Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

vinterland

vinterland

New member
Let me begin by saying I am in no way a big marshall fan. In fact, I can't remember ever playing a marshall that completely blew me away in terms of tone... until now.

I met up with an old friend who I rarely get to see anymore. This dude has a studio and a Marshall amp collection that would rival about anyone. Anyways we hooked up a JCM 25/50 25th anniversary edition full stack to jam around the guitar on. Supposedly there were only 2000 of these amps made. I was completely blown away by this amp. We stuck a sennheiser on it and moved to the other room with the studio monitors since we were really getting this thing cranked. We threw a lexicon reverb plugin on it and it was about the best lead tone I have ever heard. I was playing my soloist and I've never heard it sound so good. If I ever see one of these at a decent price on the market, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

Agreed the anniversary ones are kindda expensive, but hey .. its a sound not to be reckon with.

All da best for the purchase soon
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

if i could only go back in time.... Steve's Music in Toronto back in the mid-late 80's had a wall of these silver Marshalls.... 25/50's and grey covered cabs everywhere.... I wanted one so bad.... i remember hearing a guy playing Panama thru one and i said that is the VH Tone!!!! I was 17 at the time and couldn't afford them.....
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

Is this like a JCM800 with a half power switch?
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

Scott_F said:
Is this like a JCM800 with a half power switch?
Click to expand...

Well from what I was told the 25th anniversary 25/50's have a special circuit of some kind that was made just for them that doesn't just have to do with the power but the sound as well.
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

When I was 17, the Jubilees had just come out, and I wanted one SO badly.
I sold off all my amps, borrowed a couple hundred from my brother and bought a new 100W 2555. I remember paying $882 out the door. I used the amp for 5 years, along with a Boss OD-1, and had a killer tone. I used black cabs, but always wanted the silver cabs. After that, I'd owned a ton of other amps, but regretted selling it.

In 2001, I saw a local ad for a 50W 2550 fullstack for $1500!!! I drove all the way out into the California desert, and this old hippie pulls his mint silver stack out of the closet with original covers. When we turned it on, it didn't work, so I gambled a repair bill and offered him $1400. I had a tech change a burned capacitor, then retubed it with JJ E-34L's and GT12AX7C's.

I'm keeping the stack as a collectible that I can have fun with. It's an absolutely great sounding Marshall. I can get vintage tones from it, but the gain is exceptional. The 100W Jubilee sounds great, but I like the 50's, since the power section kicks in nicely at rehearsal volume. I still prefer my Bogner, but the Jubilee is the best sounding modern Marshall I've ever heard.
I put it next to a DSL 50 one time, and the Jubilee sounded bigger and better.
Jubilee-Vox-Matchless.jpg
 
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Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

Gearjoneser said:
When I was 17, the Jubilees had just come out, and I wanted one SO badly.
I sold off all my amps, borrowed a couple hundred from my brother and bought a new 100W 2555. I remember paying $882 out the door. I used the amp for 5 years, along with a Boss OD-1, and had a killer tone. I used black cabs, but always wanted the silver cabs. After that, I'd owned a ton of other amps, but regretted selling it.

In 2001, I saw a local ad for a 50W 2550 fullstack for $1500!!! I drove all the way out into the California desert, and this old hippie pulls his mint silver stack out of the closet with original covers. When we turned it on, it didn't work, so I gambled a repair bill and offered him $1400. I had a tech change a burned capacitor, then retubed it with JJ E-34L's and GT12AX7C's.

I'm keeping the stack as a collectible that I can have fun with. It's an absolutely great sounding Marshall. I can get vintage tones from it, but the gain is exceptional. The 100W Jubilee sounds great, but I like the 50's, since the power section kicks in nicely at rehearsal volume. I still prefer my Bogner, but the Jubilee is the best sounding modern Marshall I've ever heard.
I put it next to a DSL 50 one time, and the Jubilee sounded bigger and better.
Jubilee-Vox-Matchless.jpg
Click to expand...

GJ....Very very nice setup buddy! That's the "Slash" amp or the amp that Slash had Marshall copy for him in black right?

