Marshall DSL40C

Bruthish

Bruthish

Hair Metal Roxx!
Re-building my studio and do NOT want to DI my guitars. I have a little Epiphone studio amp that sounds "ok" but the tone is just not there of course. Wanting to purchase a great sounding amp for recording only...no plans of gigging anytime soon if at all. Was looking into the Marshall DSL40C. Only found a couple people talk about it through search. Anyone else have this or played on it and can recommend it or tell me to stay away from it?
 
I don't think that I can add much more than I have in previous threads, but I do like mine quite a bit. I've never had an amp like it, so I'm probably easily impressed.

I love the clean channel cranked way up, with some added gain from an OD pedal in front of it. It just sounds badass. And take off the OD pedal and it goes from a nice thick crunchy/clean to a nice fat saturated-yet-still-clean kind of sound, depending on your guitar volume. I think that the crunch channel is pretty good but not terrific, and it's a little more amiable at lower volume settings. I don't like the ultra channel at all, I think that the lower gain channels sound much more brutal than that can of bees.

The reverb is pretty forgettable, but I don't tend to use reverb on this amp anyways. I've never owned the stock speaker, so I don't know exactly what the Creamback adds to the equation. I do love the end result though, I think that it's a great amp in this price range.

The Achilles heel of any DSL amp is that all channels share the same EQ knobs. A good EQ setting for one channel probably isn't good for the other channel. It's a pain if you're a live player. But I'm just a basement dweller so it doesn't bother me.
 
I think they're pretty good, but a speaker upgrade might be in order unless you can find one of those Creamback models.
 
Well I pulled the trigger on it. Ordered today along with an amp stand. I doubt I will get the good speaker due to the fact I am buying new unseen. Just can't beat the 8mos of paying with no interest from American Musical. I have little budget and paying $80/month works for me. Thanks for the input guys. Hopefully it will help me get some work done and get some good tones.
 
Yeah, I think that the DSL40C with the Creamback is just a Sweetwater thing, where they upgrade the speaker. But I can't imagine that it sounds like a totally different amp with the stock Seventy/80 speaker. I have a Traynor 2x12 with those Seventy/80 speakers in it. Again, I've never heard any other speaker in that amp but those speakers tend to get "farty" at high volumes. I think that they sound fine, they just don't quite hold their composure at severe power levels. But heck, if you find the stock speaker to be limiting, you can always throw something else in there. At this price point you could get an aftermarket speaker and still come out ahead. But I think that it'll be satisfactory right out of the box. There is some classic Marshall tone in that box.
 
Congrats on the new amp man!!!! You might luck out & get the Creamback speaker, maybe....I've never tried either the Creamback or 70/80, but you should be able to get some pretty decent sounds out of either...In my experience with the new DSL's, the shared eq is the biggest drawback, but if you're only recording, it won't matter....Remember the red channel is really bright & has lots more gain than the green...

Throw up some clips in the tone thread when you get the amp dude!!!
 
Thanks guys for the help. I owned a Marshall Bass stack years ago and loved it but never a Guitar amp. Back in the 90's I used to play on Crate stuff which for a college student was affordable. Can't wait to get it!
 
Congrats man!!! I'm curious to hear what you think about the amp...I have the 100w head, & I like it a lot, to me, the red channel is pretty bright, but it can be tamed with the eq....I've mentioned it before, but the one thing I don't like about this amp is the shared eq, but it's really not an issue for recording.....Post up some clips if you get a chance...:)
 
I own one and agree with what tadpui wrote. Very good clean and crunch. High gain sounds a bit fizzy. Reverb is hardly noticeably. It is loud, even on the lower power setting. If you are looking for an amp for recording only you might consider the smaller DSL15c unless your setup includes an amp room.
 
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Had a chance to briefly play with it this morning before heading to work. Messing around the EQ on the amp and other settings. It's got superb sound in all modes as far as I am concerned. Tried recording a little bit of it but to me it doesn't sound as quite as good recorded so I still need to find the sweet spot for the mic and get the settings correct. So many variables between amp setting, pre-amp settings, and mic placement.
 
Bruthish said:
Had a chance to briefly play with it this morning before heading to work. Messing around the EQ on the amp and other settings. It's got superb sound in all modes as far as I am concerned. Tried recording a little bit of it but to me it doesn't sound as quite as good recorded so I still need to find the sweet spot for the mic and get the settings correct. So many variables between amp setting, pre-amp settings, and mic placement.
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Did your amp come with the 70/80 speaker??? I've heard a lot of people don't like it....Not saying either way myself because I've never used one of those speakers, but the amp itself I think is really good....
 
yes it has the 70/80. I think it sounds great to my ears when listening to it play, just haven't been able to dial in the recorded sound yet. I only got about 30 minutes to play on it this morning but I am sure I will tinker with it many hours to get it where it needs to be. So far, its been a great purchase and I don't regret it at all. I can now see the issue with switching channels though. You only get ultra gain or clean/crunch using the switch pedal. But I don't plan on playing out live some its no big deal for me.
 
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