DSL100H the tone monster of all amps?

[Adrian R]

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

Get yourself a 2000 DSL 100 for cheap and do the same thing...replace the OT and add a choke. If you think the 50 sounds good...the 100 is better man...More in you face and low end frequencies that are TIGHT, clear, and powerful much like a 2203...

 

[cliffenstein]

Get yourself a 2000 DSL 100 for cheap and do the same thing...replace the OT and add a choke. If you think the 50 sounds good...the 100 is better man...More in you face and low end frequencies that are TIGHT, clear, and powerful much like a 2203...

I hear ya, but the 2204 is my benchmark and I like the less tubes thing.

 

[Adrian R]

I hear ya, but the 2204 is my benchmark and I like the less tubes thing.

Imo, back in 2010 or so I had a 1989 2204, A DSL50 and 100 head. All amps were stock. The 2204 volume/power wise out punched the DSL50. The 100w kept up or exceeded the 2204.

 

[cliffenstein]

Imo, back in 2010 or so I had a 1989 2204, A DSL50 and 100 head. All amps were stock. The 2204 volume/power wise out punched the DSL50. The 100w kept up or exceeded the 2204.

Yeah…I have a first year (made in 1997) DSL100 that was my main amp from 2015 to 2022…it served me exceedingly well. Used it on a bunch of albums and played lots of shows with it. Never had a bias drift issue with it either…got it used for just $380 from a seller off Craigslist.

This upgraded DSL50 sounds better. I realize I could do the same treatment to this 100, but I’m feeling good about 50 watt amp heads these days. Don’t feel a need for the extra tubes. So doing it to the 100 would really just be money out the door for no real reason.

 

[NewReligion]

Meh, clips alone in a room playing with yourself only tell you so much.

It tells me a hell of a lot more than a SM57 mic’d up cab then manipulated.

I have written, recorded, mixed, mastered & produced several albums.

With a SM57 I can make a B52 AT-100 sound like a BE 100 Deluxe or a BE 100 Deluxe sound like a Peavey Classic.

I get much more out of a iPhone recording the has no band pass filtering etc…

My $.02

 

[tallcoolone]

Edit…saw the Marine Corps flag. Props.

 

[ByrdmanFL]

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

+1 and what OT & Choke did you use?

 

[What?]

It tells me a hell of a lot more than a SM57 mic’d up cab then manipulated.

I have written, recorded, mixed, mastered & produced several albums.

With a SM57 I can make a B52 AT-100 sound like a BE 100 Deluxe or a BE 100 Deluxe sound like a Peavey Classic.

I get much more out of a iPhone recording the has no band pass filtering etc…

My $.02

Miking an amp for an honest recording is pretty tough. An SM57 alone pretty well blows for that if you ask me. The most honest recordings I have been able to get came from a ribbon or condenser positioned 6"-12" off the cab to catch the bulk of the sound, then an SM57 positioned in phase and pulled up just enough to fill in some of what the other mic is missing, bus those for some broad eq to get closer to what you hear in the room, and add some room to taste (small room IR, IK Fame 'booth' or whatever you like). https://app.box.com/s/t1jacsmkgn8aqntkoy83uk3p14ytpuma

To each their own. I feel like I'm getting a pretty good representation of the frequency spectrum, cut, dynamics, and ambience of what's in the room. The hardest part though is trying to stay biased toward what sounds more honest over what sounds good. The second hardest part is in knowing that arriving at a more honest recording only works for that sound. Once the amp is dialed up much differently or the amp is changed, it takes some tweaking to best represent the new sound. It's not arriving at a single formula that works for all sounds.

 

[NewReligion]

Miking an amp for an honest recording is pretty tough. An SM57 alone pretty well blows for that if you ask me. The most honest recordings I have been able to get came from a ribbon or condenser positioned 6"-12" off the cab to catch the bulk of the sound, then an SM57 positioned in phase and pulled up just enough to fill in some of what the other mic is missing, bus those for some broad eq to get closer to what you hear in the room, and add some room to taste (small room IR, IK Fame 'booth' or whatever you like). https://app.box.com/s/t1jacsmkgn8aqntkoy83uk3p14ytpuma

To each their own. I feel like I'm getting a pretty good representation of the frequency spectrum, cut, dynamics, and ambience of what's in the room. The hardest part though is trying to stay biased toward what sounds more honest over what sounds good. The second hardest part is in knowing that arriving at a more honest recording only works for that sound. Once the amp is dialed up much differently or the amp is changed, it takes some tweaking to best represent the new sound. It's not arriving at a single formula that works for all sounds.

