DSL100H the tone monster of all amps?

[cliffenstein]

I’m really tempted but probably will start with a choke.
The slx sometimes I think it’s just perfect,but I’m curious with the dsl100h as the ot looks really cheap even compared to a dagnall jcm2000 one.
I’d like a heyboer but in Europe they are costly and I can’t think of a viable alternative without spending more than what I paid for the amp

Great deal for you from a seller from Canada at the following link:

https://reverb.com/item/81666165-heyboer-100-watt-marshall-output-transformer-2024

The price is right where I'd imagine paying for shipping to Europe would make it worth your while.

 

[knulp]

Great deal for from a seller from Canada from the following link:

https://reverb.com/item/81666165-heyboer-100-watt-marshall-output-transformer-2024

The price is right where I'd imagine paying for shipping to Europe would make it worth your while.

Ok now I’m in trouble

Thanks man

 

[Adrian R]

can't say if it'll make the same difference in either of those (though I imagine it would), but in my DSL50, the better output transformer and the addition of a choke...what a difference it's made. It made a good amp into a REALLY great amp!

Tighter and more dynamic. You should hear the 100w modded!

 

[Adrian R]

Getting back to the OT and choke upgraded DSL50...

I brought my 1997 DSL100 back from rehearsal space and today I've been AB'ing this stock 100 and the upgraded 50.

The upgraded 50 wins and easily so. Don't get me wrong...the 100 is killer, but the 50 has everything a healthy JCM800 2204 has but with all the range/options the DSLs have. Imagine a properly modded 2204 (as in, retains its core tone fully). That's what this 50 is like now.

As info...the 100 and the 50 have the exact same compliment of tubes loaded in them (JJ EL34 powers and JJ ECC83S pres) and both amps are biased to 37.5 per tube.

Been saying this for years. An 800, but with SO much more. Bias is so critical too. I will never understand 3k for a 2204 when u can do so much more for a fraction...even with the choke and OT.

 

[67mike]

Been saying this for years. An 800, but with SO much more. Bias is so critical too. I will never understand 3k for a 2204 when u can do so much more for a fraction...even with the choke and OT.

 

[Neptical]

Yessssss! Exactly. Right now I'm sitting on a JTM45, 2 Plexis (one cascade modded), a 2203, SL-X, and my DSL. The DSL is absolutely king. Heyboer choke and OT, stock PT still. It'll roast any amp in my collection. I'm about to stick a Heyboer OT in this SL-X actually, I think it would benefit greatly from it. It has a Dagnall like the stock one the DSL had and it's underwhelming. 50/50 on putting a choke in too.

I will absolutely die on this hill. The JCM 2000 DSL100 (and maybe the DSL50 too) is the best amp Marshall ever created.

A true Marshall brethren in favor of the DSLs!

Just got rid of my SL-X 2500. Though it was a furious sounding beast, I much prefer my DSL 100 & DSL 50 wayyyy more. Very flexible tonally.

On the same hill. One of the best ( IMHO ) Marshalls.

 

[Adrian R]

Lol..

 

[PowerTube44]

I believe it’s a term the youths of today use to describe, or refer to, a person who is well respected proficient in a certain field.

“Original Gangster” is the term.

I may have this completely wrong, but that’s what I’ve deciphered it means.

But I’m an old out of touch person who doesn’t get around much! Lol,

I thought "OG" meant "Old Guard."

 

[Adrian R]

A true Marshall brethren in favor of the DSLs!

Just got rid of my SL-X 2500. Though it was a furious sounding beast, I much prefer my DSL 100 & DSL 50 wayyyy more. Very flexible tonally.

On the same hill. One of the best ( IMHO ) Marshalls.

Me too. I revisited two 900s last year. A 4500 and a 2500. Both were in excellent condition. I went a head and put chokes in them...replaced OTs with Heyboers...put a myriad of different tubes in them, new stock and old stock...experimented..tweaked..tuned...etc. I threw money at them...did whatever I felt I needed to do trying get them to sound their best. In the end the DSLs just sounded better, more vintage yet with more features. 900s sound best with BBEs in the loop...they sound more dynamic...closer to vintage Marshall or DSL.. I sold both off and broke even at best. It was a good revisit, and education.

 

[knulp]

Me too. I revisited two 900s last year. A 4500 and a 2500. Both were in excellent condition. I went a head and put chokes in them...replaced OTs with Heyboers...put a myriad of different tubes in them, new stock and old stock...experimented..tweaked..tuned...etc. I threw money at them...did whatever I felt I needed to do trying get them to sound their best. In the end the DSLs just sounded better, more vintage yet with more features. 900s sound best with BBEs in the loop...they sound more dynamic...closer to vintage Marshall or DSL.. I sold both off and broke even at best. It was a good revisit, and education.

