The dsl joey mod thread

[gazzamarad]

Hi all. Joey mods I have done
Pot board
1m resistor wiper to ground vr3
c12 to 150pf
c10 replace .0022
R20 remove and jumper

tube board
R30 piggyback to value 190

MM o/t and 3h choke.

To date i have found advantages and disadvantages.
To explain and maybe point the finger I will mention a guy on a Tsl forum who suggested that the MM o/t is better and more linear at loud volumes but the stock 3070 dagnall had some tonal qualities at lower volumes that are warmer and truer to the marshall sound.( The MM never runs hot whereas the stock dag does.) I tend to agree here as I still find my mods in the lead channel are a definite improvement but overall I feel the amp has lost some of its spunky marshall definition. I have read this forum quite thoroughly and while there are one or two mods I could still do I am thinking that I may have upgraded with the wrong o/t for the sound that " I am chasing"....which is a vintage marshall sound. (should I have gone for the c1998 dagnall?)I recently A/B my head with a 50watt
1973 marshall head...( yes lucky me tho not mine) linked both inputs on the 73... great sound tho dsl obviously more versatile. End result was that my dsl sounded less alive, deader than the old 73. The 73 had more bite and sting in the mid range.
My settings on the dsl are
eq...pres 6 treb 5 mid 5 bass 8....deep switch on
ultra gain 2; vol 4 gain 2 (cant get above this due to feedback. I do use a tubescreamer drive 9 oclock, tone 5, level 3oclock)
clean vol 4 gain 7 with tube screamer as I prefer this to crunch mode, which I dont use, so far)...As well as reading the pages above I am really starting to wonder if the o/t is the key here. Dont get me wrong the MM is a mo fo of a tranny but maybe more for "big gigs" rather than small pub venues. Can some of you wonderful lads help me out a bit here....I may just need to do c9 and c12 mods to finish up, I dont know. My amp tech is a great and patient human but I'm sure I am starting to wear him thin just like my wallett! LOL...My head is a 2006 100watt with the improved pcb board with the 5k6 values. It still has the c46 on it. Should that be removed?
Thanks to everyone on this remarkable forum for all of your input...cheers ...Gaz

 

[gazzamarad]

P.s. c9 and c12 on the tube board I meant to say.
Also I have 4 shuagang EL34m output tubes.
Preamp tubes are v1 mullard, v2 NOS sylvania, v3 tung sol, v4 NOS sylvania..all 12ax7
I have found this ax7 array to be the best combo so far...cheers

 

[gazzamarad]

Correction......Shuguang EL34B's I mean........By the way even without the TS on I still find it difficult to get the gain in the lead channel (ultra) above 2 with vol 4 to 5 without uncontrollable feedback. I have an sg with a bill lawrence HB (11.5k) on the bridge. Lead 1 is more useable as far as increasing gain goes but to date I have found I prefer the overall texture of lead 2. So how do you guys get to use your gain up around 5,6 and7 as per ricky lee's post above? Is it single pole pups?

 

[gazzamarad]

Hi guys...guess everyone is on holidays or somethin. Well I seem to have sorted out my sound further. I recently bought a fulltone fulldrive off ebay. Custom shop cream 2004 model. Wow this definitely opens up the amp! Significantly better than my old reliable Ibanez TS808. (which seemed to choke the sound somewhat). I have also been able to now disengage the deep switch which was vital with the TS. My only question now is regarding the lead channel. How do I get more use of the gain as I cannot turn mine above 2 before feedback? Volume set 4 to 5? I have done the joey mods. My C12 cap replacement (silver mica) measures around 110pf on my amp tech's meter. Sounds about right. Just feel it needs a little more bottom oomph esp now I dont use the deep switch. Ideas anyone...regards...Gaz

 

[Jason77]

If you want more bottom oomph, you can add a .0047uf cap between the 100k negative feedback resistor and the 4ohm tap on the rear board.

As for your feedback issue, I'm wondering if your pickups are microphonic. What guitar are you using and what pickups are in it?

 

[Jason77]

Correction: I meant to say 47k negative feedback resistor.

