Musicians Roadhouse

Hi,

First of all I would like to express my gratitude for this forum and the people behind it as it have been an invaluable source of information for anything Marshall related for the past years.

I have been tiptoieng my way towards the SL5 for a while now. The absence of an FX loop was however a source of concern as I didn't have great memories of effects before the preamp. I decided to take the plunge anyway and am very pleased so far. I am really planning to use the SL5 at home and at the office so haven't tried pushing the amp.

Pros:

- The full size cabinet and speaker make for a very in your face sound that is not boxy at all. In fact, in terms of tone, having an AFD100 plugged into a cab with V30's, the SL5 really delivers that tone in a smaller package. This seems to be the biggest 5 watts amp out there. I was indeed suprised in the shop to see that it is talller and only marginally narrower than a JVM combo!

- The clean channel is what I expected it to be. Not fender clean but clean enough for me and with a compressor and careful guitar volume management, it is definitely possible to get sparkling sounds.

- The 1 watt mode is very effective as it really brings out the tube natural compression at low volume, where the 5W mode sounds good but a little stiffer.

- Now for the big thing. Effects without a loop. The first thing I did was to plug a memory man between the guitar and the amp and much to my delgiht, the result was much, much less mushy than I had anticipated, even with the gain maxed out. Not as "studio" sounding as delay within a loop but definitely something I can live with.

- I then upgraded to a TC Nova System in front of the SL5. This proved a little more complicated. Fine on the clean channel but very noisy on the overdrve channel, even after fiddling with the input and output volumes. But that was with the gain nearly maxed out. In the end, what worked really well was to set the gain at 2 o'clock, with already a fair amount of overdrive. Here the noise level was comparable with and without the Nova System. Then, using the Nova System boost allowed me to switch to a really hot lead sound, close to a boosted JCM800 sound.

Cons:

- With it being a full sized combo, it's HEAVY.

- Quite large but then again, that's one of the reason it sounds so good!

Final toughts: For the last decade, I have been very much of a rack or amp head + racked pedal and effects kind of guy. And while it can sound great, it is franckly a bore sometimes to deal with all the settings and ground loops of such a setting. I really wanted to have a small, no fuss package that would still give me great tone and flexibilty. The SL5, coupled with the nova system gives me just this. The basic sounds of the SL5 are great at low volume. And the Nova System allows me to switch between clean, overdrive and lead sounds and add effects on the go.

good!

but do you have a noise when you switch the channels? ch 1 to 2 by a footswitch or not

when i play a chord and i change of channel a noise comes !

i agree with the fact this is not a jcm 800 sound so i use a blues driver pedal
or tube factor for example and it's great

but a good amp could do this without a pedal and go to a metal distortion itself

what a pity! so, this is not a perfect amp for me and no fx loop too

maybe Marshall will make a 3 channels amp with plexi, jcm and jvm and it will be great !
before that, let's play with a sl5

clean is very good like a fender

Nice review and glad you are getting along with the amp. It is important to remember that this amp is another Slash signature amp which means it's features were specific to what Slash wanted in a small amp. Slash did not want the FX loop, so this is not Marshall fault is Slash's fault.

I think you are correct in pointing out that the big heavy cabinet for this combo does sound good. I would try a delay up front before I would worry about a loop, it may sound fine there.

Good review there Steven Latch, and a great idea using the Nova unit. I have played these amps a few times and love the strong Marshall tone in them, I find it has plenty of gain on tap if needed too.
Al

i thought marshall sl5 had a beautiful sound
but i prefer my old amp
fantastic sound!!!

i would like sl5 with a lc 15 lol

sl5 can't give a sound like a lc 15 because mediums are not beautiful
and trebles too trebles

Have you really tried to dial in less treble? and less Presence ? There's a lot you can do with this amp. How have you got it set up, and what guitar do you use?
I wonder whether you have a problem with your amp? pre-amp valves perhaps, because you said it doesn't have much gain. I found when I tried one, it has more than enough gain for me to shred.
Al

They disappeared.

Must have bought them back or something.

I have a friend that has a SL5 and he loves it, uses it at small gigs - stock, and has been doing so for a few months now.

I would consider getting one. My five watt amps are scarce on the features but still decent - a Blackheart Little Giant head and a Peavey JSX Mini Colossal. A friend modified my Little Giant with a Variable Voltage Regulator (VVR) and it works really well to get saturation at low volume - a neat mod.

I'd say the SL5 amp should be real decent and that we should be seeing more posts about them.