2018 Dsl 40cr Full Review...

[Finnster]

70 at Sweetwater right now. No tax. Free ship. Can’t beat.

Well my Fractal FX8 has a “Rat” in it. I generally only use the TS808 in the FX8 but now I’m going to try the Rat!!

Thanks for the suggestion. Sounded really good.

 

[Gary harrer]

Well my Fractal FX8 has a “Rat” in it. I generally only use the TS808 in the FX8 but now I’m going to try the Rat!!

Thanks for the suggestion. Sounded really good.

Haha..... I thought that, I have a rat, a ts a klon and a Timmy.

Oh sorry it's called a helix

 

[LCW]

Well my Fractal FX8 has a “Rat” in it. I generally only use the TS808 in the FX8 but now I’m going to try the Rat!!

Thanks for the suggestion. Sounded really good.

Thank you. I’m still very much learning. But it’s so much fun! I’m digging experimenting with pedals. I’m starting with the old standbys (have OD-9 aka TS and the RAT).

 

[Gary harrer]

Thank you. I’m still very much learning. But it’s so much fun! I’m digging experimenting with pedals. I’m starting with the old standbys (have OD-9 aka TS and the RAT).

I think a treble booster into the front could be interesting

 

[LCW]

I think a treble booster into the front could be interesting

Such as? I don’t know anything about treble boosters other than the Ti Boost that Laney released last year with the LA100BL reissue.

But treble booster to me implies “bright” which I detest.

 

[ken361]

Such as? I don’t know anything about treble boosters other than the Ti Boost that Laney released last year with the LA100BL reissue.

But treble booster to me implies “bright” which I detest.

Vintage tones

 

[Gary harrer]

Such as? I don’t know anything about treble boosters other than the Ti Boost that Laney released last year with the LA100BL reissue.

But treble booster to me implies “bright” which I detest.

Beano boost, very expensive but the best.
I think electro harmonics do one called the viper, they really act like a gain boost and surprisingly don't make the sound bright.
They work very well into the right amp

 

[Gary harrer]

Second half Of the Clip is a beano boost into a jvm crunch channel, not my style of music but it gives you a general idea of what a treble booster into a Marshall can do

 

[bill0287]

I brought home my new DSL40CR yesterday and so far I love it, but I noticed one odd thing right away.

When I power on the amp and the channel that comes on has the effects loop "ON", the loop does not work until I cycle it off/on again, then it's fine.

Does everyone's behave this way?

 

[brianwrym1979]

Hello Guys,

Im a weekend covers player that does some outdoor festivals once in a blue moon. I just played this at an outdoor festival yesterday and i have to say Marshall addressed any issues I have with the Dsl 40C and previous generations of Dsl's overall for my ears.

I can echo the statements I see on this thread about the bass getting way too heavy when the gain on the OD channel is past 3/4 or 3 oclock. I think what is going on is that there is a fair amount, if not too much bass being introduced into the preamp section as the gain knob is past 3 oclock on the OD green channel. This issue continues onto the OD red channel as well. But I am very happy with the sound as this amp finally has the low end I craved out of a small amp like this!

The amp I have has external bias test points making it easy to bias using bias probes, especially once you know what the plate voltage is. I have not done a bias adjustment or even checked it as of yet even after the gig I played yesterday.

The Stock Tubes in the preamp section (V1 + V2) seem to be Marshall branded JJ's... V 3 and V4 (PI) are chinese branded marshalls (Tube 00055's). The power tube EL34's seem to be marshall branded JJ's but will need to reference them, I dont think they are the JJ EL34L's but the standard EL34 JJ's.

I love the sound of JJ Preamp 12ax7's overall and use them in my JVM410H, EVH 100w EL34 and original Evh 100w 6l6, Blackstar HT stage 100 and Friedman Modded Marshall 1959 RI from 1993. Having modded my Jvm410H, Blackstar and the 1959 before Friedman modded it and having a stockpile of various brands of Preamp tubes (Ehx, Tung Sol, Chinese, Rft, Mullards etc) I can say that as I like the JJ's in the preamp the best, some amps dont work well with these tubes since in my opinion the JJ's have tons of bass like the Ehx ones do.

Until I have a chance to tube roll the preamp, my best guess would be for me to try and tube roll using a Tung Sol in V2... This particular tube to me along with the Chinese tubes seem to shave off some bass so as to not hit the preamp too hard bass wise. this may tame down this issue I have with the amp.. but at the same time may compromise the low end thump I love from the amp at the same time. Ill need to test this to verifiy it of course.

