Soon to be NAD: Marshall 1987 from the JCM800 era

[Dave L]

Isn´t this just pretty? It´s a minty fresh model 1987 from 1985, so more or less a late 1970s JMP MkII 50w in JCM800 clothing. Really looking forward to this coming in, I´ve never owned a nice non-master Marshall

 

[Racerxrated]

Isn´t this just pretty? It´s a minty fresh model 1987 from 1985, so more or less a late 1970s JMP MkII 50w in JCM800 clothing. Really looking forward to this coming in, I´ve never owned a nice non-master Marshall

Congrats! Those are LOUD and I mean LOUD mofos....I had one, they don't have the warmth of the early 70s JMPs but are more equal to the late 70s versions. Throw a good pedal in front and hold on to your hat! I eventually had a cool mod put in by Nick(Burning Rain Mod) but they are just as pedal friendly as the more vintage versions.

 

[Dave L]

Thanks man, yeah, I´m mostly going to be using it EVH-style, dummy-loaded running into my rack, so the insane volume isn´t much of an issue. Looks like the 1959 and 1987 got progressively brighter and tighter until about 1974 or so and stayed that way from there on out. I think it´ll be a perfect addition to the rig, that midrange squawk and glassier crunch actually isn´t something I have covered all that well. Most of my stuff is fatter and smoother.

 

[dstroud]

congrats man! my 1st nmv Marshsall ended my tone quest. i still buy amps but just mostly nmv style Marshalls ?

 

[Dave L]

Yeah, I bet these are hard to beat under the right circumstances!

 

[mixn4him]

Thanks man, yeah, I´m mostly going to be using it EVH-style, dummy-loaded running into my rack, so the insane volume isn´t much of an issue. Looks like the 1959 and 1987 got progressively brighter and tighter until about 1974 or so and stayed that way from there on out. I think it´ll be a perfect addition to the rig, that midrange squawk and glassier crunch actually isn´t something I have covered all that well. Most of my stuff is fatter and smoother.

Congrats! And the only real difference should be the bright cap is probably a 5000pf, hence the very bright and aggressive nature. The change from mustards to generic caps plays a part but its mostly that bright cap. You can lower it to 1000pf to take some edge off, 500pf isn't too bad either... Enjoy!

 

[MetalHeadMike]

Awesome! That looks wicked clean from the pic.

 

[thenine]

cool amp. I have the 1959 100W. Stupid loud is right, my goodness. I use it as my pedal amp running clean b/c by the time you get enough grit out of it it's so loud that it's hurting. But, all my pedals sound their best through this setup.

 

[CEG85]

Beautiful amp, congrats!
The NMV marshall heads are ear bleeding louding. An Attenuator is a must have.
I added a master volume to my plexi because of how loud it was.

 

[Dave L]

Yeah, it´s obviously crazy loud but since I´ll be loading it down to line level in the style of those mid-80s Bradshaw rigs it really isn't much of a problem.

 

[Dave L]

Thanks man, yeah, I´m mostly going to be using it EVH-style, dummy-loaded running into my rack, so the insane volume isn´t much of an issue. Looks like the 1959 and 1987 got progressively brighter and tighter until about 1974 or so and stayed that way from there on out. I think it´ll be a perfect addition to the rig, that midrange squawk and glassier crunch actually isn´t something I have covered all that well. Most of my stuff is fatter and smoother.

Congrats! And the only real difference should be the bright cap is probably a 5000pf, hence the very bright and aggressive nature. The change from mustards to generic caps plays a part but its mostly that bright cap. You can lower it to 1000pf to take some edge off, 500pf isn't too bad either... Enjoy!

So the bright cap alone is the big difference between the years? I sort of figured that the filtering thru the whole thing could be different. Great info, thanks!

 

[Dave L]

Well, now it is the NAD properly, and it´s just as clean as you might have hoped for. It sounds absolutely great. I need to check the tubes and clean it up a bit, since it has a touch of some zingy phasey space sound going on behind the notes, but you can hear that the basic tone of it is 100% that classic crunch. I've been running the masters about noon, which probably is ear-splittingly loud thru a cab but doesn´t even heat up the Palmer load that much.

 

[Speeddemon]

Cool!

Looks great. By the way, that was really specific covering in '85/'86 that turned brownish across the board. The Marshall Lead 100 MOSFETs have that too. I owned an '84, which was black and the one I still have is from '88 I think, also stayed black.
I bet it would slay in a 4x12 cab loaded with G12-65's.

 

[paulyc]

Damn, nice amp ! Been looking for one of those (50 watt), I’d do a Jose master if I find one. Congrats and Happy New Amp Day !

 

[Jack Luminous]

Well, now it is the NAD properly, and it´s just as clean as you might have hoped for. It sounds absolutely great. I need to check the tubes and clean it up a bit, since it has a touch of some zingy phasey space sound going on behind the notes, but you can hear that the basic tone of it is 100% that classic crunch. I've been running the masters about noon, which probably is ear-splittingly loud thru a cab but doesn´t even heat up the Palmer load that much.

That "zingy phasey space sound going on behing the notes" might be "ghost notes". It happens very often with old NMV Marshall when you push them hard, and even more often when the amp is loaded down thru a power resistor. It is normal. It can be somewhat reduced by adding more filtering in tha amp but that changes the feel. You'll have to live with it. In a mix or during band rehearsal, it won't be noticeable anyway.

 

[Dave L]

Thanks for the info, I found some clips of ghost notes and it doesn´t really sound like that, but I´ll keep it in mind!

 

[Dave L]

Cool!

Looks great. By the way, that was really specific covering in '85/'86 that turned brownish across the board. The Marshall Lead 100 MOSFETs have that too. I owned an '84, which was black and the one I still have is from '88 I think, also stayed black.
I bet it would slay in a 4x12 cab loaded with G12-65's.

That´s cool, thanks for sharing! I wondered why there were some in brown out there when most are black.

 

[Racerxrated]

Cool!

Looks great. By the way, that was really specific covering in '85/'86 that turned brownish across the board. The Marshall Lead 100 MOSFETs have that too. I owned an '84, which was black and the one I still have is from '88 I think, also stayed black.
I bet it would slay in a 4x12 cab loaded with G12-65's.

That´s cool, thanks for sharing! I wondered why there were some in brown out there when most are black.

Originally the dye was black, but the company Marshall sourced the fabric from used bad dye in 85/86 that faded quickly to brown/tan.

 

[Dave L]

Is that so? What an odd thing, and up close you´d never guess it ever was anything other than brown.

 

[SQUAREHEAD]

Congratulations! She looks like a real beauty, those things are amazing!
You were talking about the phases notes, it might just need fresh filter caps,
sometimes that just brings an amplifier to life, even an amplifier that you ‘thought’ had life…
Now it’s like a punchy tighter tone!
If the filter caps are original, I would highly recommend it, but this is just my opinion…
You never know how much your tone and tight punch will improve until you do it…
Enjoy the amplifier bro! It looks awesome and I bet it sounds incredible