Can you describe the tone difference; JCM800, JMP, Jubilee??

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Lugo
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James Lugo

James Lugo

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I'm looking at maybe switching out an amp and getting the quintessential real unmodded Marshall sound. Like when you listen to 70's and early 80s rock records, early Def Leopard, Skynyrd etc... Something with a master volume and has the right balance of warmth and cut. No super high gain, the real natural Marshall crunch.


???
 
Heres my thoughts when i compared my jubilee to my 2203,
The jube had more lows, more gain, little bit different mids, and to my ears is darker sounding.
I liked the jube better and sold the 2203 and i still have the jube. Theres fans of both and it seems the 2203 is more popular, some guys also dont like the diode clipping of the jube.

I dont consider either of these amps super high gain, both work very well with a boost.
 
My 1980 JMP 2203 with 6550's was louder than my Jube but the tones i was getting from my Jube(i have the slash sig one like les does) were easier to achieve than with the 2203. The 2203 needed a boost to get me into metal territory but IMO the jube does not.
 
I would have thought that reeves you had would nail that sort of sound.. find an orig JCM 800, 2203.. or what are your thoughts on the cranked non masters.
 
DET1973":3ccke23l said:
My 1980 JMP 2203 with 6550's was louder than my Jube but the tones i was getting from my Jube(i have the slash sig one like les does) were easier to achieve than with the 2203. The 2203 needed a boost to get me into metal territory but IMO the jube does not.
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I feel the same way and agree!!
 
Les Zombie":t4ispqsd said:
DET1973":t4ispqsd said:
My 1980 JMP 2203 with 6550's was louder than my Jube but the tones i was getting from my Jube(i have the slash sig one like les does) were easier to achieve than with the 2203. The 2203 needed a boost to get me into metal territory but IMO the jube does not.
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I feel the same way and agree!!
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I play really simple punk rock and Hardcore think Bad Religion Meets Madball and that's what my songs sound like. Anyway in terms of tones i tune to D standard and sometimes E Flat. so my tones are all based around those tunings/style of music...I'm sure the Jube can do just about anything since a friend of mine played in a death metal band with one and a old badass Local Thrash band called Raped Ape/Paingod used Jubes to record with and the tones they used to get live were awesome.
 
I own a precascaded 50 watt 1976 jmp, it is way deeper (a bit plexi sound) and nastier (to the point where it is hard to dial out) sounding than a 80ties jcm, very!!! bitey, the silver jubilee I tried had a lot of gain, a bit boring, flatter sounding.....

Without my Rodenberg 728 (very open TS non harsh sounding pedal) my amp is not! giving me enough gain to play the Hard Rock you mentioned..... absolutely difficult to play legato runs without a pedal...stability in the midrange is also missing a bit without pedal, but is sounding like records of the late 70ties...gnarly and barky....a bit different than the 800´s I encountered.

Kai
 
The best i had/heard was a 74 Jmp 50 watter... with a Post Phase Master....
And the bastard still will not let me buy it back!

Overall...that early Def Lep sound to me is JMP's.... Less "grit" than JCM800 but some sweet tone...
 
I agree , 70's and 80's Marshalls sound so raw on all those recordings. Just listening to early Scorpions the other day. Holy crap does Mathias have some badass tone. The guitars are crunchy and cutting. Somehow somewhere that all got lost. Was it the way they recorded? Was it the amps? Was it the EQ settings people liked? Trying to figure this out. To me, the BAck in Black AC DC tones are some of the best guitars ever recorded. The more i listen to it, the more I hear an amp just past breakup and the gain coming from how hard the strings are hit and hotter pickups. Interesting. I really think a lot of the tones we love were not super gained out unless they were hitting it with a screamer or EQ for solos.
 
Hey James.

