Alright so I'm looking to drop some cash for a new amp. The two I've been looking at have been the two mentioned above. I have played the Marshall JCM 2000, but only at a low volume and with not much time to tweak the eq. The sound was gret to say the least. I havnt been able to try a 5150 II since I'm going to have to drive a bit farther to a different guitar shop. I was just wondering what everyone's opinion was on them. Also, if I do decide on the Mashall, is the TSL 3 channel worth the extra few hundred dollars?

i never tried a JCM 2000, but just a little while ago (weeks at the most) i was looking for a 5150 II, found one, and was COMPLETELY dissapointed. It sucked so much. I thought the 5150 tone was heavy, and i always saw bands using 5150 II, and the sound they had was pretty heavy, but when i played the 5150 II, it sucked. The sound was very thin, barely any bass at all. I'd recommend not even going to the other store to check out the 5150 II, you'll be dissapointed.

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JCM...duh...

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out of those... get the DSL, I don't think you'll need the third channel.

it has better tone then the peavey and somehow it sounded way more powerfull too, anyways, everybody likes a different tone so its up to you to try them out yourself!

ive played both, id say the marshall is the better pick.

the peavey is shit, i mean really, it is.
ive seen bands use it and get a heavy sound but im guessing its from alot of eq or else i just hate peaveys too much to be able to judge it with any clarity.

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obiviously you must suck ass if you couldn't get a good sound out of a peavey 5150 II, that head is so metal. but just like any amp, you have to mess around with it to get the "you" sound.
i would say the tsl,dsl, and 5150 II are all killer heads!

good luck

everybody has his own taste in tone, chill out.

didnt mean to sound so harsh, but saying a dsl 100 blows a 5150 II out of the water, i mean come on, the 5150's are great heads. so is the dsl mind you.

its ok, I know they're not bad, it just depends in who's hands they are.

hell, I'de pick a hughes & kettner Triamp over any marshall, and people think I'm a whacko

nobody of them never played a Triamp though

h&k makes some heela tight shit
that new mode for amp by marshall, its pretty good but not as good as every body made it out to be, i guess its good enough for sytem of a down,stain,slayer,sum41,static x, hate breed, and alien ant farm, who all seem to be using it right now, its 350 watts but its cheap because its hybrid( tube preamp with solid state poweramp) its like the same price as the dsl 100 almost. but its cab only handles 280 watts which is a scam so people will play full stacks
i was playing one at guitar center the other day, i had it on the od2, cranked like half way for like 15 seconds untill the guys came over and took away my m4 privelages
, but for that little bit i got to feel the real power, and man that shit made my ears ring.


XXX

oh, yeah I played the mode four too, compared to full tube marshalls its not that good at all, the tone is okay but not great....

Engl amps are way better, in my opinion...

the Mode Four is marshall's Warp 7... a marketing tool, however it does pack a punch, but then again, so does a TSL100.

the thing is, as far as tone goes, i'd take the dsl or tsl over a mode four, but the mode four is so much louder, the thing is, 100 watts is probably more than enough for most people, 350 watts is good if you want to play big venues, with mic'd drums and stuff, but i'd rather buy a dsl, and then buy a separate power amp for like $100-200, so i can get louder if i need to, and if not then i wouldnt have to sacrifice good tone. but the mode four is definitly worth the money.

That moe four blows cock, you have to turn the bass down to like 2 for a decent tone. And the reason it is rated at some many watts i because its half solid state. And solid states dont produce as much sound as tubes. So I'd guess the Mode Four sounds like a 150 watt ALL tube amp.

Slayer don't use it. Slayer still use their old JCM 800s from the 80s.

yup, but 100w tube is enough, even for big venues, I'de rather have a JCM or DSL/TSL for a big venue then the mode four, simple because its sound is different from the tube amps, anyways, at big venue's the amps are well mic'd and linked on a pa with floormonitors, who the hell needs 350 watts.

hmmm... i have a magazine here that has kerry king quoted saying"any head can distort but not very many can produce 'chunk' and when its all said and done, that's what its all about. i just plug straight in and get all the nuts i need" in an ad for the mode four. so that is why i stated slayer up in the above post.

okay, and you need to understand that watts are watts, solid state or tube, the main difference is, most lower quality solid state amps clip alot easier at higher volumes, making tubes seem louder over solid state(but not that much), so a 350 watt mode four could easily drowned out a 150 watt triple rec. or whatever. as far as the tone of the head, i liked it but thats just me, some people cant seem to sqeeze good tone out of even the best amps, but then others do it without effort.

ok, you take the 100 watt solid state, I'll take the 100 watt tube.

wanna bet whats louder?

when I saw slayer a while back they where using JCM's, the mode four was out back then, dunno if they went mode four all of a sudden though.

I'm not to fond of the mode four, sure it can sound brutal, hell even hatebreed plays then, but their tone is just way different then the jcm's and tsl/dsl's... and the mode four I played was loud, but hell, stack up an 120w all tube Engl Savage against it..... it blows away soldano's too... so... it's 2.400 or something though

slayer uses JCM800, case closed, they never changed to mode four, yes, they are in ads for them, but its the say exact thing you see in all the marshall ads that have slayer in them.

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you just need to think about it, 100 watts solid state, or 100 watts tube, hmmm..... i've played many tube amps, and many solid state amps, both 100 watts tube and 100 watts solid state are loud enough to gig with and jam out with drummers ect. but the tube amps are more expensive, but sound worlds better, the hybrid amps, i like the idea, but they still need work. the mode four has good sound, but thats because the pre amp is tube, the power amp isnt, why the hell anybody in a local band would want one, i don't know, but, i like the idea of separate power amps with preamps much better. like my friends amp for example, he has a mesa vtwin rackmount preamp teamed up with a 120 watt roland poweramp, that thing sounds awsome, the preamp affects the tone of your guitar more than the power amp. his idea was alot better than the mode four, because, who the hell needs 350 watts? he paid about $200-300 for a high quality solid state poweramp and about $300-400 for a high quality tube preamp, so thats about $500-700 and he gets better tone than the mode four, and why the hell pay the extra $500 for an extra 230 watts that he wont use? with that $1200 i would defintly buy a dsl instead, all tube is the best, maybe one day marshall will get the whole hybrid thing right, like a 150 watt hybrid head for only $800? otherwise they're charging people for power that they're never going to need.
if you want good quality solid state, they're going to make you pay almost as much for it as a tube amp anyways, so why not just go with the tube amp?

1.) Kerry and Jeff both use JCM 800s from the 80s. I'm telling you this as fact. He was talking about how boosting mids in his JCM800 gave his sound 'nuts'.

2.) Watts rate how much POWER amps produce not how much SOUND. Thoes are 2 DIFFERENT things. Tubes produce more sound, they are louder. Yes both a solid state and tube amp may have eqaly rated power, but rating the power will not show how much sound different amps produce.

One more thing old Ampeg guitar heads which are solid state sound fucking great. It doesnt sound like a tube but it sounds great. John from Dying Fetus uses one and when they were doing sound check you could really hear how cool it sounded.

You can get sound from seperate rackmounted stages. But if you want all tube rackmounted unit, you are looking at dropping like $2,000. As thoes Mesa all-tube power amps are expensive. And so are all tube pre-amps.

that's an opinion.

DEAD buddy is right though. with both point 1 and 2, I've read that stuff about them using JCM800's too.

Ampeg is one special brand, I'm a big fan of the SVT350 bass amps, solid state but hell, the best solid state bass amps ever....

ampeg makes some of the best bass amps, in my opinion . they have those old ass tube bass heads, i saw one at a music go round for over a grand, and it was a used one, so they definitly retain their value. i'm not to sure how much i like their new guitar 4x12 cabs, my friend has one, but the head he uses isnt the best so i dont know. he has a marshall mg100 head, which is marshall economic solid state head, so its no jcm. but he makes his sound work good, hes not as big of a tone freak as me, he just cranks the distortion and plays his 3 chords, which is a good thing for punk i guess.