This attached link below is all SM57 in my home studio in 2009 except the drums. I wrote, sang, performed, mixed, Mastered & produced the entire work in my home aside from the drums. A couple SM57’s and a condenser mic for the drums.

There are no rules when creating music.

It’s at Red Book CD Format.

Check it out.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I'm very new to using/owning a Marshall amp and had purchased a brand new DSL 100HR as my first Marshall head with the MX412AR cabinet. I was not happy with the sound at first until I had read a post/article on the iinternet from a guy who changed out all of the tubes on his DSL100 with the following and I'm thankfull I found this. "I added a matched quad of JJ KT77 power tubes and a EHX 12AX7 in the V1 position (green channel), a Sovtek 12AX7LPS in the V2 position (green and red channels), a Svetlana 12AX7 in the V3 position (cathode follower) and a JJ ECC83S with balanced triodes in the V4 position (phase inverter), and ai noticed a huge improvement in sound".

After changing the tubes to this line up, I immediately could hear the difference. I'm getting it now and the more I play on this amp, the better it seems (the tubes) to sound as I dial it in.

 

[javier pintos]

My 2000 DSL100 is THE amp to bring when I need more flexibility than the 2203 or SV20 are capable of.

I applied some of the Joey mods after I changed the irons and added a choke (Was happy with it before the mods but gigged it for 15 years and started getting curious).

Thing absolutely rips but is the noisiest of my amps when gain is applied. Not enough to leave it at home or (*%^ around with it moremy JCM 2k DSL100H was noisy, it finaly died, i replaced the original main board with a marshall replacement main board (Marshall Part Number: M-JCM2-60-02-01), noise is gone on red 1/2, somehow i feel there is a bit less gain on the amp now, but nothing that using the gain controls can´t fix, before the change i feel that it was an amp that i could use to gig but tricky to record with because of the floor noise, but now i feel it can be used in studio for recordings, the replacement board i beleive is no longer available, as far as the bes tone, monster etc etc, although i´m by no means an expert i would say that if i want to get any particular sound, i can get close enough to have fun with it, does not sound like a plexi/800/900/bluesbreaker/etc, therefore does not make sound like x y or z player, that is ok with me (i´m not those player either, not even with their gear i would sond like them), to me,is an amp that can get you in the marshall ballpark of tones, well that´s what i think, best regards

My 2000 DSL100 is THE amp to bring when I need more flexibility than the 2203 or SV20 are capable of.

I applied some of the Joey mods after I changed the irons and added a choke (Was happy with it before the mods but gigged it for 15 years and started getting curious).

Thing absolutely rips but is the noisiest of my amps when gain is applied. Not enough to leave it at home or (*%^ around with it more.

my JCM 2k DSL100H was noisy, it finaly died, i replaced the original main board with a marshall replacement main board (Marshall Part Number: M-JCM2-60-02-01), noise is gone on red 1/2, somehow i feel there is a bit less gain on the amp now, but nothing that using the gain controls can´t fix, before the change i feel that it was an amp that i could use to gig but tricky to record with because of the floor noise, but now i feel it can be used in studio for recordings, the replacement board i beleive is no longer available, as far as the bes tone, monster etc etc, although i´m by no means an expert i would say that if i want to get any particular sound, i can get close enough to have fun with it, does not sound like a plexi/800/900/bluesbreaker/etc, therefore does not make sound like x y or z player, that is ok with me (i´m not those player either, not even with their gear i would sond like them), to me,is an amp that can get you in the marshall ballpark of tones, well that´s what i think, best regards

 

[6StringMoFo]

my JCM 2k DSL100H was noisy, it finaly died, i replaced the original main board with a marshall replacement main board (Marshall Part Number: M-JCM2-60-02-01), noise is gone on red 1/2, somehow i feel there is a bit less gain on the amp now, but nothing that using the gain controls can´t fix, before the change i feel that it was an amp that i could use to gig but tricky to record with because of the floor noise, but now i feel it can be used in studio for recordings, the replacement board i beleive is no longer available, as far as the bes tone, monster etc etc, although i´m by no means an expert i would say that if i want to get any particular sound, i can get close enough to have fun with it, does not sound like a plexi/800/900/bluesbreaker/etc, therefore does not make sound like x y or z player, that is ok with me (i´m not those player either, not even with their gear i would sond like them), to me,is an amp that can get you in the marshall ballpark of tones, well that´s what i think, best regards

I do have a new board lying around with the latest rev.