What did you try to tune the 2500?
It was the mkiii or slx?

 

[PowerTube44]

Me too. I revisited two 900s last year. A 4500 and a 2500. Both were in excellent condition. I went a head and put chokes in them...replaced OTs with Heyboers...put a myriad of different tubes in them, new stock and old stock...experimented..tweaked..tuned...etc. I threw money at them...did whatever I felt I needed to do trying get them to sound their best. In the end the DSLs just sounded better, more vintage yet with more features. 900s sound best with BBEs in the loop...they sound more dynamic...closer to vintage Marshall or DSL.. I sold both off and broke even at best. It was a good revisit, and education.

My experience was "somewhat" similar with the JCM 800 2210. I could get some great sounds out of it, but those great sounds came with a price, and that price was hiss. Maybe I should have tried a noise gate. But the clean channel was the worst part. "Clunk, Clunk, CLUNK." It had absolutely no usable cleans. I play overdriven about 97% of the time, but when I do play clean I want it to sound pretty.

I'll take my DSL100H or JCM 2000 DSL100 any day over a JCM 800, or at least that one.

 

[Neptical]

Me too. I revisited two 900s last year. A 4500 and a 2500. Both were in excellent condition. I went a head and put chokes in them...replaced OTs with Heyboers...put a myriad of different tubes in them, new stock and old stock...experimented..tweaked..tuned...etc. I threw money at them...did whatever I felt I needed to do trying get them to sound their best. In the end the DSLs just sounded better, more vintage yet with more features. 900s sound best with BBEs in the loop...they sound more dynamic...closer to vintage Marshall or DSL.. I sold both off and broke even at best. It was a good revisit, and education.

Yessir! I remember your thread on that last year. Not sure, but maybe it confirmed that I truly didn't need my SL-X. Maybe you've mentioned it here already but what's your experience in comparison with the JCM2000s vs 100H? Would love to try one of those!

 

[cliffenstein]

Yessir! I remember your thread on that last year. Not sure, but maybe it confirmed that I truly didn't need my SL-X. Maybe you've mentioned it here already but what's your experience in comparison with the JCM2000s vs 100H? Would love to try one of those!

I realize you're asking Adrian and not me, but I'd like to pop in anyway about this.

The 100H is made in Vietnam, has no bias drift issues, chassis mounted tubes, and a resonance knob, but an underwhelming output transformer, a headshell that is deeper than standard Marshall headshells and is made of MDF, cheap looking tolex (I've read people complaining about cheap knobs, too, but they seem fine to me), and a slightly smaller Marshall logo.

The JCM2000 is made in England, has possible bias drift issues (though I've never pesonally run across one that displayed that issue), board mounted tubes, a deep switch (so it's either on or off), an underwhelming output transformer, standard Marshall size headshell made of pine, classic Marshall tolex and knobs, and the normal JCM size Marshall logo.

Neither has a choke.

As someone who uses this amp as a single channel amp with 4 modes (I keep it on red channel 1 all the time), I have always found it easy to dial in the tone with the deep switch engaged.

I can say that since the OT upgrade and addition of a choke to my DSL50, there is no longer a tone difference between green and red, other than the green needing the deep switch out and the red needing the deep switch in. So if I was inclined to run it on green, which I am not, all I'd need to do is push the deep switch so that it is not engaged.

I think the JCM2000's classic Marshall styling and quality headshell is a win all the way around.

 

[Neptical]

I realize you're asking Adrian and not me, but I'd like to pop in anyway about this.

The 100H is made in Vietnam, has no bias drift issues, chassis mounted tubes, and a resonance knob, but an underwhelming output transformer, a headshell that is deeper than standard Marshall headshells and is made of MDF, cheap looking tolex (I've read people complaining about cheap knobs, too, but they seem fine to me), and a slightly smaller Marshall logo.

The JCM2000 is made in England, has possible bias drift issues (though I've never pesonally run across one that displayed that issue), board mounted tubes, a deep switch (so it's either on or off), an underwhelming output transformer, standard Marshall size headshell made of pine, classic Marshall tolex and knobs, and the normal JCM size Marshall logo.

Neither has a choke.

As someone who uses this amp as a single channel amp with 4 modes (I keep it on red channel 1 all the time), I have always found it easy to dial in the tone with the deep switch engaged.

I can say that since the OT upgrade and addition of a choke to my DSL50, there is no longer a tone difference between green and red, other than the green needing the deep switch out and the red needing the deep switch in. So if I was inclined to run it on green, which I am not, all I'd need to do is push the deep switch so that it is not engaged.

I also think the classic Marshall styling of the JCM2000 is a win all the way around.

