Dsl1 (2018 Vietnam Version) Mod's

[Mavrim]

I bought a used DSL1 a few months ago for $230 total. Removed the chassis to investigate what was inside. I noticed that the output transformer had an unused wire inside that was tie wrapped in the wire bundle. After ohming it out I decided that it has to be an 8 ohm tap. The only output is 16 ohms. With these small one watt amps, it is ok to mismatch output impedance without damaging the amp. I read that one of the marshall designers did that with one of the 50th anniversary models to get better tone. I added another output jack next to the 16 ohm jack. When wiring it up, I found that marshall had swapped the ground and hot on the pcb spade connection. So I swapped them and wired in the new lead. I recall that it was white. With a meter I read 1.6 ohms on the 16 ohm output and .9 ohms on the unused lead that I assume is 8 ohms.

I set up my DSL1 using the new 8 ohm output that I installed. Cabinet is a lead 12 slant fitted with an 8 ohm 12" celestion vintage 30. I also swapped out the stock ECC82 power tube with an RFI ECC82. Amp sounded incredible! Then I switched the 8 ohm speaker to the factory 16 ohm output and it did not sound as good. So I can see this mod as being a good thing for those with 8 ohm cabinets.

 

[Mavrim]

Extra output lead tie wrapped in output transformer lead harness. 8 ohms???

 

[Mavrim]

 

[Mavrim]

Ground wire on 8 ohm output jack attaches to ground on PCB as shown.

 

[Mavrim]

8 ohm output jack added next to the original 16 ohm output jack. Need to label this as 8 ohms.

 

[Mavrim]

Next, thinking about adding a presence control, NFB in/out switch, cathode capacitor bypass switches...

 

[Mavrim]

PS - The built in attenuator switch for .1 watts only works on the original 16 ohm output and not on the additional 8 ohm jack. I will investigate that at a later time.

 

[Mavrim]

ECC82 output tube V3 goes directly to the output transformer. Plates connections 6 & 1 go to transformer. So there is no question of a mosfet output stage. I believe that the phase inverter is a mosfet design...

 

[Mavrim]

Thinking I might remove the additional 8 ohm output jack that I installed and replace it with a SPST toggle switch to select 8 ohm and 16 ohm. 16 ohm orange wire going to PCB would go to switch and 8 ohm white wire would go to opposite side of switch. Switch center would then connect where the orange wire went on PCB. This way the attenuator circuit would work for both outputs. The original 16 ohm output jack would now become selectable for 8 or 16 ohms. Too bad I drilled that large hole, now I need to use a large toggle. If doing this mod fresh, I would have used a mini toggle switch.

 

[bobq]

Hello everyone

I've made your modification to 8 ohm and it's works perfectly.

Thanks a lot

Is it possible to change valves to improve our sound?

Thanks a lot

 

[paul-e-mann]

Im hoping somebody can figure out a mod for these amps to rid some of the compression in its tone. Great little amps just too much compression for my liking.

 

[slagg]

Still looking for someone to find the bright cap on the clean classic channel.I think it effects both channels and will reduce a lot of the compression that is killing the tone.

 

[slagg]

can anyone tell me if c30 is the bright cap

 

[ampmadscientist]

Im hoping somebody can figure out a mod for these amps to rid some of the compression in its tone. Great little amps just too much compression for my liking.

If you have the schematic it would be helpful.
Either that or the amp itself to draw a schematic from.

The basic Marshall formula is to compress the highs (the higher the frequency the more compression)
and to leave the lows clean.
The lower the frequency, the more clean it becomes in other words.

And when you hear "too much compression," it often means that the lower frequencies are being compressed too much....resulting in a kind of muddy overload when the amp is pushed.

 

[paul-e-mann]

And when you hear "too much compression," it often means that the lower frequencies are being compressed too much....resulting in a kind of muddy overload when the amp is pushed.

Thats what Im hearing.

 

[Micky]

Has anyone found the schematic for this amp yet?

 

[slagg]

no luck yet

 

[luciferschild]

i snapped some shots of the pcb, would anyone out here in marshall land be willing to trace out the schematic? im trying to find the negative feedback for presence and resonance controls. would be nice to know if c30 is the bright cap also.

 

[luciferschild]

got a pencil sketch done up, will try figure out a way to computerize it when i get a chance. many frustrations tracing this board - looks as if they have gone out of their way make this difficult. like covering traces with components. curious about the 18k slope resistor, 10k mid pot and 0.047uF tonestack caps as well as the different approach to the tone shift. anyone know if those yellow caps are polyester or polypropylene?

 

[slagg]

Awesome ! Someone needed to do this. Is c30 the Bright cap?If so it will be the first thing to mod.