After 25 of wanting a Marshall I finally got one, not quite sure why it took me so long to just go ahead and buy a real one. I've done the emulator thing, the pedal thing and the clone thing. The amp I've been playing for the last year is a hand wired JTM clone from Phaez that uses EL84s. It sounds great and gives me an amazing growl but didn't have the extra gain I've been wanting plus I wanted at least a dual channel amp.
I decided I needed more ooph and was torn between the 5150 III combo and the DSL40c. I almost bought the 5150 III on numerous occasions because it has the variable power so I can really turn it down and use it at home plus it has a much better speaker than the DSL40c does stock. The problem is it's freaking 1300.00 and the cheapest I could find it was 1100.00 for a B stock model. On top of that whenever I found a demo clip of the Marshall (with a different speaker) vs the 5150 III I PREFERED the sound of the Marshall. They are really close sounding amps but the Marshall cost less and sounded better. No brainer. It also helped that I HATE having the standby switch behind the amp.
4th of July weekend I hit up a few local music stores and demoed a bunch of amps and honestly I wasn't blown away with the DSL40c, I really liked the DSL100H and the Orange OR15 but since reverb and multi-channel were a must I passed it over, maybe next time Orange. If Orange made a multi-channel OR15 that would be been what I bought. I LOVED the DSL100H though the 1960 half stack and figured I could get the DSL40c to sound better with a speaker swap or using a cab. Turns out that thanks to this forum I found that Sweetwater sells a version with a Creamback so I called them up, said I’m about to buy a DSL40c from Musicians Friend, they have 15% off for the 4th of July what kind of deal can you give me. $620.00 shipped boom here’s my credit card.
How does it sound? Well at first I was pretty disappointed but that’s nothing new to me. I usually dislike the sound of new gear. After hooking it up to my extension cab it was more to my liking but now after 3 days of really playing it I dig it, I think the speaker breaking in helped A LOT. It doesn’t have the same growl my JTM clone has but it has that Marshall midrange sound I’ve never been able to get anywhere else. I will say this is the first amp I’ve ever owned where I don’t have the gain maxed out, heck I’m not even using lead 2 channel. Reverb isn't my favorite, it's pretty weak and sounds digital to me but I usually keep my signal pretty dry anyway so that's not a deal breaker. I'm looking at getting a sealed back 2x12 and Ill keep playing with the knobs but as of right now I'm glad I got it over the 5150.
I decided I needed more ooph and was torn between the 5150 III combo and the DSL40c. I almost bought the 5150 III on numerous occasions because it has the variable power so I can really turn it down and use it at home plus it has a much better speaker than the DSL40c does stock. The problem is it's freaking 1300.00 and the cheapest I could find it was 1100.00 for a B stock model. On top of that whenever I found a demo clip of the Marshall (with a different speaker) vs the 5150 III I PREFERED the sound of the Marshall. They are really close sounding amps but the Marshall cost less and sounded better. No brainer. It also helped that I HATE having the standby switch behind the amp.
4th of July weekend I hit up a few local music stores and demoed a bunch of amps and honestly I wasn't blown away with the DSL40c, I really liked the DSL100H and the Orange OR15 but since reverb and multi-channel were a must I passed it over, maybe next time Orange. If Orange made a multi-channel OR15 that would be been what I bought. I LOVED the DSL100H though the 1960 half stack and figured I could get the DSL40c to sound better with a speaker swap or using a cab. Turns out that thanks to this forum I found that Sweetwater sells a version with a Creamback so I called them up, said I’m about to buy a DSL40c from Musicians Friend, they have 15% off for the 4th of July what kind of deal can you give me. $620.00 shipped boom here’s my credit card.
How does it sound? Well at first I was pretty disappointed but that’s nothing new to me. I usually dislike the sound of new gear. After hooking it up to my extension cab it was more to my liking but now after 3 days of really playing it I dig it, I think the speaker breaking in helped A LOT. It doesn’t have the same growl my JTM clone has but it has that Marshall midrange sound I’ve never been able to get anywhere else. I will say this is the first amp I’ve ever owned where I don’t have the gain maxed out, heck I’m not even using lead 2 channel. Reverb isn't my favorite, it's pretty weak and sounds digital to me but I usually keep my signal pretty dry anyway so that's not a deal breaker. I'm looking at getting a sealed back 2x12 and Ill keep playing with the knobs but as of right now I'm glad I got it over the 5150.
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It really has gain to burn!! I boost the front with an OD pedal, gives even more versatility. One thing I really like about my 40C is it gets that Marshall midrange honk real easily. Rock hard!!
