Marshall DSL40
ToTal GuiTar summer 2018
102
Head to Head
A quartet of combos with
multi-switching abilities
a
ll four combos re up smoothly and
quietly with little or no hiss and hum,
and all seem to work equally well with
humbuckers and single coils, thanks
to wide-ranging EQs and voicing
options. Despite its relative lack of features, the
PRS Sonzera 20 packs serious tonal authority,
with stunning clean and high-gain voices. We
liked the way the clean channel can be driven
into a very authentic tweed vintage overdrive,
while the gain channel provides plenty of lth
but also sounds really good at low drive
settings, something most amps don’t do well.
Marshall’s latest DSL40 may not have the
luxury of independent EQ, but with two voicing
options on each channel as well as a tone shift
button, there’s plenty of exibility. The
DSL40’s clean sounds are better than earlier
versions and the crunch and OD1 settings are
great fun to use, while OD2 provides all the
modern distortion that you would expect
from a Marshall.
Blackstar’s all-new revised HT Club 40 also
has four voices to choose from, with the extra
benet of their clever ISF control on the lead
channel, which continuously varies the amp’s
EQ between UK and USA response. The HT40
Club MkII excels at low to medium gain drive
settings, where the in-house digital reverb
really adds a new dimension to this amp’s
capabilities. It’s a similar story with the Mark II
version of Peavey’s EL84-powered Valveking;
while the VKII doesn’t have four preamp voices
to choose from, it has Vari-Class, which lets
you experiment with class A or class AB power
amp response and any combination in
between. Vari-Class is quite subtle at lower
volume levels but has more eect as the
volume controls are turned up. The Peavey
sounded great for low- to medium-gain
playing, and the low wattage options make it
ideal for home use. The MSDI outputs have a
low noise oor - which is perfect for hooking
up to a mixing desk.
Like the other three
amps, the Peavey
ValveKing features a
12” loudspeaker
The HT Club’s series
effects loop offers
switchable levels
all four Combos fire
up smoothly and
quietly with little
or no hiss or hum...
the tg test
TGR309.gear_test.indd 102 19/07/2018 15:43