 

[gazzamarad]

Hi Jason. I play a Tokai Sg with bill lawrence humbucker in the bridge position. Its a little hotter than a PAF. About 10.2k I think. I have the same issue with my two LPJ double cutaways. They have different pups again, so I dont think they all could be microphonic. A good thought though mate. Can you elaborate further on the negative feedback resistor thing please? And does this only affect the lead channel? Thank you...Gaz

 

[Jason77]

Gaz..

I was thinking your pickups may not be potted and causing the feedback but I guess thats not the case. Now I'm just stumped.

As for adding the cap to the NFB resistor, it basically adds clean low end to your signal, making the low end clearer and punchier. It works similarly to how the presence control adds more highs. To me, it has a more natural feel than the deep switch. I like .0047uf but if you want more lows, you could use a .0033uf or even a .0022uf.

The NFB resistor is R19 on the rear board. You just need to disconnect the leg that connects to the 4ohm spade connector and solder the cap in between.

 

[Jason77]

Gaz..

I was thinking your pickups may not be potted and causing the feedback but I guess thats not the case. Now I'm just stumped.

As for adding the cap to the NFB resistor, it basically adds clean low end to your signal, making the low end clearer and punchier. It works similarly to how the presence control adds more highs. To me, it has a more natural feel than the deep switch. I like .0047uf but if you want more lows, you could use a .0033uf or even a .0022uf.

The NFB resistor is R19 on the rear board. You just need to disconnect the leg that connects to the 4ohm spade connector and solder the cap in between.

 

[Landshark]

The more I play my amp after doing some of these mods, I notice the mids are gone on my crunch channel (TSL mind you). Any way to fix this?

Mods are...

front board:

C12 removed
R20 jumped
C10 .0022 uf
C8 .001 uf

main board:

C12 1uf 63v ( replaced stock option)
C9 1000pf (.001uf)

Choke installed

It sounds great, except there are almost no mids on the crunch channel. Any ideas on how this happened?

 

[RickyLee]

The more I play my amp after doing some of these mods, I notice the mids are gone on my crunch channel (TSL mind you). Any way to fix this?

Mods are...

front board:

C12 removed
R20 jumped
C10 .0022 uf
C8 .001 uf

main board:

C12 1uf 63v ( replaced stock option)
C9 1000pf (.001uf)

Choke installed

It sounds great, except there are almost no mids on the crunch channel. Any ideas on how this happened?

Interesting. I am getting ready to start messing with my TSL100 in the next week or so. I was thinking I would like to start out by altering the Lead channel first so I could compare it with the Crunch channel.

 

[RickyLee]

The more I play my amp after doing some of these mods, I notice the mids are gone on my crunch channel (TSL mind you). Any way to fix this?

Mods are...

front board:

C12 removed
R20 jumped
C10 .0022 uf
C8 .001 uf

main board:

C12 1uf 63v ( replaced stock option)
C9 1000pf (.001uf)

Choke installed

It sounds great, except there are almost no mids on the crunch channel. Any ideas on how this happened?

Which schematic relates to the components and the board you are calling "front board"? The components you are talking about sound similar to the DSL which I am familiar with. I am not familiar with the TSL though. Does the TSL have a similar layout to the DSL for the TSL Crunch & Lead?

 

[RickyLee]

Has anyone tried replacing the TSL Crunch channel's stock Gain pot that is supposedly 220K, with a 1 MEG pot?

 

[gazzamarad]

Thanks alot Jason. I will definitely consider the NFB R19 mod with .0047 cap. With the feedback issue it only occurs on the lead channel but i am managing to control it enough at gigs so I will perservere. I really appreciate your input...thanks again

 

[Landshark]

Which schematic relates to the components and the board you are calling "front board"? The components you are talking about sound similar to the DSL which I am familiar with. I am not familiar with the TSL though. Does the TSL have a similar layout to the DSL for the TSL Crunch & Lead?

I was told by Joey at one point that you use the lead channel board in the TSL instead of the front board from the DSL.

 

[RickyLee]

I was told by Joey at one point that you use the lead channel board in the TSL instead of the front board from the DSL.

