My Marshall 1974X took the "Dagnall Dump"

[PeeWee]

After 4 months of intense use, the power tranny croaked on me on Tuesday. The amp never got warm and gave no advanced warning that the Dagnall transformer was about to go belly up. I'd read accounts from other owners that this was the major issue with these little amps and had pretty much prepared myself that the inevitable was coming. Lucky for me I had been in touch with Paul Petronete at Mercury Magnetics 6 weeks earlier and had gotten recommendations for replacements, which were ordered yesterday afternoon.

I'd be curious to hear from others on the GH forum who've experienced the "Dagnall Dump". Let's hear your stories and tell us how long it was before your amp went down, what you did to remedy the problem and how you use the amp; ie: volume settings, frenquency of use, etc. I've read where some got a matter of weeks use from the amp and others a year or two before the "Dump". For the money that Korg is asking for these amps, you'd think that they'd insure that one could get a few decades use from the amp rather than just a few months or weeks. :confused:

[PinkStrat]

After 4 months of intense use, the power tranny croaked on me on Tuesday. The amp never got warm and gave no advanced warning that the Dagnall transformer was about to go belly up. I'd read accounts from other owners that this was the major issue with these little amps and had pretty much prepared myself that the inevitable was coming. Lucky for me I had been in touch with Paul Petronete at Mercury Magnetics 6 weeks earlier and had gotten recommendations for replacements, which were ordered yesterday afternoon.

I'd be curious to hear from others on the GH forum who've experienced the "Dagnall Dump". Let's hear your stories and tell us how long it was before your amp went down, what you did to remedy the problem and how you use the amp; ie: volume settings, frenquency of use, etc. I've read where some got a matter of weeks use from the amp and others a year or two before the "Dump". For the money that Korg is asking for these amps, you'd think that they'd insure that one could get a few decades use from the amp rather than just a few months or weeks. :confused:


Hey Mike,

I believe that companies like Korg/Marshall should stand behind their products (particularly if they cost you a bloody mint)! As you know there are still tons of vintage Marshalls out there working every night in the field! That said, you also know that preventative maintenance is required on behalf of the owner. These days it seems that all the big companies care
about is getting the amp past their stated warranty period. Even if it means that they have to run the tubes biased a bit on the colder side.....arrrrgggggghhhh!

[PeeWee]

I hear ya there, Dean. I did register the amp with the wonderful folks at Korg/ Marshall just after purchase. But from what I gathered from others who experienced the "dump", Korg replaced the trannies with the same crap and in some cases took up to 6 weeks. What's the point of replacing junk with junk? From what I've been told, Dagnall ( or maybe they should change their name to "Gag-nall") made the trannies too weak. I've two 40 year old Fenders here that have never had a problem other than the tubes needing replacing and paid a fraction of the cost that this little Brit amp ran me.

My '93 Bluesbreaker has yet to give me fits & my '59 tweed Deluxe, which sports a slight tube mod and runs pretty hot, has never crapped out with the exception of a tube going bad. With the upgrade in transformers, I'm expecting to never have another issue with the 1974X - it's kinda like owing a Jaguar; when it's running it's fabulous, when it's not it's worthless. With Paul's input for the upgrades, it'll sound better than when I brought it home and will probably last me until I'm too old to work anymore!

[PeeWee]

Got word that the amp is ready to roll, so I'm heading out later to bring it home. Not only are the trannies better than the stock Dagnalls, the amp actually puts out an additional 4 watts RMS now, running at 22 watts rather than the previous 18 watts. My tech says that it sounds incredible! I'll run it through a good workout when I get it home and pass on any findings after the fact.

[PeeWee]

After playing through the amp for a period of 45 minutes, I'm prepared to give my opinion on the "new & improved" 1974X.

First off, we replaced the very roached power transformer with a Tone Clone Radio Spares P-18RS at the suggestion of Paul Petronete. In addition, we swapped out the stock output tranny for a Tone Clone MAR18-OT, which is the upgraded Mercury version of the stock O.T. The reason I opted to replace the O.T. in addition to the P.T., which was in fine working order, was to eliminate the eventual "meltdown" of the Dagnall transformer.

I also had the tech clean & lube all controls, switches and jacks, clean and remake the ground connections as well as clean and retension the tube sockets and pins. For good measure, we also replaced the EL84s with a fresh set of Sovteks until I spring for better. A scope analysis shows that the amp is running clean at 18 watts RMS and at 22 watts RMS at full clip.

For the test guitar, I plugged in my '04 Murphy R9 and right away I noticed that the amp is indeed louder now than before. It also breaks up a bit sooner, at around "4" instead of closer to "6" before the upgrades. The overall tone is still as thick and crunchy as it ever was. All testing was done in the "tremolo" channel and unbridged with the tone set at "8" and volume settings varying from "3" to "8". Brightness was controlled from the guitar's tone pots. All in all, the amp sounds just as good as it did prior to the "Dagnall Dump" and I got a bit more volume and earlier break up as a result of the swaps - perfect for what I use it for. I'm very pleased with the outcome and expect to get a lot more mileage from the amp before I encounter another problem. Many thanks to Paul and Mercury Magnetics for the great recommendations and help!