Marshall DSL40CR [2023 Review]

If you’ve been near an electric guitar in the last fifty years, you’ve heard of Marshall. It’s one of the world’s most recognizable guitar brands, and the boom of Marshall tube amps has powered rock music since the 1960s.

Jimi Hendrix used a Marshall amplifier. Eddie Van Halen used to play through one when he was younger. Yngwie Malmsteen and Jeff Beck. AC/DC. Slayer. Slash. Metallica’s early years. The names go on to form the who’s who of rock and metal over the last few decades.

As you can see, Marshall is a very well-known brand and today we will inspect one of their amazing models. If you are interested in this model, keep reading our Marshall DSL40CR review for more information below.

Marshall DSL40CR

About: The Marshall DSL40C is a powerful amplifier with a plethora of functions and tones. The Amplifier is a two-channel amplifier with digital reverb settings on each channel. There are two modes for each channel.

EQ

The amp also has a common five-knob EQ. The EQ is made up of the standard bass, midrange, and treble settings. It also provides for control over resonance and presence. Marshall even added a tone switch that scoops the mids and creates a contemporary heavy sound.

Channels

The fact that the driving channels sounded so melodic drew us to this amplifier. We usually play blues and vintage rock, and it fits extremely well for that. The amplifier has four distinct channels according to our Marshall DSL40CR review and they are all very useful.

Channel 1 is the “Clean” channel. People often say that Fender is the greatest clean channel amplifier on the market. We are fairly sure Marshall is never mentioned in the dialogue, but perhaps he should be.

The crisp channel is clean, and toasty, and has a pleasant top finish (think RHCP). The clean channel is also quite good at handling pedals. While dirt pedals may be used, the two crunch channels are the most used ones.

Crunch Channel 1 (green): This is one of our favorite amplifier channels. It has an off-clean tone that people use for rhythm guitar and the initial gain stage of their solos. In terms of voice, this will cover anything from blues to classic rock.

Crunch Channel 2 (red): This is where people hang out for soloing. To our ear, it has the same tone as the other Crunch channel, thus we recommend generally running it with greater gain and volume.

As a result, the guitar tone is highly constant. We are not sure why more amp manufacturers don’t do this in our Marshall DSL40CR review.

Speakers

The Marshall DSL40CR amplifier’s standard speaker is a Celestion V-Type speaker. Without a question, these are excellent speakers. We’ve now tested three different speakers in this amplifier, and the V-Type is an excellent overall option.

When you turn up the volume on the amplifier, it doesn’t look nearly as spiky at the top and as it would ordinarily according to our Marshall DSL40CR review.

Turning up a valve/tube amplifier is inherently the greatest technique to determine the top end. Things alter at higher volumes, which most home gamers will be unaware of.

Sound

The amp can produce a wide variety of tones. From classic clean to rock grit on the traditional gain channel. The extreme gain channel may provide classic hard rock and metal sounds. Tone shift is used to produce modern scooped tones.

The speaker is the amp’s most significant flaw. The Celestion Seventy 80 guitar speaker is a mid-range model. It produces adequate tones, but with a speaker swap, the amp can produce considerably greater tones.

If you are afraid to alter the amp, an extension cabinet with a better speaker can be attached according to our Marshall DSL40CR review.

Durability

The amplifier appears to be well-built. It’s well-made. The solid-state rectifier minimizes the issue of dependability. Marshall included a bypass button to the effects loop to eliminate any noise or issues with the effects loop.

There was no ground loop hum when we connected the amp in a stereo mode without an isolation transformer according to our Marshall DSL40CR review. We are sure you will have no problems either.

The amplifier is beautifully polished, and with plastic edges and well-coated covers, it should maintain a great clean appearance over time. This amp appears to be built to last a long time for a gigging musician.

Performance

The DSL40C has two selectable modes per channel, giving it a little advantage in versatility over the DSL15C, but both combinations offer a complete range of Marshall tones, featuring dazzling clean, raunchy crunch, forceful overdrive, and extremely violent contemporary metal distortion.

The main changes are that the DSL40C’s Crunch setting adds more overdrive than the DSL15C’s Classic Gain canal, while the Lead 2 option adds a thicker middle than the DSL15C’s Ultra Gain channel.

The DSL15C’s distorted tones, on the other hand, are significantly more energetic, crisp, and melodically complex owing to its 6V6 tubes, as opposed to the relatively compressed and darker tones according to our Marshall DSL40CR review.

Frequently Asked Questions: Marshall DSL40CR [2023 Review]

Conclusion: Marshall DSL40CR [2023 Review]

The amp is fantastic. Because it is a cheap tube amp, it is suitable as the first tube amp. There is enough clean headroom with 40W of power to perform alongside a drummer according to our Marshall DSL40CR
review.

The amp can produce sounds ranging from clean to crunch to metal distortion, making it perfect for a wide variety of tones.

There is traditional gain in crunch mode, with the gain set to approximately 4. To give you a tip, low-power single-coil pickups produce a filthy clean tone in this mode.

The speaker is the amp’s most serious flaw, although it can be readily and inexpensively repaired. This amp’s characteristics make it a useful property for a gigging musician. We hope you liked our Marshall DSL40CR review and it was helpful.