Dsl20cr And Fizzy Tone

[Seventh Son]

I am the same way, but I rarely play any cover music anymore, one of the last ones(years ago) was mother Mary UFO, the more I tried to mimic everything the more I would find in the song that most people would shrug off, so l feel you on this aspect!

I do it more to learn how to get tones that I consider my ideal, although I do also enjoy covering the works of art.

Now what would be really cool is, do something like that, but with the Reverb 12 (or Lead 12, for you Lead 12 owners).

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

I do it more to learn how to get tones that I consider my ideal, although I do also enjoy the covering the works of art.

Now what would be really cool is, do something like that, but with the Reverb 12 (or Lead 12, for you Lead 12 owners).

My tone area is in the late 70’s ufo lizzy Judas Priest, Scorpions ,triumph, and Black Sabbath and many more, I think that the lead 12 tone quest is a great idea, I don’t play my mosfets on their own anymore, they are permanently paired up with their Vietnam brother’s

 

[Seventh Son]

My tone area is in the late 70’s ufo lizzy Judas Priest, Scorpions ,triumph, and Black Sabbath and many more, I think that the lead 12 tone quest is a great idea, I don’t play my mosfets on their own anymore, they are permanently paired up with their Vietnam brother’s

The Lead 12/Reverb 12 has a great plexi-like response that is great for Priest tones around the Defenders era. I love their tone on Defenders of the Faith (my favorite) and, to a slightly lesser extent, Screaming for Vengeance. The tones on Vengeance, however, are extremely tasteful. I'll have to try and cop those sometime soon.

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

The Lead 12/Reverb 12 has a great plexi-like response that is great for Priest tones around the Defenders era. I love their tone on Defenders of the Faith (my favorite) and, to a slightly lesser extent, Screaming for Vengeance. The tones on Vengeance, however, are extremely tasteful. I'll have to try and cop those sometime soon.

I think sometimes I am pretty close to unleashed in the east tones minus the chorus effects that Priest had, and that is pretty much my core tone, for most of the things I play!

 

[StonehouseGuitars]

I'm coming to the realization that the DSL20CR is an incorrigibly fizzy amp. I know that tube amps can sound fizzy at low volumes, so this morning I gave it another try and did a couple of quick takes with the volume on 6 (half power mode), and the result was a little better, but not worth driving my neighbors crazy.

Here's an example. In this Dave Murray tone tutorial, the poster of the tutorial states that he got the settings from Dave Murray's personal tour tech, who showed him Dave Murray's rig and settings backstage. His classic rhythm setting is
Bass 4
Middle 5
Treble 4,
which sounds pretty close to all Maiden's early '80s recordings.

When I try the same settings on my DSL20CR, I get a ton of fizz, regardless of volume settings, gain settings, and microphone position.

Here's another example where a user of the JMP-1 pretty much nails the Piece of Mind tone with absolute ease.

To get anything close to that, I have to use extreme EQ settings (Bass 2, Middle 8, Treble 2, Presence 2), position the microphone at the very edge of the speaker, where I also get a dull tone no matter what EQ settings, and there is no wiggle room in the EQ left; you pretty much get one barely usable tone that barely approximates a simple classic metal tone.
Here's my result.


Does anyone have any words of wisdom here? Why is this so hard? Shouldn't the DSL range be capable of producing some staple classic metal tones? After all, it's a tube Marshall, the successor of the critically acclaimed DSL JCM 2000 range, the one that was hailed as the best Marshall ever, that pros all over the world used.

I say this all the time, but I’ll say it again. The distortion channel on pretty much every Marshall sounds horrible. The fizz is simply too much. The only people who use it are kids and teenagers and djent metal heads with no ear. You have to remember that’s a big part of the market these days.

The only way to really get a good tone is distortion/OD pedals into the clean channel. DSL has a really nice treble response and smooth mids. This is where Marshall beats every other amp out there, bar none. Clean channel, bam, fizz gone. Get yourself 2 or 3 or 4 Marshall’s and start mixing the tones from each one, well, you’re just in tone heaven then.

 

[Deerhunter1972]

At 46 years old, I am far from being a teenager. I recently acquired a DSL20CR because I was tired of buying pedals for my VOX AC15C1 to try to get a Marshall crunch out of it. Suprisingly a Berhinger UM300 was very close on the VOX. After several hours of playing the DSL20CR, these are the settings I came to that give a very close VOX clean on the classic gain, and a classic Marshall AC/DC tone on the ultra gain channel.

Classic Gain
Gain - 1

Ultra Gain
Gain - 7

Tone Shift - Off

Equalisation
Treble - 7
Middle - 6
Bass - 3
Prescence - 4
Resonance - 10

These settings, along with adjusting the volume and tone knobs on my Gibson Les Paul Traditional, make this amp sound amazing. I am now selling the VOX.

 

[Seventh Son]

I say this all the time, but I’ll say it again. The distortion channel on pretty much every Marshall sounds horrible. The fizz is simply too much. The only people who use it are kids and teenagers and djent metal heads with no ear. You have to remember that’s a big part of the market these days.

