napalmdeath
Well-known member
I loved the Classic 50. It was actually the foundation for the Crunch channel of the JSX, Satriani was a Classic 50 fan as well.
Old People: How did you feel about the JCM800 at the time of its release?
- Thread starter SonVolt
- Start date
stephen sawall
Well-known member
Yes
We played a lot louder back then. I was using a Tom Scholz Power Soak and RAT.
Master at about half is how most people used them.
Dave L
Well-known member
Yeah, I didn´t play one until the mid 90s, but master at 5 and gain at 5-6 is the ticket for me too. These need to get some squish from the PI to fill out, and gain above 7 just adds fizz and flub. Less loud than a 1959 is still monstrously loud.
But as for the JCM800 2203s compared to the earlier JMPs, I´m a firm believer in the G12T75 for the 800s.
But as for the JCM800 2203s compared to the earlier JMPs, I´m a firm believer in the G12T75 for the 800s.
Yeah, by the time I saw the first JCM800 at a music store, all the guitar players were moving to rack gear.
They were only using the amp as a clean power amp.
shar-vell Dan
Well-known member
Well in 1982 we all liked them but nobody could afford them.
There was one Marshall dealer in town and we all went there to drool which we all do now from home with computers.
Later in 82' i bought a 1979' JMP 2204 from the same guy for $375.
jabps
Well-known member
Much preferred my JMP 2204 50 watt head with 6550's. Man what a great amp. I jumped on the 800 2203 right when they came out but that JMP, was just such a good amp I kept the 800 as backup - which I had traded a JMP 2203 non-master volume to get. I got the two JMP's for dirt cheap at Rhythm City in Atlanta for the old codgers that remember that place. Around $250 for both. What's funny is the local store in Chattanooga called the Sound Post, had stacks of old used Marshall Super Leads, Majors, PA etc... for dirt cheap, nobody wanted them. Literally just stacked up 3 or 4 high, 4 or 5 across and beater 4x12's with the checkerboard grills as well. Man, to take a time machine back.
I ran the 50 watt with a DOD 250 OD, clean boosted with an SD-1 or a TS 808 for solo's. A Boss DM-2 or Deluxe Memory Man for short delay, Boss DD-2 for long delay and a Boss CE-2 for chorus. That was my rig for several years in the early 80's until the ADA MP1 was introduced. The I went full blown rack gaga.
I ran the 50 watt with a DOD 250 OD, clean boosted with an SD-1 or a TS 808 for solo's. A Boss DM-2 or Deluxe Memory Man for short delay, Boss DD-2 for long delay and a Boss CE-2 for chorus. That was my rig for several years in the early 80's until the ADA MP1 was introduced. The I went full blown rack gaga.
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SFW
Well-known member
I started playing in 1988. Marshall was THE amp to have in you were into rock. God knows that I couldn't afford one...lol! Bought my first Marshall in 1998. A 78 JMP 2203 for $300. Then picked up an 88 2250 in 2002 for $350. I would love to get the 2550 back. That amp just roared. I've actually been looking an JCM800s lately. Thinking about returning to a simple wah -> SD-1 -> amp setup.
jabps
Well-known member
You got the better amp by my experience.
Well in 1982 we all liked them but nobody could afford them.
There was one Marshall dealer in town and we all went there to drool which we all do now from home with computers.
Later in 82' i bought a 1979' JMP 2204 from the same guy for $375.
SonVolt
Member
Interesting. So was the 800 not as popular at the time as folklore would have you believe? I remember hearing far more about rack gear than Marshall amps at the time, but I was a kid who couldn't afford either.
rsm
Well-known member
there were a lot of them around IIRC. same for old Fenders; older guys' bands seemed to have the Marshalls. I don't remember seeing any Mesa, Orange, in the late 70s early '80s
rsm
Well-known member
Not many used 800s around if any, why I got an old 50w plexi as my first Marshall; I think by the time those around my age could afford new Marshall 800s rack gear was where the pros were going. I remember all the ADA adverts, and all the pros I liked using ADA MP-1; I had many magazines with the full page ADA bass rig on the back cover. I built my ADA guitar rig slowly, using a Peavey solid state power amp (400W maybe?), into my old Fender cabs before getting a pair of ADA 2x12 vertical splitstack cabs, eventually getting another pair of cabs and the ADA B200s power amp, and the rare MQ-1 equalizer, and an Alesis Quadraverb...it wasn't until the early '90s when I got the full ADA bass rig.
I eventually replaced the MP-1 and MQ-1 with an MP-2, which I still have. Here's my last consolidated ADA guitar rack before selling the MP-1, MQ-1 and B200s and the splitstacks:
edit: I briefly had an ART SGX-1000, and Nightbass
jabps
Well-known member
No the 800 was a popular amp. Pretty much the tone of the early 80's.
jabps
Well-known member
I REGRETFULLY traded my 50W JMP 2204 for the ADA. Sold my 800 and got a Mesa Boogie 50/50.
ADA MP1, Alesis Quad and Boogie were my first rack setup running into two 4x12's. Had an old WEM 2x12 that I converted stereo for home use. From then on the rack grew, added a Midi Octopus and a Rockman Chorus Delay as I really liked the chorusing of the Rockman over the ADA. Added a Furman, BBE Sonic Maximizer and rack tuner. Only ever used the Quad for Delays and Verb. Eventually added a modded ADA MP1 by Todd himself.
