JCM 800 and 900 help please

[Sekhmet]

Marshall JCM 900 100w hi gain mk 3

Anyone know anything about these amps, currently looking at one at the moment.

Thanks

Edit - also see post bellow for the 800's

cheers again

[HTH AMPS]

Anyone know anything about these amps, currently looking at one at the moment.

Thanks

what do you wanna know? - this is the single channel version with footswitchable master volumes right?

 :twisted:

[Sekhmet]

Just anything really, sound wise, reliabilty, how do they compare to the other 900's

Also looking at some 800's

a JCM 800 superlead 100w and a JCM 800 2205 split channel.

Is the split channel a 2 channel amp i.e clean and gain, or would it be similar to the mk3 in thats its a channel with a boost?

[fps_dean]

The Mk3 JCM 900 is essentially a one channel dual reverb minus one exception... they sound significantly thinner than the other 900s.

The dual reverbs have their sound... it's not for everyone, but I like them a lot although I will tell you the clipping diode sound from them isn't always suitable for me either....  if you're mostly a hard rock player (Guns 'n' Roses anyone?) you will like the amp...

I have a SL-X in which I modded with a Marstran '68-'80 spec transformer and had a couple resistors changed in value to back off on the preamp gain.  SED "Winged C" EL34 power amp tubes and RFT ECC83s (I tried 4 Amperex too but they compress really early so whent he gain goes up, it just got ugly).  After the mod, it sounds more like a modded early 70s 1959SLP than a JCM.... pretty mean sounding for not having 5881s in there.  I'm very happy with the amp and especially since the mods...

What type of music do you play, and ultimately, what type of sound do you want?

[_tom_]

The dual reverbs have their sound... it's not for everyone, but I like them a lot although I will tell you the clipping diode sound from them isn't always suitable for me either....  if you're mostly a hard rock player (Guns 'n' Roses anyone?) you will like the amp..

I like the GnR style tone but I couldnt get one from the dual reverb 900 I played at all, it was harsh and thin.

[CaffeineJunkie]

i thought i read somewhere that Slash used a modded plexi head on the AFD album???

[HTH AMPS]

i thought i read somewhere that Slash used a modded plexi head on the AFD album???

Thats correct, he used a rented plexi that Tim Caswell at SIR modded.  Slash decided not to give it back but SIR found out where they were rehearsing and 'borrowed' it back (heh).

I think thats when Slash started using the Silver Jubilee amps.

 :twisted:

[fps_dean]

I like the GnR style tone but I couldnt get one from the dual reverb 900 I played at all, it was harsh and thin.

Probably had some sovtek tubes in it, which will make anything sound harsh and thin.... the other thing about the JCM 900s, like the JCM 2000s but to a much greater extent, they came biased way too cold and thus sounded as you describe.  My friend has a properly biased dual reverb with SEDs in the power amp and still Sovteks in the preamp, and that thing slays!

The JCM 900s nail that silver jubilee tone on the head and maybe better...

[fps_dean]

i thought i read somewhere that Slash used a modded plexi head on the AFD album???

Still a sound that a dual reverb will nail on the head.

[Sekhmet]

I'l be using it mainly for metal, although i do genrally play anything as i find limiting yourself only gets boring.

As for the sound i like a really crunchy clear distortion, i don't like anything to sound saturated or digital, just a cranked amp with lots of power.

I currently use a Hughes and kettner warp 7 (gain dial bellow 12 o'clock), which for a solid state sounds real nice, but after hearing my friend play through a jcm 900 dual cranked i just loved the tone.

I'm planning on running the H&K and the 900 in sterio, the clean channel will come mainly from the H&K cause i really love it, and the i'l use the JCM as the main gain amp with a little from the H&K to thicken it up a bit.

Or atleast thats the plan.

Thanks very much for the info on the 900's its really helped clear stuff up a bit.

What are JCM 800's like in comparison? namely the ones that i mentioned but also any others to look out for/avoid.

Thanks again.

Mikey

[gwEm]

As for the sound i like a really crunchy clear distortion, i don't like anything to sound saturated or digital, just a cranked amp with lots of power

Maybe you should try a 2204 or 2203 model JCM800 too then ;) Sounds completely crunchy, and you can detect the clean guitar sound behind the crunch too so its clear.

Cant speak for the other JCM800 models as I never tried them.

Maybe the Silver Jubilee would give you the best of the 800/900 worlds. I'd certianlly like to add one to my collection.

It seems to me like JCM900s are excellent value on the 2nd hand market.

Just some thoughts

G

[JamesHealey]

I've owned 2 JCM900 MkIII's

A combo and a head, they're quite dark amps not thin sounding like most people tend to think of the JCM900 they're not tremendously high gain but they're enough for most heavy rock situations and 80's metal.

I personally am a HUGE fan of this model of marshall, although it's not for everbody.

[JJretroTONEGOD]

I wouldn't go for the JCM900, because I dont like the tone of it when you compare it to the tone of the JCM800. You should check out the JCM2000 range, I prefer them to any 800 or 900, love the newest DSL100, it's a tone monster. You should find that the JCM2000's can give you the same JCM800 sound as well as more.

[fps_dean]

I've owned 2 JCM900 MkIII's

A combo and a head, they're quite dark amps not thin sounding like most people tend to think of the JCM900 they're not tremendously high gain but they're enough for most heavy rock situations and 80's metal.

I personally am a HUGE fan of this model of marshall, although it's not for everbody.

The other 900s aren't as thin as others say as well, but the MkIIIs are easily the thinnest Marshall tube amps... 2000s are the darkest.  I would go with a dual reverb first however, of course with some SED "Winged C" EL34s or some NOS tubes that are affordable and a proper rebias so it isn't so dark sounding.

When biased properly they aren't dark at all.  They warmup and get midheavy when you crank the volume.

The other thing I must mention, is the 900s all share one thing which is they do not sound good with the volume below 4 or 5.

I, a pretty strong Marshall tone fan myself have nothing to recommend about the JCM 2000s however.   They are overly dark and fizzy and just ick! I've heard better tones out of $200 solid state amplifiers.