Got lucky with this little Marshall combo

thermionic

Looking for a birthday present for my partner’s son, I spotted a DSL15C on Facebook Marketplace for a decent price. Seemed like a great idea as he was getting frustrated with the Code 25 he’s had for a year (it’s been back to Marshall once under warranty and has become unreliable again). After I contacted the seller I noticed one on ebay for the same price - easier to pick up the local one, but I also had a plan B. I asked if I could come round to quickly try it but the seller stopped replying to my messages. In the meantime the one on ebay disappeared. After four days the seller finally replied, by saying that she didn’t want to give her address to people on Facebook but offered to meet somewhere public. Not sure what she had in mind but I wasn’t going to hand over cash if I can’t plug it in for five minutes.

Just before I read her last message, miraculously, the other amp reappeared on ebay so I bought it straight away. It was packed up and sent, immediately, I received a tracking number and it arrived two days later. Definitely the best ebay buying experiences I’ve had in a long while, and a stark contrast to the timewaster on Facebook. Unfortunately I could only er, test it for half an hour before taking it over to the birthday boy!

https://i.imgur.com/2vGmzW0.jpg

It’s quite similar to the DSL201 I had many years ago - decent clean sound and a great Marshall overdrive sound, although like the DSL201 it suffers a little by omitting the crunch and OD1 options that are available on the larger models in the DSL range.The TMB + Presence (and tone shift and deep switches) work really well. It came with a bonus Marshall cover, a pair of spare EHX 6V6s, but the best thing is the speaker has been upgraded to a Celestion V-Type! Absolute bargain.

ICBM

Good score.

I have to say I tried a Code 25 not long ago - I never got around to it when they came out originally - and found it impossible to get a tolerable, non-artificial sound out of it. This is not ‘digital snobbery’ - the Blackstar ID15 in the same shop, which is also a modeller, was really quite good - but the Marshall just sounded weirdly grainy and boomy no matter what I did with the gain and EQ. I think he will get along a lot better with the DSL, even discounting the reliability issues.

thermionic

Yes, I think he’s got his mojo back, been playing it all the time. Now I fancy getting one of the 5W combos for myself…

The Code 25 has been terrible (and it was my recommendation). It’s far too loud for the size of the cabinet, anything above 1 or 2 on the volume results in blasts of air coming out from the tiny gap around the control panel. I’d bet the cause of the faulty display was a ribbon cable or other connector being dislodged by the huge vibrations going on inside. Being basically a computer, it has be be power cycled or factory reset regularly when the presets misbehave. Very disappointed with that amp.

ICBM

thermionic said:

The Code 25 has been terrible (and it was my recommendation). It’s far too loud for the size of the cabinet, anything above 1 or 2 on the volume results in blasts of air coming out from the tiny gap around the control panel. I’d bet the cause of the faulty display was a ribbon cable or other connector being dislodged by the huge vibrations going on inside. Being basically a computer, it has be be power cycled or factory reset regularly when the presets misbehave. Very disappointed with that amp.

Yes - for the first time with any Marshall amp I’ve ever played, I turned the bass right down, but even on zero it was still too woofy… just now lacking depth in the guitar sound itself. The mids and treble also had a nasty grainy tone which I couldn’t get rid of with any combination of the two controls, even when it was then too dull.

Really poor. I don’t know who at Marshall thinks an electric guitar amp should sound like this, but for me it’s a new contender in the worst-sounding amp I’ve ever heard category - just thankfully lacking the fatiguing character of the Orange Micro Terror or the Boss Katana MkI.

Enjoy the DSL, it’s a properly good-sounding amp .

thermionic

This thread is going to come back to haunt me when I’m trying to sell a little used Code 25…

ICBM

thermionic said:

This thread is going to come back to haunt me when I’m trying to sell a little used Code 25…

Sorry!

TTBZ

With the Code, try changing the cab model to the 1912. All the other cab models sound weird to me but the 1912 removes a lot of that weird boomy scoopy sound.