Weird sound from lead gain on DSL100h

[Werewolf913]

Hello all, first time poster on the Marshall forum here. 25 yrs playing guitar, but bass is my primary instrument. Relatively new to world of live guitar playing.

Just scored a Marshall DSL100h and have a question. To give some background, I bought it discounted through musicians friend as a B stock item. Purchased with confidence as I have had luck with B stock items before. Cab I'm using is a Marshall 1960bv I just picked up used from guitar center. Guitar is a 2013 Gibson SG standard with 57 classic pups.

So I'm giving the front panel a thorough testing, and I notice on lead 1, if I turn the gain up to 7 or greater, the sound starts to choke up. Best I can describe it is like the sound you get when running a bass synth or envelope filter. Like a heavy compressor squashing each attack. On lead channel 2, The same thing, only it kicks in much sooner, turned up to three or greater. First I thought it might be the cab, so I hooked up my old tsl602 combo to the cab and had no such problem. Next I thought it might be the preamp tubes. So I swapped out the stock Marshall preamp tubes and tried some other tubes, including some old JJ's and Sovteks. Same result. Is choking up when cranking the gain normal for this amp, or does it sound like I have a dodgy amp? Although I may never need to crank the gain that high, if this is defective in any way, I'm going to send it back.

On another note, I think I may have preferred the tone of my TSL602 through my cab more than the DSL. Seemed a little darker and thicker tone, which I prefer. Any one know if the TSL heads are voiced similar to the TSL combo amps, or are they different animals?

Thanks in advance!

 

[charveldan]

Never buy "B" grade stuff or scratch n dent.

 

[Micky]

Sounds like it could be a power tube issue.

Swap in a spare set and insure bias is set correctly and see if it does the same thing.
Is the problem still there with the presence and resonance at zero? What about those controls maxed out? Any difference?

 

[Werewolf913]

Never buy "B" grade stuff or scratch n dent.

After this experience, I'll be leary of doing it again.

Micky, I tried all manner of eq settings, not sure if I did exactly as you mentioned though, but I'll give it a try. One thing I noticed, at one point I had the gain maxed trying to replicate the offending sound while unknowingly I had my Boss SD1 engaged. During this time the weird sound went away. I turned off the overdrive pedal and the issue came back.

I don't have any spare power tubes, and I've never biased an amp before. Unless I can muster the time and patience to try this out or find a guitar playing buddy to help me out, I may just send the thing back. If I do try the power tube swap and bias, I'll post my findings.

Thanks for the help.

 

[diesect20022000]

i thought preamp personally. being that it's on the overdrive. but i don't know. could be too much gain too as at those levels on those channels they tend to compress pretty highly to the point of basrely useable if at all for most players. but that said i would check the third preamp tube to start with. swap a known good preamp tube in the v3 position and see if that helps. v2 next and if none of that helps it could be power. you can always see if you get all your power by checking to see of both big tubes glow and aren't reddish orange (a bit of glowing orange is good and yes some blue is normal in todays cp tubes but a LOT or lightening looking movements is bad lol)

 

[dreyn77]

notice how there is only 1 input?
but when you look at pickup makers they sell more than 1 pickup type?

your amp is doing what it's suppose to do!
The problem is with you knowing what to do.
Every DSL buyer turns up the dials and says "this thing is shi*!"
So they sell the piece o rubbish and get a JMP.
then tell all their mates and anyone who listens the DSL is crap!

They are WRONG!

The vintage style pickups into the DSL means you have the amps dials set lowish and you'll get all the great pros sounds.
If you plug the active style pickups into the DSL you can turn the amps dials all the way up (you'll need to) to get the sounds you're looking for.
The amp has wide eq adjustment so they can get rid of the multiple inputs in the amp design.

There is only 2 amping circuit types, one is positive and the other is negative. if you play pickups designed for that circuit type you get a nice bright treble sound. regardless of which amp type you use.
but once you add a negative amp circuit infront of the positive amp circuit you change the EQsound and gain.
Each channel in the DSL has a different set of positive and negative amp circuits in a row. this gives you all the EQ and Gain possibilities at the push of a button.
It's now up to you to adjust the dials to make the sound nice.
SO if your turning up the gain on a amp stage that's already been turned up inside the amp, you'll get to the point of total breakup/ mush/ useless sound.

THere is NO rule that tells you the OLD dial adjusting technique works while useing the DSL amp.
The OLD amp doesn't have a single input jack.
The amp is cranked internally! you don't need to put the outside dial at 10!
Megadeth heavy metal sound has the gain dial on '4' while using ultra 1 channel. there's a whole nother channel if you want more gain!

 

[diesect20022000]

the DSL is one of the best selling and most loved Marshalls to date. i don't think there's a lot of hate for it tonaly. while i agree many people use it wrong and that MAY be the case here i wouldn't go that far. the DSL is the number one amp here and i've owned three and will likely own another but again i agree that running the gain that high is usually not the way to go. even for extreme metal i don't run the preamp gain that high on either channel.

 

[MCRyan]

I agree with the above posts. I have learned that the spectrum of gain and potential for different sounds with this amp is very broad. This, along with all the variables like guitar tone controls, pickups, ambient space, what "mood" your in at the time, really make it open as to what sounds you can get with this amp. The players who plug in and immediatly get the "fizz" are hearing the far end of the spectrum in my opinion. Simply dial it back with the tone controls on the amp & guitar, gain levels, etc. and adjust to taste.

 

[Werewolf913]

The vintage style pickups into the DSL means you have the amps dials set lowish and you'll get all the great pros sounds.
If you plug the active style pickups into the DSL you can turn the amps dials all the way up (you'll need to) to get the sounds you're looking for.
The amp has wide eq adjustment so they can get rid of the multiple inputs in the amp design.

There is only 2 amping circuit types, one is positive and the other is negative. if you play pickups designed for that circuit type you get a nice bright treble sound. regardless of which amp type you use.
but once you add a negative amp circuit infront of the positive amp circuit you change the EQsound and gain.
Each channel in the DSL has a different set of positive and negative amp circuits in a row. this gives you all the EQ and Gain possibilities at the push of a button.
It's now up to you to adjust the dials to make the sound nice.
SO if your turning up the gain on a amp stage that's already been turned up inside the amp, you'll get to the point of total breakup/ mush/ useless sound.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have a couple LTd's with hotter pickups, I 'll give them a try and see what happens. . Either way, I may send the DSL back anyway. Just came back from trying out a JVM205h a guy here is selling for $800. This thing felt instantly comfortable, I really liked it.

 

[mickeydg5]

Where was the Boss SD1 plugged?

 

[Werewolf913]

Where was the Boss SD1 plugged?

The pedal was in front of the amp, not in the effects loops. It was the only pedal I was using at the time I was testing out the amp. I had the pedal on while in the green channel. Switched over to the red channel and noticed the offending sound was gone. That's when I realized the pedal was still engaged. Kicked the pedal off and the weird synthy sound came back.

 

[Werewolf913]

Just to add closure to this thread, after more tweaking I decided to send the DSL100h back to Musicians Friend. Today however, I bought a used JVM205h from someone on Craigslist. Needless to say, I hit it off with this amp immediately. Loving the gain on this amp, nice and full bodied and I have no trouble dialing in just enough sizzle without it getting harsh.

Thanks again for the input.