful, with it engaged the amp gets a little thicker and loses a bit of high end hair for a bit smoother sound. If I turn the VPR off, and adjust the volume to match, there’s a bit more brightness and cut, which I also like for certain sounds. I used to always leave the VPR on but after playing a few times in the mix, I actually prefer it off now when other instruments are involved, but the VPR is still great for noodling at home or practicing at a slight volume reduction, while also not being too ear piercing.

Another thing to cover is the year of the amp. Mine is from 2000, and these came out in 1999. Early versions of this amp had a very light green power amp PCB (as pictured below) which when subjected to high heat (such as from a power tube..) becomes slightly conductive. This can cause havoc with floating bias and other issues on the amp, and in the case of my specific amp, it has a tendency to crackle and pop at low volumes and after first starting up. Despite this instability, the sound is so great that I’m hesitant to make any changes, but a replacement PCB can be installed that does not have this issue. Later TSL’s, especially after 2005, use a different dark green PCB material that does not have the bias or heat conduction problems, so if you’re used shopping one of those might be the one to get, but I also wouldn’t be afraid of an earlier version either - other than the initial repair I needed (unrelated to the power PCB anyway), it’s been completely reliable now for over a decade without any other maintenance. One other thing, critical for any TSL regardless of year, make sure you have the ground hard wired on the 16ohm speaker jack. Normally, using this jack lifts the ground on the 4/8 ohm and vice versa, but if this fails it can blow up some components down the line, better safe than sorry.