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  • A Month with the Marshal AFD100 Slash Signature Amplifier

Ok so before we get into this, a little bit about myself so you can put this review into context.

Firstly, I’m no Slash/GnR fanboi. Although I will tout Slash/GnR as probably my biggest musical influence and the guitarist/band that made me pick up a guitar and learn to play in the first place, I’m more of a fan of that particular era of music in general. I guess you like what you grow up with, and well I spent most of my formative years in the 80’s/90’s. So, I guess you could say that I’m a hard rock/metal fan, but at the same time I also really like the Blues. As a result, those are the types of music I really like to play.

Ok, so about this Marshall Slash Signature AFD100 amplifier…

I was fascinated by the AFD100 project that launched early in 2010, whereby Marshall together with Slash embarked on a project to recreate the tone of the modified 1959 Super Lead amplifier used in the recording of the Appetite for Destruction record. The AFD project is well documented on the internet. There are also many demos on Youtube that show the amp doing what it was intended to do – deliver that Appetite for Destruction tone.

I’m not going to rehash any of that stuff. What I’d rather do is give you a little bit of insight into my experience with actually living with the AFD100 amplifier for the last month, and share with you what I like about it and what I don’t like about it as honestly as possible.

So, briefly the amp is based on JCM800 2203 circuitry, although it features 5 ECC83 preamp valves instead of 3 like in a regular JCM800. The extra valves are required to cater for the fact that the amp has 2 distinct voicings. The voicings are #34, which replicates Slash’s JCM800 amp that was modified by Tim Caswell and that he has used since the late 1980’s, and AFD100 which replicates the modified 1959 Super lead amp used to record the Appetite for Destruction album.

Ok, so at this point you’re probably all Slashed and GnR’d out, so no more from me. If you’re interested in whether or not this amp lives up to its promise to deliver the Slash/AFD album tone, the short answer is that I believe it does so admirably.

But, I’m sure the question on most people’s minds is, “Is this amplifier a One Trick Pony?”. Well, when I got bored of busting out Nighttrain, Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child of Mine riffs :-[ and started experimenting with different Master Volume, Gain and EQ settings, not to mention flipping between the 2 voicings, I discovered it’s not.

The AFD100 is a simple, single channel amplifier, primarily designed as a “Dirty” amplifier. The “Slash Dirty settings” for this amp are the Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence, Master Volume and Gain settings all on about 6. Having said that that, I’ve been able to get some really nice clean tones out of it, by dialling back the Gain, and dropping the guitar volume down to about half. It’s not crystal clean, rather like a clean amp with the power tubes being driven hard. Once you begin to fiddle with the Master Volume, Gain and EQ settings I realised that small changes to any of these in any multitude of combinations can quite radically alter the tone. I was able to find some really nice bluesy tones, some crunch that would make any Angus Young fan want to jump around wearing their school uniform, and cranking up the Gain and Master volume to around three quarters will have the Megadeth and Metallica fans nodding their heads with their fists in the air. Being a single channel amp though, switching between clean and dirty sounds is going to be a problem for most guys wanting to use a single amp for gigging. I suppose you could set up the amp for a clean sound and then using some sort of overdrive pedal in front of the amp for a dirty sound, to switch between clean and dirty but I suppose that defeats the purpose somewhat.

I’m not a gigging guitarist so I’m not too fussed by this limitation, but at the same time I did keep my JCM2000 TSL which has 3 distinct channels, when I bought the AFD100, but the truth is that since I bought the AFD100, I haven’t even powered up the JCM2000, and I can’t say I’ve missed it. The AFD100 is currently doing everything I want it to.

I’ve kind of saved the best for last – the Power Scaling feature. Holy crap, this is the most awesome feature. I have 2 very young kids, 1 and 2 years old respectively. My study/music room is directly opposite my one son’s bedroom, and so when I only had the JCM 2000, I either had to play with the volume way down, which sucked all the tone out of it and as a result I usually rather played unplugged when I wanted to play after the kids went to sleep. With the AFD100, you can scale the power (not attenuate) using 22 different incremental positions using the Power knob, anywhere from 0.1watts and full power being 100watts. This means I can drive the power tubes with the master volume almost all the way up, through a 4x12 cabinet while my son sleeps peacefully in the next room, all because I can scale the power right down, and still get great tone, although it does still sound better when you crank it up.

Dislikes? Not much really. I love the look of the amp, although I’m not wild about the graphics and stuff they’ve put on it. To me, it’s a bit overdone, they should have chosen either the “Slash Signature…blah blah blah” writing, OR the skull and bones type logo, not both.

