https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:11:10 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/paged/2/#post-160711 Mon, 20 Feb 2006 05:59:30 +0000 Live Sound Doug_C https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/paged/2/#post-160711 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160706 Mon, 20 Feb 2006 05:40:40 +0000
I love Marshall amps, but they always have problems. My DSL401 is in the shop too. After firing it up, about 2 minutes later the volume would fade away to nothing. Sometimes the volume would come back in a minute or two and the amp would play fine for hours. Sometimes it would come back and then fade away in a few minutes again and never return. I went to the Marshall Amp Forum and found that a few people had this exact same problem. It is supposedly the preamp tube heater rectifier.

Anyway, I put it in the shop a week ago and hope to have it back by Saturday.

I still love this amp, it has a great overdrive channels. But I like the clean channel too.

The DSL401 clean channel starts breaking up around 6. It is not quite like the video, but it's a good blues overdrive.

Want to get a tone like that video, check out the Fender Blues Deluxe Re-issue. Crank it to about 6 or higher and you will sound just like that video. My HRD will do it too. To get that tone you need an amp with a good clean channel.

Was your amp under warranty? Maybe you can get it fixed for free.

Let us know how it turns out. But if you want reliability, go Fender, or Peavey, or Traynor, or ..... anybody but Marshall. :D Thanks for the post Wes, I have been looking for that blues tone but I haven't been cranking the Hot Rod Deville. Today I went home on used the more drive channel I had the drive on 10, and master volume on 8, I had my tube overdrive pedal level all the way up and the gain all the down, the guitar volume was about 6.
I had some classic tone and my guitar was sustaining forever without the compressor. I had the tone in that video but not the licks :lol:
Anyways thanks!!]]> Live Sound djdubb https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160706 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160681 Mon, 20 Feb 2006 03:14:39 +0000 Live Sound DaveC https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160681 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160655 Mon, 20 Feb 2006 01:45:49 +0000
Perhaps your DSL401 has the same problem as mine, I read up on the Marshall Amp Forum and found several people had this exact problem with this particular amp. Also, when I took my amp to my local shop a friend who works there who is an excellent player and has a collection of Marshall amps told me this happens to these amps often. So perhaps you have the same problem. As I told you, these amps have a history of the preamp heater rectifier going out. Your volume just goes out while you are playing it. If you look in the back you will see the two center preamp tubes are dim while the four power tubes are bright. The preamp tube behind the power tubes will be bright as well.

I don't think my attenuator had anything to do with this. I've had my amp almost a year and it was fine. I think this is just a common problem with this particular amp.

Fortunately, I have read this is not too expensive a repair. I also picked up my amp used for $400, so I don't mind paying up to $150 to fix it. It is a great sounding amp, I love the tone, so it is worth it to me.

Matt, 4-5 years is a pretty long time for tubes if you crank your amp all the time. Perhaps a tube just wore out. Maybe you have a local TV repair shop that has an old tube tester.

But if you are after SRV you need a Fender. You can pick up a used HRD for $300-400. You can get Stevie's tone easy with this amp.]]> Live Sound Wes Inman https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160655 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160472 Sun, 19 Feb 2006 01:40:53 +0000 I don't know much (ie anything) about electronicsDon't feel like the Lone Ranger there. I took an Electronics Tech course twenty-something years ago, and about all I know is which end of a soldering to hold. :lol:
I just got that Fender Musicmaster, so now I'm a Toob Noob.
I'm definately going to err on the side of caution, but I play @ bedroom levels 95% of the time and I still want to get that wonderful tube saturation I've heard so much about without blowing out the windows :)Yeah, I hate it when that happens, especially on windy days like this. (Is York County getting pounded, too?)
Wes gave me some info a while back on the attenuator he uses, and it seems to match up pretty well with the DSL circuitry. In terms of the Marshall power brake...I wasn't going to go that route anyway since its overpriced and evidently doesn't work too well.No "smoke tests" for you, eh? :wink:
That site seemed like a good reference, haven't looked at the rest of it besides the page you linked to. Wes described step by step how to hook the attenuator up and how to set the output level (16 ohms for the DSL). Thanks again for the info.Wes is pretty sharp with stuff like that. I get some good info from his posts.
And you're welcome. Glad I had some info you could use.]]> Live Sound Doug_C https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160472 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160463 Sat, 18 Feb 2006 23:43:18 +0000
That site seemed like a good reference, haven't looked at the rest of it besides the page you linked to. Wes described step by step how to hook the attenuator up and how to set the output level (16 ohms for the DSL). Thanks again for the info.

:)M]]> Live Sound MattyPretends116 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160463 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160455 Sat, 18 Feb 2006 22:19:07 +0000 http://www.kcanostubes.com/content/newsletter_details.asp?ArticleID=2
Is a "DSL" a JCM-2000, and which one do you have?
TSs seem to be a pretty good overdrive pedal, I've never used one but I've heard all about them. Maybe I'll look into it, but I want to try an attentuator first since that'll get the power section working. I know you've done a bunch of research already, but I did want to mention something about attenuators, again not from personal experience, but something picked up while looking up other things. See the third question on this page: http://www.amptone.com/powerattenuatorfaq.htm.
I'd be bummin' if I didn't mention that and it turned out you didn't already know about it, so there ya go. :wink:
Another amp I've heard a ton about is the Peavey Delta Blues. Its kind of a diamond in the rough, bad marketing due to the name but its supposed to be a great R&R/blues rock amp. Never played one, has anyone here?I haven't played any Peavey gear myself, but there are a bunch of reviews here http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/Peavey/ for the Delta Blues and DB 210. They got an overall 8.6 and 9.3, respectively. Looks like they're a 1x15 and a 2x10, both 30 watts.]]> Live Sound Doug_C https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160455 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160432 Sat, 18 Feb 2006 19:46:35 +0000
TSs seem to be a pretty good overdrive pedal, I've never used one but I've heard all about them. Maybe I'll look into it, but I want to try an attentuator first since that'll get the power section working. Another amp I've heard a ton about is the Peavey Delta Blues. Its kind of a diamond in the rough, bad marketing due to the name but its supposed to be a great R&R/blues rock amp. Never played one, has anyone here?]]> Live Sound MattyPretends116 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160432 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160277 Sat, 18 Feb 2006 02:44:46 +0000
Yes, a compressor would definitely be worth investigation - the old MXR Dyna-Comp takes a lot of beating :D]]> Live Sound PVTele https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160277 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160265 Sat, 18 Feb 2006 02:06:55 +0000 Roger McGuinn has an onboard compressor built into his Rickenabcker 360/12RM, having used a "comp" for sustain since at least his days in the Byrds.
we'll call you little steevie.Yeah, you can develop "Maine blues-rock" as a new style, just like Texas blues-rock. 8)]]> Live Sound Doug_C https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/sustain-and-a-clean-tone/#post-160265