Marshall DSL-1 Combo Amp Review - Mini and Mighty or Tiny and Terrible? 

Get the DSL-1 at Thomann - thmn.to/thoprod/422010?offid=1&affid=288 Get the DSL-1 at Andertons - bit.ly/3H0PEw2 Get the DSL-1 at Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/kjBOJ3

just got one of these and honestly you wouldn't believe how loud it can be for its size love it

Since this amlificator is quieter than normal, I tried using it in the bath. The speaker went all soggy, but my manhood took those 230V like there was no tomorrow. And there wasn't.

I have a VOX model from a few years ago. It has 3 settings. Half a watt, 1.5 watts and 5 watts. The 0.5 watt is loud enough in a house setting. It is the DA5 model and can be powered by battery. 6 C batteries that wlll go for 3 or 4 hours. Great for busking if you are into that sort of thing. LOUD.

Well I get your point about the reverb. They could easily improve it but then again Marshall isn't particularly well known for their lush reverbs. I'm just glad it has one at this price point and one could easily just hookup a different reverb in the FX loop.

Just got one a couple days ago. It's really a great amp, for the first time in years I'm waiting when I can come home after work and play guitar through it. Literally gave me back the taste of life, lol. Especially after all these digital amps and multieffect processors. But it's a bit too loud even with the "low-power" mode, definitely missing a master volume or separate gain knob for the green channel. Anyway, love it. Blues tones are great. Healed my depression.

I bought this amp a couple weeks ago, cause of your review. yes a lot complain, but I love it its a Marshall and has that tone iv longed for, no regrets! Thanks.

Very nice. I had my doubts, but it’s a feisty little practice amp. I love my DSL 40C and this just proves that the DSL range is great performance for the money.

This little amp is a beast when juiced with an MXR Distortion +, but... The 8" speaker is insanely bright with no bottom end and very little mid-range. I took a Crate BX-25 bass amp, sealed the rear port, yanked the stock 10" speaker and installed a Celestion VT Jr. and hooked it up as an extension cab. (I prefer the tight response of a 10" versus a 12"). Now that amp wails like a monster. I pondered buying the head version but opted for the combo for the sake of "grab and go"

Today bought one of these puppies. I live in an appartment, so my neighbours are a very happy!

I just wanted to let you know that I enjoy your channel very much. I love the honesty, frankness and of course your playing ability is exceptional! Thanks, and keep it going. Gene

I’m sold! Sounds great for AC/DC and Maiden tones

If it’s not perfect for everyone it is certainly perfect for me. My AC10 is actually too loud for my family (several of us work from home). I really wanted that valve tone and to be able to “silent practice” with headphones, and after a few digital amps, two sets of headphones, and some amp plugs I was still unsatisfied until I found this amp. Paired with my strat it sounds amazing to my non-gigging ears and is still decent with good headphones.

Picked up a mint used DSL1CR for $190 on Reverb, put in a NOS mid 60's RCA 12AU7 tube in the power section to clean up some of the background noise and added a little more headroom. it's a great little amp.

I sold a MkI HT-1 to buy a MkII DSL1, and luckily for me i think its the better amp. I didnt much take to the ISF knob as it just had too many sounds and not enough time to spend finding them! I generally just use the cleaner of the two channels and don't engage that funky EQ thing. I get all the sounds i want.

I’ve messed with a lot of low watt tube combo amps including a Blackstar HT1, Bugera Infinium 5w(which I replaced the same eight fifteen speak in). I also have a Vox Lil Night Train. And obviously this amp combo. After playing enough and hooking it up the Marshall MX112 cab I’m returning the cabinet. I love the Celestion eight fifteen speaker it sounds great and it’s loud and bassy. Now in all honesty it seems to me nothing’s special about an Orange PPC112 and I just can’t believe that something about that cabinet sounds so good but it really adds life. Other than that this little speaker is loud, has a lot of bass for its size and if you’re listening for clean with a bit of reverb it’ll have you closing your eyes and melting into the sustain. It’s good stuff. It’s an 8” what do you expect? Get a bigger cab if you need it. But I run both my remaining low watt tube cabs through the 8/15 and the only 12” cabinet I wish I never sold was a PPC112 so if I see a deal one day that might be coming home. Until then my wife and daughter shutting every door in the house due to volume would not go well with a bigger cab. More than happy for an intermediate bedroom player. I’m not doing any live gigs and am satisfied playing around with my hi/fi but smaller amps. And keeping an eye out for great deals on guitars.

