For sale in a Manchester dealer - Martamp JTM45 1/4 stack

[Twinfan]

Just for your info guys, there's a Martamp M45 quarter stack for sale in Johnny Roadhouse Music on Oxford Road in Manchester:

* Martamp (JT)M45 head with KT-66 output valves and a Master Volume
* Martamp 2x12 fitted with Celestion G12Hs (I think)
* Head and cab are both covered with tweed (looks superb!)
* In good condition, but various scuffs and marks from gig usage

The sticker price is £799.99 for the pair, but I reckon there's good room to haggle.  Thought I'd pass the info on in case anyone local fancied it........

It's this head off Martin's site, with a matching tweed 2x12 like the blue rig in the second pic:

[horsehead]

damn you world for me not having enough money

[Twinfan]

If wasn't so similar to something I already own I'd have snapped it up!

[martinw]

It's a nice amp and a bargain for someone.

One small point is that the output valves are KT66s; they're the Sovtek ones which although not a true KT66 (reputedly more of a 6L6 in a different bottle) do sound very nice indeed.

If a forum member buys it, I'll give it a free check over if they bring it round.  :)

Thanks Dave!

[Twinfan]

I've updated my post re. the valves Martin - thought it had 6L6s for some reason?  Must be losing the plot.

[Catalyst77]

Does it do good cleans at hight volume?

[Twinfan]

Nope - it's a JTM45!

It crunches up nice and warmly - think Clapton on the Beano album and Angus on Stiff Upper Lip.....

[martinw]

Ah, this old chestnut!
Firstly, you'd have to state your definition of high volume. It's no Hiwatt or Fender Twin, for sure. It's all relative, so the answer, as Dave alludes, is: relatively, no.

However, like all JTM45s, it produces 30-35 Watts of clean power (with a nominal THD). Many people would say that a 35W valve amp is quite loud.

It's enough to gig with, in a pub in a 5 piece band, with a clean sound, using a 2x12 cab, at decent volumes, but without searing peoples brains. Is that high volume? Relatively, no. Is it loud enough? Possibly.

Also note that it has more harmonic colouration when nominally clean than many other amps, which is what makes it such a great clean amp, IMO. However some people mean crystal clean. How clean is your clean?

P.S. The original owner of this plays blues, not too dirty and with a Strat, and complained that it was too loud! Hence the master volume. The cab has G12H-30s which are a very efficient speaker, mind.

[Twinfan]

Thanks Martin.  My perception of "loud clean" is probably different someone else's!  :lol:

[martinw]

Absolute versus relative, that's all.
You're not wrong, in comparison to other, louder, cleaner amps!  :)  (Which I did say.)

My point is that, thinking of the JTM's crunch sound misses out on the fact that it's is more or less a Bassman, and as such is capable at producing some fantastic cleans, and at 35W (clean!) is more than loud enough for most people.

Not many people, in my experience, actually want sparkly cleans at the kind of crushing volume a Twin can kick out! I get regular enquiries for Power Scaling on them. Probably scale it down to 20-30 Watts to make it useable...

[Catalyst77]

Absolute versus relative, that's all.
You're not wrong, in comparison to other, louder, cleaner amps!  :)  (Which I did say.)

My point is that, thinking of the JTM's crunch sound misses out on the fact that it's is more or less a Bassman, and as such is capable at producing some fantastic cleans, and at 35W (clean!) is more than loud enough for most people.

Not many people, in my experience, actually want sparkly cleans at the kind of crushing volume a Twin can kick out! I get regular enquiries for Power Scaling on them. Probably scale it down to 20-30 Watts to make it useable...

quite right, i'm not after sparkling cleans.

Ive got a plexi 50watt but i can't get a clean enough sound out of it at practice levels; even rolling down the volume.  Patching the channels together during band practice i can have the Master volume on max and the channel volums on about 3 o'clock.

So i was looking into an A/B set up when using the plexi. 

I assume in order to match this volume level the JTM 45 is not really gonna be clean enough though?

[martinw]

Possibly not. It'd be borderline, and in many ways depends what you want. Often people are happier with a softer attack, and a tad less volume on cleaner passages. Sometimes not.

The reason you aren't getting the cleans on the Plexi is probably because of the way the first (in particular) and second stages are set up, not because of it's lack of clean headroom per se. It'd be quite easy to get a tech to give less immediate crunch and more range on the volume/gain control.

The JTM, if you use the lower input, and set it up right, could get close to that volume, and if you have a full a/b set up, G12Hs versus say G12M's would help.

Seems likely though that you could set up your existing amp to be cleaner?

[dave_mc]

that sounds like a pretty good price. If i were in the area I'd be heading over to try it out... :(

[Matt77]

Well.....she's still there.
Played her today. Sounding very nice to me and Shobet.
The guy said he would sell for £750 with much discussion.
I bet you could get it for £700 no trouble

[sgmypod]

Ahhhhh