The hell with modded Marshalls-just get a stock JCM 900!

[skoora]

I love it. Enough time goes by and now a JCM900 is a coveted amp. Jesus. I'm not discounting that you enjoy it and a 4100 will get you by in a pinch live but i would never choose one over a good 6 knob Marshall, not ever. Fuck, getting old is a trip. I remember when they first came out and for years was waiting for whatever would replace them to arrive. Around the same time I found a used silver jubilee and that was my main Marshall through the horrible 900 years. That and plexi reissues. Once the DSL came out I knew "new" Marshall was never going to happen for me and it still hasn't.

 

[Ventura]

silverchairs old cranked 900 tone is among my favorite tones ever

How old you talking? I thought Daniel has always played Soldano?

the first album is all jcm900, after that he switched to hotrod 100's

STILL pissed I sold my snakeskin head and cab HR 100+. Was a fine, fine animal...

V.

 

[lolzgreg]

CLIPS WILL HAPPEN, once I've got the damn time, but it's hard shoveling in all this cash all day!

Time for a new avatar picture. Let's go!

 

[se7en]

The 900 was like a distortion pedal compared to other stuff I was playing at the time...I liked it for awhile and then get bored of it...I'm betting the fact that they run 5881's in the power section is what turned me and others off about it...when expected more of that 34 crunch and kerrang. I will say that the first Silverchair album had some killer tone on it, though...the reason I bought it actually.

 

[RaceU4her]

The 900 was like a distortion pedal compared to other stuff I was playing at the time...I liked it for awhile and then get bored of it...I'm betting the fact that they run 5881's in the power section is what turned me and others off about it...when expected more of that 34 crunch and kerrang. I will say that the first Silverchair album had some killer tone on it, though...the reason I bought it actually.

i always heard the early el34 ones were the good ones

 

[glassjaw7]

Ya know, I was messing with Peavey Revalver the other night and I found it funny that they modeled the "ACM 900" and not the Plexi or 800. I guess the 900 has fans out there.

 

[RJF]

My 900 4100 was the biggest piece of shit that has ever come and went through my music room. Normally when I first sell something I get a bit of buyers remorse for a few moments. When that guy was driving out of my driveway with that thing I was practically at the window like a dog with my tail wagging, waiving that pile of crap goodbye.

Had a nice reverb though....

 

[droptrd]

The 900 was like a distortion pedal compared to other stuff I was playing at the time...I liked it for awhile and then get bored of it...I'm betting the fact that they run 5881's in the power section is what turned me and others off about it...when expected more of that 34 crunch and kerrang. I will say that the first Silverchair album had some killer tone on it, though...the reason I bought it actually.

i always heard the early el34 ones were the good ones

I always heard the myth about the black jack vs red jack 900s. I hear the black jack models are the better ones. dont know if there is any truth to that.

 

[stephen sawall]

The 900 was like a distortion pedal compared to other stuff I was playing at the time...I liked it for awhile and then get bored of it...I'm betting the fact that they run 5881's in the power section is what turned me and others off about it...when expected more of that 34 crunch and kerrang. I will say that the first Silverchair album had some killer tone on it, though...the reason I bought it actually.

The 5881 were only in a handful of them. All Marshall's for a short period had 5881 in them. Mine had EL34, black jacks.

I think they're garbage and I've played a bunch of them. Sure they have gain, but the tone was junk to my ears.

This is what I've always thought too. Heard a lot of trashy tones from em and used to HATE those things until I heard my friend Eric's. Maybe I missed something he said and it's modded. Gonna find out...

I have heard it gets most of it's distortion from a chip and I have heard of people changing the chip.

The 900 was Marshall's answer to all the Marshall amp modifications. .... they claimed they found the best modified Marshall's that could be found and out did them. I believe Jose was even named in the ads.

The good news is Marshall is making them now ....

http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp ... tCode=4100

I hated mine...

I recently was invited to jam at a friends ..... I was told just bring my guitar they have a old Marshall I can use. When I asked what model it was ? "I don't know ? It's old". This guy had got a lot of 60's Fender/Gibson guitars from his father and was thinking kick a$$ a vintage Marshall.
I get there and the 900 sounded as good as remembered it sounding. I well say with no hesitation I like the single channel 800 and older Marshall's much better than everything that came after.

I actually felt bad selling my 900, I mean guilty. I called the guy I sold it a week after he picked it up. I offered to buy it back. He told me he "loves it". I thought it sounded horrible.

 

[Strat+Marshall]

The single channel 900s are great amps and I would love to have another. The dual channels are workable but not a great amp.

 

[gbsmusic]

Dudes, just picked up a stock 1998 JCM900 Dual Reverb 100W, and with just a little bit of overdrive turned up this bitch screams! I don't know why I've been buying all these modded Marshalls! This sounds as good or better than any I've ever played, and is running a close race with my other amps easily right now!!! Picked it up for a great price locally too. I HIGHLY recommend one of these to take care of your modded Marshall jones. Just get a good OD pedal and you're off to the races! Has killer reverb, f/x loop with level, tube fault indicator light, 2 channels and they're footswitchable. Can't say enough about this thing, so lemme hear ya stock Marshall hatas! This thing whips the shit out of my past owned modded Marshalls!

Thats perfect for you. Sell me your CCV

 

[HeimBrent]

I love mine, that's for sure. Early 90s blackjack 4100 with EL34s. I have however thought about swapping the EL34s for 6550s, but I'm not sure... Anyone tried it?

