As I said in the other thread I’ve been sorely tempted by the new Marshall DSL20 recently. Last night I went down to Mansons and tried it out, as well as the 40W combo. Much preferred the 20 head (dont have room for another combo anyway, but was good to compare), and I went home to consider. That didn’t take long and i went back after work today to purchase! It sounds awesome through my cab. Quite a versatile little amp with plenty of gain on tap but the gain channel is not at all shrill like the last generation of DSLs. Can easily dial in some classic Marshall tones, and wind it up past noon and you can unleash teh brutalz! Gain channel reminds me of OD1 of my old JVM. Shared eq is a compromise, but have dialed it in to where it’s all good. Looking forward to putting it through it’s paces with the band in a few weeks. Switchable fx loop is really good too. Reverb is probably the least impressive, but will probably just stick my FRV-1 in the loop. Honeymoon period obviously but am very happy.
I can't believe they STILL haven't added something to help balance the channels a bit with that shared EQ; like a switchable top-cut just on the OD channels or something. That's always been that design's downfall.
It's doubly annoying as they kept that pony 'tone shift' button, as if anyone playing metal now uses Marshalls for a scooped sound?!
I wonder how they voiced the channels on the DSL20 versus the 50/100 and combos, since they don't have those 'clean-classic' and 'od1-od2' buttons
I know! It's silly really. And totally agree about the tone shift button - most useless thing ever!
Would be nice to know exactly re. the voicing. I played the 40C when I tried out the 20, and in the limited time I had with it it did sound like it was the Clean and the OD1 channels essentially.
One of my pupils brought a DSL5 combo to a gig last night. It sounded good but I didn't get a chance to play with it. Think I'm going to have him bring it in to school some day so I can have a go.
Gigged the Marshall for the first time yesterday and it was bloody brilliant.
Sounded so good wound up, and only needed volume halfway. First time I’ve played it outside the house so was a lot of fun. Didn’t even use my pedalboard, put my SHO in the (switchable) FX loop and went straight in via a tuner. Was a lot of fun.
