PSA: Catalinbread DLS mkiii internal presence control

[D_Malone]

Just a heads-up to any DLS mkiii owners who haven’t fiddled with the internal presence trim pot: It makes a HUGE difference.

I’ve always liked the DLS mkiii, and it’s been on and off my board many times. I don’t know why I never thought to adjust the presence until recently, but now that I have I absolutely love it.

The presence trim pot is a cut control, it cuts presence as you turn it clockwise. Mine was set fully clockwise (darkest setting). I now have it set at around 50% and the pedal has come alive. It now has the sparkle, sizzle, and kerrang of a Marshall that I’ve been looking for in every MIAB pedal I’ve tried.

I’m running the DLS in Super Bass mode at 18 volts and boosting it with a Naga Viper (treble booster). I’m able to cover a huge range of classic Marshall tones just by adjusting the guitar volume with these two pedals, from Jimi to Jimmy, AC/DC, all the way to Iron Maiden.

It sure would have been nice if they could have found a way to put the presence control and SB/SL switch on the outside of the pedal. Regardless, the DLS mkiii is still my favorite MIAB after all these years.

 

[11 Gauge]

The presence trim pot is a cut control, it cuts presence as you turn it clockwise. Mine was set fully clockwise (darkest setting). I now have it set at around 50% and the pedal has come alive. It now has the sparkle, sizzle, and kerrang of a Marshall that I’ve been looking for in every MIAB pedal I’ve tried.

Holy crap - I just looked at the schematic, and it's basically a hi-cut (lowpass filter) right at the pedal's output, and at max cut the corner frequency is 160 Hz! That's super low!

At around 50%, the corner frequency should be around 318 Hz - IMO still on the low side. I'd probably personally crank that sucker up to the 75% mark, which should raise the corner freq. up to ~640 Hz or so.

Generally speaking, when I tune a hi-cut tone circuit that's at or near the output of a dirt box, I typically aim for a corner frequency of somewhere between 800 to 900 Hz, when the knob is set at 12:00. It just seems to be a pretty good sweet spot, as long as the pedal isn't clipping at extreme levels.

 

[D_Malone]

Holy crap - I just looked at the schematic, and it's basically a hi-cut (lowpass filter) right at the pedal's output, and at max cut the corner frequency is 160 Hz! That's super low!

At around 50%, the corner frequency should be around 318 Hz - IMO still on the low side. I'd probably personally crank that sucker up to the 75% mark, which should raise the corner freq. up to ~640 Hz or so.

Generally speaking, when I tune a hi-cut tone circuit that's at or near the output of a dirt box, I typically aim for a corner frequency of somewhere between 800 to 900 Hz, when the knob is set at 12:00. It just seems to be a pretty good sweet spot, as long as the pedal isn't clipping at extreme levels.

I was just guessing at the 50%. I dialed it in with my ears, not my eyes.

I don’t know what “corner frequency” means, but it is a very powerful control. Huge range.

 

[11 Gauge]

I was just guessing at the 50%. I dialed it in with my ears, not my eyes.

I don’t know what “corner frequency” means, but it is a very powerful control. Huge range.

With the typical lowpass filter, the corner frequency represents the frequency where everything starts getting rolled off, at 6 dB per octave slope above it.

If you've ever used a graphic EQ pedal, then you probably have a general idea how the different sliders sound when cut or boosted.

With your setting, it's similar to if you cut all the sliders on a GE-7 from 400 Hz and up. As you turn the presence control up, it's as if you are incrementally returning the higher frequency sliders back to 0.

 

[generic202]

It sure would have been nice if they could have found a way to put the presence control and SB/SL switch on the outside of the pedal.

That's fairly easy to do but I'm guessing they probably wanted to keep the pedal simple to control.

I remember building this pedal when they got the schematics out at fsb. I kept the presence control inside but put SB/SL switch on the outside with 2 switches: one for the first stage changes and another one for the tone stack changes. It sounded good but I gave it away and moved on to the next build

 

[D_Malone]

With the typical lowpass filter, the corner frequency represents the frequency where everything starts getting rolled off, at 6 dB per octave slope above it.

If you've ever used a graphic EQ pedal, then you probably have a general idea how the different sliders sound when cut or boosted.

With your setting, it's similar to if you cut all the sliders on a GE-7 from 400 Hz and up. As you turn the presence control up, it's as if you are incrementally returning the higher frequency sliders back to 0.

Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate it.

 

[burntfrijoles]

Regardless, the DLS mkiii is still my favorite MIAB after all these years.

Ditto. It never comes off my board. It turns my PRRI into a Marshall. I can get Jimi, AC/DC, Page etc out of it. Also works well with my Iridium going into my interface for recording.
I’ve had at least three other MIAB pedals and none came close to the DLS.

 

[D_Malone]

Ditto. It never comes off my board. It turns my PRRI into a Marshall. I can get Jimi, AC/DC, Page etc out of it. Also works well with my Iridium going into my interface for recording.
I’ve had at least three other MIAB pedals and none came close to the DLS.

I’ve been through an embarrassing number of MIAB pedals. I've been using Marshall amps for over 30 years. Still have a couple that are dear to me. But, they’re just not practical for me these days.

The DLS mkiii with a treble booster (currently a Naga Viper) into a clean amp gets me closer to my ideal Marshall tone than anything else I’ve tried.

It’s one of those “warts and all” pedals. You have to dial back the bass as you turn up the gain, just like a Marshall amp. I love the way the low end kinda gets loose when you dig in. It has the feel, as well as the sound. I love it.

 

[11 Gauge]

I’ve been through an embarrassing number of MIAB pedals.

While it would be hard to find one completely built (because it's a DIY project), you might want to be on the lookout for a Runoffgroove Thunderbird (I've occasionally seen them built and for sale on reverb.com). I think runoffgroove.com really did their homework with the design, from A to Z. Possibly the coolest part is that since the Thunderbird doesn't use any kind of special sauce components, it should sound very consistent from one pedal to the next, and you'll never have to worry about the need to replace/source transistors with obsolete stuff, if something were to fail. It also runs internally at ~24VDC, to absolutely ensure that you're not getting any clipping from the op amps themselves.

There's a company called 1776 Effects that used to offer the PCB itself for the Thunderbird, but it looks like their store is 'closed temporarily', whatever that means. If they ever offer it again, I'm thinking about personally buying one or two, just so I have the option to build at least one, at some point.