Informed on most of that but thank you for taking the time to reply!
Also an owner of the DSL 50 and DSL 100 heads. Favorite Marshalls. Glorious tones when clean boosting the front end ( using my JCM 800 1960 412 w/ G12T75) so I've never felt the need to upgrade. I alsko live on the Red Channel ( sounds HUGE and I say that as a big fan of my Mesa Rectifiers ) ... the Green Channel has some REALLY nice vintage spank to it. Lots of tones and very versatile amps from Marshall.

 

[knulp]

Lol..

If you click on the user name you’ll see 3 buttons: there’s a follow button,a start conversation button and then the option you need:the ignore button.

Use it .
He’s what he seems
If you think you may loose something since this is a music related forum try listening to something he suggests and you’ll realize you have to ignore.
I listened to what he likes when I was 13 years old.
Now I’m not old like him and still evolving and I can span from Django Reinhardt to Jeff beck to pat metheny and Matteo Mancuso
Really

Do it now
many of us have him on the ignore list

 

[Adrian R]

If you click on the user name you’ll see 3 buttons: there’s a follow button,a start conversation button and then the option you need:the ignore button.

Use it .
He’s what he seems
If you think you may loose something since this is a music related forum try listening to something he suggests and you’ll realize you have to ignore.
I listened to what he likes when I was 13 years old.
Now I’m not old like him and still evolving and I can span from Django Reinhardt to Jeff beck to pat metheny and Matteo Mancuso
Really

Do it now
many of us have him on the ignore list

Nah, it 's cool. He is entitled to his opinion man... and to some extent he is right I am, and as that hilarious DSL comic post details... a bitch for the DSL! lol ... But I can't help it! He's probably younger then me...I've been around awhile...going back to the 80s with my first 2204...when I could only play Rocky Mountain Way on the guitar... I saw the history of Marshall amps...and remember them being so cheap...and now they've become somewhat of it icon with newer, younger players brainwashed into thinking the only good Marshall tone comes from a vintage Marshall finding it totally reasonable to shell out thousands to get one. Outside of posterity, economically, especially for most of working stiffs, is just stupid. There's ways to coax great Marshall voicing for many of their amps new and old.

 

[Adrian R]

I realize you're asking Adrian and not me, but I'd like to pop in anyway about this.

The 100H is made in Vietnam, has no bias drift issues, chassis mounted tubes, and a resonance knob, but an underwhelming output transformer, a headshell that is deeper than standard Marshall headshells and is made of MDF, cheap looking tolex (I've read people complaining about cheap knobs, too, but they seem fine to me), and a slightly smaller Marshall logo.

The JCM2000 is made in England, has possible bias drift issues (though I've never pesonally run across one that displayed that issue), board mounted tubes, a deep switch (so it's either on or off), an underwhelming output transformer, standard Marshall size headshell made of pine, classic Marshall tolex and knobs, and the normal JCM size Marshall logo.

Neither has a choke.

As someone who uses this amp as a single channel amp with 4 modes (I keep it on red channel 1 all the time), I have always found it easy to dial in the tone with the deep switch engaged.

I can say that since the OT upgrade and addition of a choke to my DSL50, there is no longer a tone difference between green and red, other than the green needing the deep switch out and the red needing the deep switch in. So if I was inclined to run it on green, which I am not, all I'd need to do is push the deep switch so that it is not engaged.

I think the JCM2000's classic Marshall styling and quality headshell is a win all the way around.

He dude... For the first time I plugged straight into the amp and really began experimenting with Lead 2 on the red channel. Holy crap man. Keep the gain low...like two or 2.5 to 3..max mess with the master volume, eq...wow... No pedals at all! Great, tight, punchy Marshall goodness! This is my modded DSL50...just love these amps!

 

[67mike]

If you click on the user name you’ll see 3 buttons: there’s a follow button,a start conversation button and then the option you need:the ignore button.

Use it .
He’s what he seems
If you think you may loose something since this is a music related forum try listening to something he suggests and you’ll realize you have to ignore.
I listened to what he likes when I was 13 years old.
Now I’m not old like him and still evolving and I can span from Django Reinhardt to Jeff beck to pat metheny and Matteo Mancuso
Really

Do it now
many of us have him on the

 

[What?]

So who has upgraded the DSL 100H output transformer and added a choke?

 

[cliffenstein]

He dude... For the first time I plugged straight into the amp and really began experimenting with Lead 2 on the red channel. Holy crap man. Keep the gain low...like two or 2.5 to 3..max mess with the master volume, eq...wow... No pedals at all! Great, tight, punchy Marshall goodness! This is my modded DSL50...just love these amps!

Modded 50’s the way we do definitely make lead 2 workable. I’m gain on 3 on red channel 1 though.