Marshall JCM900 Series

[willo]

I've been talking to a friend about these amps and I've been wondering why do 900's have a bad rep? Is it because tube-purists dislike the diode clipping stage?

Anyone on here got any opinions on these amps?

[Miracle Man]

They have a bad reputation because of the diodes in the preamp section of the Dual Reverb model. That results in a buzzy distortion.
The SL-X series on the other hand is a rock monster! :twisted:  It has 4 tubes in the preamp. It's almost like a hot rodded JCM800.

[_tom_]

Well doesnt Navarro use a JCM900 of some sort? He has great tone, and when I saw him with Janes Addiction live he had awesome tone, although I couldnt see his amps..

Apparently Scott Gorham from Thin Lizzy uses the SL-X ones and he also had awesome tone live!

[DeanS]

Diodes or not Marshall did an excellent job on the pre-amp circuit and its tone
but but as a result of cost cutting which incidentally was a carry over from the previous jubilee model the effect of pcb mounting and probably more important was the reduction in the power supply filter. This filtering 'probably' makes them less effective as a cranked amplifier. Justs to confuse matters some shipped with 5881 tubes- no bad thing just a different tone to El34 ones. IMO still good sounding but not the classic Marshall sound.

[maliciousteve]

JCM900's are ok sounding amps. I used to have the 2100 model (the first year production) and it sounded pretty cool, just not what i was looking for. Would fit well with classic rock sounds and the less gainy metal sounds (you would need a boost pedal of some kind to get a more metally tone)

[Searcher]

Slash used a JCM900, didn't he?

[maliciousteve]

Slash used a JCM900, didn't he?

nah he used JCM800's with 6550 tubes. He also used some other amp, i think it was the jubilee (sp?).

[Searcher]

Oh, right.  I should have Googled before I posted!  :lol:  But in the back of my memory I remembered him having some kinda signature series, though I couldn't remember what it was for exactly.

[HTH AMPS]

Slash used a modded plexi for recording AFD (modded by Tim Caswell while he was at SIR if the grey matter is working today).  He soon switched to the Silver Jubilee series Marshalls thereafter when SIR took that modded plexi back from him (Slash apparently liked it so much he 'forgot' to return this rental amp, heh).

As for JCM900s, the dual reverbs have the worst reputation for tone & build quality.  My mate had a single channel JCM900 recently & it was pretty close to his JCM800 with a SD-1 in the front end.  The SL-X series JCM900s are all valve with an extra stage already in there - they marketed them as being 'pre modded' by Marshall as a reply to all the LA Techs making a killing on hotrodding old Marshalls.

fwiw, I've been on the lookout for an SL-X 100w head for a while, they don't seem to come up for sale too often (when I'm looking anyway).

 :twisted:

[simplygoodmusic]

I've got a jcm900 50w combo and its not bad. The gain sounds great, actually. Don't know why people say otherwise. Its slightly different to, say, the 800, but its got a very "open" sound. Clean sounds are dissapointing though...

[Tricalibur]

I played threough one a while ago at a local Guitar Center. Cant remember what model it was. But IMO it sounded awful for an all tube amp. The gain was VERY grainy and buzzy. Almost solid-state sounding. Reminded me alot of my old G50R CD. But I think the speakers could have been busted or somethin so that might have been the cause of most of it...

[BleedMarshall]

I can't recall the actual model, but a buddy had a JCM900 and it kicked ass. ne of the best amps I have played through period.

Off subject, but why do people always say, "I played this amp today, and...", when you can't actually play an amp, but yet play through the amp? I have yet to see an amp with strings on it. :lol:

[TwilightOdyssey]

Along with BleedMarshall, I've had nothing but GOOD experiences with the JCM900, even though I kinda wanted it to suck, lol :roll:

All 3 times I've used the JCM900 (twice at rehearsal, once at a festival gig) it's sounded great. One time was with my VHII loaded s00per strat and the other time was with the Cold Sweat/Trilogy Suite loaded DeMartini guitar.

I not a fan of the gain stage by itself -- it's spitty and brittle. However, with a clean boost in front of the amp, and the gain set to about 6ish, I got a GREAT metal tone with TONNES of harmonic detail!

I wouldn't trade my Splawn in for one, it's not even close to the Splawn. But, I've not been disappointed yet.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Off subject, but why do people always say, "I played this amp today, and...", when you can't actually play an amp, but yet play through the amp? I have yet to see an amp with strings on it. :lol:

Hehe ... it's the parlance of the times!

[BleedMarshall]

Along with BleedMarshall, I've had nothing but GOOD experiences with the JCM900, even though I kinda wanted it to suck, lol :roll:

All 3 times I've used the JCM900 (twice at rehearsal, once at a festival gig) it's sounded great. One time was with my VHII loaded s00per strat and the other time was with the Cold Sweat/Trilogy Suite loaded DeMartini guitar.

I not a fan of the gain stage by itself -- it's spitty and brittle. However, with a clean boost in front of the amp, and the gain set to about 6ish, I got a GREAT metal tone with TONNES of harmonic detail!

I wouldn't trade my Splawn in for one, it's not even close to the Splawn. But, I've not been disappointed yet.

You know what. I own a Marshall Valvestate VS100 head/cab, and wanted it to suck just so I could have a GREAT reason to get a Plexi reissue, but for the life of me I can't. :lol: I have heard nothing but bad things about them and how they are "injury" prone with the electronics, but I have had ZERO *knocks on wood* problems from mine, and I have had it for 8 years without a repair. Just service for upkeep. Nothing has had to be replaced so far.

I do agree with the "spitty and brittle" though. That same buddy loaded his Gibson Invader(which is a story by it's self) with Duncans (no flames needed. this was way before BK were invented or at the very least before we knew of them some 15 years ago or more) and they helped it out quite a bit, but if he added too much gain like you said, it went to Hell again. *shrugs* We all have our needs huh? :lol: