Marshall SL-5

[guitargeek62]

Because the new DSl's are made in China, and I think they don't have ply cabs?

[Dave_Mc]

What I'm saying is, I don't base an amps value on the wattage or volume. Otherwise we'd all be playing 200-watt Marshall majors, right?

If these are UK-made, then that's really not too bad for what you're getting.

true, but at the same time you do have a lot of limitations that you don't have with a higher wattage amp. It's a bit like saying you'd pay £10,000 for a boutique bicycle, and wondering why others won't and prefer a car instead at that kind of money (bear in mind I know very little about cars and absolutely nothing about bikes, so this analogy will probably break down very quickly). it may well be worth it in terms of the parts and costs, but if you envisage needing a car at some point in the future, and needing the things that a car can do that a bike can't, then it's maybe not too sensible to buy the bike. Similar thing here with the 5 watter versus a similarly-specced 50 watter (thomann does a traynor ycv50b for less than this, which is 50 watts, 2 channels, spring reverb, loop, and which also has a ply cab and is made in canada).

granted it does seem to be better value than the class 5.

[ICBM]

those amps costing £300 like the night-train are pure cheapos, I had one, it was poo, when you added middle, the treble and bass did not work

That's normal on some tone stack designs and is a "feature" of many Mesa/Boogie amps that are built in the USA and cost thousands, too.

someone told me he took one of the chicken knobs off, and the pot shocked him ha

Impossible unless his electricity supply wiring was faulty and he was already getting shocks from the casing. The casing and the pot bushings are directly connected together, and earthed.

I agree that the Night Train is quite cheaply made but it certainly passes safety regulations, and works perfectly well. I wouldn't buy one, but that's more because of experience with customer service at Vox UK than anything about the amp.

[digitalscream]

Just because an amp is 5watts, does no mean it should be £300, a £300 all valve amp would actually worry me, because it will have been made in china under no regulations, meaning it will be like the inside of a joyo pedal, cheap as chips and knocked together, with 1 out of 3 being dodgy as fuck.

Actually, there are a few Chinese-made amps which are better made than hand-made-in-the-UK amps.

Anyway...back on topic, I find it hard to justify a single-channel amp like this for around £600 when the Laney IRT Studio 15W is coming in the next few days, for £400. 3 channels, 1W/15W input, reverb, boost, pull-shift on all EQ knobs, USB interface, reamping, DI, cab sim, automatic dummy load etc.

*That* is how you build an amp for the studio, not just by reducing the output power.

[Dave_Mc]

oh i think i heard that the sl5 wasn't made in the UK. that'd go some way to explaining how it costs less than the class 5.

[Guitar_Slinger]

The SL-5 will be launched in the UK at the Great British Guitar Show Birmingham on 23/24 Feb.

I'm going to have a go of it - woo!

[bertie]

who is this Dezzy, and where have they gone ?