 

[Zachman]

The 900 was like a distortion pedal compared to other stuff I was playing at the time...I liked it for awhile and then get bored of it...I'm betting the fact that they run 5881's in the power section is what turned me and others off about it...when expected more of that 34 crunch and kerrang. I will say that the first Silverchair album had some killer tone on it, though...the reason I bought it actually.

The 5881 were only in a handful of them. All Marshall's for a short period had 5881 in them. Mine had EL34, black jacks.

I think they're garbage and I've played a bunch of them. Sure they have gain, but the tone was junk to my ears.

This is what I've always thought too. Heard a lot of trashy tones from em and used to HATE those things until I heard my friend Eric's. Maybe I missed something he said and it's modded. Gonna find out...

I have heard it gets most of it's distortion from a chip and I have heard of people changing the chip.

The 900 was Marshall's answer to all the Marshall amp modifications. .... they claimed they found the best modified Marshall's that could be found and out did them. I believe Jose was even named in the ads.

The good news is Marshall is making them now ....

http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp ... tCode=4100

I hated mine...

I recently was invited to jam at a friends ..... I was told just bring my guitar they have a old Marshall I can use. When I asked what model it was ? "I don't know ? It's old". This guy had got a lot of 60's Fender/Gibson guitars from his father and was thinking kick a$$ a vintage Marshall.
I get there and the 900 sounded as good as remembered it sounding. I well say with no hesitation I like the single channel 800 and older Marshall's much better than everything that came after.

I actually felt bad selling my 900, I mean guilty. I called the guy I sold it a week after he picked it up. I offered to buy it back. He told me he "loves it". I thought it sounded horrible.

Pete,

I just gotta say that I think it's SO cool that you're as big a gear nut as we are, and that you share your time and experience here on the board.

I hope I get to NAMM this year, and can say hi in person.

 

[Lord Toneking]

I had the 2100 single channel and it sounded great! Sounded much better than my buddy's 4100...maybe because mine had EL34's and his had 5881's

 

[RockStarNick]

NEver really liked the JCM900's that I've played at all. Then again, most of them were in rehearsal spaces, and had probably seen better days. But I digress...

It's pretty commonly known that the JCM900's use some sort of solid state clipping device to get all that extra gain. What I want to know is, what OTHER amps out there are doing the same thing, that we don't know about.

 

[thiswaythatway]

The 900 was like a distortion pedal compared to other stuff I was playing at the time...I liked it for awhile and then get bored of it...I'm betting the fact that they run 5881's in the power section is what turned me and others off about it...when expected more of that 34 crunch and kerrang. I will say that the first Silverchair album had some killer tone on it, though...the reason I bought it actually.

The 5881 were only in a handful of them. All Marshall's for a short period had 5881 in them. Mine had EL34, black jacks.

I think they're garbage and I've played a bunch of them. Sure they have gain, but the tone was junk to my ears.

This is what I've always thought too. Heard a lot of trashy tones from em and used to HATE those things until I heard my friend Eric's. Maybe I missed something he said and it's modded. Gonna find out...

I have heard it gets most of it's distortion from a chip and I have heard of people changing the chip.

The 900 was Marshall's answer to all the Marshall amp modifications. .... they claimed they found the best modified Marshall's that could be found and out did them. I believe Jose was even named in the ads.

The good news is Marshall is making them now ....

http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp ... tCode=4100

I hated mine...

I recently was invited to jam at a friends ..... I was told just bring my guitar they have a old Marshall I can use. When I asked what model it was ? "I don't know ? It's old". This guy had got a lot of 60's Fender/Gibson guitars from his father and was thinking kick a$$ a vintage Marshall.
I get there and the 900 sounded as good as remembered it sounding. I well say with no hesitation I like the single channel 800 and older Marshall's much better than everything that came after.

I actually felt bad selling my 900, I mean guilty. I called the guy I sold it a week after he picked it up. I offered to buy it back. He told me he "loves it". I thought it sounded horrible.

The thing that people don't know is that Marshall pretty much stole the design of the JCM900 from someone. There was a guy in NYC, nicknamed, Heavy Metal Joe. He did Marshall amp mods and he modded an old Marshall of mine, he did great work. He worked for Korg and the original JCM900 prototype was his idea. He had a handshake agreement with Marshall on his amp. Next thing that happened, Marshall fucked him, stole his idea, and he was out. Ralph, Gainfreak, can tell me of this story since he knew Joe.

And from what i heard the prototype sounded awesome but Marshall still managed to fuck that up.

 

[stratotone]

I had a JCM900 back when they were the new marshall... sounded ok, but nothing amazing. The stock dual reverbs were really thin and strident sounding. Maybe if you boosted it and cranked it waaaaaaay up, it would be ok sounding, but a good one channel tube marshall would rip these a new one. Just my opinion.

Pete

 

[jcj]

I think they're garbage and I've played a bunch of them. Sure they have gain, but the tone was junk to my ears.

I agree. A lot of people dont know tone...

TAG... knows... tone

 

[AmpliFIRE]

Something tells me that this thread is a joke...

 

[MrDan666]

I think they're garbage and I've played a bunch of them. Sure they have gain, but the tone was junk to my ears.

I'm gonna have to agree, the only time i got a useable tone from them was with the amp cranked way loud. Maybe the OP got a good one.. who knows!