JCM800 - JMP and other users, post your settings

[the aXeman]

Gain is on full (usually), sometimes around 2 or 3 'o clock depending on what I'm doing.... Bass is just before 1 'o clock. Mids are around 2 'o clock, Treble's at about 9 'o clock.... The presence knob can vary sometimes but it's almost always at 10 'o clock... Reverb's about 1 'o clock as well and I keep the volume around 3 (notches, not 3 'o clock... that'd kill you).... sounds great!!

 

[guitarman967]

Bass and mids at 1 o clock , treble at 9 o clock , presence off . I feel like the high end on JMP/JCMs will cut your head off in a hurry , so Im surprised at how many people run the treble and presence past noon .

Whats left out of the equation in these settings is the speakers which make all the difference. Its part of the circuit obviously.

 

[rupe]

10

 

[stephen sawall]

Had to go look -
Tone controls - all full up,
Bright Volume - a little before noon
Normal Volume - between 2 & 3 o'clock

I usually run the bass below noon. Midrange is usually full up.
My JMP is a THD - Series One Plexi & the channels are jumped internally.

 

[Badronald]

I've played so many 800's over the years and they are so inconsistent you couldn't possibly use the same settings from one to another. Same with JMP's.

On the other hand, as mentioned, many of the knobs did very little on the old Marshalls, that many people just dimed everything with maybe the exception of the bass.

 

[Norton666]

Bass and mids at 1 o clock , treble at 9 o clock , presence off . I feel like the high end on JMP/JCMs will cut your head off in a hurry , so Im surprised at how many people run the treble and presence past noon .

Whats left out of the equation in these settings is the speakers which make all the difference. Its part of the circuit obviously.

I've played them through pert near every speaker that I can think of and I've yet to feel that the treble/presence needs to be anywhere close to noon.

 

[guitarman967]

Bass and mids at 1 o clock , treble at 9 o clock , presence off . I feel like the high end on JMP/JCMs will cut your head off in a hurry , so Im surprised at how many people run the treble and presence past noon .

Whats left out of the equation in these settings is the speakers which make all the difference. Its part of the circuit obviously.

I've played them through pert near every speaker that I can think of and I've yet to feel that the treble/presence needs to be anywhere close to noon.

I agree. My presence is always under noon and treble never goes higher than noon but is usually around 11:00. Thats probably the sweet spot.
By the same token, mids above 12:00 with treble lower can produce a hard, unbalanced tone.. jmps seem to compress more and sound smoother with a slightly lower mid IMO but especially so when running vintage 30 speakers.
Also, ive found using a chinese tube in V1 but a JJ in V2 followed by another chinese in V3 knocks down quite a bit of the excessive treble without taking anything away so I dont find my JMP or JCM 800 overly bright with that configuration. Running 6550's in the power amp as well. Not sure what their effect is though..

 

[university81]

JCM800 2204 from 83 , no mods - playing with an attenuator , greenback cab

it is a bright sounding amp, but cab/speaker choice will make quite a difference, marshalls for me usually sound best with greenbacks

w/following tubes, wanted a bit more range/lower gain on the input
v1: 5751
v2: 12ax7
v3 : 12at7


Presence : 6
bass: 7
mids : 4-5 depending on guitar
treble : 3-4 depending on guitar
master : 3-4
pregain : 7 usually but if i'm straight into the amp it's on full

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Interesting.. a lot of us are running the controls around the same place with the greatest difference being in where we put our treble. I find i need treble to be at 6 at the least to give me the definition I want. Would be nice to shave some off for leads though.. hence the roll back the volume pot to 9 for me.

Speakers do also make a difference.. I swapped out my RI greenbacks last night. The highs were really bugging me. Not sure why put they can be harsh to my ears on higher notes. I now have 2 Weber legacy on top and two Eminence Super V Lynch speakers on the bottom. I like this combo the best so far. Legacy speakers tame the highs , super V tighten the lows. Kind of like a sophisticated man's approach to the greenback/V30 combo Friedman recommended for a short time!

 

[Shiny_Surface]

The one constant for me is keeping the bass control low (usually) never higher than 3. Somewhere along the line I got the idea these particular models didn't have alot of bass boy was I wrong with the JMP/800. Plenty of bass I had to dial it back.

This is at lower basement volumes btw, not band level...

 

[Schaf]

I've played so many 800's over the years and they are so inconsistent you couldn't possibly use the same settings from one to another. Same with JMP's.

On the other hand, as mentioned, many of the knobs did very little on the old Marshalls, that many people just dimed everything with maybe the exception of the bass.

A lot of people say this but that's not my experieince at all. I've owned two 800"s and a JMP and all were very close in the tone controls. And they all threee sounded nearly identical. Also, turning all the tone knobs to 10 on a master volume JMP or JCM sounded like shit on all three of mine (to my ears anyway).

Anyway, I run mine with the gain on 10, presence about 9 o'clock. treble and mids around 12 or 1 oclock and bass around 1 to 3 o'clock and master on 2 on the dial.