Help with DSL20 Distortion

G

Gilmourista

New member
I recently bought a Marshall DSL20 (This is my first tube amp), and an American professional strat. I was inspired to get this combo after watching Gary Moore's tribute to Hendrix. Anyways, I'm actually pleasantly surprised with the clean tone I'm getting from the amp, very clean and snappy. What I'm not very happy with is the distorted tone, it sounds extremely thin. As I've posted on another thread before, my holy grail tone is Gary's distorted tone in his cover of Foxy Lady. Any ideas/pedals/amp settings you recommend? My guitar is currently equipped with .09 strings and i'll definitely change them to .10/.11's to see if it makes a difference. As for gain/boost pedals, I have a TS9, and EP Boost, and a Big Muff. Basically what I want is to get as close as possible to Gary's tone. Thanks!
 
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Re: Help with DSL20 Distortion

I took look at the video. It looks like he is using two super lead 100 watt plexi stacks, with the channels jumped ...and probably dimed. I could not see the pedal he was using but odds are it was a vintage Fuzz Face. Speakers are probably G12H30s with 55 hz cones. There might be a cocked wha in there too.

Within that price range a good fuzz pedal through an Origin 20 will probably get you way closer. The SV20 would be better yet but much more expensive.

With the DSL20 you don't have the ultra 1 mode or the classic crunch mode, although it's better than the DSL15. With DSL distortion channels it's pretty common to change the bright cap from 500 pf to about 120-180 pf. This way you can get a thicker tone with lower gain setting and then boost it.
 
Re: Help with DSL20 Distortion

What volume are you running the amp at???
Most marshalls will sound thin unless you're at ear-bleedingly high volume
 
Re: Help with DSL20 Distortion

AlexR said:
What volume are you running the amp at???
Most marshalls will sound thin unless you're at ear-bleedingly high volume
Click to expand...

I'm running it at about half the volume on the 10W setting on both channels. Switched the gauge to .11's and it improved a lot. Might change the speaker to a Creamback or a Vintage 30 in the future as I've been told the stock Celestion isn't that good.
 
Re: Help with DSL20 Distortion

Oh yeah, those have the 70/80 in them, yes, a speaker change would be a huge improvement. I think Celestion makes speakers like that and sells them to all the manufacturers for a good deal, then generates more revenue for itself when everyone figures out they suck and replace them with a "real" Celestion. Although, it everyone stared replacing them with WGS, Eminence, or _________ maybe Celestion would start making decent OEM speakers. I guess you could say I'm not a fan of the 70/80, but that is based on fairly limited experience.
 
Re: Help with DSL20 Distortion

That's Marshalls for you. And tube amps in general.

Want it to sound sweet and fat and proud? Crank the **** out of it. Or try an OD pedal maybe. But volume is critical.
 
Re: Help with DSL20 Distortion

Gilmourista said:
I recently bought a Marshall DSL20 (This is my first tube amp), and an American professional strat. I was inspired to get this combo after watching Gary Moore's tribute to Hendrix. Anyways, I'm actually pleasantly surprised with the clean tone I'm getting from the amp, very clean and snappy. What I'm not very happy with is the distorted tone, it sounds extremely thin. As I've posted on another thread before, my holy grail tone is Gary's distorted tone in his cover of Foxy Lady. Any ideas/pedals/amp settings you recommend? My guitar is currently equipped with .09 strings and i'll definitely change them to .10/.11's to see if it makes a difference. As for gain/boost pedals, I have a TS9, and EP Boost, and a Big Muff. Basically what I want is to get as close as possible to Gary's tone. Thanks!
Click to expand...

UPDATE!

Been playing around with pedals and the amp's EQ. Found I can get actually quite close with this pedal chain: Guitar -> Tube Screamer -> EP Boost (Dip switches on) -> Big Muff -> Delay -> amp. Rolled off the guitars tone quite a bit and in the middle position. Also found out that a huge vibrato is key for the sound I'm after. Gary's finger strength was insane! Pretty happy with the tone I'm getting. Changing to .11 gauge also helped a lot. Only thing thats left to do is to change the speaker but that can wait. For the tone I'm after (Gary's Foxy Lady cover), which speaker do you think would be best between the Creamback or the Vintage 30 as I've seen most people change the stock speaker to one of those.

Thanks!
 
Re: Help with DSL20 Distortion

devastone said:
Oh yeah, those have the 70/80 in them, yes, a speaker change would be a huge improvement. I think Celestion makes speakers like that and sells them to all the manufacturers for a good deal, then generates more revenue for itself when everyone figures out they suck and replace them with a "real" Celestion. Although, it everyone stared replacing them with WGS, Eminence, or _________ maybe Celestion would start making decent OEM speakers. I guess you could say I'm not a fan of the 70/80, but that is based on fairly limited experience.
Click to expand...

Perfectly said. The Seventy 80 exists as a Celestion in name only. Replacing that will be a MASSIVE tonal improvement.
 
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