DSL401 Help! No Reverb

[Allthumbs56]

Hey all,

I took delivery of a 2001 DSL401 yesterday (I know - silly me), fired her up and the reverb does not work - turning it up just produces a hum. Now I knew going in to this purchase that these things are known for reliability issues but the seller assured me that everything worked great. I had intended on opening her up tomorrow with an electronics friend to look for signs of overheating but I'm wondering if this could be a problem within the tank itself.

I check the connections to the tank and they seem fine (and on the right way) but the tank itself doesn't seem to make any "springy sounds" when bumped (any other reverb-equipped amps I own have always made that "sound" when sat down hard or bumped a bit). Does this sound like there could be a problem in the tank itself? If so, can they be repaired or do they need to be replaced? I'll be opening her up tomorrow to look for bad solder joints and wonder if I'll find the problem here or if it's more likely that it's actually in the reverb unit.

The seller claims that everything worked fine for him so it looks like I'm probably on my own here. Any ideas would be very welcome.

Thanks.

[GearHeadFred]

The springs may have been damaged and/or detached in shipment. I would suggest you start by inspecting inside the reverb pan.

[John Phillips]

It's most likely that one of the fine wires from the reverb transducer to the jack connections has broken. It's so much the most likely that I wouldn't even bother taking the chassis out until I'd checked that.

It's at the Output end of the tank too. If the reverb control hums when you turn it up the return amplifier is OK, but if it doesn't 'crash' when you shake the amp, signal is not reaching it.

This can very easily happen in shipping.

[hasserl]

I had one brought to me for No Reverb, I found the two wire cable was stretched tight, I don't know if it was the stock cable or not. But one of the wires ion the cable had broken, opening the circuit. I replaced the cable with a will fit, one that was a bit longer and could be secured out of the way, and all was good.

[Allthumbs56]

Fixed!

Man, you guys nailed it right on.

Turns out that two of the wires in the reverb tank were bad - one broken and one intermitent. The connectors used were those horrid little "no-solder" things. We tossed them and soldered directly. The RCA cable is a bit flakey too so I plan to replace that with a better quality one soon.

While in there we checked for any potential problems due to the massive heat this design tends to generate and found none. We also mounted a small cpu heat-sink on the bridge rectifier to draw the heat away from the pcb to avoid future problems.

I may also install a cooling fan behind the power tubes but I'm gonna give her some hard use first to see how badly it heats up first.

Issues aside, I really like how this amp sounds. I don't even mind the speaker though I'm not usre how it will sound at band levels yet. Any idea what Celestion that "Gold Label" is similar to?

Thanks for your help - you steered us in the absolute right direction :AOK

[cap'n'crunch]

I think that goldback is simlar to a G1275 thats in the standard 1960 cabs. Most people claim that a Vintage30 sounds better in the DSL combo's but, I actually liked the goldback better. The V30 seemed to darken the amp too much (no cut) for me and made the distortion a litle ratty. Different strokes I guess. I would love to try a greenback or G12H30.

[John Phillips]

Originally Posted by cap'n'crunch

I think that goldback is simlar to a G1275 thats in the standard 1960 cabs. Most people claim that a Vintage30 sounds better in the DSL combo's but, I actually liked the goldback better. The V30 seemed to darken the amp too much (no cut) for me and made the distortion a litle ratty. Different strokes I guess. I would love to try a greenback or G12H30.

A G12M-25 sounds fantastic in the DSL201 - better than the V30 - but neither of them will handle enough power for the 401. The 25 sounds so good I would take a small bet that the amp was developed for it and then that G12E-50 frisbee (which is the single worst 12" speaker I know of) substituted later. The 25 makes the amp perfectly matched between the clean and dirty channels, with every knob on 5... there's something in that I think. With the G12E, the dirty channel is thin, buzzy and weak at anything like the same settings as the clean.

For a 401, a G12-65 is similar to a 25, and the Classic Lead 80 is at least in the same ballpark as an H30, and both will easily handle the power.