, i don't really care what kerry uses, he could use a digitech rp200 processor to get his distortion for all i care, whether or not he uses the m4 doesnt matter to me, other people do use them, and they get good sounds, but i would still take a dsl or tsl over the m4, even if they arent 350 watts, because they sound better, if i could get a better sound from a rogue halfstack(which i couldnt) then i could get from a dsl, i would take the rogue, i dont care what brand i play, or whether or not its tube,hybrid, or solid state just so long as i get an amazing sound out of it. some people only buy marshalls for the name, when i could get a better sound from a crate, you just got to know how to use it. don't just buy a dual rec or a jcm just because your guitar hero plays one, go try them out decide which one sounds the best for you. people always tell me, don't get a peavey stack, go with a mesa, or get a marshall. but the thing is i like the sounds and tones i get from the 5150 II and the triple x, just as good as any marshall, the reason i like the 5150 II over the regular 5150 is because on the 5150, the distortion shares its eq with the clean, which could mean you would be sacrificing a good clean to get a heavy distortion, but the 5150 II gives them each their own eq. i do like the dual rec. more though but not $500 more so i'm getting a peavey.

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well whatever suits your needs eh, if you like the tone of peavey's, go out and get one!

personally I've only found comfort in the tone of the XXL, the 5150's and xxx's both didn't have the tone I was looking for.

ofcourse no one will buy an amp 'just because kerry king plays it'

thats bullshit, amps are friggin expensive, most folks check out the amps for themselves, which is good. I can't stand the kids who get 75% of their gear from daddy, and run into the guitar store, head straight to the Mesa and taking it home without even playing it.

anyways, I've played shitloads of amps, I don't feel the need to defend my brand because everybody has his own taste in tone, the marshall MG's sounded like dogshit to me, but some people love them, theres one example right there.

same goes for different brands, marshall definetly has built up a name for themselves, but the guys who I know and play Marshalls don't play them because of the Marshall name but because of the Marshall tone.

I've tried Crate amps, only the tops and their top of the line stuff, but I'm not a big fan of their amps, I don't like the tone and response of the amp. some people can't get a certain tone out of an amp because its simply not there. same goes for me and the crate amps, they weren't made for me.

I dunno about you but for an amp I would not care a lot about the price, since you're allready spending a shitload on an amp you're better off getting what you really want, if a dual rect. is what you really want, just spend a bit more on it, whatever makes you happy.

as for bass amps, I've got a hughes & kettner bassbase, their top of the line bass top with their 4x10 and 2x15 cab. never had troubles with it and I've been using it for about 3/4 years now, costed me a shitload but I don't regret spending that much money on an amp.

Ampeg makes great bass-amps, but they have their own tone, you either like it or not, I like it but their amps aren't super-versatile, thats why I went for the H&K, which was even more expensive as the Ampeg I might add...
The most common Ampeg bass amp is the SVT350-H, which is a non-tube bass head, its one of the worlds most commonly used on-stage bass amp, but if I'de ever want to get a Ampeg I would get a re-issue of their tube amp, the SVT-AV, all tube amp.

kids like that piss me off, i work my ass off to buy an amp that i've dreamed of having. that i've spent hours at music stores playing on and experimenting with them. only to see some rich punk kid thats gonna use it for his blink 182 coverband come in and buy it with his rich parents money. it is bullshit.

as for the mesa, like i said, i like it more than the peaveys but not the $500-600 more that they would cost, my dream head is going to cost me $2,500. a used peavey XXX is going to cost about $500 used. and i'm not going to have $2,500 anytime soon, and i need my new amp pretty soon. so, i'm planning on playing the XXX or a 5150 II(i can't decide which one i like more, ) for now. i'm actually also considering a marshall dsl100, but i'm trying to find a store that has all three so i can put them up to each other and test them. i have no doubt that i would be happy with whatever i get, but i wan't to get the best for my buck, i'm going to be using it for a couple years, untill i can afford the bogner uberschall .

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ah well, the ones you've got lined up aren't bad, I guess you don't see Engl's, Orange's and H&K's much over there.

I've played the 5150, 5150II, xxl and xxx, out of those I liked the XXL best, the 5150's both where dissapointing to me because of the distortion channel, I've tried a bunch of guitars on them, a Jackson with EMG's, an Ibanez with DiMarzio's and a strat with a seymour duncan in bridge position, the Jackson sounded the most defined on the distortion but it still wasn't what I was looking for. I plugged the Jackson into the XXX and it amazed me since it was the tightest sounding Peavey I ever played. It might not be what you're looking for, but for me I would pick an XXX over a 5150 any day.

anyways, what are you playing right now? if you've got a descent job you could get the bogner I'm not too young anymore so I earn a bunch of money in the weekends, however I spend most of my money on going out and shitloads of cds.

oh, and are you straight edge or are the x's there for no reason at all?

