Anyone Tried a Marshall DSL40?

darthed1981

Jonathangus said:

Am I right in thinking Noel used a JCM 900?  You can pick one of those up for round about the same as a new DSL 40CR.

I mostly play at home, the DSL40CR is impractical enough...

Actually one of the reasons I'm considering getting it is I have access to a warehouse out of hours...

John_A

Jonathangus said:

Am I right in thinking Noel used a JCM 900?  You can pick one of those up for round about the same as a new DSL 40CR.

I’d pick a new dsl over a jcm900 every time by a big margin 

Johnnyseven

I had a DSL20 combo once. Sounded great but I blew it up the first time I used it at band practice trying to compete with our drummer.

IMC1980

Had an 2016 (old) DSL40C, played it through an Orange 1x12 with a V30 in it rather than the 70/80. Loved it, wish I hadn't sold it really, the modes on it give you a wide range of tones and from what I heard the new version aligns the channel voicings better than the old one - you would get the Classic Gain sounding nice and then would have to adjust the EQ if you flipped it to Ultra - so it is even better than what I had. No brainer if you like the Marshall sound! 

ICBM

IMC1980 said:

Had an 2016 (old) DSL40C, played it through an Orange 1x12 with a V30 in it rather than the 70/80. Loved it, wish I hadn't sold it really, the modes on it give you a wide range of tones and from what I heard the new version aligns the channel voicings better than the old one - you would get the Classic Gain sounding nice and then would have to adjust the EQ if you flipped it to Ultra - so it is even better than what I had. No brainer if you like the Marshall sound! 

That could even just be due to the better speaker - the old DSL201 had one of those G12E-50 (Rocket 50) tin frisbees, and the two channels sounded so different that the EQ had to be set at almost opposite extremes to get them to sound anything like similar, or even close to good - like two different bad amps.

But when I put a Greenback in one, instantly both channels sounded great with all the tone knobs halfway up, and like the same amp. My guess is that it was prototyped with a Greenback, but then the bean-counters decided that was too expensive so inflicted the tin frisbee on it when the voicing had already been done.

IMC1980

ICBM said:

IMC1980 said:

Had an 2016 (old) DSL40C, played it through an Orange 1x12 with a V30 in it rather than the 70/80. Loved it, wish I hadn't sold it really, the modes on it give you a wide range of tones and from what I heard the new version aligns the channel voicings better than the old one - you would get the Classic Gain sounding nice and then would have to adjust the EQ if you flipped it to Ultra - so it is even better than what I had. No brainer if you like the Marshall sound! 

That could even just be due to the better speaker - the old DSL201 had one of those G12E-50 (Rocket 50) tin frisbees, and the two channels sounded so different that the EQ had to be set at almost opposite extremes to get them to sound anything like similar, or even close to good - like two different bad amps.

But when I put a Greenback in one, instantly both channels sounded great with all the tone knobs halfway up, and like the same amp. My guess is that it was prototyped with a Greenback, but then the bean-counters decided that was too expensive so inflicted the tin frisbee on it when the voicing had already been done.

I only ever tried it with the V30, the Green channel had a lot more bass to it, once you had it dialed in, flipping to the Red channel without adjusting the EQ was like razorblades to the ears. I did consider a Greenback to replace the 70/80 but never got round to it. 

monquixote

Seriously thinking about one of these.

Any more experiences to share.

Any good as a home amp?

darthed1981

monquixote said:

Seriously thinking about one of these.

Any more experiences to share.

Any good as a home amp?

I'd love to know this.

I sort of really want one but I'm worried I'd literally never use it, and would have wasted my £500!!

Maybe better just 0.5w on the katana.

Damned my quiet street and semi-detached house!!

Emergency thoughts people??

ICBM

A good-sounding amp which you can turn down to play quietly is still better than a bad-sounding amp with a low power setting. Power is irrelevant, control is what matters.

monquixote

I think this is one of those cases where the bigger amp is better at lower volume as the 40 has switchable masters.

darthed1981

monquixote said:

I think this is one of those cases where the bigger amp is better at lower volume as the 40 has switchable masters.

My research certainly indicates the 40 with it's dual master volumes is nicer than the 20.

My concern is, having tried other valve amps with 12" speakers and less wattage (like the Vox AC4) they only really make the sounds you buy a valve amp for at a decent volume, i.e. far too loud for this nice summer afternoon.  At TV volumes, they just sound flat, IMHO digital amps just do this better, as I've said before this is TV volume, not "blockbuster movie through a soundbar" but TV.

TBH - even the Katana needs a BIT of volume to sound at it's best, which with the 50w is usually in 25w mode in a practice room.  The 12" speakers need to move a bit of air.

Also when learning or practicing something tricky, the whole neighbourhood hears your flubs, which does nothing for my playing confidence!

The fundamental problem isn't really digital vs valve, the problem is that amplified electric guitar is fundamentally loud, in that the sound is designed to cut through in a mix, and therefore cuts through the neighbourhood, and that  a reasonable 50% of the population just don't like how they sound, period.

