Bought two JCM800's on a whim.

[mchn13]

This is the '81 2203. Seller's pic. Gonna take some of my own.
This amp sounds insane!
No mods, straight in. Its odd, through all my amp whoring, this is probably the amp I've been looking for all along. It has the perfect amount of gain for me.
I roll back for cleans.
Maxon 808 in front to really push it into high gain territory for leads or some heavier riffing
I've always overlooked the 800 series.. Man, I was wrong about them though. This is by far the best Marshall I've played.
I'm wondering how the '88 2204 I've got coming in will compare.
I really do like this amp stock tho.. I've never played an early 800 before this one and I don't specifically remember what I didnt like about the later models I played. I think they just had a harsh sound that didnt sit right with me.. this things sounds anything but harsh though. Real smooth sounding especially with a single coil but still has that Marshall "cut".

The feel of this amp is really what sets it apart from other "Marshall" type amps. It's tight in the lows but it's not stiff to play like my Soldano's. Now, I love my Soldano's but they definitely make you work for it.

The only thing I might do to this thing is add an FX loop. Someone already drilled the holes. They removed it at some point tho.
Can someone with experience in that dept. please point me in the right direction? Obviously no tone loss would be the main consideration here..

Glad your digging it. Those things are monsters. I traded a dual rec to get the 800 and was surprised by how big it sounded. I push it with the maxon too and its just all there. I usually run my treb really low, either at 2 or even off, cause they can be bright.

 

[guitarman967]

Metro loop.. I had installed a Granger loop at first and it was horrid. Got a metro loop used and it is awesome. Keeps my tone in tact.

About it sounding so good, you might want to have a look under the hood. If someone drilled holes for a loop, they might also have tweaked a few components including bright cap. Take a look.

Metro loop is the way to go?
Yeah, this thing sounds perfect to me and im the first person to try and tame a bright amp too..gonna look through the circuit this week tho. Seller had it since 83 and had done some modding over time but returned everything back to stock except the screen grid resistors to convert to 34's thats what i was told anyways