My cousin is quite a player. He has been asking me about my thoughts on the vertical input early 80's Marshalls....2203, combos, JCM800's. What do you guys think of those amps? He is a guy who loves Malmsteen, EVH, Lynch, and the guitarist from "Loudness" among others.

He has been lurking and I would love for him to sign up and jump in with us. Perhaps if he sees this thread, we can coax him to "hit the button."

And do any of you cats have one for sale or know of someone?

Thanks guys! Appreciated.

Cheers.

I'm no guitarist, but I've been around those who've used JCM's and to me they sounded very scratchy & Tinny. (they're ugly too!) Push him in the direction of the earlier JMP series they sounded a lot better to these ears. He'll pay more for a JMP though.

My cousin is quite a player. He has been asking me about my thoughts on the vertical input early 80's Marshalls....2203, combos, JCM800's. What do you guys think of those amps? He is a guy who loves Malmsteen, EVH, Lynch, and the guitarist from "Loudness" among others.

He has been lurking and I would love for him to sign up and jump in with us. Perhaps if he sees this thread, we can coax him to "hit the button."

And do any of you cats have one for sale or know of someone?

Thanks guys! Appreciated.

Cheers.

Your cousin is making the right choice! I have played my Marshall 2203 since 1980 and there is no replacement for the real thing,,,,Loud and Proud.
Marsahall's are an amp built for life.

I loved my JCM800 50W M/V back in the mid-80s (bought it from "Lippy"), but I agree with Pete ("Unraveled") ... It could never compete with the 'golden' tone that the other guitarist ("Reverand Gill") got from his JMP, which was the immediate fore-runner of the JCM.

Hey 3Fingers

Thought i would mention that i also have a Re Issue JMP 1959 hand wired.And for overall preformance it has more range than the #2203.It has better clean settings.
Have you tried posting a "looking For" ad in the local paper, or music store.
2203 and 2204 in excellent shape sell for allot of money lately due to the interest created by Zak Wilde and others in this series.The last early series Jcm 800 that i saw on ebay sold for around $550 which was a steal,but you dont see that very often.

What about the re-issue series for your cousin.There is a Zak Wilde model and a Kerry Collins Jcm 800 as well,There is also a non hand wired cheaper version JMP 1959 that would also be great for him too.
I dont know anyone that has a Marshall for sale right now but will keep my eye's open for you.

Park

Thanks for the replies guys. Appreciated. The thing is I had an excellent 1980 JMP I sold about 6 months ago. The best amp I have ever owned. I would have much rather sold it to him.

Did any of yours come with EL-34's? All the ones I have seen were 6550?
And did any of you like the differences in the High and low sensitivity jacks? My cousin loved the low sensitivity jack on the ones he has played. For you guys "in the know" what was the circuit differences that could account for the tonality changes? (less bright, less gain, yes, but anything else)?

Thanks in advance.

Hey Serg....i don't know if he's in the market for "new" or not, but i'll tell ya, the Splawns are truly KICKASS!!! You know Matt has one, and i got to see them all in action at the convention Matt and i went to last year (and going again this year!!) Scott Splawn has been doing Marshall mods for years, and just went into building his own....and let me tell ya, he's a great guy, very down to earth and humble, and a kickass player to boot!! Here is a vid of Scott running through the different amps at last years convention, as well as a link to his site. There are a bunch of audio clips of owners playing their amps. I know when i get the funds, i am definitely going this route

VTS_12_1.VOB.MP4

http://www.splawnguitars.com/amps_products.htm

Holy Mackeral!! I still have a 74 JMP totally stock....HMM.. I noticed he is not doing mods at this time on his website...but man....that sounds amazing and I know Matt always sounds amazing...all without pedals! Chesum they all sound killer! Thanks for the link Big J!! I am not huge into gain anymore, but I like variety and hence that Marshall is still around. I mainly use an old Fender Princeton Reverb for most of my stuff these days...but it's not about what I want...and I think for him...he will freak, and love it!! :rock: :bowdown:

Also...very cool to see Matt as an endorser of his product. Go Supercharged 350!!! :rock:

