NAD - vintage one owner ‘80 2203 JMP halfstack

  • Thread starter Thread starter jdel77
  • Start date Start date
jdel77 said:
Check this out - original 1980 2203 head with the matching cab with G12-65’s.
One owner since it was new, the lovely old bloke is 74 and he’s babied it. Original tubes. I was hesitant to fire it up as it’s been in storage since 1994.
The chassis had never even been out of the head in its life until last night when I took it out to spray/lube the pots (bit of dust and noise).
It sounds fucking unreal, the filter caps are fine as it sounds fat and punchy and is practically MINT, ....and I got it for an incredibly reasonable price -

I love when this happens!

(The dude had some serious guitars too, a nice bunch of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s Gibsons and Fenders)...









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wow nice man!!!!
 
that amp is in beautiful condition.... congratulations! Do you guys have a klon clone that you find very close to the real thing?
 
lespaul6 said:
that amp is in beautiful condition.... congratulations! Do you guys have a klon clone that you find very close to the real thing?
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A lot of them will seem close to dead on unless you AB with a real one. At least that’s my experience so far. I’ve had the KTR, Ryra, Mjolnir, Wampler Tumnus, Sould Food and others I can’t remembr the names. The first 3 I mentioned had the same flavor, but lacked the magic, while those last 2 were pretty bad imo

My favorite one is the discontinued VFE Merman, but it’s a not clone. More like a Klon that’s been tweaked to sound tighter, more growly and modern than the original with more controls to dial it in. Great pedal in its own right, but won’t have the organic, magical 3D thing of the real deal

I don’t know how to explain it, but when I run boost pedals into my ‘67 Plexi at volume, all my pedals really except my Klon somehow cheapen its tone or take something away from the amp. My Klon is the only one that enhances it without that pedal sound if that makes sense. The Merman doesn’t sound good with it for whatever reason. The amp loses it tonal purity and warmth except with the klon. Some of my other amps are more forgiving with how overdrive pedals sound with them, but it’s the same situation just not as obvious as with that Plexi
 
braintheory said:
A lot of them will seem close to dead on unless you AB with a real one. At least that’s my experience so far. I’ve had the KTR, Ryra, Mjolnir, Wampler Tumnus, Sould Food and others I can’t remembr the names. The first 3 I mentioned had the same flavor, but lacked the magic, while those last 2 were pretty bad imo

My favorite one is the discontinued VFE Merman, but it’s a not clone. More like a Klon that’s been tweaked to sound tighter, more growly and modern than the original with more controls to dial it in. Great pedal in its own right, but won’t have the organic, magical 3D thing of the real deal

I don’t know how to explain it, but when I run boost pedals into my ‘67 Plexi at volume, all my pedals really except my Klon somehow cheapen its tone or take something away from the amp. My Klon is the only one that enhances it without that pedal sound if that makes sense. The Merman doesn’t sound good with it for whatever reason. The amp loses it tonal purity and warmth except with the klon. Some of my other amps are more forgiving with how overdrive pedals sound with them, but it’s the same situation just not as obvious as with that Plexi
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I know exactly what your talking about and I hate using pedals for that reason... most sound like they are sitting "on top" of the amp tone, not "within" it. I have been using a boss eq lately but it is noisy as hell when the amp is cranked
 
lespaul6 said:
I know exactly what your talking about and I hate using pedals for that reason... most sound like they are sitting "on top" of the amp tone, not "within" it. I have been using a boss eq lately but it is noisy as hell when the amp is cranked
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Yeah the Klon feels like an extension of the amp, almost like a higher gain channel of the amp. The Thropy Heavy Water I have is my 2nd favorite boost, but totally different sound and also very noisy. My vintage rack PQ’s like the Furman PQ3 and TC 1140 have sent the majority of my pedals packing also tends to blend with the amps better, but also tend to be noisy, especially the Furman

I find a similar situation when finding the best fuzz pedals. My original Foxx Tone Machine and Russian Big Muff have sat head and shoulders above the rest for the same reasons. The Foxx Tone Machine is like the Klon of fuzzes imo. Better than the real deal fuzz face I’ve tried to my ears
 
lespaul6 said:
that amp is in beautiful condition.... congratulations! Do you guys have a klon clone that you find very close to the real thing?
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Probably the Ceriatone Centura, it’s not 100% exactly the same but pretty damn close.
 
Beautiful score.

I have a 1980 JMP 2203 in similar condition. Killer amps.

The best thing you can do on these is change the hot shielded input wire to v1 with ground-shielded coax. Really cleans up the input signal and cleans up that bass at higher gain settings. Minimally invasive and fully reversible.
 
Congratulations... You sir struck Gold. Incredibly clean. Fantastic score.
 
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