Thickening up my JCM800

dylannelson

dylannelson

New member
I Have a JCM800 2203x and I love it, but I sometimes wish it was a little thicker, I run the settings,

presence - off
Bass - Dimed
Treble - noon
MIds - noon
Gain - Dimed
Master - whatever

I am boosting it with a boss sd-1

Settings are...

Level - Dimed
Gain - noon
tone - a tad below noon

But I am running the amp with stock tubes, both pre and power, and I think these might be the problem, I also am playing it through 75's, I have two v30s I could put in my cab (marshall 1960b) and run a x-pattern.


Any Suggestions?
 
The SD-1 takes a lot of bass out of your signal. Check out a Bad Monkey to add it back. It has a bass control and sounds great.
 
Mod it. ;) We have a thread on modding if you use the search function. I'm gonna bump it probably Monday or Tuesday when I get my parts to do the resonance mod on my amp.
 
I've had a 2204, and had it dialed in very much like yours. I just had the pres. and treb. higher on my amp. Master at 5, Gain at 7. It had JJ output tubes, so it kinda had a dark sound. You might try them for your next tube change.

I used a Rat with an EQ pedal after it to add more lows and a touch of high/mids. The one that I'd like to try is the one Thump mentioned. The OCD. Killer, thick gain.


Also, try mixing those v30's with the t-75's. That right there will thicken up your tone. The t-75's have great low end and I think they complement the v30's very well. Adding some presence may give the low end some definition. It adds high mids, but helps bring out the dynamics of the lows and low mids.

But my idea of a thick Marshall tone is late 80's/early 90's thrash and metal. D.R.I, Anthrax, etc...


Good luck.
 
We got a killer sound with my 1983 2204 at work today with the Presence at 9 o clock, Bass dimed, Mids dimed, Treble off, Master wherever, Preamp 2 o clock.

The SD-1 had Level and Gain at 12 o clock and the Tone at 10 o clock.

This is the way one of the guys who teaches at my store dialed it in and it sounded thick and killer. I never dial it in that way. The Presence and Treble being down that low doesn't "look" right to me. :roll:
 
Change teh cathode cap on V1A to a higher number - should be a .68uf, change it to a 1uf...change teh coupling caps from .22uf to .1uf...
 
I disagree, but that's me. To me, the bass is too loose, the controls are too unresponsive, it sounds too thin at low volumes and sometimes I gotta boost it with 2 pedals. That's what I'm working on fixing at the moment.
 
I have same set up, it is simple.

Presence barely on
Bass 10 dimed
Mids - 5
Treb - 5
MV as loud as you can handle
Gain 10 dimed

Now trick!!! Use Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster for THICK sound as is.

Also get MXR 10 band EQ use this as an added heavy channel. Put gain on 11. Volume on 0 or 1. Bump low mids slightly to your taste.

I preger ZW-44 over SD-1 way too much low end robbed. I also would like to try OCD one day. this set up will work
 
Update. I got another 800 with 6550.... yes it thicker. I am getting JJ E34L in one and the other just got 6550. 6550 sound grt boosted.
 
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