Hi, everyone

I'm considering selling my Marshall JCM 2000 DSL all-tube combo and getting a Peavey 6505 Plus 'cause the Marshall doesn't seem to have enough gain for me. (By the way, it's obvious that I'll go and try the Peavey before I buy it.)

Do you guys think I would need a noise gate pedal with all that high gain from the amp and the pickups?

Also, since the Peavey head is about 120W, I was thinking of getting an attenuator for it. Which attenuators do you guys recommend? Weber MASS perhaps?

Thanks.

1. The dsl has LOADS of gain. Turn it up the master and turn down the gain to hear what it can really do. You can easily get into Nile territory... they do, afterall, use DSL's. What pickups are you using?

2. Noise gate would work yes, but another good way to get rid of some hiss is to bias mod it. 6505's are usually fixed biased very cold, around 30-40% dissipation, when its more ideal to have them near 60-70% dissipation. Bias mod it and it will be a whole new beast.
Also, a good way to clear out some noise, and tame the fizz of this amp is to put a JAN 5751 in the V1 preamp slot. Its probably my favorite tube for anything out there. Basically its a lower gain tube which means a tiny bit less gain, but in a 6505 you wont really notice. It basically makes the gain knob more usable because on a stock 6505, anything above 2-3 oclock on the gain knob sounds like shit. Plus, its a VERY quiet and good sounding tube, like, fat tonez, and it will cut out some high-end fizz and noise, and essentially just tighten up the entire amp.

3. No need to waste your money on an attenuator. All of the gain in this amp comes from the preamp, so as long as you have at least 1 watt flowing to the speakers it will sound good. There is NO NEED whatsoever to overdrive the powersection in this amp. I was in a store once and saw a guy playing a 6505 combo but it sounded like shit, but it was playing at a whisper, which basically meant nearly NOTHING was making it to the speakers, so obviously the speakers were giving him almost nothing. I helped him by turning it up the master andd backing off the gain and it blew his mind.

ANyways, go try the 6505. You may just like it more than the dsl in the case that marshalls just arent your thing.

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Thanks a hell of a lot, the_bleeding. This is not the first time you helped me. Yeah, in fact I just found out that I most probably need to take my amp for a service 'cause while I play, the volume goes down by itself and then comes back up. Also, as far as I remember, I used to get more gain and tone from this amp. So probably it's time to change the tubes. After all, I've had it for like 3 years and I've never taken it to get a service. And what's more, after using an amp and turning it off, one is supposed to let the tubes cool down before moving the amp, right? 'cause when the filaments inside the tubes are hot, they're less rigid and can get damaged by movement. I didn't know this at first, so I could have made some damage to the tubes.
So, I'll get this DSL serviced and try playing on it again. If the sound is still 'weak' so to speak, I've still got a Metal Zone pedal and an EQ pedal which I could use (on the Clean channel). And, I could buy a Super Overdrive pedal to get more gain (when using the OD2 channel).

As for the 6505, I'll definitely go and try it one of these days. I'm dying to hear how it sounds. I've heard that it's great for Metal. It hasn't got reverb and the cleans are "meh" according to the reviews on Harmony Central, so I'll consider those factors.

Regarding attenuators... I'll definitely try that trick you mentioned, thanks. I wonder why they can't just make lower-powered amps (in the case of tube amps) so that they can be played cranked. It doesn't make much sense to me for someone to buy a 120W amp and then use like 1/4th of that volume. Marshall used to manufacture a DSL 20W amp but they're discontinued now.

Volume cutouts definately sound like tubes. Could be pre or power... id' say replace both

and if you're going to buy an overdrive, save up for a maxon od808 or a RAT. Both of them sound AMAZING with marshalls... but the maxon will sound amazing with every amp you ever find, just incase you do get a 6505 to replace the dsl

And about the cleans and reverb, well, i find pedal reverb has always sounded better than amp reverb hahaha. And the cleans can be easily fixed by putting the jan 5751 in v1 like i said. It will make the cleans alot cleaner, and alot fatter.

And about the wattage vs volume, dont worry about it. Higher wattage amps have better bass. I used to think like you, so i bought a marshall 6100lm. It has all of these buttons to make it half power/full power, or pentode/triode, and has a low volume compensation switch, and then a bass or treble compensation switch, and after i tried them all, i realized how much tone they sucked. Now i just run my amp full power, balls to the wall. It yields much more gain, and much heavier bass; just overall sounds fatter. And whats wierd is that there is more gain in pentode/full power than triode or half power... because those switches only affect the power amp... but seriously, it has MUCH more gain on full power. I still have the amp, but i dont use the features. Im probably going to be selling it to fund a 6505 or a powerball hahaha

anyways, im SUPER glad you liked my help. The way i type makes me sound like an asshole sometimes, but i really dont try to be, its just me typing how i think, and my "informative voice" kinda has a dick tone to it... im really workin on it.
I have however been wondering when xdislexicx will show up and steal the show. He knows a buttload about gear. Hell, i learned alot of what i know from him.

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