Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: TheyCallMeVolume on May 12, 2012, 03:11:20 AM
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Hi guys! I'm looking to pick up a Marshall, but still having trouble deciding which one. I guess the ones I'm considering the most are the:
1987x
JCM 800 of some sort
JMP of some sort
JVM
6100
What am I looking for in this amp? Well, first off I like 2 chaannels. I want to at least have a dedicated clean tone and a dedicated dirt tone. The 1987x is on the list because there's a few with 2 channel mods. ANyways, I like good cleans, and the dirt channel should be something hard rock and a bit of metal. Something that can handle Maiden, GNR, Metallica, Ozzy, etc. I do have a few OD pedals so I can bost the dirt channel if needed. I like the JVM, but it just feels a bit unorganic to me. Help!
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JVM is a great amp but way oversaturated to the point it sucks a lot of the tone (about 3 resistor swaps should fix that)
also, the way the hottest lead channel gain pot is wired makes it impossible to tame the gain down to a reasonable level
I have a completely rebuilt 50 watt 1973 JMP as my main amp
the only stocks things are the transformers, some of the pots, the main turret board and the headshell
it was modded by some mysterious shop in california (not sure if was some of the famous modders) and lately fine tuned by me and my friend Zambelli (great amp maker, and I also own a custom amp built by him)
the amp is a single channel, but has two master volumes (not sure why), a tube buffered loop (which I never use and can be skipped by not using a push pull knob) has some sort of bassy and darkish high gain circuit (it was a lot darker before we tweaked it), somewhere between a custom audio OD50 and a bogner shiva or something, but somehow retains the plexi tone till mid gain settings
the thing is... it may have almost as much gain as a mesa recto, but when I set the gain around 4, it sounds pretty clean with lower output pickups...
when I need real gain, I just activate my ts9dx and the amp ROARS
the Zambelli amp has 2 hotrodded marshall-like channels with 2 modes and I never switch channels or modes as well... I just set things in a way I can get my cleans from a medium high gain channel
so, the point is that you don't need two channels unless you want fender-like cleans, and that's something you won't find in any marshall
from your list, I'd just pick a master volume JMP and tweak it a bit
have you heard the Egnater Seminar?
it's just a slightly modded JMP/JCM
just added gain here and there and a pretty simple channel switching circuit
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Alright, cool. I have a real example of my use here, so here we go.
Say I'm playing the song Fade to Black by Metallica. Would a JMP or 1987x be able to clean up enough with guitar volume to get that kinda clean tone, then with the guitar volume back up and an OD pedal be able to handle to handle the rest of the song?
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I personally think the JVM is best, as it covers all Marshall eras; you don't have to use the highest Overdrive channel, the OD1 channel works great for most sounds already.
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I really wasn't crazy about the JVM, it just didn't have that marshall feel to me. I would consider the 6100 though along with the modded 1987x and a JMP.
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I went into a small guitar shop in a country town near where I live and was surprised to see a Marshall JCM 800 2203 KK. Instantly I got the wants but I can't afford and it's more than I'll ever need. I didn't try it though as I was on limited time.
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It depends a lot on what you want.
Do you need bedroom volume?
Do you need pristine cleans (you said fade to black, which is an acoustic on the record of some sorts)?
Do you need post drive effects like delay, reverb, pitch etc?
Can pedals work as well for the drive side?
The most versatile would be a DSL or JVM, they also have loops and master volumes, but many Marshalls 8or clones of them) will deliver the goods in different environments.
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how about one made by ian HTH or martin MJW both do marshall based amps
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http://www.musicradar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103501&highlight=orion (http://www.musicradar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103501&highlight=orion) for example these are going for daft money, second one think would probably be best for what you ask