Thinking about a solid state Marshall amplifier? The MG DFX series is one of the best, most natural sounding S.S. amps made, though because they are Asian imports, they have bit of a cooling fan problem that can be 'fixed'..... The Tiny 12 volt Chinese fans are the pits, so is the mounting procedure, identifiably 'over engineered' toreduce production costs. Think of a fan as an 'insurance policy', however CHEAPNESS is the key word here.
These fans are loud and the armatures 'spin' w/o the actual plastic fan keeping up with the armature at initial turn-on. Many guys have sent these amps back because of the annoying whine that is a result of the fan 'not catching' It is a safe bet that a replacement fan will also fail in the same manner, I highly regemend a new 3 1/2 inch pro boxer fan to replace the cheap nasty one, mount it on the outside rear of the head. These Marshalls should never be run without a fan, or you will burn up your output transistor chip, which is part of the original fan-heat sink-mounting assembly.
Try to match the CFM, a boxer fan is nearly silent, which is nice because the amp is a little 'hissy' because it is all 'transistor'. A source for many fan choices is the McMaster-Carr catalog co. in Ohio.
We buy amps to hear our guitars better, not to hear hiss and cheap mechanical noise. It is unfortunate that Folks in England even authorized the use of these horrible little fans, the amps are tremendous for the low $, and they (marshall) are likely losing money because they are obligated to honor warranty work.
If your fan armature is spinning at start up- BLOW INTO IT,
It will 'Catch', and reduce your frustration......
NEWS FLASH !!! ALERT THE MEDIA !!!!! NEW MG'S HAVE BEEN 'CORRECTED' !!!!
Well well well, either Marshall techs read my scathing review or they got sick of fixing junk fans-
The newer MG 100's and maybe other MG's have a proper boxer fan standard. !!!!!
Thanks Mr. Marshall, and congrats on arriving at an excellent sounding solid state amp.
We are humbled.
I would like to take this opportunity to tell the universe that the older ones with the cheapo fan make great PRE-AMP only amps, just take out the entire fan / output chip assembly, keep the chip board for spare parts should you get a neweramp and blow it up in a heavy metal moment.
Solder a shielded wire to the master volume pot WIPER (center connection) and the 'ground' terminal beside it. You will have to install a 1/4 output jack AND a GROUND LIFT switch.
NOTE- THE AC CORD (gePUTER STYLE) JACKRFI (RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE) JACK MUST BE REPLACED WITH A CHASSIS MOUNT VERSION
OR ELSE A GROUND LIFT SWITCH WILL NOT DO WHAT IT IS ASKED TO DO.
THIS WILL REQUIRE AN AC CORD DIRECT INTO THE AMP. NOT SIMPLE, BUT
gePUTER CORDS ARE A HASSLE ANYWAY. THIS IS A MUST!!!
It is a fact that your power amp must be grounded (3 prong AC cord) but the preamp cannot be or elseyou will have major hum.
Now you can have the MG tone sent to the TUBE POWER AMP of your choice. Killer !!!!
Did I say devastating? I have built 3 preamp only MG's, one uses the 'Speaker Emulated' / headphone output on the front panel and hooks upto my living room stereo.
This same jack will give great sound to a mixing board or multitrack recorder, you will be happy to find you get consistantly great sound without a microphone on a cabinet.
In a perfect world, maybe Marshall will bless us with a rack mount version of this preamp. There is always hope. But in the meantime, now we have a great new application for those heads w/ the nasty fans.... I promise you this preamp will give ANY preamp out there a run for it's money.
ROCK ON !!!!!
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