Metal Settings for DC-5 Head (TAKE TWO)

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

YaBoiMCaliber

Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2014
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Location
Anywhere and Everywhere
Hey! I've asked this same question before, but unfortunately did not get much help. Sorry guys :oops:

I've owned my DC-5B head for about 4 years now, and I'm still experiencing trouble dialing in the tone I hear in my head. (It gets REALLY close, and I know that this head is capable of delivering me some "Master of Puppets" chunky goodness.) For tubes, I am using Electro Harmonix 12AX7EHs in the preamp, and JJ 6L6GCs in the power section. For speakers, I have a Marshall 1960A cab loaded with Celestion G12T-75s. I assumed that since these speakers have a scooped sound, it would tame the excessive mids of the DC-5, and it does indeed get rid of the honky mids. The problem is the FIZZY HIGH END AND LOOSE LOW END! ARGH!

I've been using these settings for about 2 years and it's the best I could dial in:

Gain: 7
Treble: 8
Mid: 6
Bass: 3
Presence: 5
Reverb: 0
Master: 2
Output Level: 4

Graphic EQ:
80hz - Middle line
240hz - Bottom of the slider on the middle line
750hz - Bottom of slider on the bottom line
2200hz - Bottom of slider on the middle line
6600hz - Between the middle and top line

TS808:
Overdrive: 10:30
Tone: 10:30
Level: 1:30

So: WHAT DO YOU GUYS RECOMMEND? Should I opt for Mesa tubes? Or are there more high gain alternatives? Should I buy a Mesa cab with V30s? Do you guys have any settings you could share? At this point, anything helps. Really.

(On a side note: I recently slaved my DC-5 into a Marshall JCM 900 power section, and HOLY F***. I absolutely NAILED the "Master of Puppets" and "Black Album" tones. Unfortunately, my friend is not willing to let me keep that head :lol: )
 
Don't know how much this will help because I use a DC5 combo with the stock speaker, no boost pedal although I had a TS9 style pedal on the board. My "not in storage cab" is a 2x12 closed back with Celestion Greenbacks. I haven't tried it with the DC5, but now you have me curious on what it would sound like.

First pic is the at home settings:



Gain - 8
Treble - 6
Mid - 2
Bass - 7
Presence - 6
Reverb - 3
Master - 3

2nd pic is the at work cover/karaoke settings. Slightly different. Was using these settings for Van Halen, Enter Sandman, Final Countdown, Down by 311 and using the the guitar volume pot to adjust the input.
Pulled the settings from a Petrucci discussion thread about 8 years ago.



Gain - 8.5
Treble - 5.5
Mid - 3.5
Bass - 5.5
Presence - 4.5
Reverb - 3.5
Master - 3

Eq has a pretty standard V shape except:
2200hz top of slider under top line
6600hz dead center.
 
jediguitarist said:
Don't know how much this will help because I use a DC5 combo with the stock speaker, no boost pedal although I had a TS9 style pedal on the board. My "not in storage cab" is a 2x12 closed back with Celestion Greenbacks. I haven't tried it with the DC5, but now you have me curious on what it would sound like.

First pic is the at home settings:



Gain - 8
Treble - 6
Mid - 2
Bass - 7
Presence - 6
Reverb - 3
Master - 3

2nd pic is the at work cover/karaoke settings. Slightly different. Was using these settings for Van Halen, Enter Sandman, Final Countdown, Down by 311 and using the the guitar volume pot to adjust the input.
Pulled the settings from a Petrucci discussion thread about 8 years ago.



Gain - 8.5
Treble - 5.5
Mid - 3.5
Bass - 5.5
Presence - 4.5
Reverb - 3.5
Master - 3

Eq has a pretty standard V shape except:
2200hz top of slider under top line
6600hz dead center.

Thanks! I appreciate the pics, man. I really do. However, I DO have a few questions:

- Do you notice any flub or boominess in the low end with your settings? Almost every comment I've encountered regarding the DC-5 says to keep the bass below 3. I also noticed that with my amp, the tone gets darker and more bassy as I turn the output level up.
- Is that the Revision A DC-5? How much gain does it have?
- Do you know what the stock speaker is exactly? Between various forums and Mesa themselves, I heard they range anywhere from Black Shadows to V30s
 
I have the A with the Black Shadow. That's based on the two position Rhythm/Lead switch and the five-way rotary on the back to choose EQ assignment.
The B has a three position Rhythm - Lead - Lead EQ and two position toggle on the back for EQ.