Serg I have an early 80's JCM800 50W head I run into a 4x12 Marshall cab with 75w celestions. I sounds good, pretty rich, different than the plexi sound though. It has the Drake transformer which seems to be the desirable ones as they get a more brown sound (you can tell which transformer is in them just by looking at the name through the holes in the back grill). I put Telsa EL34s and 12ax7s in it which kinda beefed up the gain a bit. As long as he likes the Marshall sound, he'll like it :)

[QUOTE=JPF;92087]Hey Serg....i don't know if he's in the market for "new" or not, but i'll tell ya, the Splawns are truly KICKASS!!! You know Matt has one, and i got to see them all in action at the convention Matt and i went to last year (and going again this year!!) Scott Splawn has been doing Marshall mods for years, and just went into building his own....and let me tell ya, he's a great guy, very down to earth and humble, and a kickass player to boot!! Here is a vid of Scott running through the different amps at last years convention, as well as a link to his site. There are a bunch of audio clips of owners playing their amps. I know when i get the funds, i am definitely going this route

WHY HAVE I NOT BEEN INFORMED OF THIS SOONER!!!!.......

Great site and what tone Holy Cow! Thanks for posting this, i will have to really look closley at these Splawn Amp Heads.
Just wondering what convention are you talking about?.

Thanks Parker

[quote=JPF;92087]
Just wondering what convention are you talking about?.


Well, it's not so much a convention as a get together of owners and friends, with a southern BBQ and Jam out. Last year was the first time. A couple of Splawn owners put it together last year...... One of them runs a Splawn fan forum http://splawnfans.proboards38.com/index.cgi (http://splawnfans.proboards38.com/index.cgi) we all got hotels in the little town where Scott has his shop in N Carolina. We had a tour of the shop....watched him actually wiring up chassis for the amps, his guy's building the cabs and amp boxes, doing the tolex and such, then we went down to a local music store where they have a back room setup with a little stage an PA ( thats it in the video) and he set up all his amps, and just let everyone jam and check them all out. Really was a very cool, laid back weekend. This year the guy's are trying to see if we can get a drum and bass rig setup going, so we can actually do some full blown tunes!!! Scott and his family are real nice southern folks, was like going to a family reunion for METAL!!! LOL!!! There are some other vids on YouTube of some others jamming that day, just search SPLAWN!! I think their trying to get it together for around the same time this year in September......good times had by all!!!:rock: :rock:

Sorry for the hijack Serg........

My cousin checked out the links and he is appreciative (his PC is in the shop and his work PC has no sound, so he can't hear the clips at the moment), but hopefully he come in and joins us here. He's more like my brother than my brother if you know what I mean...?

I was thinking also, tube amps are really just so awesome. You can't really miss with owning one. You can tweak it just about any way you want. And that touch sensitivity is just unbeatable.

One other amp I would recommend is a hand made Ed Giller amp. His amps are reviewed on Harmony Central and I own one of his prototypes. Has plenty plenty of gain and tone, and it's about 6-8 watts and full of Plexi tone and I can crank it with a 4x12 with Greenbacks and it's just about perfect.

My cousin might want more headroom and power, but this is an amp I can record with just as easily as a Modeler type thing.

It's not a great example, but I have a cut from a backing track with the vocals embedded in them. And forget the sloppiness of my playing but...this little amp is one killer tone machine and I wanted to share it as it seemed relevant. The sample is naked..no EQ, no pedal, nothing post effects. SM-57 off axis and plug and go. (and that's what I think he and I would want...like the Splawn clips...nothing but amp).

(hijacking my own thread, but perhaps the cuz likes this as well. It's modeled after a Marshall after all).

Yeah sorry about getting off topic...oop's.

Having played a #2204 for the last 25 years i can tell you that it is so important to have the levels set properly....then you can get rid of the harsh tinny sound many people on here have talked about.The best settings are the following.
Bass....full up
Treble....4
middle.....5
persence....2 (this is the most important one) past 4 gives ugly tone.
Master .....8 to 9.
Volume....4....up.

the other thing that will fill up sound and make it more solid is to experiment with the tube values.
Pre amp V1 V2 V3 Power V4 V5 50 watt.