The only way to really get a good tone is distortion/OD pedals into the clean channel. DSL has a really nice treble response and smooth mids. This is where Marshall beats every other amp out there, bar none. Clean channel, bam, fizz gone. Get yourself 2 or 3 or 4 Marshall’s and start mixing the tones from each one, well, you’re just in tone heaven then.

Check out the sample recording I posted above. When dialed in right, the DSL20CR actually sounds great, even on the Ultra Gain channel. In that recording, I had Gain at 8 and it still sounded great. I may have used a touch too much chorus on the rhythm parts, but it really does sound great. I wouldn't go as far as to say that Marshall today is catering to the kids who play djent and demand a fizzy, gainy amp. I find my two DSLs (15C and 20CR) very usable, and I play classic '80s and '90s metal.

If you have followed my posts on this site, you'll know that I've been very frustrated with the DSLs for the longest time, but it turned out it was user error. They are just very difficult amps to dial in and it takes a lot of trial and error to learn how to tweak those knobs expertly. I have spent a good part of the past two years experimenting with microphone placements, different speakers, EQ settings, and am finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I can only imagine how many people buy these amps and never learn how to get the most out of them.

 

[Seventh Son]

At 46 years old, I am far from being a teenager. I recently acquired a DSL20CR because I was tired of buying pedals for my VOX AC15C1 to try to get a Marshall crunch out of it. Suprisingly a Berhinger UM300 was very close on the VOX. After several hours of playing the DSL20CR, these are the settings I came to that give a very close VOX clean on the classic gain, and a classic Marshall AC/DC tone on the ultra gain channel.

Classic Gain
Gain - 1

Ultra Gain
Gain - 7

Tone Shift - Off

Equalisation
Treble - 7
Middle - 6
Bass - 3
Prescence - 4
Resonance - 10

These settings, along with adjusting the volume and tone knobs on my Gibson Les Paul Traditional, make this amp sound amazing. I am now selling the VOX.

Thank you. I will try those this weekend and let you know what I think.

 

[texhex]

Sounds really good. I remember watching this video awhile back when I had my HD500X. Not saying it applies here but how your guitar sounds in the mix may make a little fizz not as noticeable. The thing is though in these YT videos the compression is making them even more fizzy. If anything this is pretty funny with the little Fizz Police Car.

 

[Seventh Son]

Sounds really good. I remember watching this video awhile back when I had my HD500X. Not saying it applies here but how your guitar sounds in the mix may make a little fizz not as noticeable. The thing is though in these YT videos the compression is making them even more fizzy. If anything this is pretty funny with the little Fizz Police Car.

He makes some excellent points. Thank you for sharing this. It's absolutely true. We can get too hung up on fizz, which is, to paraphrase the gentleman in the video, what a guitar amp should sound like, in the sense that some amount of fizz is normal and acceptable. My guess is that that is more the case in more mainstream rock music. Just to contrast the video that you posted, check out the following isolated track. Not a single trace of fizz. This is what many metal acts, from Maiden, to Accept, to Judas Priest, to Randy Rhodes (on "Mr. Crowley," for example) sounded like in the early '80s.

So, there is such a thing as a guitar tone without fizz. However, I also agree that some fizz is acceptable and may even be desirable in certain subgenres of rock and metal, as well as that trends change, and that also includes guitar tones that artists and their audiences demand.

 

[StonehouseGuitars]

Well, the post was, my amp is too fizzy, and I’m just telling you how to take fhe fizz out. You’ve got one guy saying well I like fizz, fizz is acceptable in every great tone, or even fundamentally required. Then you’ve got another guy posting his knob settings like it’s some secret code to great tone. It’s not. Knob settings are going to vary from guitar to guitar, hell, I can plug-in one guitar and have to use completely different EQ settings from when I plug-in another guitar. Both Stratocaster‘s. Your tone isn’t just what your amp settings are, it’s what size strings you use, what pick ups you use, whether they are high output or low output, you’r bridge, the wood your guitar is made out of, and so on. Your speakers matter a lot too, and so does the volume you play at. Volume alone probably single handedly affects your tone more than anything else. That’s why Marshall’s are so great, the more you turn them up the better they sound. Your speakers affect your tone hugely too, a 30W speaker will distort under a heavy load where a 75w will not. It’s not about your knob settings, it’s about your approach. You can get most of the fuzziness out of the ultra gain by playing with the knobs yeah I know I’ve done it but I’m just giving you another option to try if you haven’t tried it yet- use the clean channel. If you don’t want to, not my prob, sorry for the advice. Good luck

 

[texhex]

He makes some excellent points. Thank you for sharing this. It's absolutely true. We can get too hung up on fizz, which is, to paraphrase the gentleman in the video, what a guitar amp should sound like, in the sense that some amount of fizz is normal and acceptable. My guess is that that is more the case in more mainstream rock music. Just to contrast the video that you posted, check out the following isolated track. Not a single trace of fizz. This is what many metal acts, from Maiden, to Accept, to Judas Priest, to Randy Rhodes (on "Mr. Crowley," for example) sounded like in the early '80s.