After playing with the dsl for some time now, I don't like it. I don't like Mesa either. Their sounjd just doesnt cut through the mix or stand out, it just blends in. I did like the 5150 II though. Soldano SLO blow them all away anyway. I'd like to play one of thoes German Diezel 4 channel heads...

yeah, the Diezel vh4's, they're ok, if you like Diezels, you'll probably love Engl amps...

right now i'm playing a peice of shit crate amp, i mean like a really old crate, like mid 80's to mid 90's, they don't make em' any more but the clean channel is good, but the distortion is like garage punk/country crunch, i have tried every thing to get a heavy distortion out of it but its just not the right amp for me, so i'm selling it, to some old guy that buys rare amps, i've been saving for the last while, and i'm going out to music go round, they have these two little marshall 4x12 cabs, so i have the money for them, but then once i sell my crate half stack i'm going to buy a new head. i've found that for the price range i'm looking at, the dsl100 or the xxx are probably what i'm getting. i think i just like the xxx more than the 5150 II now that i've tried them up against each other, my problem with the 5150 is the shared eq. but the 5150 II has separate eqs which is nice, but the xxx has this dampining switch on the back that can adjust the sound for tight to loose, or in between, which i had alot of fun with, i'm actually thinking i might keep saving money and buy a nice rackmount system. buti dunno, i'm excited for a new amp, i dont like using distortion pedals.

i like orange, h&k and engl and we do have them out here, i'm just in love with the bogner uberschall. soldanos and deizels are great too but the uberschall was built for me it haunts me in my sleep, i need something decent to hold me over, so i'm thinking the xxx, at first i thought the xxx was just a stupid dual rect. ripoff, but then i played it, and i just stood there looking at it, it just kinda grew on me, but i also think it would be kinda corny, me being a straight egder an my amp being a xxx? but the sound is more important than that. i would also like to have a different head than the bogner, because i wouldnt want it to leave my basement, so i would use a different head that wasnt as valueable, but still sounded good,to gig with.

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location: The Netherlands.

how's about you?

and why the hell do you want to be sXe?

a friend of mine went to the US and couldn't find ANY Engl or Orange amp there, seems that they're pretty rare there or something, he did find hughes & kettners though.

Dead, you tried those Diezel amps yet, if you're at it, get your hands on an Engl Powerball or Savage 120!

i live in salt lake city utah, in the u.s., i know alot of sxe kids(especially in ut) are kinda moronic, they go around beating kids up for smoking and shit, but i think thats just trying to hard, i like to joke about shit like that, and i'm sure if i was really bored i could, but when kids are trying to get me to do drugs and i say no, i mean no, so if they push it i get pissed, but i'm not really such a hard ass, or at least i try not to be, its just my style, i love alot of staight edge bands, i'm kinda in one even, i have quite a few sxe friends, its just kinda grown on me, but some people give me shit for being straight edge, then when i get pissed and violent, they talk more shit about sxe when they're the reason they make me so violent. besides i don't have money for drugs even if i wanted to.

orange and engl are around, but much like bogners and soldanos, they're more of a boutique amp so they are only sold in certain stores and the ones that do sell them, dont have alot, because they are so expensive. there is only one store in ut. that even sells bogners, so i pretty much have to go through them. so amps like that are fairly rare, but not to hard to find if you are looking for them specifically.

hey dead, which amp did you decide on anyways? i've been thinking i'm going to go with a dsl100 head, because theres one for sale at a place down here used for like $500 and its in good condition, plus it sounds amazing, and the i'm putting it on a peavey 5150 series 4x12 cab and a marshall 4x10 cab, and i'm getting each cab for about $250, they're both used but i've tried em' all out and they work fine, if a couple scuffs and some dust can save me a couple hundred $$$ then i'm down.

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ahyeah, militant sXe'ers. how nice. lol

a couple of my friends are vegans too, they've got thise hxc band called xMaintainx.

dunno if you've ever heard of it, anyways we've played a show with an english sxe band too, I'm in Morning Will Come, it was a cool day for us all

anyways, straight edgers aren't violent at all, that would be hypocritical too, I know a whole bunch of straight edgers and even some militant ones, but they'll let everyone decide what they want to do for themselves...

oh, a friend of mine has a TSL 100 which is okay, I like it better then the 5150. but thats just personal taste I guess...

for a used one in good condition thats a good deal, I might add.