I would look for the older (late)69-74 metal face Marshalls. The best thing for these Bad boys is to keep them stock, or as stock as possible. I believe you want a "stock Marshall, with a Master Volume", not a master volume Marshall. A lot of these earlier era metal faces (69) and perhaps a very few earlier 70's marshalls still had the laydown tranny's, and were pushing nearly 600 volts (compared to the 450 common today). 1969-76' Marshalls were brighter and had slightly more gain-Pre 76' Marshalls have more balls. This is the same time frame of the colored Marshalls. I think this might be what your itching for.
I just had a 74' Marshall restored back to stock. When I got it, it had been modded to the tilt, sounded absolutely horrible, and the work was terrible and unpredictable. I thought I got had :doh: I bought this through a friend and he bought it like that also( off my recommendation), but there was no way of really knowing til you heard it. It had to go stock. Everything was original except for a few pots and caps which are now back to stock, well and the extra holes punched in the chassis :doh: Try to get an unmolested one. Good luck bro!
Peace, Wade
P.S- As Steve K would say, be prepared to dig in the couch and pull out some coin too.
 
Not that simple... yes he is on everything now it seems as well. I'm talking anything from UFO to Free to Scorps. Those tones were the cat's meow. For all we know they were combo amps cranked in a room with less than stellar acoustics but they produced magic. More and more i am wondering about mics in all of this. What were the predominant mics of use in the 70's for the rock sound?
 
Love my recent purchase of an excellent condition unmodded all original early 1984 vertical input JCM800 2204. I've been looking for this amp for years. For me it is the epitome of Marshall tone. The cherry on top was the great deal ($700).
 
Which JCM 800? If you are talking 2203, as long as you are talking the early ones, there really isnt any difference. Mostly the same parts and just different cosmetics. Though the JMP's were using 6550's and when the JCM 800's came out (after the first or second year) they went back to EL34's....

The JMP's have more bottom and are a bit clearer. There's more freq range to use. With EL34's in the JCM, it's more limited to midrange.

Some of the 2210's I've played were pretty killer too. Not sure which are the good ones though.

The Jube amps I never liked when they came out...still don't. They have the narrow range like the JCM and as soon as you hit the diodes in the od channel, they get grainy sounding.

As long as you can turn them up there's not really any gain difference in a 1959 or 2203, just have to find a good one.
 
I have only played a 2 channel 50Watt JCM800, and own a 2553. The JCM800 to me sounded brighter and more raw. It didn't have the gain of the Jubilee. The Jubilee sounded smoother, more compressed, and was better for lead. Both sounded better turned up and were a bit grainy at low volumes, particularly the Jubilee. I have been thinking of getting an attenuator for my Jubilee as I don't get to run it at 6 or above on the master volume any more.
 
I know you're asking about Marshall's, but you also mentioned Skynyrd. Wouldn't that be a Peavey Mace or Classic VT?
 
sparkle**":3cf0c26n said:
The best i had/heard was a 74 Jmp 50 watter... with a Post Phase Master....
And the bastard still will not let me buy it back!

Overall...that early Def Lep sound to me is JMP's.... Less "grit" than JCM800 but some sweet tone...
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A lot of people say the older JMP's sound different from the JCM's. But I've played a quite few and you can dial them in to sound almost identical. Especially with me because I boost. I am totaly sold on the JMP/JCM series. Great amp with a lot of tonal flexilbilty. A lot of people will tell you they are 1 trick pony's but that is simply not true. The use of different guitars, pickups, OD's/boosts and the volume knob on your guitar you can get a variety of sounds. And a lot of times you go, man that sounds just like the album. I love them!!!
 
Talking out of your ass mate.

the 70's and 80's where home of the big studios and big budgets. Stadium rock bands sometimes spent a year in the studio till everything was perfect. The didn't half ass everything with DAW short cuts back then. Trust me if you have ever cut tape or bounce tracks across 4 different tape machines you would make sure it was right the first time.

When it goes to tape you have to commit to early on. They would spend a weeks perfecting listing through the monitors before they hit record. Today you set up mic's in one day, track in 3 days, mix down and punch ins 2 days and then its off to mastering.Its too easy now and everyone wants to commit later with plug in's.

I think the magic mic your looking for is the unidyne iii. :lol: :LOL:
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Surely not every album was cut this way... I doubt GnR' had that type of budget for their first album but yes i gather working with tape things were done a lot differently...
 
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