In the V3 pre amp spot instead of a 12AX7 use a 12AT7 or 12AY7.This will cut down on gain and make the head pedal friendly.

I have also found that The EL34 that sounds the best are the new Mullard El34 the other that gives nice bottom end are The winged 'C" El34.

The other thing i have also tried is using Yellow Jacket Converters by THD these are converters that plug into the power tube spot and allow you to use EL84 instead of EL34....or you can use both as they are self biasing.Gives you a Marshall that is type A or Type AB power great idea.:hug:

You can find all this good stuff here http://thetubestore.com/thdproducts.html

And the mullards here http://thetubestore.com/mullardel34.html


This is where i get all my tubes from they are from Canada. all my Marshalls are EL34 powered not 6550.
As far as plugging into input 2 yes that works well too and gives deeper more full sound but lacks in the volume dept.The best trick that i can suggest for an old JCM800 or 2204 is to use a power soak (made by scholz Boston) they are discontinued but can still be found on Ebay...or a Power Brake Made by Marshall.Either of these will give you the advantage of a cranked full sound at half the volume.I dont beilive in modding Marshall heads and these days you shouldn't have too there are allot of good pre amps that will turn a 800 or 2204 into a full sounding head amp capable of clean as well as dirty.
If you can get your hands on the Power Soak do it! they are still the best and better that the THD Hot Plate or Marshall power Brake IMHO.:)

Parker

Here is a Power Soak i found on Ebay...i would buy it if i already didn't own 2 of them.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Rockman-Power-Soak-Type-II-Tom-Scholz-Free-shipping_W0QQitemZ230243892274QQihZ013QQcategoryZ6 21QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD4VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp 1638Q2em124


And Here is a 2204 head in nice shape on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/1983-MARSHALL-JCM800-AMP-Chassis-Model-2204-JCM-800_W0QQitemZ370043154953QQihZ024QQcategoryZ10171Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I have seen these JCM800 and 2204 for less on Ebay around the $550 to $650 amount, this might be alittle high at $849 betcha anything he will have to re-list at lower price.


Parker

P.S the Power Soak is NOT a Rockman and has nothing to do with that name...and there is no type 2 Power soak they all have the Tube or Solid State switch on them.This seller is obviously confused as to what he really has..$299 is a pretty good price for this as the are getting harder and harder to find,origianlly they sold for around $120 in the early 80's.

Well, it's not so much a convention as a get together of owners and friends, with a southern BBQ and Jam out. Last year was the first time. A couple of Splawn owners put it together last year...... One of them runs a Splawn fan forum http://splawnfans.proboards38.com/index.cgi (http://splawnfans.proboards38.com/index.cgi) we all got hotels in the little town where Scott has his shop in N Carolina.

BBQ at a small town in NC?? I´m buying a Splawn, right now! :woot::lol: Now tell me it´s fairly close to Smithfield. Then I´ll bring the beers next time.

I had a JMP 100 combo .I actually swapped it with Wah Wah for a Park head and cab . The Marshall was good but not exceptional . Ive never been really floored by a Marshall . Problem was with the old ones you always had to run an MXR Micro amp with it to sweeten it . The Park had marginally better gain to my ears , but its really horses for courses . I would for certain consider the newish AVT 150 combos and heads . Im trying to get the Reverend Gill to post up one of his demos , all of which feature the AVT , and the sound is phenomenal .

Cus has gone hog wild!! :) He bought the best 3 off EBAY...and will sell what he doesn't like...One was a nice 50 watt 79 with vertical inputs for $1150. I think that one will be his ticket.

Interesting Parker about your settings. I agree with you and it's about how I set my own controls when I owned a 2203. It never sounded thin to me, but some people think that for some reason. The only thing I differ with you is I hated the Power Soak. It sucked all my tone away. I sold it about 2 yrs ago for about $150. I tended to sound like "Boston" on everything. I like the Hotplate, if I needed an attenuator. But different strokes for different folks. I hear the Weber Mass is really nice. (http://www.legendarytones.com/weberma.html) But that is another story altogether, and I have never tied one.

Thanks guys for your input!! Now to get him here and posting. When we were kids, he used to blow my playing away with way more speed and clarity and compexity. :rock: