Nad!! 1981 JMP 2204 mkii Best amp ever!!

S

Sjguckin

New member
I just picked up an almost mint 1981 jmp 2204 and I honestly didn't know what to expect when i plugged it in. I have a yjm100 and a jcm800 reissue to compare it to. I am blown away by this amp. It is way warmer than the jcm and has the bite of the yjm100. This is my first vintage marshall amp and maybe I just got lucky with this one but no wonder these Jmp's are so well loved. I'm Hooked. The first thing i did when i got it was take the chassis out to look at everything. It does have el34 tubes in it so Im hoping the conversion was done properly. I honestly don't know what the heck I'm looking at but it looks like it hasn't been messed with too much.
 

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Easy enough to make your jcm800 reissue sound as good... couple of changes to negative feedback circuit and move the purple wire to the 8ohm tap and that'll take some of the edge off it. As far as that amp, looks mostly stock to me too at quick first glance. Might be some value tweaks but not a huge department from what my stocker looks like.
 
Sure man, great amp.....but this is how it starts. Next comes boutique pedals, then the thought goes to..hmmm..modded Marshalls...then Marshall-like Modern tones....then 5 yrs later and 10k spent you realize...man, the single channel Marshall and a pedal is all you need...congrats!
 
Looks stock. I see all Piher resistors and what looks like one Iskra at V1 grid. I have seen quite a few with mixed Piher/Iskra.
 
Looks great!


I have a JCM 800 from the same year or 1982. Awesome amp.

I've got no desire to modify it. I had an Engl amp before it and while it was good, it actually led me to getting a less modern-sounding amp.
 
Man that thing is clean!

Where did you score that bad boy and how much did you get it for?, If you don't
mind my asking.

I think the value of JMP's, especially ones as clean as yours, is only going to go
up.

:)
 
I actually got it off ebay. It was listed as a 1983 jmp50 but i knew they didnt make jmp in 83. I took a chance and hit the buy it now for 1099.00. I cant get over how freaking good this sounds. Ive bought and sold alot of equipment in the past few years just to find my sound. This one is never leaving me. Now I need to find more of them LOL.
 
Stock Marshall with OD and extra boosts is where it is at. Whenever I mod my homebuilt 2204, it always goes back to stock. I also recently reversed a few preamp tweaks I did in my 82 800 combo as well. The stock sound is too versatile. It is like you can get 3-4 channels with your volume knob and stacking pedals.
 
Congrats! I have an '82 2204-based combo (the 4010) and it's all kinds of awesome. Wonderful amp.
 
Sjguckin":vgmezv54 said:
I actually got it off ebay. It was listed as a 1983 jmp50 but i knew they didnt make jmp in 83. I took a chance and hit the buy it now for 1099.00. I cant get over how freaking good this sounds. Ive bought and sold alot of equipment in the past few years just to find my sound. This one is never leaving me. Now I need to find more of them LOL.
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Damn, that's a steal for that amp in that condition!

Yep, you've found a keeper for life. :thumbsup:
 
Awesome condition! Congrats! As others have said, after mods, multi-channel amps, many come back to the simple and classic 2204 design!

I would look into changing the filter caps - they are way past their life expectancy!
 
Yeah double check the bias. I had a mint 79 here that had 34s, but should have had 6550s. That said, the 34s were running really cold, so nothing was hurt. If it's biased for 34s and you put 6550s in, you got problems coming....
 
Looks stock to me.

No matter who entices you to do so - do not modify it! There aren't many Marshall's left like this... If you want diode clipping, use a pedal.
 
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