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Back in the mid-eighties, when everyone was beginning to say the age of the guitar hero was over, along came a guy called Slash to prove them all wrong.

Ever since, for over 20 years now, Guns N' Roses' seminal Appetite For Destruction album has been one of the great benchmarks of modern electric guitar tone, catapulting the Les Paul/Marshall combination back into pole position, where it remains to this day.

Getting the exact tones that Slash used on that album has become an obsession for many of his fans, especially as the equipment was far from standard issue. As a result, the amps and guitars have developed their own legends over the years; none more fascinating than the story of the infamous SIR-modified Marshall heads Slash used for most of the rehearsal and recording sessions.

As if helping to create the biggest debut album in history and turning himself into a rock icon wasn't enough, Slash also created a piece of amp history when his name appeared on Marshall's first ever signature head, the JCM2555SL, based on the Jubilee model.

That was way back in 1996, but last January at the NAMM show in Anaheim, California, Marshall announced it would be producing a new Slash-approved signature head, intended to precisely capture the tonal magic of Appetite For Destruction.

For months we've all been following the blog on the amp's own dedicated website, and now finally it's ready to rock. Does the reality live up to the dream?

Outwardly, the AFD100 is a smartly finished full-width amp head with some interesting detail work that reflects its duality: intended to mimic the modified 1959 and 2203 heads Slash is most known for using.

The cabinet has the wider side panels of a JCM800, but the slimmer top and bottom panels of the 1959, trimmed with fat and skinny white piping and a small script logo.

Tying in with silver handle caps and corner protector nails, the silver control panel is finished in a unique brushed and anodised snakeskin effect, with control legends in a custom script.

The extra deep steel box chassis is typically robust; it needs to be as it supports the weight of two huge transformers, both of which seem about the same size as a small family hatchback!