Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

vendettabass

vendettabass

New member
Im really really torn between these two! Im currently in the process of weighing up the pros and cons of each and could use a little help. ATM I have an AVT50 head, which is balls.

I'm after mainly a 80s hair metal/ punk rock / blues tone, my main influences are GnR, Motley Crue, Sex Pistols, Skid Row etc, but also could use a clean channel that can cope with some effects for some incubus style work.

Basically the main difference is the DSL price point of £525 and the Valveking of £275 (gak.co.uk) hell of a difference. I've got an MXR KFK EQ too - would this enable me to shape tones out of the VK that I desire from a Marshall?

what would you guys suggest... payday soon!!

P.S the marshall 1960AV - are these vintage 30 speakers?
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

Hmmm...

Out of those two, I'd say the Valveking.
I've heard so many orror stories about reliability issues with the JCM 2000 series amps, I dont think I'd ever consider looking at them.

But by judging your budget, I'd also look into a Peavey XXX combo, a used one of some sort.

Other than that, the VK can't be beat for the price.
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

DSL50

I've got one, trust me, it'll take you from blues to punk (where it excells imo) and BEYOND!
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

The VK is voiced more around that 70s marshall sound, just with more distortion. Doesnt sound bad, but i would say get that marshall.
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

vendettabass said:
...

P.S the marshall 1960AV - are these vintage 30 speakers?
Click to expand...

Essentially yes. They are Marshall's version rated at 70 watts each and a touch more open sounding.
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

sounds cool! I was thinking of putting the valveking through one... but the marshalls coming through pretty strong here! is is worth the extra £250?
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

I'd get neither.

And start looking for a JCM800. It's going to be about the same price anyway you cut it.
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

I gave it some thought... but I could really use that 2nd channel.. the 800s with 2 channels are pretty rare arnt they?

Whatever I get I'll be running an MXR KFK 10 band eq in the loop, will this give me any more control over my distortion to perhaps get a JCM800 sounding distortion?

mephis - whats your marshall jackhammer like? is it really an 800 in a box? :P
 
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Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

I've never played a JM800, so I don't know.

But it sure makes my peavey classic sing with a distinct british tone.

You can get a million different sounds out of those pedals, moving the dial 1/10th of an inch is a totaly different tone.
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

cool thanks man.. somethings still drawing me to the valveking, Im gonna see if sound control have any VKs in to try.. cheers for the help!
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

vendettabass said:
sounds cool! I was thinking of putting the valveking through one... but the marshalls coming through pretty strong here! is is worth the extra £250?
Click to expand...

Yes again!:smokin:

Someone brought up reliability issues w/the 2000 series, but almost all the complaints have been directed at the TSL models. Many have indicated no problems w/DSLs. I have a couple of friends w/DSLs, and they love them!

As far as I know, all 800s are single channel. I used to own one; it's a great amp, but I would agree that having a second channel is very handy.
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

The DSL 50 is a very good Marshall amp. With fresh tubes, it's almost impossible for it to break down. Marshalls can take a beating. The TSL's had some problem with the switching relay, but that isn't a problem on the DSL's, because I think it's a different component used in them.

Peaveys are reliable too, but I don't think it'll have the same quality of sound when you put them side by side. Buy a used DSL50 head, and use it with Vintage 30 4-12's. I've owned both a DSL 50 and several channel switching JCM 800's. Some of the 2210 100W JCM800's are good, but the DSL50 definitely sounded better to me than the 50W 2205.
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

thucydides said:
As far as I know, all 800s are single channel. I used to own one; it's a great amp, but I would agree that having a second channel is very handy.
Click to expand...

The 2203/2204 were single channel, but the 2205/2210 were channel switching with reverb. They are very differently voiced amps with the 2205/10's having more than enough gain to do hair metal, but they are both JCM800 Marshalls. JCM800 amps cover a wide range of sonic territory, but you have this myhtical JCM800 sound being reffered to. It's like PAF sound. Which PAF sound? Which JCM800 sound?
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

DSLs are great amps. I personally didn't think the Valveking was all that great, I couldn't really get a good distortion out of it that didn't sound like a high-gain metal distortion. The only 6L6 distortion I really like is in Tweed Fenders, not high gain circuits like in Mesa Boogies or 5150s. The cleans were pretty good though. The DSL however has it beat both in cleans and distortion. Has a nice Marshall classic rock crunch and can do 80s metal well. The cleans are very nice too, like a Plexi, which is sort of like a Tweed Fender clean, pretty fat, and as someone said once, "little" sounding cleans. But in a good way :)
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

Peavey also has the British voiced Windsor amp coming out soon. Checking out on Peaveys Summer NAMM page.
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

Can't remember the magazine but Gary Moore said recently, in an article I read, that he is using DSL-50's and DSL-100's live. He likes the versatility and the reverb. That's a pretty good endorsement.

Haven't tried the Valveking.

But I think a used DSL-50 is a good bet for Marshall Crunch and great clean blues.
 
Re: Marshall DSL50 or Peavey Valveking

I've never tried the Valve King but I do own a DSL 50 head. Keep in mind that this is the only Marshall head that I've ever tried and have owned so I can't compare it to other Marshalls. I've yet to own a 4X12 cabinet too, but I've been putting it thru the paces with various 12" speakers that I have (one at a time) thru a 1X12 cabinet that I made. One day I would like to try it all thru a 4X12 so I can really "feel it." I'm sure it would make a huge differance sound-wise as well.

In my VERY humble opinion, and based on my experience I think it's a very versatile head for OD and distortion sounds but it needs some taming, mainly within the overall high end. It can REALLY knife thru, to the point of...OOWW!!! What I've been doing is to run an EQ thru the amps effects loop to help calm down the high end as well as the mids a bit. I mainly run thru the Classic channel with the gain engaged, and I think it sounds best with the volume at about 8 to 10 and the gain set to around 5. (Yeah, an attenuator is a must). Keeping the volume up as high as possible also helps keep the overall treble down a bit as well. Having the bias lowered on these amps also helps a lot too. The factory setting is 45mV and I had mine lowered to 35mV and to my ears it sounded much better.

Just be sure to throughly check it out to see if that high end will agree with you. That's the one thing I noticed right off the bat when I first tried it out at the store.But again, first Marshall so I had to really learn to work with it.
 
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