someone's selling this amp used for $500. i'm short on cash these days, but i also don't have a real amp at the moment. what do you guys think of this amp?
It gets some good reviews, more good than bad. Is less than half price for a new one at $500. I would see it, if you have not. Play thru it, and make sure it all works. If it needs new tubes, that could be a relatively cheap fix. But really, an amp that goes for close to $1100 for $500. That is not a bad deal. See if they will come down even more though!
It is a small world for metal fanatics. I welcome you fellow musicians, especially the metalheads!
I own a DSL401 and really love it. But I had some problems with it.
The problem with this amp is that it is known to overheat. The 4 EL84 power tubes get very hot. The faceplate of the amp does get hot. Some have put fans inside the amp. This was a big problem on the early DSL401s, but supposedly has been remedied. The heat can cause solders to fail.
I bought my amp used on EBay for $425. It was about 3 years old (2002 model). The amp played fine and I really loved it for about 8 months. Then the volume started going out. It would just fade away like you were turning the volume down. Sometimes the volume would come back in a minute. Sometimes I would turn the amp off for a minute and then it would play good for many hours. But this problem started happening more frequently. I went to the Marshall Amp forum and saw where several people had this same exact problem. It was the Preamp Heater Rectifier. I took my amp in and had it serviced and all the solders gone over as well, cost about $170.
But I'll tell ya, since I had this amp serviced it is awesome. Most people think of overdrive with Marshall's, but this amp has a beautiful clean tone. It is not a twangy clean Blues or Country tone like Fender's, it is a Rock clean. Absolutely gorgeous, I love it. The overdrive channels are great too, true Marshall crank.
I also retubed the amp with JJ tubes from Eurotubes. I really like these tubes, the amp has more clean headroom. This amp is plenty loud to play any gig.
Another problem with this amp, I've also read this was common with the early models and has been corrected is the reverb. It has a good reverb. I did not like it at first, but when I got the amp up to volume at gigs it sounded great. But the problem is that whenever I switched from either Overdrive channel back to the Clean channel I would get a feedback type howl for about 2 seconds. I didn't like this at all. It is fine when going from Clean to Overdrive. But at gigs I used the Clean channel only and used pedals for Overdrive or Distortion. I used the reverb like this and it sounded great.
So you probably think this amp is junk. No, this is a great amp with outstanding tone that will knock you out. I just got one of the earlier amps with problems. If this amp was made after 2003 the overheating and reverb problems were corrected. The date of manufacture is on a plate on the rear of the amp with the serial number. Check that out for sure.
I am not unhappy with this amp at all. I will probably pick up another someday on EBay just because I love the awesome tone. I wouldn't pay $1100 for this amp, no way, but $500 is pretty reasonable if the amp is in good condition.
This amp has some great features. I love that it has seperate tone controls for both the Clean and Overdrive channels, wish my Hot Rod Deluxe had that. It has a Line Out that you can run into a PA mixer that actually works very well. I am not too crazy about the Effects Loop. Works fine, but I really like to run effects straight into it. You can dial in effects in the loop and mix with the clean or overdrive tone.
The amp is nice and portable, easy to carry around. But it is surprisingly loud. And the tone is to die for.
Here is a website about the DSL401 and shows where some install a fan to cool it. Some just put a little fan behind it when playing a gig. I have not had any more problems with mine since it was serviced.
http://www.piller.at/music/index.php?target=dsl201/index.html
Edit: This site also talks about the very problem I described and said it was corrected on amps after August 2003.
After a few months, my amp started to develop a problem that seems to be very common with this series: Preamp tubes go dark and the amp produces no output anymore. After some time, kicks, or power switch cycles everything works again.
I did a lot of research on the web, especially on the Marshall Arts forum at Blamepro and on alt.guitar.amps.
Thanks to Lord Valve, JH, Count Zero and others for getting me onto the right track. The problem lies in a bridge rectifier that gets too hot and weakens the solder joints (most of the time losening the heater wire). Did you notice that the front panel gets extremely hot on the right side?
UPDATE: Marshall changed the bridge rectifier and some other details in August 2003 and the newer Amps are much more reliable. The serial number on the back of the amp tells you when it was made. The first four digits are the year (2003) and the last two digits are the month (08=August).
Wes
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
well, i found out it's a 2001, which kind of sours me a little. still, i might take a look at it, see if it's really the tone monster (with my prs soapbar II) you claim.
Everything Wes said and more. I have a 2001 as well and it crapped out on me a while back, new tubes, fixed the reverb and its like new. Marshalls are temperamental, but they give good sound. I'm using a semihollow carvin, and its pretty good. If you can snag it for $500, do it IMO. Enough power, good channels, no frills, etc.
"Contrary to popular belief, Clapton is NOT God. The prospect that he is God probably had a large hand in driving him to drugs and booze. Thanks everyone."
-Guitar World :lol:
Jason
Not all early DSL401s experienced these problems. And a good solution is to either install a small fan as shown at that website, or simply set a fan behind the amp when playing. But as far as tone, this is a truly great sounding amp in my opinion. It has that awesome Marshall tone.
Tell the guy you are aware of problems this amp has. Maybe you can get $100 knocked off. I would take it at $400 easy. You could always have an amp tech go over all the solders and come out about the same. Even with the $170 I had to pay for service, I've got a $1100-1200 amp for half price.
Or check EBay. You can find these amps on EBay at $400-500 easy, see them all the time. I was fortunate enough to find one only 50 miles from me, I picked it up and saved the shipping.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
i just got a dsl401 a few days ago and it seems pretty good, iv upgraded from a marshall mg30dfx :oops: to a marshall avt150 :oops: and now to this, although i would still have had the avt if it didnt break down after 4 days, probably the best thing that could have happened :D