Just got myself one and I satisfied. They could have saved this cheap digital reverb, it really spoils the good tube sound. Instead I'd preferred the line in input and the headphone output on the front panel. But anything else? Sounds like a marshall but you play without waking up the baby or annoying the neighbours. As long you don't play it loud (use the 0,1W button on the rear) the 8" speaker is sufficient also for lower frequencies. Using the 1W option, this thing already is too loud for the living room. The box looks really decorative, although the corner protectors look a little bit cheap. OK, the amp is really not expensive. I only worry about the lifespan of the two black buttons, they don't feel very durable. I'm glad someone finally made a tube amp for home use. There should be more products like this.

The Marshall DSL5 combo with reverb upgrades to a 10” speaker and sounds so much better for it.

The 11 o'clock setting on the clean channel would be my home.

I have one. It's really nice now it's broken in a little bit. When I first got it, it was a little fuzzy and thin, but after a few hours of mild abuse, it's lost the fizz and the brittleness and it actually sounds really nice now.

Well done man, you didn't show up on my searches for this. It popped up with other stuff, but well done.

I like the ultra gain channel. The reverb might be a waste, but it's got an FX-loop, so reverb pedal. Would love a head-to-head (well, combo-to-combo) with, I guess, it's direct 1W competitor, the Blackstar HT-1.

Picked up the same combo at a local shop for $199.99 and I agree that the speaker sounds better as it gets broken in doesn’t sound as brittle on the clean channel either. I’m happy with the purchase.

great video and walkthrough. I love my DSL20HR, but can't say I really like this one. But I'm not entirety surprised. 😁👍 take care

I like the Celestial Eight 15 speaker. I have one in my Yerasov Gavrosh 8. Through that circuit I tend to have to bass set around 3 because there's plenty of bass, at least if your within 1 metre of the speaker. With a baritone guitar you get those corpulent bass tones with the bass setting turned up higher. YMMV depending on the genre you play.

I have the DSL 5 CR and it is an unbelievable amp for home and studio.

Thank's for sharing. I own this little amp. I like it, even if Marshall can throw away the "tone shift" and the reverb. Even at very low power this amp is very loud. You can use it at home if you have a house, but not in an apartment when you crank it up. I'm seriously thinking of building an extra 12" cab. (sorry for my english)

I just got a 50th anniversary JCM1 custom shop Mini stack. It's the white one with 2-10" speaker cabs. It sounds amazing, and makes .e want to try the other 1watt Marshall's. The DSL is the next one I'd like to get, and run it through the same set of 10" cabs.

I've got one on order, going to run it through one of my 4 x 12 marshall cabs...it should sound sweet then. it makes sense to buy the combo just for the added portable use without the big cab. it's the same price as the head.

I have this amp and I love it, It’s the perfect bedroom amps

I want the head version to play through a 12" Celestion. Nice demo! This is the best demo for this I've seen so far.

I've actually mic'd mine to sound big, my sm 57 didn't sound good with it, it was tinny and small sounding, i used an sm58 clone and it sounds quite passable. Yes the amp is quiet, you can barely annoy people with it.

Hi Andy... Moving to America isn't as depressing as it seems. Waiting for You is Appreciation. Troy from Atlantic City

Does that 'Volume' knob on Classic Gain channel actually act like a 'Gain' knob? And there is no real volume controller on clean channel which could raise or lower just the loudness while not affecting distortion level?

Is a 1-watt valve amp for 300 pounds really worth it though? I understand that it's tube and that it's a Marshall but I think amps like the Boss Katana, blackstar amps, Fender champion 100 and the Yamaha THR10X are probably more worth it for general use. It does have some good tones though but I'm sure there are better counterparts to it in today's market.

I am undecided between dsl1h + cab 1x12 or yamaha thr10. I only play in the bedroom and my reference sound is slash / gnr. What do you advise? Thank you!

Hard to get a loud clean sound out of it. But its crunch is awesome!

That amp sounds awesome in an Orange 1x12 cab even at 0.1 watt

All speakers have a break in period so it’s not strange that it sounds better over time

That reverb sounds a lot better than my spring reverb in the old DSL401. Now that's an aweful reverb. This is perfectly fine.

