Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

TwilightOdyssey

Darkness on the edge of Tone
As you all know, I picked up my modded JCM800 last Thursday and played a show with it on Friday. Well, last night, I was able to take it back to the studio and play it in a controlled setting (or at least, less chaotic ;) ), and dialed up some killer tones.

Basic details go like this: I played my ESP M1 Tiger (Screamin Demon pickup only, in the bridge position) going into an AKG SR60 wireless unit (the Cadilac of wireless units!), as well as hard wiring straight into the head. I ended up prefering the sound of a wire much more (custom made by Synergistic Research) than the wireless, and stuck with the wire for the rest of my testing. Wireless will still be used for live shows, tho. Cabinet was a 1970's Hiwatt straight 4x12. (the one with the circular handles that you can't get your hands into!) I experimented using my Fulltone Full-Drive 2 and Fulltone Fat Boost, to see which one sounded better for a solo boost and prefered the Fat Boost. (Why not use both? I prefer simplicity for a live situation. If I had a pedal board, I would probably use both). OH, ONE OTHER THING: I only played the boost "channel", the clean channel will be turned all the way down and used as a mute postition for the rig. (For clean, I use my Rivera Knucklehead)

Sooo ... here are the settings I ended up using. I will try to make a sound clip of it this weekend, in case you don't have a JCM800 to try these settings out (Waddya mean, you don't have a JCM800?! :laugh2:

(This is by memory, so they might not be in the proper order)

Presence: 5
Master Volume: 5
Reverb: 2 (or lower)

Bass: 3
Mid: 2
Treble: 3

Boost channel Gain: 10
Boost channel Volume: 10

(A note about EQ ... I prefer to let the guitar's natural sound shine thru the amp, so to that end, I am very sparing about using the EQ on my amplifiers. I never set the EQ above 5, in any case. The tone is much more natural this way.)
 
Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

I'll give it a shot.....thanks for the tip!!! :13:


BTW....Do you have Fanes in the Hiwatt???
 
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Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

PUCKBOY99 said:
I'll give it a shot.....thanks for the tip!!! :13:


BTW....Do you have Fanes in the Hiwatt???

Yes, the Hiwatt has Fanes inside it, but I don't know anything else, like the power handling, how it's wired, etc. The sound is VERY clean, with absolutely no chuff or bloating in the low end.
 
Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

Since buying the Hiwatt, I've been reading a lot about Fanes on the Plexi Palace Forum. They sound like "THE PERFECT" speaker, if there is such an animal....but tough to come by & $$$$ !!!
 
Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

Yeah, Hiwatt cabs usually run around a grand. They're supposedly the very best 4x12s around (even over brands like Bogner, Marshall, Soldano, ENGL etc.)
 
Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

I have Laney cab from the 80's that has Fanes in it, as well ... but I don't like the Laney nearly as much as the Hiwatt or Rivera cabs. Don't know if it's the same quality driver, of course. My Rivera uses Celestions.
 
Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

Hiwatts are extremely well made, both cabs and amps.
I am still in awe over the way overkill DR201 we have in our studio.....it is a perfect testamp, if the pedal suck you'll hear it right away, the clarity is simply amazing.
And they made a 50 watts combo with Fanes once, they had aludomes if I am not mistaken...uh
Can we get some clips by the way of that JCM 800??
:burnout:
 
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Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

Rid said:
Can we get some clips by the way of that JCM 800??
:burnout:

I'm definitely planning on doing so; as soon as I make it through this show on Friday, I will have some time to go down to the studio and make some clips.
 
Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

glad you like it! i have an '82 modded jcm 800 50w that i love. its my dirty tone for anything thats not a straight blues gig. very happy with it, im gonna try a set of kt66's in there and see how that sounds
 
Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

jeremy said:
glad you like it! i have an '82 modded jcm 800 50w that i love. its my dirty tone for anything thats not a straight blues gig. very happy with it, im gonna try a set of kt66's in there and see how that sounds

I remember reading about this in Michael Doyle's Marshall book ... are these tubes hot-swappable with the KT66s? Does the amp need to be re-biased? I'm a dedicated EL34 user, but I wouldn't mind experimenting with KT66s.
 
Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

PUCKBOY99 said:
Since buying the Hiwatt, I've been reading a lot about Fanes on the Plexi Palace Forum. They sound like "THE PERFECT" speaker, if there is such an animal....but tough to come by & $$$$ !!!

Hey, dont you know that the Weber THAMES model is a replica of the old Fanes ? :)
 
Re: Dialed in a great tone w/my JCM800

Thames said:
Hey, dont you know that the Weber THAMES model is a replica of the old Fanes ? :)

I was gonna start a thread asking about the Fanes and any "copies"....I love my Mojo "Celestion copies".

What can ya' tell me about them??? :offtopic: :hijacked: :hijacked:
 
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