Marshall does/did make one watt versions of their classics, but they're expensive and only made a limited run. I personally didn't particularly like them very much at first, but I have heard some really nice tones from them for recording. There's a member here "Minerman" that uses a DSL-1 (based on the JCM 2000 Dual Super Lead) and a few different 1x12s in an iso cabinet and he gets really convincing results. You'd think it's a full size rig if you didn't know better. I really like the JCM-1 myself. I think it does the best job at sounding like it's original beast counterpart, the JCM 800. Another member here, can't remember who, just got the JVM-1 (based on the modern JVM series) and put up a clip and it sounded pretty damn good. So yeah, the one watt Marshalls and an appropriate cab can get you recorded tones that will sound big and true to the Marshall sound if that's what you're after. And don't get it twisted, one watt wide open is pretty loud in a room by itself. You can't gig with it against a drummer and bass, but for recording it's pretty loud. They're also switchable down to .1 watt I believe, which is pretty quiet. There are also plenty of Class 5s still around for pretty cheap. They're pretty old-school sounding and take pedals well. And the new DSL line-up has a 15w head or combo version that I've played many times in stores and it sounds great. A few years back I was looking to go the small route but my choices for the Marshall sound was limited. Had the one watters or small DSL heads been available back then, I might have gotten one of them.....but still probably would have ended up with all this crazy mega-loud shit. Big and loud is the sound I like.
Not trying to de-rail your thread Greg, & I really appreciate the compliments (I couldn't have gotten these tones without you guys here helping me along...thanks!!!), but I absolutely love my DSL-1 H....yes, it was expensive for what it really is (I didn't pay the $800 for mine, I shopped around & found one for $600, but it's still expensive as hell...), but, the tones are really good IMHO, at a volume that can be used in the bedroom....I will say the red/ultra channel is a bit "fizzy" if you crank the gain pretty high, but all in all, it's a great little amp....This is the only 1w Marshall I've personally tried, but again, with some tweaking, different speaker combinations, mic placement, etc., the tones are there, without getting the cops knocking on your door, or in my case, I can play/record at 3 am, without waking the whole house up & pissing everyone off (which is priceless to me)....But, don't think this little amp isn't loud, in the 1w setting, cranked, it's definitely a Marshall, just "mini-me" sized compared to their big brothers (both size/construction & sound wise....these heads are about the size of the Marshall Micro-Stacks, & sound/volume wise, the only thing I have here to compare it to is a 15w Egnater Tweaker, the DSL-1 is probably about half as loud, just guessing...), I use a home-made ISO cab (you can see the top of it in the vid, the amp/cab are sitting on top of it) for pretty much silent recording (especially using the 0.1w mode, my wife's tv across the hall makes more noise)....
I couldn't decide on the DSL-1 or the JVM-1, as I wanted an fx loop (my original choice was the JCM-1, but no loop killed that for me), but in the end, I chose the DSL-1...I've heard the JVM-1 has more gain on tap, but, if I need more gain, I can always use a pedal, but really, my 'lil amp's got plenty...
They're getting harder to find AFAIK too, new anyway....Limited run, so if you want one, you might wanna pull the trigger on one of 'em, but IMHO, they're great little amps, even if they are expensive as hell....If I had the $$$, I'd own all of 'em except the JTM-1, it really doesn't interest me that much, but I've read that some guys love it, I'm more into the hard rock/80's hair metal thing myself, which could be done with the JTM-1 using pedals.....
Switchable power: 1w down to 0.1w (which is a godsend for me, especially late at night, using my ISO cab, pretty much silent...)
fx loop, 2 footswitchable channels (red/ultra= dirt...green/classic=clean) w/volume & gain knob for each channel (footswitch included), bass, middle treble, "deep" switch (adds bottom end), tone shift button (scoops the mids a bit, but not a lot)....
Here's a song I've been working on, not finished yet, but this'll give you an idea of the tones my setup has...Ibanez RG (w/Duncan CC bridge p'up) > DSL-1 H > Celestion V30 > Samson C0-1 mic...there is some post-processing done in the daw (like 'verb, delay, etc), but the guitar tones on this are all coming from my "stack" shown in the vid
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Greg: Did you get the plexi back from your tech yet??? Any news on anything he's found inside the amp while it's been away????
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