12" 16ohm Speakers:

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I put the DSl40C in a empty room with a wood floor and started messing with the EQ settings. I am surprised what a good sound I was able to get from it today, but the settings were really oddball when it sounded the best...The 55Hz Reaper might work out after all...
 
Ok, here's what I noticed. When I roll in a lot of bass and gain with my other amps, the tone remains clean. But with the Reaper 55Hz, it doesn't respond cleanly to heavy bass and resonance - it gets dark and a tinge muddy.

Since I play most often with a very mid-rangey bassist, I shoot for a bigger tone. If I'm working with a bassist who has a huge low end, I go more mid-rangey in my tone.

So, after months covered in the closet, I pulled it out and made some adjustments to the EQ - a combination of adjustments that I've never used before that I arrived at just by jamming and turning knobs- and what i heard surprised me.

The gain - with 5751/7025WA/7025WA/7025WA is really smooth and kinda creamy - but if you really crank the gain, it doesn't sound good. It gets really very broken and fuzzy sounding. So I rolled the gain back to about a little less than 3/4's and it really started to sound good.

Another thing I noticed about this DSL40C is, it sounds really good with volume below 1/2, but over 1/2 it just does not sound great.

Compared to my 1997 Marshall Valvestate VS265 - which sounds better the harder you drive it - you discover this sweet spot with the volume about 9 or 10'O-clock and beyond that, it just doesn't have the ss me tonal range.

I also realize that this is why the Weber attenuator didn't really impress me and no longer gets used. If you really, really drive this DSL40C, it doesn't get better with higher volume.

When I looked at my EQ's, I was shocked to see things like resonance and presence full up together, bass full up, but with treble and mids around 1 O'clock and tone shift 'in' which kinda takes the high frequency edge off the tone.

The resulting tone was loud A.F. but didn't hurt your ears. It wasn't overly sharp. It was very, Very akin to Leslie West's intro to Mississippi Queen. Loud and biting. You could feel the sound waves coming off the speaker in a stream, but it never got muddy or dull.

I think my tendency to use too much gain was the problem...
 
The gain - with 5751/7025WA/7025WA/7025WA is really smooth and kinda creamy - but if you really crank the gain, it doesn't sound good. It gets really very broken and fuzzy sounding. So I rolled the gain back to about a little less than 3/4's and it really started to sound good.

Another thing I noticed about this DSL40C is, it sounds really good with volume below 1/2, but over 1/2 it just does not sound great.

This is similar to what I've discovered with my little DSL-5C.
 
Guitar with DiMarzio Super Ds in it gain is 10 to 11 oclock. Guitars with PAF specked Hummys in them gain on amp 10 oclock to 1 oclock depending on what your playin, Sabbath songs well gain is 12 oclock on up to 3 or 4 oclock :)
 
Discoveries make life so interesting!!
I tend to not go "outside the box" in my knob / settings thinking, but sometimes I just keep turning them and playing and... mostly a big thumbs down.

I have a hard time getting a good biting Mississippi Queen tone. It tends to be fizzy, compressed, and dark (the compression).
I am planning on some serious power tube break up 18w P90 playing sometime soon when the opportunity arises.
Got some Hearos ear plugs recently too.
 
I must clarify my gain setting for heavier music or Sabbath songs. This 12 oclock to 3 or 4 oclock is for a PAF specked pick up. Just what ive experienced is the high gain pups tend to just wash out there clarity with real high gain amp settings,why i like to stick with around the PAF specked pups. can crank more gain to them with out them losing there clarity.
 
I agree the amp at the settings that get you what you are looking will sound different with different a guitar / pickup type/ specs. etc.
 
I agree the amp at the settings that get you what you are looking will sound different with different a guitar / pickup type/ specs. etc.

The DSL40C is the only amp I have to set differently, maybe because its all tube???
 
Discoveries make life so interesting!!
I tend to not go "outside the box" in my knob / settings thinking, but sometimes I just keep turning them and playing and... mostly a big thumbs down.

I have a hard time getting a good biting Mississippi Queen tone. It tends to be fizzy, compressed, and dark (the compression).
I am planning on some serious power tube break up 18w P90 playing sometime soon when the opportunity arises.
Got some Hearos ear plugs recently too.

20181129_070700.jpg
 
I must clarify my gain setting for heavier music or Sabbath songs. This 12 oclock to 3 or 4 oclock is for a PAF specked pick up. Just what ive experienced is the high gain pups tend to just wash out there clarity with real high gain amp settings,why i like to stick with around the PAF specked pups. can crank more gain to them with out them losing there clarity.

Yes! My S-G has a 9.5k in the bridge. Its the lowest output of all my guitars and it has the best clarity of them all.
 
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