Seventh Son
Well-Known Member
@Guitarjon Very nice review, by the way. I really appreciate all your hard work on these videos. I use them frequently to get a sense of how different amps compare.
@Guitarjon Very nice review, by the way. I really appreciate all your hard work on these videos. I use them frequently to get a sense of how different amps compare.
Going from DSL20HR Send into the DSL100HR Return or vice versa:
There's no big difference in sound. Feeling is different, with the DSL100HR power amp the sound is fuller, not a surprise.
Hi everyone,
What do you guys think of the DSL20HR? I've had mine for a year or so, got it in a trade. It's affordable and also quite popular I think, you hear people talk about this model a lot! What do you guys think of this amp?
My thoughts: it's a cool amp and I like the ultra gain channel especially. The classic gain channel is capable of some good tones but the gain pot taper on mine is pretty weird. It starts to overdrive very fast and then the sound doesn't change for a large part of the sweep. So to clean it up I have to set the gain very low and it's also a very bright channel. Still, useful but not as good as the ultra gain channel.
The high gain channel sounds cutting and nicely saturated with a fairly thick bottom end and nice raspy mids and highs that do a great job at cutting through the mix. I'm not a fan of the toneshift knob so I never use it, it's just waaayy too scooped.
The reverb is fine but very subtle imho, would have been more useful if you could make it sound more strong.
Overall it's a fine amp with some flaws as I mentioned. The tone is cool but not classic Marshall or comparable to a more expensive boutique amp. It's a great amp for beginners or folks who just need a simple rock amp but don't expect it to do classic rock well imho.
Here's a little review video along with some tone demos and such:
Hi everyone,
What do you guys think of the DSL20HR? I've had mine for a year or so, got it in a trade. It's affordable and also quite popular I think, you hear people talk about this model a lot! What do you guys think of this amp?
My thoughts: it's a cool amp and I like the ultra gain channel especially. The classic gain channel is capable of some good tones but the gain pot taper on mine is pretty weird. It starts to overdrive very fast and then the sound doesn't change for a large part of the sweep. So to clean it up I have to set the gain very low and it's also a very bright channel. Still, useful but not as good as the ultra gain channel.
The high gain channel sounds cutting and nicely saturated with a fairly thick bottom end and nice raspy mids and highs that do a great job at cutting through the mix. I'm not a fan of the toneshift knob so I never use it, it's just waaayy too scooped.
The reverb is fine but very subtle imho, would have been more useful if you could make it sound more strong.
Overall it's a fine amp with some flaws as I mentioned. The tone is cool but not classic Marshall or comparable to a more expensive boutique amp. It's a great amp for beginners or folks who just need a simple rock amp but don't expect it to do classic rock well imho.
Here's a little review video along with some tone demos and such:
I had one briefly, its too scooped for my liking even with the mids dimed. This is typical of all DSLs in my opinion, I had a DSL50 at one time that displayed the same tonality I dont like.
I changed things in the pre amp, the tone stack, bypassed the buffer after the DFX IC and reconfigured the transistor gain stage that's after that. The buffer and transistor gain stage seemed to be the source of that sour taste I was getting. I've probably had the PCB out 20 times.
No @PelliX, TR3, TR2 is the buffer
The DSL20 is weird in that it isn’t scooped, but rather hollow sounding in the mids, especially at low volumes. It definitely benefits from more volume, and I can see how it could further benefit from a mid-humped clean boost, such as the TS9. On recordings, it still has that hollowness to it, but it is also very smooth and fits in the mix without calling attention to itself.
I don’t think the amount of gain it offers on the Ultra Gain channel is excessive. Gain is not really its main weakness. Nor is the reverb on it weak. It’s a Marshall; we don’t buy these amps for the reverb, but the reverb is O.K.