2018 Dsl 40cr Full Review...

[brianwrym1979]

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

Hello,

I just did a quick test using the steps you listed and I can confirm the same behavior. The light for efx loop is on, but there are no effects. once I cycle the efx loop button (On, Off then back on) I can hear the effects. I also tried just using a patch cable and leaving out the return side and confirm the same behavior.

Thanks

 

[bill0287]

Hello,

I just did a quick test using the steps you listed and I can confirm the same behavior. The light for efx loop is on, but there are no effects. once I cycle the efx loop button (On, Off then back on) I can hear the effects. I also tried just using a patch cable and leaving out the return side and confirm the same behavior.

Thanks

Interesting. I have to wonder if they intended this or if it's a "feature". I find it annoying, but can tolerate it.

 

[LCW]

Do you think that's by design or a bug??

 

[stratocastermarshall]

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

I've *always* noticed an increase in bass as I turn the gain up...going back to my old DSL401, and including both the DSL40c and DSL40cr. I think that's just the way they're designed. I pretty much always have to increase/decrease my treble settings as the gain goes up/down excessively.

 

[ken361]

I've *always* noticed an increase in bass as I turn the gain up...going back to my old DSL401, and including both the DSL40c and DSL40cr. I think that's just the way they're designed. I pretty much always have to increase/decrease my treble settings as the gain goes up/down excessively.

Thats why mines at 7 tops on the gain both channels. If you boost the crunch you can get some of the bass out with the right pedals

 

[Gary harrer]

What boost pedals are people using with the cr??
Any good results

 

[bill0287]

Is any one else having trouble finding a balance between the clean mode and crunch mode volume in the classic gain channel? Any tips?

 

[stratocastermarshall]

Is any one else having trouble finding a balance between the clean mode and crunch mode volume in the classic gain channel? Any tips?

I think it's better than the 40c, but it's still louder in crunch mode. I think the only real option is when the 6 button footswitch comes out you can set each mode to use different masters and you can set the masters as needed to balance out the volume.

Or, actually, is I think about it, since you can't currently use a footswitch to switch between clean and crunch mode on the fly anyway, all you need to do is use the different masters - use one for clean and the other for crunch. When you manually switch modes each mode will use the master you assigned to it. That will balance it out. You just can't switch it on the fly until the 6 button switch is available.

 

[LCW]

The dual assignable masters on the 40CR is a brilliant setup by Marshall and that alone is a worthwhile upgrade.

Not only can you balance out the modes and channels to your liking, as you can assign either Master vol to any of the channels and modes as strato mentioned above. But since each channel has a volume (along with gain), in addition to the Master, you can further dial things in. I don't for sure who these things work, but I'd think the channel volume controls the pre-amp stage, and master volume is the power stage... which would change the tone depending on which one is cranked... ??

 

[stratocastermarshall]

The dual assignable masters on the 40CR is a brilliant setup by Marshall and that alone is a worthwhile upgrade.

Not only can you balance out the modes and channels to your liking, as you can assign either Master vol to any of the channels and modes as strato mentioned above. But since each channel has a volume (along with gain), in addition to the Master, you can further dial things in. I don't for sure who these things work, but I'd think the channel volume controls the pre-amp stage, and master volume is the power stage... which would change the tone depending on which one is cranked... ??

I think you may be right about the channel volume controlling the pre-amp stage and master the power stage. When I use the emulated out into headphones, changing the master volume has no effect - volume is controlled using the channel volume.

And as I've thought more about the dual master set up, I'm thinking the only real benefits are:
1) providing the ability to balance out/set volumes between modes within a given channel
2) providing a slightly simpler way of increasing/decreasing volumes globally when moving to different venues, e.g. lower volumes for rehearsal, higher for gig, without changing the respective channel volume settings.
3) providing a boost ability within a given channel/mode setting, i.e. like a clean boost pedal.

If it were just a matter of balancing volumes between channels, the channel volumes can be used for that - no benefit of having master volumes.

And except for (2) above, those benefits are really only available with the 6 button footswitch.

 

[Gary harrer]

Hi guys
I had a little time this afternoon to do some experiments, stock amp sounded a fuzzy in the mids and didn't Seem to have much depth of sound or fullness.