Also, you can carry the Katana 50 in one hand with two guitars on your back, I'm guessing the DSL40CR is really heavy.

Which is a shame because if I was regularly playing at volume, frankly, I think it would be perfect for me!

darthed1981

Half the issue is that in studios people lock the amps in rooms then leave, and play from another room, and that sounds so fucking good!!

Like this...

YellowLedBetterMan

My old guitar teacher had a DSL100 head into a 4x12 cab that was used for teaching on, switched down to the lowest power setting.

If the 40 watter does similar, it will also sound fantastic.

ICBM

The DSL40 sounds *miles* better, at much lower volume, than the AC4 does. In fact at any volume, if you mean the AC4TV...

I genuinely don’t understand these two popular beliefs, that you need a low-powered amp to play quietly, and that you need to crank up a valve amp to get it to sound good. I’ve always been able to get great very-low-volume sounds from *big* valve amps - they have volume controls, you turn them down. If you want overdriven sounds it’s easier if they have multiple ‘master’ volumes - one for the channel and one for the overall volume, so you can turn both down.

It honestly baffles me that there’s this idea of amps being “too loud” - there are a very few exceptions, where they’re so badly designed that the volume jumps from off to substantial over too small a range to dial it in no matter how careful you are - but pots are not switches. Obviously you won’t get distortion at bedroom volume from a non-MV amp, but just run some sort of preamp/pedal into it...

I used a 200W Marshall Major into a huge bass cabinet in a city flat with thin walls, with a valve preamp in front - it sounded absolutely fantastic at quieter than TV volume.

monquixote

darthed1981 said:

Half the issue is that in studios people lock the amps in rooms then leave, and play from another room, and that sounds so fucking good!!

Like this...

That's basically the sound you get from modellers. If that's what you want get a helix or GT 1000 and some monitors.

darthed1981

ICBM said:

The DSL40 sounds *miles* better, at much lower volume, than the AC4 does. In fact at any volume, if you mean the AC4TV...

I genuinely don’t understand these two popular beliefs, that you need a low-powered amp to play quietly, and that you need to crank up a valve amp to get it to sound good. I’ve always been able to get great very-low-volume sounds from *big* valve amps - they have volume controls, you turn them down. If you want overdriven sounds it’s easier if they have multiple ‘master’ volumes - one for the channel and one for the overall volume, so you can turn both down.

It honestly baffles me that there’s this idea of amps being “too loud” - there are a very few exceptions, where they’re so badly designed that the volume jumps from off to substantial over too small a range to dial it in no matter how careful you are - but pots are not switches. Obviously you won’t get distortion at bedroom volume from a non-MV amp, but just run some sort of preamp/pedal into it...

I used a 200W Marshall Major into a huge bass cabinet in a city flat with thin walls, with a valve preamp in front - it sounded absolutely fantastic at quieter than TV volume.

You see @ICBM I love your posts because it sounds like I can have a big Marshall valve amp in my living room!

We all REALLY want that, whatever else we buy, it's about the big loud valve amp... right?

ICBM

darthed1981 said:

You see @ICBM I love your posts because it sounds like I can have a big Marshall valve amp in my living room!

We all REALLY want that, whatever else we buy, it's about the big loud valve amp... right?

You absolutely can, you just need to dial it in right. In the very worst case, if there’s too much of a ‘step’ at the bottom end of the volume curve, you can use a simple, cheap attenuator - it doesn’t even have to handle much power if you’re running the amp quietly anyway.

Of course they sound better turned up loud at a gig! So what? No amp at low volume will ever give you that, because the experience of playing loud is not just about the sound. If a big amp sounds better than a small amp at low volume, then it’s still better.

If you can afford it, physically fit it into your house and carry it when you need to (this might still be a problem, I know) then no amp is too big.

No-one says you can’t buy a Porsche if you’re not going to only drive it at 150mph on a race track...

monquixote

As always ICBM speaks great wisdom here.

I've had numerous valve amps that I've used at home and the two things that make then hard to use are hair trigger volume controls (like the famous HRD one) or having huge amounts of headroom so overdrive pedals can easily blow your ears out if you aren't careful (like a Twin turned down quiet). 

Things I've noticed with the many amps I've owned is that amps with small cabinets and speakers always sound weedy at any volume so big amps usually sound better (unless you are going for the tweed champ thing). 

Also in the case of the DSL 20 and 40  (and Origin 20 and 50) they both have the same valves and run them a different voltages so the 40 running at 20 watts pretty much is the 20 watt version just with a better cabinet and speaker and more sophisticated preamp.

Alex2678

My bassbreaker 18/30 was a bit of a struggle at home, mainly because no master volume, the volume went from off to loud.
The Dsl40 is very controllable, I had the old version without the final master volumes, it just had gain and volume, but I thought it sounded great. I only ever used it at home, and I miss it. Didn’t know how good I had it til it was gone. *violins*

monquixote

I've only gone and ordered one!