75 watters in the cabs or 65s?
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

slash had the 100W version as his sig amp .. model number was 2555 i think.

i want one so bad!!
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

Davey said:
slash had the 100W version as his sig amp .. model number was 2555 i think.

i want one so bad!!
Click to expand...

Right,but it was the Silver Jubille Series?
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

The 25/50 silvers were only released in 1987....25 years as an amp company, and 50 years of Jim Marshall's involvement in music. The 2555 is 100W and the 2550 is the fullsize 50W. The 2553 is the smallbox 50, and 2558 is the 2-12 combo.

Then, in 1988 they continued the Jubilees for one year in black/gold.
In 1996, they released the 2555 SL, which was Slash's sig amp, but only in 100W in black. It's got the Snakepit logo on the chassis.

The cabs came with G-75's, or Vin 30's for an upcharge. Mine came with G-75's, but I've swapped out the upper two in each cab with Vin 30's, which made these cabs sound really great......I think that's the same combo as the Uberschall cabs. With JJ E-34L's and Tungsol preamp tubes, the amp just smokes! They came with Siemens EL-34's, and believe it or not, the JJ's sound better.
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

STRATDELUXER97 said:
Right,but it was the Silver Jubille Series?
Click to expand...
me forgot :blackeye:

i know that some of his amps had snakeskin tolex .. but the majority were black tolexed. i think it was based on the silver jubilee, but if it WAS the jubilee, i dont remember
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

I have two Jubilees;the 2554 combo and the 2553 small box head. I also have the silver straight front 4x12 cab. They did come with Siemens. The first retube was with the original run Tesla's, and it was more ballsy, but less sweet. I did try the JJ E34L tubes in these later, but I like the original Svetlanas, or the =C= in place of the Siemens.

These amps can sound soooo good, but they can also sound bad. They seem to be extremely sensitive to tube quality and bias, as well as power supply voltage, and cleaniness.

Slash used the 100 watt full stack versions back in the day. He had stacks dedicated only for clean and another set dedicated only to distortion. The Clean amps had KT88 tubes. The dirty amps had EL34. Most of these were destroyed in one of the riots Axel incited. This may be why he lobbied to have an addition run of these amps made in 97.

The Jubilee is a unique circut, closely related to the JCM800 2203/2204, but with an extra gain stage between V1 and v2. The extra gain is from overdriving V1B, then through some LED's that in turn overdrive V2. The cleans by pass the extra gain of V1B and the LEDS. THe clean and dirty mode share the same pre-gain control. The tone stack is also unique to these amps, and quite effective. There are some strong similarities to the Soldano SLO preamp design, but the SLO uses an extra 12AX7 instead of the LED's. The power tubes can be run in pentode or triode mode. In triode it's about two notches on the master quieter, and a slightly darker, spongier tone. These amps really rock in gain mode once you get it loud enough to push the power tubes some. Very EVH with a super strat. With a vintage Strat they can do a pretty darn good SRV too. The clean tone, is in my opinion, Marshalls best next to the JTM45.
 
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Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

I've never owned one. I know they're a PCB tube amp, but don't they also have a solid state distortion/overdrive circuit added internally to one of the channels?

Lew
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

Hi Lew,

Yes the high gain mode is a combonation over overdriving the second triode in Valve1, and Valve2, with some LED clipping/overdrive, in between.
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

Lake Placid Blues said:
Hi Lew,

Yes the high gain mode is a combonation over overdriving the second triode in Valve1, and Valve2, with some LED clipping/overdrive, in between.
Click to expand...

There ya go! Thanks!

Lew
 
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.
 
Re: Last night I was in Marshall heaven!

Gearjoneser said:
a lot of people underestimate the clean and crunch tones in the amp.
Click to expand...

I think alot of people do associate them with the "high gain" thing...they really were billed that way..

But def agree with ya Joe, I always felt the cleans/moderate gain tones were the best feature of these...I never cared as much for the dimed gain tones on them (or the 2205/2210 for that matter).

The little 50W combo absolutey rocked. I came Sooooo close to pulling the trigger on one, and never did...that and a lead12 Jubilee stack...if I knew then what I know now :yell:
 
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