Marshall DSL50 w. Mercury Magnetics Part II

[visceralvideos]

Which Mercury Magnetics choke did you use? The 10H or 3H choke?

[drivin951]

@visceralvideos This is the MC10H (Tone Clone) Choke

[Soldano88]

Love that Les Paul tone with a Marshall.Sounds great! I would have to compare the transformers up close to know the real difference..

[murfdog19]

Is that a Gloss R8? Very nice!!

[pedecamp]

Is this all played on the green channel? Great tone

[drivin951]

@pedecamp  Thanks! That was actually on the crunch (red) channel. I use the (green) mainly for clean tones (clean sounds are great on this amp)...

[fenderman77]

I noticed your rig is nice and quite. I have the DSL 100 and mine has a loud hum when I add gain.

Did the mercury magnetics output tranny and choke quite the hum?

I'm using a Les Paul also.

[drivin951]

The hum increases when the guitars pickups get closer to the amps power transformer. A big part of decreasing the hum is how well the guitars electronics are shielded and using good, shielded cables also. If u like the tone of the DSL100 and hum is your only issue-try a couple of different cables first...

[fenderman77]

Did you put copper shielding in your guitar cavities? I opened up my Les Paul traditional pro and didn't see any.

Could installing shielding possibility solve my hum problem?

If you did install copper shielding did your amp hum before you installed the shielding in your guitar?

[drivin951]

I don't have copper shielding in any guitars I currently have but I've done it in the past. A shielded cavity should help but it may not kill the hum completely. Have you tried your Les Paul and cable on a couple other tube amps to see if the issue follows the guitar?

[daveymurrayrules]

THAT TONES AMAZING! how much does the mod cost?

[guitarnlax36]

the beggining progression sounds like walk all over you by AC/DC.

[drivin951]

Yes it is, same chords and progression with different phrasing...

[guitarnlax36]

I like it lol great song

[infinityjet]

hey cool vid.

Could you do a guitar solo with the best solo tone you can find on this amp? thanks

[drivin951]

Thx. I do intend on making some new videos as soon as I get a new video camera... I'll drop you a line as soon as I post one...

[infinityjet]

thanks

[VelezBiH]

sweet tone i got a dsl 50, what settings do you have on your amp?

[drivin951]

Thanks... Settings I use are: Presence(8) Treble (8) Middle(6) Bass(8) Reverb(4)-clean ch.only) Ultra Gain(Lead 2-Gain(7)Master(0-5 depending on room) Classic Gain(Clean-Gain(6)Volume(0-7 depeding on room).

[timjatomnee]

Everybody is talking about JJ tubes, but in my opinion its the best to use a mix of JJ and tung sol tubes, a JJ for the 2nd slot for a little bit of darkness, for the others tung sol, these tubes sound a lot better and harmonical rich. I really need to do this mercury magnetics mod, sounds awesome!

[drivin951]

Thanks. And you're correct, I have quite a few tubes that I swap out and Tung Sols are excellent. And trust me, the mod sounds much better in person, the mic on my low grade camera doesn't do it full justice. Regards

[dregseth]

hi! nice sound!!! im planning of buying a jcm 800 50watt with upgrades of Mercury magnetics transformer by CMW amps. how will it be compared with yours?? how will i do thrash metal?

[drivin951]

Thx. The JCM800 is an awesome head. I believe it has one less gain stage (preamp tube) than the DSL50 but it has killer headroom and crunch when cranked. If you want to play thrash, i.e early Slayer, you may want to run a Boss SD-1-or similar- pedal out front to drive it even harder. A LOT of early thrash and killer 80's hard rock was done on the JCM800. congrats.

[Napanookie]

I've got a DSL 50 but I can't afford that grand Paul like you've got. I did replace the stock pickups in my faded V (moon inlays) with Seymour Duncan SD. I think it did wonders. I definitely need to consider the tube replacement in my DSL 50. Thanks bro - rock on

[drivin951]

Good deal. When you do the tube swap, a good combo is a pair of "matched" Svetlana EL34's and use all JJ preamp tubes. Bias the head to around 41mV.