Just an observation but I didn't notice anything different with tone shift on or off.

I got one 2 weeks ago and am impressed. But HOME USE ONLY .

7:13 GRETA VAN FLEET!!! great video btw

"When 1 watt is simply too loud" Very nice subtle comedy there, gave me a good chuckle

How to get tone: 1) Find the all tube marshall that fits your price range. Save if you have to. 2) Buy the Marshall and enjoy

What should i buy: the DSL1 or the Origin 5C ?

So this is a great review, although my use interest was to either do what’s called ‘re-amping’ (ahem, ‘one is given to understand this is the term’), or directly recording into Apple’s baby DAW in my iPad M1. There are those little tube tubs you can get (should patent that for a product), with bare valves sticking out, which reminded me of that Korg recording unit accessory you used to be able to get, it fitted in the recording desk. However, it sounds like it would encourage me to play more, being a tad quieter. My experience being nearly 3 score years is that I grew up with the big lurch to transistors, largely driven by it being new tech and more reliable. Now we’ve all been transistorised down to the nanometre, and the gargantuan effort to replicate that saturated, rectified, or whatever ‘tube sound’ has been underway for some time of course. This is as we stand now, a great value piece of kit bringing proper Marshall sound, but it is into a 2022 World now as I type, of IRs and full Overloud TH-U software emulation of tube saturation being cheaper and fitting inside my iPad M1 device. Of course, the two only have a tiny overlap, it’s just I started out looking for an outboard unit to REALLY be involving tube valves in the FX chain of my little DAW, and ended up deciding of course, I need BOTH the software emulation AND the dinky Marshall tube combo unit! So, that’s a fail regards household expenditure and flies in the face of electricity consumption too! Anyway, I think when I retire, this would be such an easy purchase decision. Thanks a lot, take care all.

Should I buy Vox Vt20x or Marshall DSL 1 for home use? I really like the sound of Marshall, but I don't know how this Vox sounds, cause it's unavailable in local shops... If Vox vt20x is really good in modulating tube sound and sounds like tube amp, I would go for it. Your opinion?

Hmm, I think the 8 inch speaker is a let down. You're better with the head and a cab.

Would this be loud enough for band practice with acoustic drums?

Putting this through an old 1X12 with broken in speakers would make it sound much better than the base combo form. That said it doesn't sound as bad as other small amps with 8 inch speakers. You just took a few hours to break it in but I imagine after a month of heavy use it will sound much better. We are lucky to be in an age where we can buy an all tube marshall under 300 dollars.

I use this one a lot at home for a long time now. I plugged in a 12" cab and it's very good. A guy went at home try a guitar I was selling and he told me "this amp sound great".

Im new to guitar but wanting to upgrade from my very basic amp now. I think I'm settled on a DSL.. BUT for home use only im not sure wether to go for this 1w or the 5w. My music room is on the large side and I live in a detached house so neighbors are not a huge. I guess what I want to know if, will the 5w have to be super loud to get the good tones whereas this could do the same thing but quieter?

It’s obviously a direct competitor against the Blackstar HT1 r.

Just to say the following. This new DSL line is so good that I own an older Fender Hot Rod Factory Special Run with JJ tubes and a Jensen speaker and the clean on my DSL 5 watt easily rivals the clean on my Hot Rod.

Im keen on the marshall dsl 1hr. But have marshall 1936 2x12 speakers that does 8 ohms mono 16 stereo. I wish to use the setup to record n bedroom use. I have a magnum44 to up the power if required as i did with my bias spark through the head set jack. Will this amp work for me or do i need the dslhr 20/ 100 theyre kinda expensive?

Does the Classic Gain channel break up that much with a larger speaker? I have the 50th Anniversary model but it doesn't really break up much on the classic gain channel.

hello, I would like to know if the volume is suitable for playing on the street, without a group but alone with the backing tracks.. hello thanks FRANCESCO

Much better sound to be had with the 1W head into a 2x12 cab. Obviously costs more and less portable but sonically it's right there for home use.

Is the reason it's sounding better the more you play it because you are starting to break the speaker in?

The DSL1H head atop a 20W 1974CX cab could very well be the business for the bedroom player. Micing that at a studio would be dead easy, too.

I’d love to build a one watt head as a kit and run it through my existing cabs.

