Guitarist | 1 decade ago
Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction is one of the greatest rock albums of all time, and among its myriad highlights is the gorgeous guitar tone of the band's top hat-totin' whirlwind, Slash. He used a rented Marshall 'Plexi' head and a non-Gibson Les Paul to produce a sound that was full and thick for rhythm, yet sufficiently articulate for solos.
And now, after working together to bring us the limited-edition AFD1000 signature head back in 2010, the Marshall team and Slash himself have gone back to the drawing board to produce a small five-watt combo.
The SL5 is an all-valve package with an EL34 tube in the power-valve section, which is significant because most of Marshall's more powerful amps are based around that type of valve - typically, amps with a similarly low output would use an EL84.
The way the EL34 'squashes' sound is at the heart of the majority of Marshall-based rock tones. The appearance of a 12-inch speaker - a single Celestion Vintage 30 - also gives the sound more body than the amp's diminutive size would suggest.
Control-wise, it's business as usual: two channels, labelled clean and dirty, are controlled by a global three-band EQ, and they can be selected either via a button on the front panel or with the included two-way footswitch. The second switch engages the spangly onboard digital reverb.
However, one of the amp's major selling points can be found around the back: a switch that lowers the output from five watts down to one. Reducing the output in this way means you can crank the amp to maximum for a super-fat tone - all at bedroom-friendly volumes.
Guitarist on Apple Newsstand:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/guitarist-magazine/id450488501?mt=8&at=10l5Kh&ct=gtvideo
Subscribe to Guitarist magazine:
http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/music/guitarist-magazine-subscription/