So now that the honeymoon is over, am I sorry I bought it? Hell No! I love it. Was it worth the money? Worth every cent, in my view, especially considering it’s around the same price as their other 100w heads, and a lot more special in my book. I really think that given the tone of this amp, it’s already on the road to becoming a classic.








    Just wanted to add that if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll try to answer them.

    Also wanted to add because I don't think I said as much in the review, but Holy Crap! This amp sounds amazing to my ears!! ?
      Bloody hell dude, that sounds like the perfect Rock amp! My main concern with big valve amps is the volume needed to drive them. This seems like an ideal solution.
        chris77 wrote: Bloody hell dude, that sounds like the perfect Rock amp! My main concern with big valve amps is the volume needed to drive them. This seems like an ideal solution.
        Chris, I think this amp would be very hard to beat for any form of 80's rock tone, and I am sure we're going to see this power scaling feature being incorporated into other Marshall amps in the future. It really does work exceptionally well.
          Thanks for this Shaun.

          it is a freaking awesome amp... GAAAS
            Don, sorry I saw in the other thread you wanted to know where I got it. I bought it at Coastal Music, from Iain, who was absolutely fantastic to deal with. In fact they're all great guys down there. I really enjoy their attitude and great service whenever I get to pop in there.

            Price wise, I thought it was a pretty good deal considering what I got the head and the 1960 cab for.

              I want to add a bit of information regarding the 2 voicings or modes this amp has: #34 and AFD.

              Reading up a bit on some other international forums, it seems quite a few guys that also have this amp don't like the #34 mode, which is basically a JCM 800 modded to give extra gain, from my very lay persons understanding. Guys say that this mode tends to sound rather thin and harsh. I see where they are coming from, especially if you're flipping between AFD mode and #34, that it does sound harsh and much thinner than the AFD mode.

              However, in defence of the #34 mode the 2 modes are so different that it sounds like 2 totally different amps when switching between them, and I don't believe an A/B comparison of them is fair, especially when one leaves the EQ knobs the same. I've spent quite a bit of time playing around with the #34 mode and after adjusting the EQ knobs to more suitable settings, I like this mode as much as the AFD mode and couldn't choose between them as to which is my favourite. I don't switch between the 2 as if it's some sort of effect. I treat this function as if I was swapping amps. With #34 mode I've been able to get some really great easily recognisable classic rock sounds, and in this mode you can hear it's a JCM800 amp. With less gain than the AFD mode, it's also easier to get better clean sounds in this mode.

              AFD mode has an extra gain stage and this mode has some serious grunt and perfectly captures the "Heavy Metal" sounds of the 80's. I've been listening to a lot of bands like Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns albums from that era, and this amp pulls off those tones brilliantly. I do find though, that my Les Paul Studio, which is is a slightly darker sounding guitar compared to the R9, does a better job of some of the heavier Crue and Megadeth stuff.
                Great review, thanks for the effort.
                  Lovely amp , thanks for the info.

                  As a non gigging guitarist why you get such huge amps? (just a query)

                  My second rather rude question is what do these go for?

                    IceCreamMan wrote: Lovely amp , thanks for the info.

                    As a non gigging guitarist why you get such huge amps? (just a query)

                    My second rather rude question is what do these go for?

                    When I said non gigging guitarist, I should have said not gigging or playing in a band at the moment.
                    I've had the JCM 2000 TSL 60w combo for a while and used to gig with it.

                    Whilst the AFD100 is a 100 watt amp, that I'll never get close to ever using at full power, even if I do decide to go out and join a band and gig again, the power scaling feature of this amp that allows me to select my required power anything between 0.1 watts and 100 watts means that its actually more practical and versatile than most smaller low wattage valve amps. You can play this amp at appropriate volume levels anywhere while still driving the power tubes hard, from the bedroom to the stadium and anything in between as it has an appropriate power setting for them all.

                    Price wise, they're around R18k full retail for the head, but I paid substantially less than that.
                      Awesome review and sounds like an awesome amp! I think you should have an open day where any forumites can come see the amp and give it a go ? Also, how much for the JCM2000 ? haha
                        Kalcium wrote: Awesome review and sounds like an awesome amp! I think you should have an open day where any forumites can come see the amp and give it a go ? Also, how much for the JCM2000 ? haha
                        Dude you're welcome to come and give it a try sometime if you want to. Would be nice to meet some muso's from Durbs as I'm originally from Maritzburg.

