I officially own a Marshall rig now.
I picked up this bad boy from a session guitarist named Joey. He had a lot of good gigs under his belt including John Mayer. The amp was in pristine condition. He claimed to only have used it twice in the studio for a couple sessions and was selling it cos he needed an HK amp for his next gig.
Well $650 for a pristine, 2 month old DSL50 is a really good price.... considering the day before, Guitar Center's price is somewhere near an astronomical $1350 new.
Joey actually had a Marshall 1960 Lead cabinet too that he bought with the amp. He offered it for $350. Considering it was in the same pristine condition as the amp, I snatched it up as well. Literally, he could've taken it right out of the box before I got there. It is clean. Not to mention, he threw in a Monster speaker cable.
So how did I find this guy? Here's the story.
Two days ago, I returned the Mesa Boogie Stiletto and tried a couple other amps at GC while I was there. I ended up loving the DSL50 for it's dirty sounds... Cleans are "ok" at best. But with the new $1350 price tag, there was no way in hell I was gonna buy it. BTW, it's funny how the GC salesmen always try to give you "store credit" for your returns. haha. I got a full refund to my Check Card.
One day ago, I looked for DSL50s on ebay, recycler and craigslist. I came across an ebay auction that had no pics but claimed to have a like-new mint DSL50 with a "Buy It Now" price for $650. Now I know people weren't bidding on it because it "looked" shady. Anyhow, I saw that the guy lived in Arcadia, about 25 miles from my place, and that he left his phone number on the auction to call if you want any info on the amp.
I called. He convinced me it was legit. And I convinced him to pull the auction cos I had "cash in hand" and wanted it, given it is indeed legit... also, it would save him ebay fees and shipping hassels. He pulled the auction. He told me he had the cab as well. I took that too.
Nice guy... but I didn't bring up anything about the new GC prices. I scored big time. Thank you Lord.