The key to getting the tone right was getting access to the Appetite For Destruction master tapes. From here Marshall engineers isolated Slash’s guitar tone and studied it in minute detail, allowing them to rebuild the sound from the ground up. The finished amp has two modes, #34 and AFD. #34 is based on Slash’s favourite JCM800 2203 where as AFD mode brings in additional gain that’s modelled on the fabled missing rental amp.
The AFD100 is unique in that it has a silver front panel just like a Silver Jubilee. It also features 6550 power valves, an FX Loop, Auto-Bias and a special feature called Electronic Power Attenuation. This allows the player to reduce the amps volume output from the maximum of 100w right down to 0.1w without impacting its tone, meaning it’s suitable for any place, any time.
Only 2300 were made, but even rarer are the 100x AFD100SCE versions of the amp. These had the same sound and features, but also had (…deep breath…) mirrored front and read panels, black snakeskin covering, silver piping, mirrored rear vents, a rear plaque signed by Slash himself, flight case, dust cover, production certificates signed by the Marshall staff involved (and Jim!) and even a personalised, and numbered AFD100 workshirt. Phew!