Hi Guys and Girls.
I've been looking around for which amp to get next. At the moment I have a Laney VC50, it's serving me well but I'm not really 'feeling' a combo. I had a half stack for years and really miss that power I had.
Now I play in a metal band (think Carcass, Nevermore) so my primary sound is High gain. There are the obvious choices (ENGL, 6505, MESA etc) but I've been looking at other amps that I haven't considered before:
Marshall JCM800 (I would mod it to have 6550's)
Marshall JMP
and
Orange Thunderverb
I'm looking for something clear sounding, powerfull, tight, reliable, balls to the wall tone but also have warm mids and can cut through a mix well.
Would either of the Marshalls cut it for my requirements? I'd be using a Bodenhamer Bloody Murder as a boost anyway (tube screamer clone). I know the JCM800 would sound great because I loved the Zakk Wylde Marshall that Tim has with an SD-1 and have wanted one for a long time.
I'm not sure on the JMP though, I've never played through one so what are you experiences with it?
Can the Thunderverb get a bit chuggy with out sounding too 'stoner/doom'?
If you are potentially looking at a 100W JCM800, I would stick with the single channel 2203 (or derivatives like the 2203KK). THe flexibility of a twin channel is appealing but, according to all the sources I have read, there are compromises in tone with the channel switchers (not played a switcher myself).
As far as I understand it, the 2203 KK is basically a standard 2203, but fitted with KT88's and with integral solid state boost/EQ and boise gate functions. I'm sure you could get the very same sounds with a standard 2203 with a good boost and a noise gate.
As for JMP's, it all depends on which models you are looking at. the JMP100 2203 is exactly the same circuit as later JCM800 2203's. OK, there have been minor revisions over the years - very early '76 models I think may not have had the cascaded gain stages of all the later ones. Also later JCM's (somewhere around '85 onwards I think) had different filtering layouts, which are not generally considered as good.
So basically, a 1977/78 JMP100 2203 is the same thing as an early 80's JCM800 2203.
However, unless you are desperate to use a "vintage" model (as all these are now 20-30 years old) I would recommend getting a modern amp cloned on the old circuits. At 20-30 years old, there are all sorts of components that are starting to show their age, and the amps will simply not be as reliable as a quality new build.
Martin W could build you a good one (and give you good UK-based after sales support). Cheaper still (and still superb quality) are the Ceriatone amps. I have owned a vintage 2204 and a new Ceriatone 2204 and I do prefer the Ceriatone. the Ceriatone (being hand-wired) is also waaaaay more tweakable.
Another thing to consider is how much you might potentially want to use an FX loop. the current Marshall re-issues have well thought out loops, that are reliable and effective.
Ceriatone (and Martamp as well, I think) can only provide a simple "interupt" FX loop. THese can work well with line level equipment, like rack gear or some more expensive pedals (DD-20 for example) which can switch to line level, but are a PITA with instrument level pedals. If you wanted to use an EQ in the loop, you should be looking at getting a Marshall if you are going to use a pedal. Or get a rack EQ if you might be using an interupt loop.
Martin may well be able to provide a buffered loop, but certainly didn't when I last asked him (it was a while ago).
I suspect you're already very aware of this, but the 2203's need volume to give anywhere near their best. If you aren't going to be playing really very loud, then you'll need to be budgeting for a good attenuator, or power-scaling really - just IMHO, of course !