Which TSL schematic did you go off of? I can't find the R20 on the TSL schematic - but there's an R20 on the DSL schematic.

Or are you saying that there is a TSL circuit board that is identical to the DSL board and the component numbers are matched up as well?

 

[Landshark]

Which TSL schematic did you go off of? I can't find the R20 on the TSL schematic - but there's an R20 on the DSL schematic.

Or are you saying that there is a TSL circuit board that is identical to the DSL board and the component numbers are matched up as well?

When I said front board, I meant the lead channel pcb in the TSL. and yes I was under the assumption that the component changes from the DSL would be identicle to the TSL. R 20 was on the lead channel pcb.

 

[RickyLee]

When I said front board, I meant the lead channel pcb in the TSL. and yes I was under the assumption that the component changes from the DSL would be identicle to the TSL. R 20 was on the lead channel pcb.

Wow, that is quite cool. I will get to working on my TSL possibly this weekend.

 

[RickyLee]

The more I play my amp after doing some of these mods, I notice the mids are gone on my crunch channel (TSL mind you). Any way to fix this?

Mods are...

front board:

C12 removed
R20 jumped
C10 .0022 uf
C8 .001 uf

main board:

C12 1uf 63v ( replaced stock option)
C9 1000pf (.001uf)

Choke installed

It sounds great, except there are almost no mids on the crunch channel. Any ideas on how this happened?

Bummer, as I just found R20 on this Lead channel schematic, but it looks to be part of the switching or FX or Reverb or something along those lines - and C8 C10 C12 are not near that R20. I am looking over the schematic "OVERDRIVE CHANNEL FRONT CONTROL PCB".

C12 on my Lead channel board (OVERDRIVE) is part of the tone shift circuit in the tone stack - SW1C. C section/pole of switch 1.

So I am going to see how my Crunch channel looks, as that must be what your components relate to possibly?

EDIT: On the "CRUNCH CHANNEL schematic, C8 & C9 are part of the Crunch channel's Tone Shift circuit. C10 is part of the tonestack and C12 is a 10n cap going to Ground from the "Clean Reverb" pot.

 

[RickyLee]

The more I play my amp after doing some of these mods, I notice the mids are gone on my crunch channel (TSL mind you). Any way to fix this?

Mods are...

front board:

C12 removed
R20 jumped
C10 .0022 uf
C8 .001 uf

main board:

C12 1uf 63v ( replaced stock option)
C9 1000pf (.001uf)

Choke installed

It sounds great, except there are almost no mids on the crunch channel. Any ideas on how this happened?

Bummer, as I just found R20 on this Lead channel schematic, but it looks to be part of the switching or FX or Reverb or something along those lines - and C8 C10 C12 are not near that R20. I am looking over the schematic "OVERDRIVE CHANNEL FRONT CONTROL PCB".

C12 on my Lead channel board (OVERDRIVE) is part of the tone shift circuit in the tone stack - SW1C. C section/pole of switch 1.

So I am going to see how my Crunch channel looks, as that must be what your components relate to possibly?

EDIT: On the "CRUNCH CHANNEL schematic, C8 & C9 are part of the Crunch channel's Tone Shift circuit. C10 is part of the tonestack and C12 is a 10n cap going to Ground from the "Clean Reverb" pot.

So after looking over this TSL100 schematic a bit - and getting a headache in the process - I am figuring I will just base my modification strategy along the lines of tinkering with the TSL Lead channel first and doing some of the similar DSL Joey Mods and also going in the direction of a JCM 800 2203/4 preamp topology.

@Landshark: I was trying to figure out what you had done and the values/components you listed, but it is not transposing to my TSL amp or the schematics. So I am figuring I need to look at your info there as DSL parameters/topology and transpose that to the TSL to have it make sense.

Whew!

But, man this TSL schematic not having CON to Con/PCB to PCB references is a HUGE BUMMER.

I think I need to start another TSL Mods thread. I started one quite some time ago, but it had no interest from anyone here. And I can't find the thread as well - I searched for it but can't find it.