Marshall 1959HW Handwired Plexi vs JCM vs JVM heads?

[Diminished Triad]

Anyone with first hand experience able to share main distinguishing points?
The 1959 Handwired Plexi is most expensive but not able to tell much else except great reviews. JCM seems vintage and JVM has built in distortion and other effects with 4 channels to choose from.

Thanks for anyone who can further elaborate!

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Marshall 1959HW Handwired Plexi vs JCM vs JVM heads?

Assuming you mean an original 1959 handwired Plexi and not a new/recent model with that name, the biggest thing you'll find about vintage gear is that "they don't make 'em like that anymore, so that's why it's better". It's the tone of this acclaimed guitar hero and that Top 100 Of All Time song's guitar tone and all manner of screw-countng, cork-sniffing excuses.
It will always get great reviews from:
1. people who vaguely remember having an original one many years ago but sold it to fund the wife/kids/house
2. people who never had one but know to associate "Plexi" with "Hendrix" and "EVH", and swear they're nailing Wind Cries Mary and Eruption in their basement through their bootique 4x12
3. vintage gear nerds who think everything made before they were born (or when, if they were born before Hendrix or Elvis died) was perfect in every way.
4. the small percentage of the bedroom/basement/Blues Lawyer population who can afford one, simply because they have something you can't afford.

If you mean a newer model named "1959HW Handwired", then see points 1, 2, and 4 above.


The JCM800 was an instant favorite in the early 80s with the Hair Metal crowd because it was a Marshall with built-in distortion, rather than just loud enough to brush your hair. You didn't have to punch holes in the speakers like Clapton did with his Bluesbreaker. You could also stick these relatively new "pedal" devices in front of them and increase the gain for those super-wankery meedly meedly scalar runs like Lynch and Rhoads, and still kinda sound like Hendrix, Blackmore, Page, or early EVH without them-thar pedal-thangs.
The 2203 reissue was billed as "same amp as before, but with an FX loop" according to the literature I looked up regarding my JCM800.

I will say this - the 2203 JCM800 is LOUD. If you can't be heard with it, you're doing something wrong (playing to the dead or deaf). Not really enough gain for my needs, though, so it can benefit from having something in front of it - pedal, rack preamp, etc. Definitely gets a nice Angus tone by itself, but not so much for anything heavier.


No idea about the JVM, but once you start crowding more circuitry into a head, you lose that "classic geetar into amp" he-man tone that says you've got an armadillo in your trousers.
However, you gain a rack's worth of tonal variety in one package that is relatively easy to carry.

 

[LReese]

Re: Marshall 1959HW Handwired Plexi vs JCM vs JVM heads?

Midget K - is that you?

 

[UberMetalDood]

Re: Marshall 1959HW Handwired Plexi vs JCM vs JVM heads?

I have owned them all. The 1959HW was really nice, but super loud. Then I switched to the 1987x which was also too loud for most situations. I wish I went with the JTM45 to begin with. The JCM 800 can do much better at lower volumes, but it too is freaking loud. The JCM 900 is better than the JCM 800 at lower volumes and I would consider it fairly useful for home. The JVM is just another loud Marshall with a lot more versatility. It's pretty buzzy until you play it fairly loud. The Marshall 2061x is a handwired 20w head and it too is also pretty loud, but you don't have to kill all the small animals around your property to get a really great distortion. It's so much more useful than the 1959. I have played one at maximum volume through a 2x12 before and it was loud enough for most average gigs. It would probably barely keep up with a heavy-handed drummer, but it gets away with a lot. I would say it's a little louder than a cranked Blues Jr. which is very loud for 15w. The 2061 is a really cool amp.

I think for any reasonable amount of volume and still getting that great Marshall distortion would be a choice between a JTM45 or 2061. Engl, Bogner, and other brands have better master volumes for playing at all volume levels than Marshalls do in my opinion.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Marshall 1959HW Handwired Plexi vs JCM vs JVM heads?

I've never heard a JVM in person, but I've owned original and reissue Plexi amps and a couple of 1973 metal face amps, and an 81 or 82 JCM 800. I've heard the new hand-wired plexi amp, never owned it. Okay Newc? Okay? Okay??? :naughty:

If you're talking about the original amps (and I have a feeling you're not) the non-master amps from the 60s to mid-70s and the JCM 800 are just different amps. In my experience, they both took to pedals really well, and they both needed to be really loud to get the classic tones we all know and love. The JCM800 though has a master volume, so you can still get a good Marshall tone without making eardrums bleed, but it really sounded good cranked. Like any amp, you had great ones and dogs. The one hand-wired new plexi that I heard sounded fantastic, and it sounded much better than the three circuit board re-issue plexi amps that I had owned. Could hold its own with a good version of the original amps as well. I've never heard a reissue 800, so I can't comment on that either. I love the original JCM-800 and non-master amps, but IMO, the plexi/non-master volume amps can be worked for a wider range and era of tones depending on the volume settings, pedals used etc.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: Marshall 1959HW Handwired Plexi vs JCM vs JVM heads?

The JMP/JCM's are great sounding amps. Uber Crunchy, and like all marshalls, sound best when cranked, 50 watters through the half stack, and 100 watters through a Full stack. You have to have 8 speakers to soak up all that juice, and Celestions are inefficient, so it tames the volume. JMP's/ JCM's had a host of pickups and pedals designed with that amp as the reference, and tons of modifications by geniuses, and hacks, and everything i between. The right seakers are critical for the JMPs/Jcm's in my book- has to be the 30 watt G12H, or the 65 watt 80's speakers.

I have a 100 watt Non master volume early 70's point to point Marshall 100 watt Superlead amp, and theres a fat fullness and richness that spoils you for anything else, when cranked through a full stack of Celestion Blackbacks/ Grenbacks , and loud!

Too loud? nah.Not for me, it sounds fanbtastic, but I like Loud, others are wimps about it.