                        I think I'm going to keep the JCM 2000. It's a great amp and I'm sure I'll still play it from time to time, and even if I don't my kids will have a great amp available for if they ever want to start playing.
                          shaunf wrote:
                          IceCreamMan wrote: Lovely amp , thanks for the info.

                          As a non gigging guitarist why you get such huge amps? (just a query)

                          My second rather rude question is what do these go for?

                          When I said non gigging guitarist, I should have said not gigging or playing in a band at the moment.
                          I've had the JCM 2000 TSL 60w combo for a while and used to gig with it.

                          Whilst the AFD100 is a 100 watt amp, that I'll never get close to ever using at full power, even if I do decide to go out and join a band and gig again, the power scaling feature of this amp that allows me to select my required power anything between 0.1 watts and 100 watts means that its actually more practical and versatile than most smaller low wattage valve amps. You can play this amp at appropriate volume levels anywhere while still driving the power tubes hard, from the bedroom to the stadium and anything in between as it has an appropriate power setting for them all.

                          Price wise, they're around R18k full retail for the head, but I paid substantially less than that.
                          Lovely amp , thanks for the reply..I have read about the SLash project to recreate the AFD amp but never actually seen one around to try.
                            IceCreamMan wrote:
                            shaunf wrote:
                            IceCreamMan wrote: Lovely amp , thanks for the info.

                            As a non gigging guitarist why you get such huge amps? (just a query)

                            My second rather rude question is what do these go for?

                            When I said non gigging guitarist, I should have said not gigging or playing in a band at the moment.
                            I've had the JCM 2000 TSL 60w combo for a while and used to gig with it.

                            Whilst the AFD100 is a 100 watt amp, that I'll never get close to ever using at full power, even if I do decide to go out and join a band and gig again, the power scaling feature of this amp that allows me to select my required power anything between 0.1 watts and 100 watts means that its actually more practical and versatile than most smaller low wattage valve amps. You can play this amp at appropriate volume levels anywhere while still driving the power tubes hard, from the bedroom to the stadium and anything in between as it has an appropriate power setting for them all.

                            Price wise, they're around R18k full retail for the head, but I paid substantially less than that.
                            Lovely amp , thanks for the reply..I have read about the SLash project to recreate the AFD amp but never actually seen one around to try.

                            As far as I know, these amps will be limited to 2300 units, with production being spread out over a couple of months. I got mine at Coastal Music in Durban, who are part of T.O.M.S so I'm sure T.O.M.S in Jhb will have stock if they aren't already sold. Coastal ended up with 2 units down here.

                            One of the things that made me giggle a bit is that the guys in the US who preordered the amp are only now starting to get theirs, while down here in the "3rd world" I've had mine a month already.
                              shaunf wrote:
                              Kalcium wrote: Awesome review and sounds like an awesome amp! I think you should have an open day where any forumites can come see the amp and give it a go ? Also, how much for the JCM2000 ? haha
                              Dude you're welcome to come and give it a try sometime if you want to. Would be nice to meet some muso's from Durbs as I'm originally from Maritzburg.

                              I think I'm going to keep the JCM 2000. It's a great amp and I'm sure I'll still play it from time to time, and even if I don't my kids will have a great amp available for if they ever want to start playing.
                              Ah awesome! I'd love to give it a try! Where about do you stay?
                                Kalcium wrote:
                                shaunf wrote:
                                Kalcium wrote: Awesome review and sounds like an awesome amp! I think you should have an open day where any forumites can come see the amp and give it a go ? Also, how much for the JCM2000 ? haha
                                Dude you're welcome to come and give it a try sometime if you want to. Would be nice to meet some muso's from Durbs as I'm originally from Maritzburg.

                                I think I'm going to keep the JCM 2000. It's a great amp and I'm sure I'll still play it from time to time, and even if I don't my kids will have a great amp available for if they ever want to start playing.
                                Ah awesome! I'd love to give it a try! Where about do you stay?
                                Hillcrest.
                                  Donovan Banks wrote: Do I smell a get together?
                                  I think it would be a good idea ? Would like to try my new SG through this (oh btw thanks for alerting me to the SG ad Don) so i'd have to ask my parents for a lift cause i dont wanna take it on my bike...hillcrest is far though (ie my parents wont like to travel so far for me...haha) ? but i think itd be worth it if we make an occasion of it ? else I could just ride up and try it with ur guitars...wanna try those LPs ?
                                    Thanks for the writeup, looks like a insane amp!
                                      6 months later
                                      Have you messed around with putting effects into the AFD yet?