Mesa dc-5 vs. Marshall JCM 50 watt

[adrenaline junkie]

The jcm900 is an mkIII with EL-34 tubes

...as far as playing - i used to own a dc-10 and traded it in during the spark of my big stevie-ray phase for a fender blues deluxe, and have regretted doing so ever since. from what i hear, the dc-5 and dc-10 are the same thing, except for the obvious 50 watts and the extra speaker. as far as the marshall, i havent played a jcm900 but i guess have somewhat of an "expectation" of what it will sound like seeing that almost all of the punk/ska bands i listen to/do covers of use this amp.

Umm...do you mean mkIII Mesa Boogie? The JCM900, to my ears, is nothing like a Mesa Boogie MkIII. I have played all of these extensively, MKIII, DC-5 and all of the JCM900 series. The Boogie MkIII, IMHO, is no where in the same class as the other two, it is more versitile, and the tone is completely different. I would choose a Boogie MkIII over the vast majority of amplifiers anywhere, anyday.

As far as the quest at hand, I am not sure what amp is good for 'punk'. Once in a while I have to play a punk song, but I don't think that qualifies me for a good answer to that question. It seems to me that 'punk' is more of an attitude than anything else. I have used a variety of amps to acheive that 'attitude'.

I've never played a DC-10, but I have owned a DC-3 in the past......don't have it anymore and don't miss it....that doesn't mean I am saying it is a bad amp, just not good for my taste.

No, one of the JCM 900 models is the MkIII. Later they took out the diodes and added a 4th preamp tube for the gain stage and renamed it the SL-X.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

The DC-3 is a little more aggressive. It is not as smooth as the 5 or especially the 10.

It might be a better match for Punk.

The cleans are very nice and chimey, the Reverb is good and it has the same amount of gain as the 5, but sounds more urgent, if that makes sense.

I used one for quite a while in combo form with an EV Thiele underneath it. I could cover just about any tone that I really wanted to.

I know a lot of Metal guys who use them, and a member here called "Plumptone," is a huge advocate of the DC-3. He has some really great sounding clips too.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Here is a really nice clip of a DC-5 with some delay in the loop. Not sure what other effects he's using.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r3Ow01fACI

DC-5 clean with Strat clip, good luck getting this tone from a JCM :lol: :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eThkmHeXKNY&feature=related

Dream Theater solo played by someone else using a DC-5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUcoE9tvCfQ

Les Paul solo w/DC-5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtTqm0O29Rw

Really bad recording of a cool punk-ish song w/DC-5. He's using a Marshall too, not sure what sounds come from which amp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8aabKr3vlk



You tube has some really cool clips of just about any amp you can think of. This might be a good place to start.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

:lol: Forgot this one. DC-5 w/ some different pedals and pretty good guitarist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDE8gYzCwfA

 

[bigsby1989]

and how does the f-50 throw into the list? ...i found one on craigslist.com near my house but again, dont really know much about it!

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I have never played one, but with no EQ, I will stick to the DC.

 

[bigsby1989]

yeah, that was one of the big reasons i liked the dc's. its just hard to find one! i might end up having to go with a dc-3 instead of a dc-5...they seem to be more popular and available.