Marshall DBS 7400 Amplifier Head

[Lozz196]

Mangaed to get my DBS back in july, and have been waiting til I`ve had a few gigs under my belt with it, before doing a review, which I now will do.

Features: 400 watts (Class D) into 2 hms, 280 (think) into 4 ohms. The amp has high and low inputs, for passive & active. One channel, with gain and volume, bass, treble, both with boost option, and on-board compressor, with level setting. 9 band graphic equaliser, all with boost/cut to 6db, with overall master for the whole graphic to the same. 2 speaker outs (with speakon) balanced DI out with pre/post option, and tuner out.

Sound: This amp is amazing. To me, most bass amps can do the E and A strings justice, however when playing the D & G, lesser amps make these sound thin. The DBS makes these strings sound like a bass, not a guitar, which shows its pedigree. It is amazingly powerful - I use it with a Marshall VBC412 4 ohm cab, and in now way will I ever have the need to use two cabs - I have the bass and treble set flat, with boost on both switched on, compressor on minimum, gain on 5. With the graphic I boost the highs ever so slightly, and depending on where we are playing, cut the lows to avoid boominess. The volume so far has not been over 3, it is that loud and full. I use it in a very old-school way, as I tend to keep everything steady, down in the pocket, but there is plenty more to these amps - ask Chris Wolstenhume from Muse, who has four in his rack! Added bonus was the tuner out, meaning nothing in the way of my Precision to the amp. Nice!

Verdict: I couldn`t be more pleased with this amp. The performance is excellent, visually it is great (it has Marshall written on it). If I had to give it any negatives at all, it would be that it is rather heavy, but I`ll keep the weight and performance over portability.

Extra Points: I love Marshall Amplification. Why? Well its 10+ years old, so I took it to Marshall for a service, just to make sure all was ok. They checked it out, nothing needed any attention, so didn`t charge me. Great customer service, exactly what you would hope to get, but all too-often, don`t, from big name companies.

As with my other review, Marshall isn`t known for their bass gear, but to me, that is because they are so well known for guitar amps, people naturally think that is all they do. Try Marshall bass gear - you may just find something special.

[Count Bassy]

Just found this review and totally agree. MY gigging rig is one of these into an old musicman HD212 ( 1x12" + 6") this is an 8 ohm cab but the volume is still staggering, and this amp could run four of these. And of course you've got the 4000 watt peak power (most 400 watt amps would peak at 800 watts)

One correction if I may: it is not class D amp (ie switching mode). What it does is have two power supplies. Normally one power supply does all the work, but if it detects a big peak it switches in the auxiliary power supply briefly. Hence its 10:1 Peak to RMS ratio. I believe this is called a class H.

Superb bit of kit though!

[Lozz196]

Agree, great amps, though in the end, my back disliked it more than my ears loved it, so I had to downsize.

[belgamrood]

how did you get is serviced by marshall?
where did you have to go for it, is this possible from outside of uk?
i have issues with mine

[Lozz196]

Well I live 25 miles away from Marshalls factory , so I arranged the service via the phone with them, and drove it there. Marshalls customer service I`ve always found to be very good, so drop them an e-mail, and see how they can help:

http://www.marshallamps.com/support/support_contact_us.asp

[Wayne Firefly]

I LOVE Marshalls !!!!! I'd love one of those....... Im a big Marshall fan !!! Got a Jubilee that could do with a service.... had a VBA - terrifying, had a DBS 200 whoch was pretty good and use at home, a little bass 12 from 1990..... did I say I loved them ?