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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I do regret selling it for a 6505+ not cos I don't like the Peavey but the fact I am looking to get into cover band stuff and the Marshall would be better suited for more vintage type tones.
That said, a dead reverb is probably just the tank.
I don't doubt that a good proportion of them don't break down, but if you're worried about potentially buying a lemon then I would strongly advise you to steer clear since there's a higher risk than with most other amps. If you do want a DSL, the new Vietnamese-made ones actually seem better-made.
For what it's worth I currently own a TSL100 combo - which is essentially the same amp, it uses the same main PCB with two more power valves and a different control board. If any of you optimists wants it, it comes with a 30-minute guarantee...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Mine has served me well for the last 6yrs of gigging...with only 1 minor fault needing a repair in all that time. They sound great and were for years Marshalls most popular valve head and were used by Gary Moore, Jeff Beck and Richie Sambora to name just a few 'name' players using them. Reliability wise ICBM may know his onions, but that aside I guess that 'high' fail rate is still a -10% of the DSLs out there serving their owners trouble free for many years.........
if you have one already then just enjoy it!! When you get them at gig volumes they come into their own. The green channel with an OD in front is really great. Many folks think better than the the red channel however you run it.
The newer DSL100H is made in Vietnam and seems to be much more reliable. They are 100watts but they have a half power switch on the back to knock it down to 50watts. They seem to pop up on the various buy and sell Facebook groups regularly for around £300-£350. I loved the sound of the clean and crunch modes on the one I briefly owned, but I think Marshall missed a trick not designing the amp so you could footswitch between these 2 modes (Although there is an aftermarket mod that can be done to achieve this).
The lead channels seemed very thin compared, probably down to the shared eq.
Alot of people who own DSL's treat them as single channel amps in use rather than multi channel and I would have to say I can see why.
I really like mine. I installed the replacement main PCB Marshall sell which sorts some issues. Stick a volume control in the loop and crank it, sounds great.
Oh yeah, snip the bright cap on the red channel gain knob, makes the amp more ballsy (the C12 mod talked about on the net). I auditioned various other values in that position but decided no cap at all sounds best there.
The green clean channel is very clean, very useful.
My grandad smoked 40 Woodbines a day and lived until he was 97.
Thus cigarettes are not bad for you.
Don't buy an amp where something doesn't work on it, all that shows is it has not been looked after properly and the owner can't be bothered to pay to get it sorted..... or buy it at a really low ball price and don't be upset if it does not last ICBM's 30min warranty
When i I go to inspect it, is there anything I can easily check to establish if it's going to be a complete dud or not?
The price I'm paying seems like a good deal and would leave cash from my budget to get it looked at by a tech. What would cost to have someone modify the amp to safeguard against future problems?
You can't. Replacing the PCB is a must if it hasn't been done already - but even that won't guarantee it since there are other failures. To go through the whole thing and upgrade everything I can think of which I've ever seen cause trouble could be at least £100 or so on top of the PCB - which is about £100 itself - and *still* won't guarantee it won't fail, it's just an inherently flawed design.
On top of that you should have the cabinet rewired to remove the switching PCB and hardwire it for 16 ohms - faults in the switching are a known cause of arcing and blown transformers in the amps.
So does whatever price it is, plus about £250, for an amp you still can't be sure won't die, sound like a good deal?
To be honest I probably wouldn't bother - it's just throwing good money after bad. If it hasn't already blown up it's probably in the percentage of less prone ones. Get the cabinet switching checked or preferably removed, only use the amp at 16 ohms, and you've eliminated the biggest hazard other than the PCB. If the PCB fails, replace it when you have to cross that bridge...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
@ICBM , what would you set the amp's output impedance to if your cab is 8 ohms (two 16s in parallel)? Still better to have it set to 16 ohms?
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Both these design faults are the work of someone who doesn't have much experience with things that can go wrong with valve amps...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein