Old People: How did you feel about the JCM800 at the time of its release?

[shar-vell Dan]

Or playing live with a relatively loud tube amp, feeling the vibrational rush as it’s pumped through a good sized, powerful PA system. I almost feel sorry for the younger generation that will never experience that particular glory. Then again, they seem quite content with their Kemper silent stages so fuck’em

 

[njshred]

Understandable.

they sound killer at 1.5-2 on the Master...which is pretty low but not too low a volume. Certainly not too loud for any club around here.

You are describing 100% preamp distortion, the power amp doesn’t start distorting before 7 on most amps I’ve tried. I’ve never heard another person refer to 1.5 on a JCM 800 as glorious, in fact, that’s what lead to the SLO100 being the desired amp back then, Mike’s cascading gain sounded better with power amp below 5.

 

[anomaly]

You are describing 100% preamp distortion, the power amp doesn’t start distorting before 7 on most amps I’ve tried. I’ve never heard another person refer to 1.5 on a JCM 800 as glorious, in fact, that’s what lead to the SLO100 being the desired amp back then, Mike’s cascading gain sounded better with power amp below 5.

Some JCM800's have really quick master volume tapers, so they max out at like 2 or 2.5 on the master volume (which is LOUD), after that the power section starts to breakup. I'm sure someone on here has had a 800 like this??

 

[67mike]

You are describing 100% preamp distortion, the power amp doesn’t start distorting before 7 on most amps I’ve tried. I’ve never heard another person refer to 1.5 on a JCM 800 as glorious, in fact, that’s what lead to the SLO100 being the desired amp back then, Mike’s cascading gain sounded better with power amp below 5.

Not sure you have any idea what you speak of?

I have a couple JCM 800s and I can tell you without a doubt that the sweet spot is 4 on the master volume. The power tubes are cooking......increasing the master generally just compresses things more....not what I consider ideal.

Some folks run them to emulate a plexi by opening up the master to 10 then use gain to set volume........I have tried thus, but, very much prefer the traditional approach as I generally enjoy more preamp gain with the music I play.

Sure my Jubilee needs the master to be at or above 6 to be optimal, but the JCMs sound good with master anywhere over 1.5.............you are around 110 dB with master at 1.5.

 

[Smash]

Not sure you have any idea what you speak of?

I have a couple JCM 800s and I can tell you without a doubt that the sweet spot is 4 on the master volume. The power tubes are cooking......increasing the master generally just compresses things more....not what I consider ideal.

Some folks run them to emulate a plexi by opening up the master to 10 then use gain to set volume........I have tried thus, but, very much prefer the traditional approach as I generally enjoy more preamp gain with the music I play.

Sure my Jubilee needs the master to be at or above 6 to be optimal, but the JCMs sound good with master anywhere over 1.5.............you are around 110 dB with master at 1.5.

105 dbs and above generally what i like to play at to hear what an amp actually sounds like. 110-113 is glorious

 

[Racerxrated]

You are describing 100% preamp distortion, the power amp doesn’t start distorting before 7 on most amps I’ve tried. I’ve never heard another person refer to 1.5 on a JCM 800 as glorious, in fact, that’s what lead to the SLO100 being the desired amp back then, Mike’s cascading gain sounded better with power amp below 5.

Not on any 2203/4/05/10/Jubilee I've played. At that volume, every single time, I get power tube compression. Sure, there's more farther up on the master but at 1.5-2 there ABSOLUTELY is some EL34 compression.

 

[Racerxrated]

Some JCM800's have really quick master volume tapers, so they max out at like 2 or 2.5 on the master volume (which is LOUD), after that the power section starts to breakup. I'm sure someone on here has had a 800 like this??

You are correct.
I just picked up another 2210; an 87. The way to run these is gain and ch vol dimed; then you are taking advantage of the most gain possible from these circuits. I can assure you that this amp, with the MV on 1, is peeling the paint off the walls and almost too loud for me...and I have a 72 super lead in the same room.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

I just got done jammin @ [3] on the Master with a healhty dose of JMP tone but it will knock yer dick-in-the-dirt @ [5].

 

[Dan Gleesak]

Old people think they are the bee’s knees

 

[shar-vell Dan]

 

[harddriver]

I had a 79 2203 when the JCM800's came out and my JMP was better. My other guitar player got a new 1983 2204 and I was not impressed with it at the time, maybe it was just that one that wasn't up to par I dunno.

 

[67mike]

I had a 79 2203 when the JCM800's came out and my JMP was better. My other guitar player got a new 1983 2204 and I was not impressed with it at the time, maybe it was just that one that wasn't up to par I dunno.

What model jmp was it that you had?

 

[rottingcorpse]

Old people think they are the bee’s knees

Young people think they are the dogs balls.

 

[Smash]

Young people think they are the dogs balls.

I am bee stung dog's balls

 

[Speeddemon]

Old people think they are the bee’s knees

Depending on how old, they even think they're the cat's pyamas.

 

[harddriver]

What model jmp was it that you had?

It was a 1979 Marshall 2203 100 watt head with GE6550's with a 1982B cabinet with 12H-30's, I bought the halfstack from the same person for $600 bucks in 1985, I still own that amp but it was rebuilt and modded by Scott Splawn in 2003 and I'm still running 6550's.

Don't get me wrong I've heard tons of killer JCM800's but my other guitar player loved my amp and when he brought it to practice it didn't have the tone nor the volume, he was pretty bummed once we played them side by side. His amp also had 6550's, because I installed and biased his last set of tubes for him right before I bought the amp from him. It almost had to be a Marshall lemon, I found some weird mods inside if after I bought it from him, I think he had a mod guy work on it at one time but the amp didn't have alot of gain when it was new.

 

[70 Mach 1]

I waited for the 900s

 

[Greazygeo]

Yeah, not even close.

But nice try. I can spot the 'but I saw it on the net so it must be true!' crowd when it comes to Marshalls a mile away. Like, they've never even plugged into one ever.
Another good one is 'bbbut you have to plug in to 7-8 before you get a good one!' Hahaha another BS line. Just like the guy here who had a Mesa endorsement long ago, he tried 4-5 Rev Cs before he chose the ONE.
Same thing with any amp; one may speak to you more than another. But it doesn't mean the others sound bad.
Lol

Took me about 25 to settle on two. Not BS in my experience at all.

 

[311boogieman]

When I was young, The closest I got to a Marshall when was headbangers ball.

Same. I wouldn't even have known what to look for/listen for. I suppose I would have recognized the script Marshall but that's about it. Didn't really get into amplification until recently.

 

[Racerxrated]

Took me about 25 to settle on two. Not BS in my experience at all.

Well, I know you don't like bright....which is the very definition of a vintage Marshall. So there's that. Haha
I guess I'm just super lucky; I've never plugged into a Marshall, pre 1990 that didn't at least sound GOOD. Some are great.
At this point, over 60 and counting....but, only 3 NMVs so maybe there are more bad versions of those?