[jay31486]

Hello. I just bought the dsl50 and I cant believe how good it sounds. But What do I have to do too use all 4 speakers. I have the head set to 8ohms and the cab set to 150w/stereo. I know I have to swithch the cab to 300w mono but what do I set the head to. Thanks.

[dennisvda1987]

you put the head op to 16 ohm and switch the cab to mono (stereo option on the cab is only usefull if you have multiple heads engaged to one cabinet)

[plechatam]

I think you mean ma. 41mv would be awfully low for plate voltage.

[Wang0Phat]

Definately sounds better than the stock one. The stock ones sound pretty lame.

[drivin951]

Thx. Even a simple tube swap (preamp & power) and re-bias sounds better than stock for sure.

[Wang0Phat]

I'm aware. That's generally true for all tube amps. :p

[guitar4lyF2]

nice sound man

i just bought this head 2 days ago

what are ure settings

[drivin951]

Cool. Settings are: Presence(8) Treble(8) Middle(6) Bass(8) Reverb(4)-clean ch.only) Ultra Gain(Lead 2-Gain(7)Master(0-5 depending on room) Classic Gain(Clean-Gain(6)Volume(0-7 depeding on room). You will dig this amp...

[dualstagef1]

Awesome tone man. What pickups are those, 57's, 498t?

[drivin951]

Thanks. Pickups are Burstbucker 1 (R) and 2 (T) that come stock on the 58' Reissue VOS. Great guitar

[jay31486]

Great sound. I think you just sold me on the dsl50.

[drivin951]

It is a great amp. You will seriously dig it in a large room cranked up...

[RESCUE94]

good tone. sounds really mean.

[drivin951]

I appreciate it.

[jetiii3]

I had a qualified amp tech change all my tubes and re-bias the DSL 50 amp. We went with the real Svetlanas (Ruby Tubes) which are called EL 34 Winged C and in the preamp 1&2 we used 12ax7EH -Electro Harmonix and in 3&4 used 12ax7EI less microphonics and it improved greatly from this, but cost me an extra $200 to do it. How much did your full Mercury Mod cost to do for parts and service?

[drivin951]

The MM output transformer and choke were $180 and the install by Andrews Amp Lab was $65.

[tonerules]

ANY tube swap is extremely subtle in comparison to the Merc tranny swap!

Speakers are subtle in comparison!

[megatop412]

Hot Damn! That tone is friggin' killer! I just moved up from a legacy Valvestate to the 50 (paired with a 1936 2X12) last month and I don't know how I've gone without tubes for so long. Too newbie with it to start thinking about mods, though. Thanks for the vid

[drivin951]

Thanks alot. If you're new to the valve jungle just remember; power tubes + master volume cranked = paradise.

[Marshallsrule]

What do you notice the most about the Mercury

Magnetics mod? Is it a looser bottom, more dynamic, etc...? Thanks for the vid.

[drivin951]

To my ears the MM mod gave (this amp) more dynamics and touch sensitivity. The master volume in this clip is only on (1) so I can't really get the sonic benefits in that small room because only the preamp section is being used. Once the master is turned up to (4)-power tubes start cooking- you really can hear the difference but it's also extremely loud as you can imagine. Thanks

[protegespeed]

nice...I just have a stock dsl...but if you push it with an overdrive it sounds just as good probably...

[drivin951]

Yes. Even better though than O.D pedal out front is (if you still have stock tubes)to install JJ preamp/power tubes and have a tech bias between 40 and 45 mV. Makes a HUGE differnce over the stock tubes...

[jetiii3]

I had a qualified amp tech change all my tubes and re-bias the DSL 50 amp. We went with the real Svetlanas (Ruby Tubes) which are called EL 34 Winged C and in the preamp 1&2 we used 12ax7EH -Electro Harmonix and in 3&4 used 12ax7EI less microphonics and it improved greatly from this, but cost me an extra $200 to do it. How much did your full Mercury Mod cost to do for parts and service?