Another thing I noticed with the OD Channel is that the bass control seems to act more like a resonance control on my amp. Adjusting the resonance has less of an effect than using the bass control..... If I roll off the resonance I do lose some bass, but not like I do with the actual bass control on the OD channel.

The Clean/Crunch Channel works great, but I did notice that I was having a little bit of an issue balancing my clean volume against my OD channel volume... Since I only have the stock Footswitch I had to crank the clean channel volume on 10 (Gain set at 10oclock to match the OD channel volume as well) and of the OD channel Green I had gain on 3/4 (9 3 oclock or so) and the volume on a scale of 1-10 on about 9. The master (I only used Master 1) was set to 11 oclock as I needed the volume and the amp was set at full power. With these settings the amp was really nice sounding and I was playing a 2014 Les Paul Classic with a Newer JB in the bridge and a whole lotta humbucker in the neck. I always mod my guitars to have a 50's type circuit since I ride the volume knob when on the OD channel (I grew up on single channel Marshall Jmp's and Plexi's so im used ot riding the volume knob for cleans)... with the tone pot positive going ot the center output lug on the dimarzio 500k linear/custom taper volume pot in the guitar I dont lose high's when rolling the volume knob..... this amp is an awesome rock machine, and I got lots of compliments on my tone yesterday.

Im planning on using the 6 button footswitch with this amp (My JVM410H footswitch did not work with this using a TRS or regular 1/4 inch cable.... was thinking I needed to plug in the footswitch first before turning on the amp, but from what I read in this thread I dont think it will work. I dont mind buying another footswitch made for this amp as I beleive I can solve the volume issues on the channels by assigning the 2nd master volume to compensate for the volume inbalance (WHich isnt very much actually...). To be honbest the imbalance isnt such an issue, I would rather use master 2 to compensate for a volume jump im sure to have once I get the 6 button footswitch so i can finally on these amps use the crunch channel on the clean channel. I love that lower, basic distortion and I think its really awesome that they decided to put 2 master volumes in this amp!

I use a Boss Ge-7 in the effect loop to boost for solos, im sure thats what marshall was thinking about when they added the second master vol (Solo boosts).... but I would rather just use that to have a true 3 channel setup (Clean, Crunch then OD channels). I tried OD2 (Red) on this amp and it is good, but as you roll the gain past 11 oclock it starts introducing too much bass again into the preamp flubbing out the amp. I cant imagine a bias adjustment would help here as I think the issue is in the preamp overall....

Love the compression and chunk I get from power chords on this amp.. this is exactly what I was looking for in a small portable amp that I can take to small gigs or quick 1 set gigs where I play 1 set and have to get gear on/off stage very quickly. I can also state that this amp is very quiet as well, great job Marshall! Maybe ill grab the 100 head as well....

I normally play a 100watt head for the tone and low end thump into an avatar 2x12 oversized cab with vintage 30's (got tired of hauling 4x12 cabs plus the fact that there seems ot be some stigma about instantly being too loud by having a 4x12.... this avatar cab is as loud as some 4x12 cabs I have lol).

Thanks guys, im looking forward to reading further comments and hopefully maybe some simple mods in the future to address the preamp bassyness. Thanks!

Brian R.

 

[brianwrym1979]

I brought home my new DSL40CR yesterday and so far I love it, but I noticed one odd thing right away.

When I power on the amp and the channel that comes on has the effects loop "ON", the loop does not work until I cycle it off/on again, then it's fine.

Does everyone's behave this way?

Are you saying that when you power the amp on, the efx loop light stays on but nothing is heard from the efx loop until you cycle the loop button? I notice on mine upon power up it will take a few seconds to light up the led's then it will go into whatever modes / settings were saved. Are you giving the amp time enough to boot up? (Yes boot up as in like a computer that needs time to get operational and recall settings)

Thanks

 

[bill0287]

Are you saying that when you power the amp on, the efx loop light stays on but nothing is heard from the efx loop until you cycle the loop button?

Yes. Try this:

1. Play the amp in clean channel, with effects loop on (effects are working)
2. Turn off the amp.
3. Wait about a minute or whatever.
4. Turn the amp back on (effect light is lit "green").
5. Test the effects loop -> it is no not working.
6. Press effect loop off, then on again -> now the effects are working.

 

[bill0287]

I can echo the statements I see on this thread about the bass getting way too heavy when the gain on the OD channel is past 3/4 or 3 oclock. I think what is going on is that there is a fair amount, if not too much bass being introduced into the preamp section as the gain knob is past 3 oclock on the OD green channel. This issue continues onto the OD red channel as well. But I am very happy with the sound as this amp finally has the low end I craved out of a small amp like this!