More Power Amps and other Pre-Amps followed over the ensuing years along with multiple different multi rack effects units. Began adding pedals to my rack with my GCX switching system until the OG 5150 came out. Stuck with rack and switching system but ditched the pre-amps and power amps as running stereo was useless in all the clubs we were playing back then.
In the end I had my rack condensed to a Furman, ever faithful Quad, GCX, racked pedals of Dimension C, Phase 90, Micro Vibe, Flanger, Boss EQ for lead boost and a two space drawer. On the floor had the Ground Control, Wah, Tuner and wireless. That was pretty much my rack from the mid 90's to 2010 when I de-racked and put everything on the floor. Main amps during that era that I stuck with for extended periods were the OG 5150, JSX, Marshalls although I owned and tried a ton of different stuff looking for the next big thing. Those were the mainstays and ended up where I am now - back to Marshalls for the last decade and a half.
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Racerxrated
Well-known member
I picked up an older 60/60 power amp, it was 'non functioning' and 150 shipped. Well, I opened it up and it was SOO dusty I took a vacuum to it, after that I pulled the tubes and gave it a DeOxit bath. After cleaning the tubes (Peavey Super Six labelled Sylvania STR 387s/6L6 GCs, Chinese 9th gen 12ax7s) and testing them...all tested super strong....fired the amp up and it's fantastic.
Got a nice '3D' tone to it when cranked up. Bought it to run with a Morin pre that I had; sold the pre but keeping the Peavey for my eventual Modeler addition at some point.
rsm
Well-known member
I went from the 50w plexi to ADA. finally ended up with furman power conditioner, MP-2, Quadraverb and B200S with the 4 2x12 vertical splitstacks. I didn't own a TriAxis, JMP-1 or JFX-1 until much later, after the rack dominance was long over.
For bass back in the day, I really wanted Trace Elliot but it was much more expensive than ADA. I had a Mesa 4x10 and a Cerwin-Vega 18" folded horn with the repurposed Peavey power amp and ADA MB-1 before getting the rest of the ADA bass rig:
jabps
Well-known member
My Classic 120/120 power amp was chock full of 8 Sylvania 6L6's, and Chinese 9th gen 12's as well. What a beast of an amp. I preferred that amp over the VHT at the time. Was the last power amp I owned. When I sold it I took all the tubes out and replaced with Sovteks lol, they were dirt cheap. Was well stocked when I bought the OG 5150 with the same tubes. Honestly at that time tubes weren't a big deal but I just thought, I'm keeping those. Little did I know they were basically no more. When I got the 5150 script logo as backup to the OG, out with those tubes in with the Sylvania's.
Racerxrated
Well-known member
I was super surprised at the 3D tone I get out of that Peavey...I knew about the VHT stuff, though I haven't owned one, but did have a Mesa S400 for a year or so...this 60 has almost the same amount of 3D awesome as the S400 did...although, at a much lower wattage lol. But still plenty of power for anything I'd use it for, even if I still played out.
shar-vell Dan
Well-known member
My buddy bought a brand new JCM-800 1/2 stack in 82. Was a beast of major porportion.
To look down inside that head and see all that glass gave me a boner.
Early 800's came with either RFT or old Tesla's or whatever Marshall had at the time.
I bought an 82 800 2203 head with original glass that had RFT's.
Attachments
Smash
Hack
Yeah. My buddy has a rockmaster pre. Some of the best tone i hear anywhere. Peavey did solid shit
rstites
Well-known member
I'm not quite old enough to recall the introduction of the JCM800 series. I was just starting to play at that point and had some smallish Peavey that was perfectly fine, but not great. Moved to Peavey Mace for a while in there - lots of volume but sounded like a chainsaw with its own distortion.
I ended up getting my JMP 2203 half-stack a bit later. It was used, the outdated look (nobody cared about vintage at that point), and I could afford it 2nd hand. I don't think those sound substantively different than the first iteration of the JCM800 2203s, and those were all over the place on backlines at the time. They're pretty much instant early 80's hard rock tones. With a boost, you get metal (or lead tones).
The rack stuff started becoming common a bit later on, and then it was super expensive compared to sticking with a simple half-stack and some pedals. Plus, it seemed like lots of the metal world stayed with the simpler setup (myself included). Racks were more the glitzy glam/pop metal crowd, or so I recall. (I built a rack sometime in the early 90's and had a blast with it for a bit, but found I only ended up using about 3-4 sounds for anything serious.....and just went back to the half-stack.)
I ended up getting my JMP 2203 half-stack a bit later. It was used, the outdated look (nobody cared about vintage at that point), and I could afford it 2nd hand. I don't think those sound substantively different than the first iteration of the JCM800 2203s, and those were all over the place on backlines at the time. They're pretty much instant early 80's hard rock tones. With a boost, you get metal (or lead tones).
The rack stuff started becoming common a bit later on, and then it was super expensive compared to sticking with a simple half-stack and some pedals. Plus, it seemed like lots of the metal world stayed with the simpler setup (myself included). Racks were more the glitzy glam/pop metal crowd, or so I recall. (I built a rack sometime in the early 90's and had a blast with it for a bit, but found I only ended up using about 3-4 sounds for anything serious.....and just went back to the half-stack.)