Marshall Single Channel Epiphany!

[severinsteel]

So I'm a Marshall guy when it's all said and done. I also love the simplicity of single channel amps. I've been running my JMP 2204 with a drive pedal out front. I used to use a Boss OD-1, but I've been loving my Barber Super Sport the last few months. I can get a killer high gain tone that is pretty close to my Friedman modded JMP.

Anyway, I used to use the pedal for my high gain, and turn it off for my low gain (High input, JMP's gain at 2:00). I'd roll back my guitar volume for clean, but the amp would get a little too dark. So here is where the epiphany happened. The Barber Super Sport is so responsive, that I am able to roll back the guitar with the pedal still on, and get my low gain. I never really go super clean, but I run a P90 in the neck position usually, and that really helps clean things up.

Long story short, I'm leaving my OD pedal on, using the volume on my guitar to get all shades of gain, and I'm super happy with my tone. No need to switch channels or even step on a pedal (except for delay or a tuner)!

 

[Racerxrated]

Nice! After all the great modded Marshalls I've had, a stock JMP/JCM and a good pedal gives me 99% of the same thing. And it gives you a 2 channel amp in a sense...a good Cameron/Friedman doesn't unless it has a separate clean. And its half the cost...

 

[glip22]

Nice! After all the great modded Marshalls I've had, a stock JMP/JCM and a good pedal gives me 99% of the same thing. And it gives you a 2 channel amp in a sense...a good Cameron/Friedman doesn't unless it has a separate clean. And its half the cost...

That is true, at least the four gain stage mods. A good Cameron Jose cleans up great if you are not engaging the diodes. My Jose with the gains cranked cleans up nice with the volume knob. Really nice as it doesn't lose a load of volume going from clean to crunch to mean just with the volume knob. An Aldrich does not clean up at all well.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Lol so many of us have written one if these posts. Safe to say one every other week even. I am of the same opinion, I love that circuit. When you mod the platform , I find it just doesn't do the lower gain Marshall crunch like it did. With a bit of volume, the gain pedals and over drives sit nicely on top. Easily as good as the modded stuff. As for your epiphany , I also find leaving an overdrive on keeps more high end as I roll back volume. You could just modify the volume pot values to retain your highs but whatever, the most convenient option is sometimes the best.

 

[paulyc]

You could put a small capacitor on the guitar's volume pot to keep from losing highs when you roll it back.

 

[4406cuda]

You could put a small capacitor on the guitar's volume pot to keep from losing highs when you roll it back.

This ^^^^^^^

 

[Racerxrated]

Nice! After all the great modded Marshalls I've had, a stock JMP/JCM and a good pedal gives me 99% of the same thing. And it gives you a 2 channel amp in a sense...a good Cameron/Friedman doesn't unless it has a separate clean. And its half the cost...

That is true, at least the four gain stage mods. A good Cameron Jose cleans up great if you are not engaging the diodes. My Jose with the gains cranked cleans up nice with the volume knob. Really nice as it doesn't lose a load of volume going from clean to crunch to mean just with the volume knob. An Aldrich does not clean up at all well.

And I've never had the pleasure of a Cameron Jose...I've missed out on a few unfortunately. Only Aldrich's....great but hard to clean up as you said.

 

[messenger]

Could try 50s wiring or treble bleed circuit in your guitar to keep some highs when you roll back your volume.

 

[thenine]

I use a Paul Gilbert Detox EQ pedal. Set the level low and you can add back mids or treble as u like.

 

[1big1]

while i haven't enjoyed playing a 2204 i do like keeping things simple. sometimes that's all you really need.

 

[rottingcorpse]

Clean? Isn't that what an acoustic is for?

 

[paulyc]

I will say that I have both a 2203 JMP from '79 and a 2203 JCM 800 from '87 and both have Bruce Egnater's added gain stage (in front of everything in the stock preamp) and the way he wires it, it's only active when you plug into the HI sensitivity jack, and the Low sensitivity jack is converted to the stock Hi sensitivity jack (doing away with the Low jack), so you can get both depending on which jack you plug into. Best of both worlds. Published in '95 in Guitar Player Magazine (the one where Dwezzil Zappa interviews EVH, Ed's on the cover, forget what month, July I think).

 

[Sierra Voodoo]

You're not the only one! I went through exactly the same thing. I've had my '76 JMP for quite some time and even after having some mods done by Trace at Voodoo Amps I rarely used it live....all the time thinking I really needed a channel switcher. Part of reason for this thought process was that I really like a good clean with chorus and delay and being in a cover band I felt it was essential for what we did. That said, every time I plugged into the JMP with my flying V it was like magic! Very little effects other than delay, an EP booster and the occasional overdrive. I then used the amp for one gig and that's when my epiphany happened. The amp responded extremely well to rolling off the volume and quite honestly, it was the best tone I ever had! When thinking back to my conversations with Trace, when the Jose mod was done I had asked that the he do so in such a manner that I could retain the vintage tonal quality of the amp yet kick it into a higher gain and even more saturated tone if need be. Well, the end result is he hit it out of the park and while I realized this all along it wasn't until I gigged with the amp in a live setting that I came to the same realization that less was indeed more. While I still have a Laney VH100R that I like very much, the single channel JMP is my personal holy grail!

Long story short....I completely relate to your epiphany! No tap dancing here either!