Old People: How did you feel about the JCM800 at the time of its release?

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Racerxrated said:
Well, I know you don't like bright....which is the very definition of a vintage Marshall. So there's that. Haha
I guess I'm just super lucky; I've never plugged into a Marshall, pre 1990 that didn't at least sound GOOD. Some are great.
At this point, over 60 and counting....but, only 3 NMVs so maybe there are more bad versions of those?
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The later ones being pcb based, not as prone to “differences”. But, for the most part, never liked the later ones. Mid 73 and back being turret board much more probability of noise, oscillations etc. I had one early 73 100watt that sounded really good, it is the one in the Crying in the Rain video on my Youtube. Then I scored the 69 plexi 100 watt and that 73 went bye…even though the 73 sounded good, the 69 was WAY better.
 
Smash said:
Kind of off topic, but since you brought this up..It is kind of the evolution of amps that you have so much preamp gain that we end up calling amps a can of bees. It makes it hard to find a good amp. Some amps you could put a pedal through, some you needed to get powersection going and turn down the preamp.
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The big issue IMO is that people are trying to capture the endless sustain you get from a cranked up amp, and the only way to do that at low volume is lots of preamp distortion. That doesn't sound the same. It doesn't set in the mix the same. It doesn't cut with a live band the same.

The issue is that you simply CANNOT emulate the real acoustic feedback of an electric guitar in front of a loud amplifier. The interaction between the guitar and the amp is magical (well, can be). That isn't the same with a cranked preamp.

Yes, boosting the front end with a pedal helps up the distortion, but it's still generally a lot less distortion, but more sustain, than people get out of high gain preamp sections. It's just different. It also seems like a lot of people just go for way too much distortion that becomes an aural mess in a band mix. It might sound great by itself, but not so much in the band setting. (See also, turning the damn mids up and not down because it's a midrange instrument.)

I know lots of you know this, but it was a rant I wanted to make. Thanks for listening!
 
67mike said:
Not sure you have any idea what you speak of?

I have a couple JCM 800s and I can tell you without a doubt that the sweet spot is 4 on the master volume. The power tubes are cooking......increasing the master generally just compresses things more....not what I consider ideal.

Some folks run them to emulate a plexi by opening up the master to 10 then use gain to set volume........I have tried thus, but, very much prefer the traditional approach as I generally enjoy more preamp gain with the music I play.

Sure my Jubilee needs the master to be at or above 6 to be optimal, but the JCMs sound good with master anywhere over 1.5.............you are around 110 dB with master at 1.5.
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That's my experience too. Even at 3 on the master, my old JMP 2203 sounded great. If I wanted to crank it up like a NMW amp, I'd just use a 1959 and be done with it. I had no problem playing clubs throughout the era with that half-stack. Nobody batted an eye out our stage volumes at the time.

I don't even know how much the power amp is squishing anything at that volume. I suspect it's as much about getting the speakers up to volume so they're working, and it's squishy our ears by that point!
 
I think it's how much the phase inverter is getting slammed that has a lot to do with it. :cool:
 
rstites said:
The big issue IMO is that people are trying to capture the endless sustain you get from a cranked up amp, and the only way to do that at low volume is lots of preamp distortion. That doesn't sound the same. It doesn't set in the mix the same. It doesn't cut with a live band the same.

The issue is that you simply CANNOT emulate the real acoustic feedback of an electric guitar in front of a loud amplifier. The interaction between the guitar and the amp is magical (well, can be). That isn't the same with a cranked preamp.

Yes, boosting the front end with a pedal helps up the distortion, but it's still generally a lot less distortion, but more sustain, than people get out of high gain preamp sections. It's just different. It also seems like a lot of people just go for way too much distortion that becomes an aural mess in a band mix. It might sound great by itself, but not so much in the band setting. (See also, turning the damn mids up and not down because it's a midrange instrument.)

I know lots of you know this, but it was a rant I wanted to make. Thanks for listening!
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You are so right. I dont know what kind of music you play, but this is true with metal in my opinion too. You dont want to get the poweramp messy, but it needs to cook if you want to bring the nasty. I know you can get a clinical metal sound out of a quiet amp with pedal, but it is beyond boring to play like that.

I need to FEEL the amp. And to fight it.
 
Smash said:
You are so right. I dont know what kind of music you play, but this is true with metal in my opinion too. You dont want to get the poweramp messy, but it needs to cook if you want to bring the nasty. I know you can get a clinical metal sound out of a quiet amp with pedal, but it is beyond boring to play like that.

I need to FEEL the amp. And to fight it.
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You need an old early 70s Superlead, and some pedals....hits you like a truck, and yes you have to learn to 'play' the amp at volume or it will play you lol.......once it starts to cook, it's like a wild animal haha.
 
Ya know in hindsight, I was too inexperienced to know which was ‘better’. I wasn’t 20 yet. I was letting the old guard tell me how the old SuperLeads were better. The pre-mid 60s Gibsons were better, etc. And that was probably true if you wanted to play that type of music.

FF a half lifetime later and the SuperLead IS my favorite but I still love a good boosted 2203. And I like playing Jose circuits too but I always seem to gravitate back to the simpler original circuits.
 
I was 2 years old and playing with a Monchhichi when they were released.
 
67mike said:
Sold all my Mesa once I bought Marshalls.

Try it, might like it.
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I've tried a few Marshall's over the years and they just sound too ordinary to me, they sound great mind you but nothing I'd sell the Mesa's I've owned for. Also, I'm a metal player so I need a cleanish power section and tight saturated high gain pre-amp gain, but I like a good deal of versatility of sound too so that's where the graphic EQ comes in to play, I like to tweak my amps a lot. I'm not a set it and forget it kinda player at all, and that's what Marshall's are basically, the old ones anyways IMO. I do see the appeal of those old Marshall's though, when it comes to that kinda sound, nothing really does it better. They're great for rock, I think there are better alternatives for metal.
 
anomaly said:
I've tried a few Marshall's over the years and they just sound too ordinary to me, they sound great mind you but nothing I'd sell the Mesa's I've owned for. Also, I'm a metal player so I need a cleanish power section and tight saturated high gain pre-amp gain, but I like a good deal of versatility of sound too so that's where the graphic EQ comes in to play, I like to tweak my amps a lot. I'm not a set it and forget it kinda player at all, and that's what Marshall's are basically, the old ones anyways IMO. I do see the appeal of those old Marshall's though, when it comes to that kinda sound, nothing really does it better. They're great for rock, I think there are better alternatives for metal.
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Latest Mesa I sold was my Mark V. Tweaker paradise. My 2555x and a sd-1 + boost take its place pretty well..

I agree the Mesa had some pretty ripping metal tones.
 
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rsm said:
guitar magazines were the only info we had, unless someone had the gear or knew someone. we used to go to 48th street in NYC to the music stores just to look around before they'd throw us out / ask us to leave, if you didn't have money good luck trying anything.



Nostalgic 1980's guitar ads: post them! | Page 13 | The Gear Page's guitar ads: post them! | Page 13 | The Gear Page
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Impressive list of players IMHO
 
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Go to play today a ‘97 reissue 2203 that they made exclusively for GC back then. Been quite a while since I played an 800. I actually remember playing these in GC back then. It was a fucking beast. Unfortunately over priced but it just sounded fantastic. It had a new Quickrod on top of it that just couldn’t remotely touch it, for muscle and roar. Certainly would have bought it on the spot if more reasonably priced.
 
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