btomlinson

If I am using a distortion pedal, is there any reason to have a Marshall DSL-401? How much is the Marshall coloring the sound of my guitar and pedal?

Also, When using a pedal, should the amp be played with as little built in distortion?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

JohnH

Play it any way you like it. I like mine with a Bad Monkey overdrive pushing the clean channel, so I get a crunch that is part pedal and part amp.

John

__________________
DSL401
8412 cab
'76 Shergold Masquerader
'93 Les Paul Studio
'83 Roadstar

btomlinson

Thanks John.

With a pedal for distortion, are tubes a waste?

JohnH

Not at all - you can get some of your tone set up with the pedal, then you feed that into your tube amp and push it into its own crunch which adds a tube charactar that the pedal can't do on its own.

They can work well together, and some of the greatest guitar tones known to man were created that way.

__________________
DSL401
8412 cab
'76 Shergold Masquerader
'93 Les Paul Studio
'83 Roadstar

btomlinson

Thank you. I guess I need to decide which is more my taste. A Marshall or a Fender.

Thanks so much.

lerxst88

i have a 401 and i use an mxr dist+ in front of it and i crank the output and then add distortion to taste.

distortion pedals are nice to boost up the sound a bit rather than using them excusively.

coldsteal2

Wow the 401 is the only amp i need 0 distortion pedals for
the natural high gain chanel distortion is better than any
pedal i can think of

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steelhorse

I think tube amp distortion sound so much better than a pedal. After I sell my tricked out TS9, I'll only have 1 drive pedal left (I sued to have a half dozen) my DS-1 done up by garmopatmods.com. It's a very sweet pedal with nice distortion tones but the amp owns it as it should.

steelhorse

I'm curious about the 401 now and will plan on checking one out soon.

lerxst88

wanna buy mine?

RachelMorgan

Right now i'm using a 5150 II with a TS808 in front. Tube distortion is all I need. Tube distortion > pedal distortion. The 808 is just for that little extra OD and I only have the drive on it set to 10:00. I haven't been able to try this with my JVM because alas it is not working right now.

Heavy distortion pedals are primarily for playing through clean amps at bedroom volumes.

Light distortion pedals and light overdrive are for playing through cranked tube amps that are already distorting.

__________________
Guitars: ESP LTD Alexi-600 V; Gibson SG Standard; Schecter C-1 Hellraiser (JB/'59 w/ JB coil tap)
Amps: Peavey 6505+; Fender HR Deville.
Board: Crybaby -> TS808 -> amp -> M-108 -> Whammy -> BF-3 -> DD-6 -> Sonic Stomp -> amp -> Hot Plate ->
Speakers: Avatar Contemporary 212s #1: Greenbacks; #2: Vintage 30s

steelhorse

heh, not right now. I bought a new DSL100 less than a month ago and just yesterday I bought a Silver Jubilee 2555 1/2 stack.

Oh and I bought a new LP the other day too.

Needless to say I'm a bit tapped out!

psphill27

I have a 401 and I use 0 distortion pedals with mine. You can get that great tube amp distortion just driving the amp. However, I do run an OD pedal to boost for solos and the like.

I have an older 401 (headaches), but have it working like a champ now. One of my favorite amps.

Brett Blackmore

Hi,

I do not use an o/d pedal with my DSL - the DLS tube distortions are enough for me - I play hard rock/old metal. I do have a Marshall Guvnor2 with my Plexi, but that is another story. I have not tried it with the DSL as I love the DSL's distorted sound. It is one of the reasons why I bought it - the tone. I LOVE John Norums sound on the last few Europe albums (2005 <-> 2007) and he nails the Zakk Wylde sound too with his Les Pauls & EMGs. And I love Vinnie Moore on UFO's 'Showtime' DVD and Monkey Puzzle.

However, maybe an attenuator would help me as I have a DSL100 and I need it to sing at low volumes - and the DSL is friggin' loud!


Cheers Brett

49thz

Depends on what type of music you play-Country/Twang lends more to a Fender, Rock/Metal lends more towards a Marshall. I own a "401"- it does clean fairly well and does "OD' very well with no pedal's needed. I'm not a "Pro" musician- but I'm very happy with the tones that I get out of this amp "JMHO"

DragonSarc

+1

coldsteal2

Yea the totaly "Different" clean chanel on the
401 is almost identical to the great sound of
a VoxAC30 clean as heck, and then the
OD 1 and then OD 2 are really sweet, for its
size its one of the best amps marshall ever made
even with its Heat problem and stock speaker
you get the bridge rectifier heat mod and put
in a Vintage 30 the amp is a keeper.
also putting in JJ tubes really improves the tone.
I dont know why Marshall doesnt spend an extra
$40 to put in top of the line speakers in thier combos

I use my 401 for leads, and my Vintage Modern
for chording between the two i get everything coverd
i also run the 401 through two Heritiage G12M's
in my 1960a cab

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mike sicowitz

Hi all,
All this talk about the 401 makes me wish I had mine back. I'm sure it's still sitting in the store for $650. That's great for real Marshall sound, but like others have been saying, why didn't they just go a little further and dump in a better speaker-hell man, speakers are the cheapest part of the deal and have a little something to do with the sound. They could have had their best combo of all-time with a few more improvements. That's what got under my skin and I dumped it. I thought why go this far and then go cheap. Then there's the heat problem, better have a fan on that thing. But it does have a fine head and the OD channel kicks ass. As for the question about how and when to use the pedal with the amp: if the pedal is what you want to hear the amp must be clean. That's why I got a better Marshall, and keep getting better Marshalls. After selling out and going with a processor I needed Big Marshall sound but very clean when needed. You will soon find out that adding distortion to a chain can ruin the chain. Besides, in the chain you have as much drive as you could ever want. In sum, these modern modelers are for clean amps. If you want to go 'old school' keep adding distortion, but that era, and the current amps reflect it, is over. I wish it wasn't so. Mike Sicowitz, love the forum.