Opinions on the Marshall TSL601 combo???

bandagedhand

hi all.

I play in 2 bands at the moment, and for the last year ive been using a crappy 30 watt solid state amp.

Im lookin to upgrade to a tube amp and im thinking about a combo amp like the Marshall TSL601. (60 watt tube)

What is everybody's opinions of these as opposed to head and cab marshalls and also compared with other brand amps?

Are they gutsy?
DO they have good palm muting sound?
Is the clean channel ok?

Before you ask, I have played the DSL401 before which is just the model down so I have a rough idea of the sound. But I want other people’s opinions. So what do you all think?

Pacomc79

It doesn't sound as good as the 100 watt to me for whatever reason. Depending on how much it is I think you can do better with a seperate head and cab, although I do like the speakers in that combo and the TSL was one of my first loves, it tends to be far far to loud for my purposes. In tube amps 40-50 watts is a gracious plenty. To put it in perspective Tom Morello has used a 50 watt Marshall DSL forever. You pay for the tone of those power tubes, get something you can crank.

TSL's are really cool amps, chunky, you can palm mute if you wish, lots of flexibility, but there are plenty of other great amps in the price range depending on what you want to do with them. Modern Marshalls to me tend to sound better as seperate heads and cabs be it 4x12 or 2x12.

If you are shopping marshall you owe it to yourself (even though they are about a grand more) to check out a Bogner Shiva. Bogner builds the pinnacle of the modern marshall. Basically play everything in your range (and above) you can get your mitts on and we'll find out how to get what you want in your hands at the best price.

bandagedhand

thanks for your advice paco.

but u said that the 100 watt sounds better but that i should go for a 40-50 watt...im a bit coinfused....

so what kind of amp do u use?
should i look at others besides marshall? im not too keen on the distortion of the fender hot rod series?

what else should i look at?

Pacomc79

bandagedhand wrote:

thanks for your advice paco.

but u said that the 100 watt sounds better but that i should go for a 40-50 watt...im a bit coinfused....

so what kind of amp do u use?
should i look at others besides marshall? im not too keen on the distortion of the fender hot rod series?

what else should i look at?

I meant the TSL 100 watt, sounds better than the TSL60 head or combo for whatever reason, I just didn't like either as much as the 100.

Right now I have an 18 watt Orange AD15 that suits me well it may or may not work for you.

You can still find a solid combo in that price range the Mesa F series is very flexible and the Rivera Chubster 40 is a fantastic amp for that kind of stuff. Hail Hail just bought a Traynor that should sound much better than the fender hot rod stuff for overdriven sounds because they use better components across the board including a Vintage 30 speaker that is miles better and more warm and british than the stock fender stuff. They have an amp called the 50 blue that is more marshall inspired using EL34's in the power stage. I am by no means suggesting you ax marshall. I just think you can find a 50 watt DSL head and a good cabinet for about the price of that combo and it will sound a bit better than the 60 watt TSL or perhaps you can find a used TSL 100 and use the power reduction switch to take you down to less than half power and then find an Avitar cabinet or some other used cabinet you can find cheap like a carvin legacy with V30's. For whatever reason I felt like I got a better harmonic response from the TSL 100 head than I ever have from the TSL60 combo.

bandagedhand

i was thinkin about the orange amps too
i have heard good things
only problem is that there arent too many to test out here in Adelaide Australia

what can u tell me about them in general
and yours specifically?
do they have marshall like distortion?
do they have fender like cleans?

do they have a lot of gain? (ive played my friends jcm900 head with a 1960 cab) and i didnt think it had that much gain.....)

Pacomc79

Oranges are kind of their own sound, the one I own is very british fairly vintage marshall sounding, a darker smoother vox. I don't have a great deal of experience with the higher powered Oranges, but they are very loud and clean, kind of like a hiwatt but a very warm overdrive. AD30's are essentially warmer vox AC30s. they deliver the warm bluesy just breaking up overdrive in spades and with a big echo can certainly handle any brit pop tone. The cleans from my amp when the tubes are good are lovely, over driven with the right combination of pedals absolutely fantastic. The onlything I don't like is the fuzzy, farty muddiness when the pre-gain is turned up past about 2 O CLock, but hey, it never makes it past 11 or 12 for me and I can get pretty much anything I want.

If I had to compare it to an American amp I'd say orange combos are like warmer fatter tweeds. Not quite as much of a glassy clean a warmer thing with a smooth breakup then it gets creamy when overdriven.

I've not yet played or heard the Rockerverbs but they are essentially an AD with another gain stage as I understand it

http://www.orange-amps.com and http://www.matamp.uk.co is a good spot to learn more about orange/matamp. They probably have some sound clips as well.