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Not saying you should buy a piece of shit that's definitely going to break immediately but conversely, I've been guilty of being too influenced by technical opinions on things when actually I really liked a piece of kit and it was probably 'fine'.
I loved my DSL50. But ,that said, it did die on me.
If you like the sound of it and you understand the reliability issues, and you're either a home player or you always take a proper backup to gigs, then by all means ignore the reputation! But that said, I would strongly advise anyone not to buy one if they were planning on relying on it at a gig.
To re-state again, this only applies to the older UK-made DSL (and TSL) amps as far as I've seen.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Gibson Les Pauls have known design flaws, right? And we buy them by the truckload.
I dunno - If you like Marshalls, you like Marshalls. I wouldn't gig without some backup, regardless of the amp's reputation for reliability.
Mind you, if the newer ones are much more robust then cool. However, I did try and buy a newer DSL50 to replace my dead one and it never quite sounded the same to me. Maybe just rose tinted earplugs.
I certainly couldn't recommend buying an older UK-made DSL / TSL either (and not just sonically........).
Regarding the design faults, these should not have happened in an amp at any price.
Valve amps are very mature technology (in fact the most mature electronic technology).
The newer Vietnamese amps are much better built and I've not seen any with major problems, usually valves, and none with defective transformers.
In contrast I've seen tons of DSL/TSLs with both blown mains and output transformers.
The above picture is of the innards of a marshall jcm 800 2204 heads, looks bang tidy to me.
http://www.marshallforum.com/gallery/data/500/medium/Inside_Head_1.jpg
There are the innards of a marshall dsl50 head
https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/6191/screenshots/1650241/teddy.gif
But they've been making the vintage reissues for all that time, which are probably the best-made amps they've ever done - pretty much the same as the 'high point' of around 1979-1984, after they'd ditched the horrible unreliable pull-out voltage and impedance selectors, and before they switched to PCB-mounted pots and jacks.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Tube Screamer or SD-1? Probably no consensus.
Separate EQ - makes the amp more complicated because it comes after the bulk of the gain, so you will need relay or solid-state switching.
Digital reverb - ditto, plus level matching since the signal level there is far too high for a digital processor. Do you give access to the parameters, or pick a setting and hope everyone likes it?
Pretty soon you've got something as complicated as a JCM900 or a Vintage Modern, and you can guarantee that it won't be built quite as well as you'd like and won't be as reliable.
For me, the only worthwhile onboard addition to a 2203 is an FX loop - because you can then uses external pedals to achieve everything else. And that is in fact exactly what they've done.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Cynical view - because they've found out that it sells at that price, so why reduce it?
If the former, the cost will be down to the fairly high labour cost compared to a more modern design. That might also explain why there is no 2204 reissue, since the only difference is the marginal cost of two slightly smaller transformers, and two valves and sockets - so it would still have to be about £1400 and it wouldn't sell.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
JCM900...............nah
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Although reading here about past reliability issues does give me some concern.
I'll be completely honest, I think they sound thin and weak, not like a real Marshall, and not as loud as you would expect even for 1W. The Blackstar HT-1R blows it away - it has much more limited EQ (which I don't particularly like), but also reverb.
Hopefully a Vietnamese-made DSL1 will be better.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein