Fender Blues Jr to Marshall DSL15C

Fender Blues Jr

Once upon a time I bought a used Fender Blues Jr.  It was an okay amp, but I wasn't happy with it.  I did some online research and discovered Bill M's mods for Blues Jr amps.  This was before Bill M's mods were available as kits; all that was provided was information on what parts to buy and directions how to do the mod.  I also learned that I had a second generation circuit board, which apparently was a good thing. 

Anyway, my favorite mods were upgrading the output transformer and switching from EL84 tubes to 6V6 tubes.  I also put a Celestion G12H30 Anniversary speaker in the cabinet.  I was able to squeeze some good sounds out of that amp.

Eventually, some of the knobs started to go out and when I tried to replace them I messed up and killed the amp. 

Marshall DSL15C

On a whim, I decided to try a Marshall DSL15C (used) to replace the Blues Jr.  I had to do some mods to the ultra-gain channel to tame it a bit and remove some of the bite.  Other  changes I made were to switch to Tung-Sol 12ax7 preamp tubes, a Ruby 12ax7 phase-inverter tube and Tungsol 6V6 tubes.  In addition, I took out the wimpy speaker and put in a WGS Reaper (8ohm).  I also have two external closed back speaker cabinets that I use with the DSL15C (only one cabinet at a time). One has a single Celestion Vintage 30 (8ohm) and the other has a WGS ET65 (16ohm) and a WGS Invader (16ohm) wired together so the cabinet has an 8ohm load.  That way, I plug in two 8ohm loads to the amp for a combined 16ohm load. 

Initially, I was not so sure I would be happy with the DSL15C.  There were a lot of negative reviews about the amp.

Over time the amp grew on me.  I figured out that the classic gain channel sounded great with the gain turned to 75% with the volume between 4 and 6.  It doesn't need to have the volume higher than 6 because the amp is LOUD.   I was also able to dial in the ultra-gain sweet spot with gain around 25% to 40% and the volume between 4 and 6. 

Something that might help the sound a little are a couple of pedals, an FX Engineering RAF Mirage compressor and a JOYO R-02 Taichi drive pedal (Dumblish).  

What I have grown to love about the DSL15C amp is that it has a sound very similar to my old modified Blues Jr, except the DSL15C has all the depth and beef that the Blues Jr was never able to achieve.

I've been able to dial in the DSL15C to a point where my DSL40C and a point-to-point hand-wired JCM800 clone are in storage gathering dust. 

I get everything I need out of the DSL15C.  Sure, a couple stacks of Marshalls might look cool, but they could just as well be stage props with the DSL15C hiding behind them mic'd up and doing the work.

Until next time...

Enjoy the Music!

Jimmy