I don't really hear this on mine. I can push the Ultra Gain all the way to 10 (or is it "11") and I don't hear any "flubbing" (whatever that is). But maybe my ears are not so discerning as others here, or maybe I just like it bassy, I don't know.

 

[brianwrym1979]

I don't really hear this on mine. I can push the Ultra Gain all the way to 10 (or is it "11") and I don't hear any "flubbing" (whatever that is). But maybe my ears are not so discerning as others here, or maybe I just like it bassy, I don't know.

Hello, Im curious... what Preamp tubes do you have in the amp? Mine came with 2 jj's in V1 and V2, then 2 Marshall Branded Chinese ones in V3 / V4.... Also are you playing in full power mode or half power?

 

[brianwrym1979]

I don't really hear this on mine. I can push the Ultra Gain all the way to 10 (or is it "11") and I don't hear any "flubbing" (whatever that is). But maybe my ears are not so discerning as others here, or maybe I just like it bassy, I don't know.

How loud were you playing the amp? I had the master at 12 noon and the channel master on OD green on 9.5 / 10.. basically wide open. The bassyness / flubbing as I call it happens when turning the gain knob past 3 oclock on mine.. like its too much bass etc.. Just curious

 

[bill0287]

How loud were you playing the amp? I had the master at 12 noon and the channel master on OD green on 9.5 / 10.. basically wide open. The bassyness / flubbing as I call it happens when turning the gain knob past 3 oclock on mine.. like its too much bass etc.. Just curious

To your questions:

1. I don't know what the tubes are. They are whatever came with the amp. I brought it home last night and haven't ventured into the back yet (having too much fun)
2. Masters were both at 11 o'clock
3.Ultra gain volume was at about 11 o'clock and gain was maxed when I tried it.
4. I was at half power

I just tried this:

1. Ultra Gain channel (green)
2. Ultra Gain volume at Max
3. Ultra Gain 'Gain' at Max
4. Half power
5. Treble at 11
6. Mid at 10
7. Bass around 1 or 2 o'clock (wasn't really paying attention when I tried this)

It was definitely heavy and 'bassy' but not something I would attribute to being a problem. I could feel it in the floor (at 1/2 power!). I would probably attribute it more to room characteristics and reverberation than an amp problem (but what do I know). Without taking it our to an open environment with wider acoustics I couldn't say for sure. But in my 'bedroom' practice room it was beastly and I liked it. I might roll back the bass somewhat with those specs, but I will probably never push it that hard in my situation.

 

[brianwrym1979]

To your questions:

1. I don't know what the tubes are. They are whatever came with the amp. I brought it home last night and haven't ventured into the back yet (having too much fun)
2. Masters were both at 11 o'clock
3.Ultra gain volume was at about 11 o'clock and gain was maxed when I tried it.
4. I was at half power

I just tried this:

1. Ultra Gain channel (green)
2. Ultra Gain volume at Max
3. Ultra Gain 'Gain' at Max
4. Half power
5. Treble at 11
6. Mid at 10
7. Bass around 1 or 2 o'clock (wasn't really paying attention when I tried this)

It was definitely heavy and 'bassy' but not something I would attribute to being a problem. I could feel it in the floor (at 1/2 power!). I would probably attribute it more to room characteristics and reverberation than an amp problem (but what do I know). Without taking it our to an open environment with wider acoustics I couldn't say for sure. But in my 'bedroom' practice room it was beastly and I liked it. I might roll back the bass somewhat with those specs, but I will probably never push it that hard in my situation.

Nice!

I love my 100 Watters and various cabs... but for a single 1x12 40W combo compared to the other dsl 40c and previous gen Marshall Dsl's im super happy with how this sounds overall out of the box.

Im looking forward to getting the new Plexi clones they came out with... I want to try out the Origin 50W head when they become available at Ams....

 

[bill0287]

Could you please try what I described in message #252 and see if you experience the same behavior.

 

[BanditPanda]

My bad. Please forgive my name calling. Sometimes I'm the village idiot.

Oh and welcome to the forum!

Sometimes !!???

BP

 

[solarburn]

Thank you. I’m still very much learning. But it’s so much fun! I’m digging experimenting with pedals. I’m starting with the old standbys (have OD-9 aka TS and the RAT).

Are you getting anything like this? I use cheap pedals that can but aren't the best. Which I laugh at. I know you're not caught up with dudes who say you got to have this to get this. We could destroy that in seconds.