I do get some flub in the low end, but it "corrects" itself once I get to stage volume. Could also be the mix on stage, but whenever I've listened to the DC-5 through the mains, there's not low end mush.

I think there's plenty of gain on the amp. At least as much as my Mark IV and quad. Definitely different sounds but that's probably the tone stack.
I haven't played the amp in a while. Within the next couple days, I'll set the controls back to 0 and try to dial in some decent tones. Maybe my tone taste has change some.

 
I also have a DC-5b head. Neither flub nor fizz comes to mind with my sound. My cab may have something to do with it. I'm using a 2x12 half back with c90's. You could try removing the screamer. Personally my ears associate fizz with diode clipping. I did use a TS9 for a while but with the gain all the way down & it was only for lead boosts where I wanted a tad more "honk". For me, honk & fizz always brings Tube Screamers to mind.

As far as settings; you're prob all going to laugh but I dime all the knobs on the lead channel and adjust the GEQ to taste. 8) I swear the thing gets more gain with the knobs all the way up. Ironically I could never get the GEQ footswitch to engage on the clean channel so I set it with the knobs.

Also, I'm using all Mesa preamp tubes & a pair of 6l6WXT+(aka 6l6GC) power tubes.

I'm a little confused on your description of the TS808 settings. 10 I understand is either all the way up or meant to represent the 10 o'clock position on a clock. That said, what would 10:30 be on the dial? Please, excuse my ignorance if I'm missing the obvious.

BTW: I would have loved to have heard the DC-5-900 setup. I can only imagine a DC's preamp crushing the 900's power section. That's more or less how they did it I believe.
 
jpistolas said:
I also have a DC-5b head. Neither flub nor fizz comes to mind with my sound. My cab may have something to do with it. I'm using a 2x12 half back with c90's. You could try removing the screamer. Personally my ears associate fizz with diode clipping. I did use a TS9 for a while but with the gain all the way down & it was only for lead boosts where I wanted a tad more "honk". For me, honk & fizz always brings Tube Screamers to mind.

As far as settings; you're prob all going to laugh but I dime all the knobs on the lead channel and adjust the GEQ to taste. 8) I swear the thing gets more gain with the knobs all the way up. Ironically I could never get the GEQ footswitch to engage on the clean channel so I set it with the knobs.

Also, I'm using all Mesa preamp tubes & a pair of 6l6WXT+(aka 6l6GC) power tubes.

I'm a little confused on your description of the TS808 settings. 10 I understand is either all the way up or meant to represent the 10 o'clock position on a clock. That said, what would 10:30 be on the dial? Please, excuse my ignorance if I'm missing the obvious.

BTW: I would have loved to have heard the DC-5-900 setup. I can only imagine a DC's preamp crushing the 900's power section. That's more or less how they did it I believe.

Sorry for the late reply, but I appreciate your input! A lot has happened in the last 3 months, so I'll try to summarize this update:

- My DC-5 had a power tube failure and fried a few resistors, so I sent it to Mesa in Petaluma to have it repaired.
- While that was happening, I sold my Marshall cabinet and used the money to buy a used Mesa Traditional 4x12 with V30s.
- Literally got the head back last week, and tried it with the cab. I was really worried at first because it sounded very honky overall, but I just needed to adjust because I haven't played through an amp in a while prior to that.
- Once I did adjust, I realized how crushing it sounded when it was cranked! At lower volumes (around 1 - 1.5 on the lead channel master) it sounded thin and honky though.
- I was actually able to score a JCM 900 too, so I'll try to record myself playing some Metallica riffs with the Mesa/Marshall setup this weekend.

Oh, and for the TS808 settings, I was using "o'clock" positions. For 10:30 on the Overdrive knob in terms of a clock, visually the white dot would be pointing to the top left corner of the pedal.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top