I checked the bias which was at right around 34 per side, I adjusted this to 33 which is where they seemed to settle best at, was aiming for 32 but 33 was the result, obviously this didn't really change the sound.

On to the speaker, I recently picked up a neo creamback and decided to give it a go, it took only a few minutes to change out, and the results are.........
What a difference, I was blown away.
A far cleaner sound, less muddy in the mids and far less naisal sounding.
The top end seemed a little rounder and more musical to my ears, all in all an excellent upgrade.
I still think the amp could use some more low mids but hey tone is subjective.

 

[Finnster]

Hi guys
I had a little time this afternoon to do some experiments, stock amp sounded a fuzzy in the mids and didn't Seem to have much depth of sound or fullness.

I checked the bias which was at right around 34 per side, I adjusted this to 33 which is where they seemed to settle best at, was aiming for 32 but 33 was the result, obviously this didn't really change the sound.

On to the speaker, I recently picked up a neo creamback and decided to give it a go, it took only a few minutes to change out, and the results are.........
What a difference, I was blown away.
A far cleaner sound, less muddy in the mids and far less naisal sounding.
The top end seemed a little rounder and more musical to my ears, all in all an excellent upgrade.
I still think the amp could use some more low mids but hey tone is subjective.

I also have a neo-Creamback lying around that I may put in mine.

In regards to bias. I set mine to 32.4 but Marshall emailed me and said it should be set to 35. Not sure I would hear a different or not.

Thanks for the review of the Neo.

 

[ken361]

least it wasnt 45

 

[Gary harrer]

least it wasnt 45

It certainly wasn't, I did notice however that one of the trim pots is down far further than the other

 

[Gary harrer]

I also have a neo-Creamback lying around that I may put in mine.

In regards to bias. I set mine to 32.4 but Marshall emailed me and said it should be set to 35. Not sure I would hear a different or not.

Thanks for the review of the Neo.

Put it in, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.
For me it's a huge win

 

[JeffMcLeod]

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

Oh and welcome to the forum!

Not knowing the time-zone of you or the forum...at 4:47 AM, I figured you were either up really really early getting ready for work, or up really really late getting chewed. I'mma go with the latter. Been there, lol.

 

[bill0287]

Please, if you own a DSL40CR, take a look at this thread and respond. I am communicating with Customer Support in the UK to find out if it's designed this way, a fault in a few amps, or a design error in the whole line. I would like to have some data to present.

 

[LCW]

I don’t have any effects pedals but have a couple overdrives. Would those work to test the effects loop?

 

[BrownNote71]

I don’t have any effects pedals but have a couple overdrives. Would those work to test the effects loop?

It might not sound great, but anything you can use to alter the tone will work - you just want to be able to tell if the FX Loop is on or off when you turn it on, if you left the FX Loop enabled when you turned the amp off.
The behavior we're seeing just *can't* be intended, so we are trying to determine whether this is an oversight/bug or whether it's just certain units that need replacement.

 

[brianwrym1979]

Hello Gents,

I have the amp on my bench and im fairly puzzled on this amp now. It has this cold bias sound to it and it got me thinking to check the bias using a bias probe and check the Plate Voltage.

Mine has a plate voltage of 403 with standby in high mode, 152 on low.

On high mode, the probes are telling me that the tubes (I have 2 probes) are running at 27ma.... which if you do the math (25/403 = 100% plate dissipation is 62.034ma) this amp comes stock at 26ma, which is about 42%... so I went to adjust the bias..... low and behold I only had a 1mm turn and I can only go up to about 27.5ma making this amp 44% and I have no more bias adjustment left. This explains why the base tone of this thing is ehhhhhh..... I normally bias my amps to 73% and I get a nice fat harmonically rich tone.

So with the stock bias adjustment this amp has no way of getting out of crossover distortion.... it will need to be modded to be able to bias the amp properly.

I have noticed the clean/crunch channel and OD channel volume jump and I have gotten over this by setting the clean channel volume at 10 and the od channel volume between 2-4oclock on the dial.

Im thinking about returning the amp..... I have a JCA5012C but the hting hums like crazy and the effect loop is useless... however its biased to 73% and sounds incredible on the od channel go figure. Frustrating!