Is it good/okay to use with distortion pedals? Since the clean channel is not all clean? I tested it in a store recently and loved it. But when I saw that there is nothing 100% clean about it I got worried, cuz I want to use something like the op amp big muff, etc for home use.

Marshall could make a a bigger amp with a bigger speaker at more watts. Make it with a 1/8 input in and a 8ohm cabinet speaker output. Mains and battery powered. Maybe make it a two channel amplifier. Then Marshall would really have something.

I had a Blackstar HTR1......a 1 watt valve amp. Nice crunchy tones but very hard to get a pristine loud clean sound out of it.

Might be a bit late but have you tried a boost pedal with the classic gain? Maybe you could get more of a classic super lead type lead tone since the one watt will breakup super fast instead of gaining volume

Reverb sounds pretty bad to me too. Was looking at the Blackstar HT-1R MKII. Any thoughts?.. I'm very much a bedroom guitarist so would like a low powered amp with some good tone. Thanks for the video.

1 watt of tube amp can be louder than you would think

tell me if you know about it.. can i turn on the dsl without speaker? i have a power valve amp, i use preamp section of dsl1 and send the signal using the "send" in back of amp..tanks!

I have this amp. It's mostly good. The two things that I think could have made it better is having an 8 ohm speaker output and also, the clean channel seems kind of 'tinny' and lacks overall body and bass frequencies.

Knob question but when these guys test and review amps what do they do with the guitars volume and tone switch’s.Just turn to 10 and use the amp.?

great video. I really enjoyed it !

I owned this for a few days. I think the reverb was nice and the ultra gain channel sounded good. The classic or clean channel sounded thin and brittle and I did not enjoy it. Great review Andrew

I think that low watt is better the laney cube 12r input 1/15 watt for play in home

On the fence between this one and the DSL 5 watt. Want something practical for bedroom use but I think I may go with the 5 watt instead. Thanks for the review!

Was that a little riff nod to Greta Van Fleet I heard? 😀

so, essentialy, you cant have a loud clean channel.... they should have put a master volume....

I never understood the purpose of an Audio Input into a mono amplifier. To me the Tone Shift and the Reverb are simply not necessary. Moreover, the only 16 Ohms speaker output is a little bit annoying!

I scored mine for $315. Brand new. it is what it is. I like it. Think the speaker is the weak link.

so honestly do you feel this is a better amp then the blackstar HT-1R for the money? wanted the blackstar for awhile now but now this is out have been really leaning towards this one

What song are you playing on time 3.30 id love to try and play this can you show us you playing it aswell?

I think I broke mine in the first 10 minutes of unboxing... I get variable volumes... lots of crackling at first then just swells of full volume to thin attenuated fuzz... it all broke when I was trying out the reverb...

Sounds so much better at the end with the Cab! Anything less than a 12" speaker just doesn't sound right to me. Great video! JT

I really think the bugera v5 sounds better for the sounds I'm going for

I would like to hear how it sounds with a Gretsch DuoJet

I wish Fender made something like this

Can the PEDL 90012 (channel & FX loop) switch be used on this?

@theguitargeek Great video, although I’ve come to a different conclusion than you. I watched a lot of reviews (including yours, of course) as I vacillated between this amp and the Katana 50 for home playing. I wound up liking the Marshall a lot more, in no small part because of the clean tone you get at 2:50 or so. That sounds great to me, and more “alive” than the Katana. But to each his own.

You should have cranked the Classic Gain channel. Hell of a plexi-kinda punch. Thats where the punchy tone of this amp lies.

what he wontell u.... rightmost back plug,,, can be unplugged if u stick in 16 ohm speaker,,,,use thick gauge spkr wire,,, never turn on any tube amp if no spkr connected...

Can I plug an MG10 into a cabinet? MG10s are much cheaper.

Oh yeah !! A price tag like that for a Marshall Made in Vietnam ??!! Pure British - Sure !

Jup. The speaker sounds better the more you Play it. its Perfect for practice.

This amp is great if you live in an apartment. I have used one around a month ,and I love it. F... Solid State.

How loud can it get? In dB?

Ive got the dsl20cr and it rocks. Definitely a good buy for the price

A dB meter in screen would have been interesting. Nice Review though, DSL 5CR for me.

I have a jvm1c 50th anniversary amp. It's amazing. One watt driven hard is fun as hell

I’m curious if anyone has tried the emulator our function on this little amp with some headphones?

That tiny speakers sounds horrible!