Marshall DSL 100, need help fixing it.

[marshandall]

I've got a Marshall DSL 100 head (obviously) and lately it's been cutting out. I've already checked the speaker cables as well as the instrument cables and they all work fine, so I know it has to be something more complicated than that.
We also tried running the head through a separate cabinet, and it was doing the same thing.

This started to happen as my band was finishing up a set in a bar (I was using a power strip, no worries), so needless to say I'm bummed about this because this is my favorite amp.

Okay... so as far as the sounds that come out of it - the clean channel seems to be okay, until I start to turn up the volume or play obnoxiously, so the same goes for the distortion channel. It seems to me that some wire may just be knocked a bit lose that I may need to re-solder (hopefully it's that easy), but I've already had an amp tech look at it and he wasn't able to find the problem, which makes me think it's even more of a difficult problem because he works on Marshalls all the time and claims to have never experienced one with the problem that I'm having now.

If anyone can help, please let me know, I would greatly appreciate it!

[Enzo]

AMps cut out for a million reasons.

Isolate the problem. Send the effects send signal to another amp. Does that signal go away when the one coming out the speaker does? If so, the problem is in the preamp. If the remote amp keeps going while your speaker drops, then the power amp is the problem.

Plug a spare cord from effects send right back to efects return and see if that makes any difference.


Inspect the solder under all the jacks and the impedance selector switch. Switch the impedance selector back and forth a few times to clear the contacts - any help?

Check the rectangular cement resistors - the ones up on stilts - any of them coming loose? ANy rocking back and forth too easy?

Are you using a real speaker cord and not just a spare guitar cord for your cab?

Have you tried a different cab and different speaker cord?

[marshandall]

I will check those as soon as possible, but thank you for reminding me of something I forgot to mention. To my dismay I had discovered after this started happening that I was using a guitar cable instead of a speaker cable. I'm sorry for not mentioning this earlier.
-Josh