Something to consider when I open it up again.

Thanks.

 

[Ken Ops]

There’s something very cool about a 100w amp that does “everything”, I agree.

For me, that’s the JVM410, but yeah, DSL got game too.

 

[dslman]

Here are my transformers, I assume the VT on them is for Vietnam, @PelliX & @knulp. Bias was 68.8 & 71.4, but now 70.2 each.

View attachment 151532
View attachment 151533

What are the dark orange spots? Maybe that can be cleaned off , and protected with some cold galvanize spray. Was wondering what is your plate voltage?

 

[dslman]

My experience is that the HR has more bottom and a better clean tone. It also has amenities like four footswitchable modes and an external bias pot.

Did they mount the power tubes to the pc board on the HR?

 

[dslman]

My new to me 2003 made DSL50 came in today.

The Mercury Magnetics Axiom Mar50-0 OT in it really makes an enormous difference. This things sounds ridiculously killer...SO much better than the other DSL50 I had. It gives my 2204's a serious run for their money.

I'm going to have my tech take a look at it though, cuz the right tube (when looking at it from the back with the panel off) won't Bias up to where I need with EL34's in it (all the way barely gets to 30). With KT77's and E34L's I can get it right, but not with EL34's...so I'm running it with E34L's right now. I'll have that dealt with early next week as well as a general run through for overall health. I like this amp so much though that I went ahead and ordered the appropriate 3H choke from Mercury Magnetics and I'll have my tech replace the resistor with the choke while he's doing the rest.

Did all that and more to my old DSL50 . Really nice improvement. The choke will make it a bit faster/snappy, the seemingly sluggish nature which always bothered me about the 2K heads.

 

[dslman]

I think the 2K DSL heads have that tone that grows on you slowly . Took me a long time to realize it. Coming from the JMP 2203, and old Greenbacks school I didn’t understand the sluggish nature of the DSL, but then again my speakers were different, and before mods to the DSL.
I could hear it, and feel it not being “right” but others always said the DSL sounded good. I suppose after reading most of this thread, the 100H may become sought after in the future, but a properly modded 2K-DSL head has a superior richness, and the clean channel IMO, is not even close.
I run two 100H heads in stereo now since I sold my modded 50 like a dummy,
The 100H heads hit hard , and are well balanced between the two channels, so I’m definitely satisfied, but the older heads are simply a different tone in many ways. The best clean channel in history IMO.

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.the 2K DSL heads have that special tone that grows on you slowly. Took me a long time to appreciate it, coming from the JMP2203 , and old Greenbacks school.

 

[ByrdmanFL]

What are the dark orange spots? Maybe that can be cleaned off , and protected with some cold galvanize spray. Was wondering what is your plate voltage?

Those spots are just a little surface rust. I live in Florida and humidity gets to everything eventually. It's just on the surface, so I'll probably just leave it alone for now unless it starts to be a structural issue.

I dont remember what my plate voltage was, but it had to be close to specs or I would have biased it at different values.

 

[dslman]

Those spots are just a little surface rust. I live in Florida and humidity gets to everything eventually. It's just on the surface, so I'll probably just leave it alone for now unless it starts to be a structural issue.

I dont remember what my plate voltage was, but it had to be close to specs or I would have biased it at different values.

Mine is 431 on the plate voltage, and I forgot about the little three prong measuring points. So, I just used my AmpHead bias tool to see what My tubes were doing. I might go back and equal out the two sides of the push pull, but all four tubes were any where from 38mv to about 41mv. This puts mine around 80 per side. Some say that's too hot. I might back it down a touch. I think my other head is around 76 per side

 

[6StringMoFo]

After having 2 DSL40C combo's I figured I'd pick up a DSL100H since they're basically the same amp with 2 more EL34's.. Best idea I've ever had.. It's obviously a bigger sounding version of the 40C and will from here on out will be my main live rig.. I did the C19 clip mod and play it thru a 2x12 cab with an Eminence V1216 and WGS Reaper HP. I live on the ultra gain lead 1 channel.
I'm not going to question why I love these amps so much, I plug and get totally lost in the great tone they deliver..
Vietnam made brilliance that checks all the boxes I need from an amp.. The Crunch channel kills too!
I'll take the 40C to small venues, but any medium to large room gets the 100H..
100% crazy that this series of Marshall ends up being my favorite amp....

Love your gear bud, love it hard.