Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

[vinterland]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

If I knew more about circuitry......I've always wanted to figure out how to run a jumper across the diode circuit, just as an experiment, to see if it sounds just like a JCM 800, or if it still has more gain. To be honest, I see the diode clipping circuit as a positive thing, since it's like inserting a tube screamer in between the preamp tubes. It was a good idea that Marshall should have stayed with. I think they did it with the JCM 900 SLX too, but I'm not sure.

Lake Placid Blues is right about the Jubilee either sounding good or bad. I hear good things and bad things about the Jubilee, and have to attribute it to the tubes and bias. I know mine sounds just as good as all the Splawn clips I've heard. If you like a highgain Marshall tone, the Jubilee really has it, but a lot of people underestimate the clean and crunch tones in the amp. It's got a lot of range between it's clean and lead tones.

I'll say this... the guy also had 3 jcm 800 full stacks and I didn't think any of them compared to the tight gain we were getting from the 25/50. Now the SLX he owned, that thing had a huge growl to it.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

I'll say this... the guy also had 3 jcm 800 full stacks and I didn't think any of them compared to the tight gain we were getting from the 25/50. Now the SLX he owned, that thing had a huge growl to it.

This has always been a big debate amongst JCM800 owners, but I much prefer the Jubilee and JCM 900 SLX over any stock JCM 800. Regular JCM 800's sound like they're 'almost there but not quite' and always need an OD pedal to get a singing lead tone. The Jubilees and SLX's sound like that, plugging straight in.
And if you still want a more vintage vibe, you can always turn the gain down.

 

[vinterland]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

This has always been a big debate amongst JCM800 owners, but I much prefer the Jubilee and JCM 900 SLX over any stock JCM 800. Regular JCM 800's sound like they're 'almost there but not quite' and always need an OD pedal to get a singing lead tone. The Jubilees and SLX's sound like that, plugging straight in.
And if you still want a more vintage vibe, you can always turn the gain down.

I very much agree, especially after playing all of them back to back.

 

[greendy123]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

This has always been a big debate amongst JCM800 owners, but I much prefer the Jubilee and JCM 900 SLX over any stock JCM 800. Regular JCM 800's sound like they're 'almost there but not quite' and always need an OD pedal to get a singing lead tone. The Jubilees and SLX's sound like that, plugging straight in.
And if you still want a more vintage vibe, you can always turn the gain down.

Thats exactly what I on my slx, turning down the gain on lower settings gives me my classic rock tones and I still have plenty of gain and punch for modern stuff.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

If I knew more about circuitry......I've always wanted to figure out how to run a jumper across the diode circuit, just as an experiment, to see if it sounds just like a JCM 800, or if it still has more gain. To be honest, I see the diode clipping circuit as a positive thing, since it's like inserting a tube screamer in between the preamp tubes. It was a good idea that Marshall should have stayed with. I think they did it with the JCM 900 SLX too, but I'm not sure.

Lake Placid Blues is right about the Jubilee either sounding good or bad. I hear good things and bad things about the Jubilee, and have to attribute it to the tubes and bias. I know mine sounds just as good as all the Splawn clips I've heard. If you like a highgain Marshall tone, the Jubilee really has it, but a lot of people underestimate the clean and crunch tones in the amp. It's got a lot of range between it's clean and lead tones.

If the LED's are by-passed, then the circut very much resembles a JCM800 2203. The SLX is using an extra tube in place of the LEDs. This is not to say the circuts are exactly the same save the LEDs, but they are clearly both a derivative of the JCM 800 2203 preamp. If you look at a schematic of the Soldano SLO you will notice similarities to the Jubilee, except once again the SLO is using an extra tube instead of LEDs.

Back in the 80's there was a cottage industry of taking 2203's and adding an extra preamp tube. Most of these were hack jobs, but some, such as a mod kit sold by Soldano were pretty good. An SLX is a lot like a well done modded JCM800. A lot of the 80's hack jobs done to Marshalls were extremely noisey and buzzy. One of the virtues of using LEDs (that give a more tube type warmth than other SS devices) was it could be lower noise.

Keeping the the pre-amp dialed in on Jubilees can be problematic. It sounds great and you take a break, and come back to a different sound. I think this may be the sensitivity to early signal compression by the gain circut. If it's getting a certian amount of compression from the 1st preamp tube, this has multiplying effect on gain and volume of the high gain channel, but if the compression and gain at the front end changes, then it up sets the apple cart a little.

 

[jdm61]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

The JTM-45 has a clean tone?:laugh2: I had an early reissue with the Drake tranny. Guess i loved the sag so much that i never got around to trying the clean tone:fingersx: I'm having the same experience with my 18w. I has a beatiful "clean" tone, but realistically, like most tube rectified Marshall type amps, it never really gets totally clean.....always a few dirty spots that ya missed in the shower...lol Back when i had the JTM-45, if i wanted clean, I used the silverface super or modded deluxe.

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

There's a guy at the Metroamp forum trying to build a PTP Jubilee - how cool would it be if Metroamp.com issued one as a kit?

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

JDM61, that's exactly the type of "clean" I like. Clean but a bit dirty in spots. A warm clean, not a pristine clean, but without grit. The best "Fender clean" isn't totally clean either. The Jubilee clean is almost too clean (depending on the pickups), but it's warm. I have gotton a lot of compliments over the years for the Jubilee's clean tone. One guy walked into a studio on the combo once and said: "That's Marshalls clean? Wow that's awesome!" Well, it's not the typical soild state rectifier Marshall clean.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

There's a guy at the Metroamp forum trying to build a PTP Jubilee - how cool would it be if Metroamp.com issued one as a kit?

That would be an awesome amp kit! The Jubilee has a rather small circuit board, which doesn't appear overly complicated, so I'm sure it'd be simple to clone with a P to P board and bigger components. It'd probably make the amp tone a little wider, and it'd be a little more open sounding.

If a company came out with a reasonably priced PtoP copy of a Jubilee, people would clamor for it. Too bad Marshall doesn't release something like that.
They keep reissuing plexi type amps, but it'd be cool to see them come out with a handwired highgain Marshall!!!

 

[lastwinj]

Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

That would be an awesome amp kit! The Jubilee has a rather small circuit board, which doesn't appear overly complicated, so I'm sure it'd be simple to clone with a P to P board and bigger components. It'd probably make the amp tone a little wider, and it'd be a little more open sounding.
!

when did you want me to send you one? D