Author Topic: Overdrive Pedal For JCM800 (Read 11701 times)

Tricalibur · « **on:** June 01, 2006, 07:39:36 PM »

Im in the market for an all tube amplifier and have been looking profusely at a JCM 800. I love the power and balls out tone but they just dont seem to get enough gain/OD/DIst. on their own, so If I were to buy one I would almost certainly have to get an OD pedal to drive the preamp with. Before i go any further, you should know that I usualy tune down to C# and I play ALOT of Sabbath and Sabbath style music. I kno the JCM's are generaly very mid and trebele bassed amps when compared to other, more modern amps, however I am pretty much convinced that with my Low Tuning, heavy string guage and the soon to come warpigs my guitar will easily be able to compensate.
Back to what I was saying tho. I would need an Overdrive pedal of some kind and I want one that wouldnt color my tone too much but would still drive the amp enough to get a good vintage-ish kind of Distortion. I would prefer it to be a tube driven pedal. Im thinkin maybe a Maxon ROD881 Real Tube OD/Dist., Vox Cooltron Britboost or BigBen OD, Robert Keeley Baked Ts-9. One of those probably. So what do yall think? Any suggestions for helping me get the tone im after with a particular overdrive pedal?

willo · « **Reply #1 on:** June 01, 2006, 07:46:19 PM »

I have a JCM800 and an Analogman SD1/808 (you can change between modded BOSS SD1 and TS808 sounds), and that's more than enough gain for me! With a set of Crawlers I can get a pretty tight tone, but with the VHII's it's a bit bright - although I think this is a by-product of the pickups themselves. I'm selling both, so drop us a line if you're interested...

_tom_ · « **Reply #2 on:** June 01, 2006, 07:48:53 PM »

If Tims clips are anything to go by, I'd get an SD-1 or Keeley SD-1, they seem great for boosting JCM800s.

headtheball · « **Reply #3 on:** June 01, 2006, 07:50:09 PM »

For sabbath stuff, hard to go wrong with a treble booster, like the Rc Booster. To give an undersung company some business though, A lovetone Brown Source in front of a cooking amp can yield fantastic results. I've put one in front of a blackface twin before and it just killed. It goes up to at least 17.

Tricalibur · « **Reply #4 on:** June 01, 2006, 08:31:03 PM »

^ would a treble booster make my sound too bright for a good Sabbath tone?

Tricalibur · « **Reply #5 on:** June 01, 2006, 08:34:46 PM »

^ would a treble booster make my sound too bright for a good Sabbath tone?

DeanS · « **Reply #6 on:** June 01, 2006, 09:04:27 PM »

A treble booster won't necessarily make your amp brighter, as they boost frequencies across the range with emphasis on treble. I use one thro' a 79 JMP Marshall that has 5881's. I found that when running it flat out (as with all tube amp response) the bass frequencies were dominating the sound.

I use the BSM RM version which also sounds cool thro' my cornford harly and the nano-really kicks 'em up the arse!

For the Iommi/Sabbath tone look at the BSM RM Metal version.

http://treblebooster.net

HTH AMPS · « **Reply #7 on:** June 01, 2006, 10:22:48 PM »

Iommi did actually use a treble booster for his tone in the Sabbath days right through till at least the Masters Of Reality era - all of Vol4 is an old non master volume Laney with a modded treble booster (Rangemaster). I've used this kind of rig myself and you can get a surprising amount of gain if you plug into the bass/normal channel.

:twisted:

Tricalibur · « **Reply #8 on:** June 01, 2006, 10:26:03 PM »

cool! Could a cranked JCM800 with a treble booster in front of it possibly get me closer to a vintage Sabbath sound than the Laney GH100Ti Tony Iommi Sig Amp?

HTH AMPS · « **Reply #9 on:** June 01, 2006, 10:43:44 PM »

Yep, it most likely would. For the most accurate 'old' Sabbath tone I'd go with a 4-input Marshall with a treble booster into the normal channel. If the shear volume is an issue then it's easy enough to get a master volume installed.

:twisted:

Tricalibur · « **Reply #10 on:** June 01, 2006, 11:42:36 PM »

well I could always attenuate it with a powerbrake or something. But what exactly is the difference between a Master volume and a non-MV amp. Dont the old "plexi" amps have master volume knobs?

Skybone · « **Reply #11 on:** June 02, 2006, 08:25:34 AM »

Any OD/Dist/Fuzz pedal in front of a JCM800 with a cooking power valve stage would certainly get you into the sonic area you're after, though IMO all you should be using the pedal for is to colour your tone, and not for the drive.

If you don't have an attenuator (like a HotPlate or whatever) I'd say that you NEED one! I have a similar setup (for a similar style) and the HotPlate makes all the difference.

The Vintage RAT is a good place to start, though the "Filter" can be annoying, other pedals like Guv'nor's, Big Muff's, modded TS-9's etc would sound pretty good, anything that'll give you colour to your tone.

HTH AMPS · « **Reply #12 on:** June 02, 2006, 08:02:52 PM »

Quote

What exactly is the difference between a Master volume and a non-MV amp.

A non-MV Marshall has only a single volume knob for each channel (brilliant or normal) and are clean when played on 1 or 2 then get gradually louder and overdriven as you turn them up.

The Master Volume series of amps have a gain knob plus an overall volume control (aka, master volume)

Quote

Dont the old "plexi" amps have master volume knobs?

Nope (not in the gain + mv sense anyway)

:twisted:

Tricalibur · « **Reply #13 on:** June 03, 2006, 04:15:34 AM »

^ alright, I understand know. Thats pretty much what I thought it meant :D . I was playing through my friends VOX Tonelab Se today and just messing around with settings and I decided to try putting a treble booster in front of the UK 80's Model(JCM 800). I was very surprised to find that the amount of gain the treble booster provide was quite massive to say the least. Of course I had the amp gain pretty much maxed out as well, but even still it was quite amazing how much gain you could get out of such an obscure effect. The only negative affect of haveng the pedal running into the 800 was that it made the tone VERY middy and biting. Which isnt neccesarily a bad thing (It was AMAZING for lead work). But still, it wasnt quite getting me the proper Sabbath tone that I wanted, so I tried it with the same settings into the UK 68P model amp(Marshall 1968 plexi) with the same gain and eq settings as w/ the 800. This yielded a more bassy and girthy tone, which I realy liked :twisted:. My main question is how accurate would my findings on the amp modeler be compared to how they would be on the actual amps? I have played JCM 800's and Plexi's and this pedal seemed to do a pretty good job recreating their tone.

keano · « **Reply #14 on:** August 09, 2006, 01:50:02 AM »

I use the ZW OD and it sounds really nice. But like any OD in front of a JCM it squeals.