So, there is such a thing as a guitar tone without fizz. However, I also agree that some fizz is acceptable and may even be desirable in certain subgenres of rock and metal, as well as that trends change, and that also includes guitar tones that artists and their audiences demand.

Wow that ISO Trooper track is awesome! Damn never heard it like that beforw. Very cool.

I was always partial to this version for obvious reasons.




And this one of course.



Also my DSL100H is a little fizzy until I get the master at 4 or higher, past that it’s an animal.

Rock on dude.

 

[Seventh Son]

Wow that ISO Trooper track is awesome! Damn never heard it like that beforw. Very cool.

I was always partial to this version for obvious reasons.




And this one of course.



Also my DSL100H is a little fizzy until I get the master at 4 or higher, past that it’s an animal.

Rock on dude.

Courtney from the Iron Maidens is great. She has excellent taste in music.

The isolated track of the song reminds me of Randy Rhoads's tone on "Mr. Crowley." It's not a tone I'm particularly in love with, but in terms of recording, the tone sits incredibly well in the mix.

Two more songs, where you can really hear how well the guitars play with the other instruments, especially in "Cross Eyed Mary." From a production standpoint, that mix is so good and the guitar tone really enhances the song.

 

[_ripper_]

Just to contrast the video that you posted, check out the following isolated track. Not a single trace of fizz. This is what many metal acts, from Maiden, to Accept, to Judas Priest, to Randy Rhodes (on "Mr. Crowley," for example) sounded like in the early '80s.

So, there is such a thing as a guitar tone without fizz. However, I also agree that some fizz is acceptable and may even be desirable in certain subgenres of rock and metal, as well as that trends change, and that also includes guitar tones that artists and their audiences demand.

I'd just like to point out that that video has the benefit of Martin Birch's production. It's not a raw mic'ed guitar track. For me, a certain amount of fizz is an inherent part of high gain guitar sounds, and the ways to dial it out (moving mic position, using multiple mics, high pass EQ and others) are well documented. Also, guitar sounds have changed incredibly since then -for better or worse- and so has the benchmark in music production. There's a lot more high end on today's guitar sounds, and that often comes at a cost (fizz).

That being said, your Seventh Son cover was great! I've often followed your threads, and I'm happy you've finally sorted it out!

 

[Seventh Son]

I'd just like to point out that that video has the benefit of Martin Birch's production. It's not a raw mic'ed guitar track. For me, a certain amount of fizz is an inherent part of high gain guitar sounds, and the ways to dial it out (moving mic position, using multiple mics, high pass EQ and others) are well documented. Also, guitar sounds have changed incredibly since then -for better or worse- and so has the benchmark in music production. There's a lot more high end on today's guitar sounds, and that often comes at a cost (fizz).

That being said, your Seventh Son cover was great! I've often followed your threads, and I'm happy you've finally sorted it out!

I agree. It stands to reason that amps today would have a bit more fizz than amps of the olden days. That's not necessarily a bad thing, except that the fizz can play tricks on your mind and make you think that is all you hear, but if you can train your ears to hear an amp's tone in its totality, it's mostly a non-issue. I am learning to appreciate the modern amps' tone aesthetic.

I appreciate the praise for my "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" cover. I also look forward to continuing being an active member here on the forum and to being able to help others who are looking for help and advice on using and getting the most out of their Marshalls.

 

[Dave Peake]

My Silver Jubilee........no fizz, just great tone But it's a completely different animal

 

[december]

I have a 5 band parametric rackmount EQ in the FX loop of my DSL20CR. Cutting 2.5kHz with a narrow bandwidth and it removes the fizz without darkening the whole high end. I'm also cutting a little around 1.4kHz w/narrow bandwidth. A small cut around 900Hz to tame the quackiness of the JB bridge pickup. And small cuts around 400Hz and 250Hz.
I just got mine 2 weeks ago, new. Has stock everything in it still. I think the Ultra Gain channel is pretty dark. I put the treble at 2:00 and the presence at 3:00. Maybe they've changed them since 2018? But when I switch to the clean channel and put on a distortion pedal, they're way too bright and harsh. I put the amp knobs back to noon and zero-out the pedal highs.
I'm running a Buxom Boost into a Precision Drive into a Revv G4 with gain at 0 into the Ultra Gain channel and I'm getting a nice tight chuggy metal tone.

 

[StrummerJoe]

Try these EQ settings:

Treble = 0
Mids = 10
Bass = no higher than 3 (10:00)
Presence = between 0 and 3
Resonance = set to taste.
Gain = between 10:00 and 12:00

Doesn't matter how extreme the eq settings seem. Dial it in by ear, not by sight.

Also, the dsl20 is a successor to the JCM2000 in name only. It's nowhere near the same quality as the real DSLs. But it seems like a cool little amp to have kicking around. They are also full of problems. I've gone through three broken ones. Number four is currently in transit to me.

All that being said, the eq settings above should get you very close to what you're looking for.

One more suggestion is to try putting a 5751 in v1 or v2. It will make the gain more manageable and less fizzy.

I absolutely agree with setting eq by ear and not by sight.