Just bought this '81 Marshall JCM800 1987..what to do to it?

[Rogue]

A) Leave it stock, stick a pedal in front, and call it a day?

And an attenuator if necessary.

Buy a clone or reissue for modding.

 

[londaxe]

I should be getting it next week sometime. It's totally stock, and an early 800 50 watter. Do I---

A) Leave it stock, stick a pedal in front, and call it a day?

B) Have Dave Friedman give it a BE/HBE and turn it into a monster?

C) Other thoughts?

Maybe try it first with a pedal and see what you think.

If not, the Friedman modded JCM 800 1987 you sold me was a great amp... just saying

 

[rlord1974]

I'd get an attenuator, tubescreamer and be done

^

 

[AndyK]

I should be getting it next week sometime. It's totally stock, and an early 800 50 watter. Do I---

A) Leave it stock, stick a pedal in front, and call it a day?

B) Have Dave Friedman give it a BE/HBE and turn it into a monster?

C) Other thoughts?

Maybe try it first with a pedal and see what you think.

If not, the Friedman modded JCM 800 1987 you sold me was a great amp... just saying

I was wondering how that Friedman was doing! Do you still have it, or did you sell it (you said it 'was' a great amp)?

 

[londaxe]

I was wondering how that Friedman was doing! Do you still have it, or did you sell it (you said it 'was' a great amp)?

Yeah, it went to someone on here. He sold it, but he was trying to hunt it down and buy it back when I last spoke to him.

I only really sold it because I got my other amp back from Dave, and that one does everything the 800 did and more. It sounds a bit different though.

 

[AndyK]

Funny how amps get sold and bought again! If I did send this one to Dave, I would get the BE/HBE only, and be done. The other stuff is overkill, I think

 

[Lublin]

That thing is cherry. I'd try to make it work without modding, but everyone's different.

Regardless - ENJOY!

 

[AndyK]

That thing is cherry. I'd try to make it work without modding, but everyone's different.

Regardless - ENJOY!

Yeah, it's in great shape, not abused. I bet it still has 6550 tubes, I think that's what Marshall was using in the 81-84 period?

 

[blackba]

I'd get an attenuator, tubescreamer and be done

+5 or whatever we are up to now

 

[AndyK]

It might be nice to have the equivalent of a metal face Plexi, in stock form, to see what I can do with it. Or, I'll end up selling it.

 

[Ventura]

First thing I'd do?

Plug in, and give 'er... Crank the shit out of it and see how she sounds "as is". Worry about the rest later, if at all.

Mo

 

[AndyK]

Good point, although cranking that thing with its MASSIVE JCM800 Drakes won't be easy!

Funny thing is, I searched around and found a post by a guy in Scotland from back in 2006. He was gushing about an early JCM800 1987 with serial number 00021--that's the one I just bought, from CA!

 

[Ventura]

Good point, although cranking that thing with its MASSIVE JCM800 Drakes won't be easy!

Funny thing is, I searched around and found a post by a guy in Scotland from back in 2006. He was gushing about an early JCM800 1987 with serial number 00021--that's the one I just bought, from CA!

Do it outside... I'm serious, if you've got some yard and space or land, just get 'er outside and point it to nothing and just hammer it. I used to have this place on a 90ft cliff overlooking the strait between Vancouver Island and Washington state. Used to take my gear out on the deck, point it overseas, and turn it to 10. It was awesome.

But then again, I am a bit nuts, so can't say this was everyone's cup of tea

 

[AndyK]

Good point, although cranking that thing with its MASSIVE JCM800 Drakes won't be easy!

Funny thing is, I searched around and found a post by a guy in Scotland from back in 2006. He was gushing about an early JCM800 1987 with serial number 00021--that's the one I just bought, from CA!

Do it outside... I'm serious, if you've got some yard and space or land, just get 'er outside and point it to nothing and just hammer it. I used to have this place on a 90ft cliff overlooking the strait between Vancouver Island and Washington state. Used to take my gear out on the deck, point it overseas, and turn it to 10. It was awesome.

But then again, I am a bit nuts, so can't say this was everyone's cup of tea

If I lived on a cliff, I would do the same thing! Unfortunately, I have neighbors all over the place, and the amp would rock the whole street!

 

[halebox]

I got a white one on layaway. I got to play it a bit and sounded killer and did crunch out, I already have a stock MV JMP and think this will be a great amp for pedals. Im sure it can be modded to where you can keep a stock channel and throw a cool master mod without drilling holes. Im thinking it will be great maybe even better than my stock MV JMP for live

 

[ericsabbath]

just get the gain stages cascaded and add a master volume
you could do it yourself only swapping a few wires

 

[AndyK]

just get the gain stages cascaded and add a master volume
you could do it yourself only swapping a few wires

That would turn it into a 2204, right? I've had plenty of 2203/2204 Marshalls, so I'm leaning towards keeping this one stock, and adding pedals and attenuators.

Plus, I would never try messing with the circuit of the amp myself! I'm a hack!

 

[Rogue]

That would turn it into a 2204, right? I've had plenty of 2203/2204 Marshalls,

You would have to change a few other parts, but essentially, yes...you'd turn it into a 2204.

so I'm leaning towards keeping this one stock, and adding pedals and attenuators.

Good call.

I've found the 4 holers interesting amps. Most of the time, I like setting the volumes (essentially the gain with an attenuator as your volume control) at the point I can get a nice crunch and good cleans by rolling off the guitar volume, and hitting it with a pedal for anything heavier. However, sometimes I just like like to dime it, because it does neat things. But you kind of loss the cleans by guitar volume control. And very rarely, I like to lower the volume down really low to where there is no or little break up. You can get a great clean from it.

It's not a channel switcher, but there are a lot of great tones in the amp.

As for attenuators, yeah, they are going to affect the tone to some degree. Some better than others. I use an Alex. Does really good but I do loose some highs. Not real bad, though. It's hard to tell at all in the room, but easier to tell with a mic in front of it. It's an affordable, very good attenuator. I'd like to try an Aracom.

 

[AndyK]

Interesting! With the right attenuator/pedal combo, it should be a fun experiment.

Have you seen the Power Plug 6/12 Attenuators for $89?? There's a cool demo on YouTube.

 

[Heritage Softail]

As an unmolested piece of history, and a classic tone on it's own... Leave it alone, get some earplugs, crank it and enjoy. If money is not a huge issue, a good service and keep her stock is good. In 25 years it would be worth a fat stack of coin and be a rare example of a great tone/era of rock.

There are plenty of modded amps out there on the used market.