Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Bruce:


JCM 900 SL-X or nothing. That amp is YOU.
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

When it had Svetlana EL-34s and Sovtek 12AX7s it was nasty pure fizz-city.

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$650 is a good/fair price.

Or pure 80's awesome….
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Bruce:


JCM 900 SL-X or nothing. That amp is YOU.

Does look like a sweet amp. There are two Marshall JCM900 4100 heads on CL in my area that have been floating around for over a month. I am thinking of sending both of them a low ball offer of $500 on Friday when everyone is in Christmas mode. $650 is a good price but I would like to start the negotiation a bit lower.
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Make sure you mention that you are sending the same offer to both of them and will buy the first one that accepts it.
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

The MKIII is the pick of the bunch when it comes to the 900 series, IMO. I own a 2100. Yeah, it has diodes in the preamp, but so do overdrive and distortion pedals. DR 900's can sound good with the right preamp/poweramp tubes to remove the fizz as much as possible.
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

DR 900's can sound good with the right preamp/poweramp tubes to remove the fizz as much as possible.

Not really... in the DR's none of the gain stages are tubes... tube rolling the preamp on one is pretty much a waste of time... if memory serves (sorry im too lazy to look at the moment) V1 is the tone stack V2 is the phase inverter and V3 is the reverb driver.
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

V1 is the tone stack V2 is the phase inverter and V3 is the reverb driver.

That's a different config.

In the older Marshalls, V1 is the driver (sometimes split cathode for "two" channels), V2 is the tone stack and V3 is the PI.
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

That's a different config.

In the older Marshalls, V1 is the driver (sometimes split cathode for "two" channels), V2 is the tone stack and V3 is the PI.

As i posted i didnt remember off the top of my head but the point was... NONE are gain stages. And iam specifically talking about 4100 dual reverbs NOT 1959 or 1987 based circuits,
 
Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Not really... in the DR's none of the gain stages are tubes... tube rolling the preamp on one is pretty much a waste of time... if memory serves (sorry im too lazy to look at the moment) V1 is the tone stack V2 is the phase inverter and V3 is the reverb driver.

Regardless, the tubes have made a difference IME. From what I can tell, V1 is the tone stack, V2 is the reverb and effects loop and V3 is the PI.

The SL-X has been mentioned and that's a good one too. All of the clipping is tube driven. There's 4 pre-amp tubes instead of 3. Compared to the MkIII, it's got a bit more drive to it but at the same time, with the wrong tubes it can go to mush real quick.

In my MkIII, I'm running JJ's in the preamp and EH in the power amp. Sovteks were too noisy and EH's too brittle. The JJ's are just perfect for it.
 
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Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

If you want my advice, just get a Dirty Deeds, and slam the front end of your Twin, and save some bucks.
Consider going balls out, spending more , and finding an old JCM800..those Marshall JCM's are still a relative bargain IMHO.They can still be found, but I think the opportunities to get a clean one at a great price may be deminishing pretty fast..IDK< there wrere a lot of them made.
As you saw in 'Crushers clip, the difference isn't all that totally dramatic from a revered and cherished Early NMV Metalfront-panel /'Plexi' to a JUCM800/late 70's JMP( although having heard both the difference is enough to knock your proverbial socks off);.
Anyhoo..just a quick note ..remember the Forum Saint Theodie was always saying how much he dug his 900, and he knew his ****. If you can get it cheap enuf, then just having a real Marshall is epic, and the 900 is real.
 
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Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Pffft. My MkIII goes to 20. ;)

Theodie's was the same as mine. He loved that amp.
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

There's always a bunch of those 4100 models on Nashville's Craigslist for great prices
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

Jolly just called me. I think he talked me into a JCM 800. Back to the drawing board.
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

I have potentially one of the buzziest of them all, the JTM30. But then I plug in to convince myself I don't like it, end up having a blast with it and the cycle continues. With the gain down around mid-way it's pretty spot on classic marshall sounding. Plus the clean channel is killer, and I'm playing more clean these days as well. I also had a 900 dual reverb combo in the early 90s, I liked it.

I'm weird though. Not as weird as say, Crusty, but still.
 
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Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

For a 1st Marshall, I would go with a Lead 100 Mosfet or better yet an Artist head.

The Artist is sonically in the same family as the JCM800 but it has a solid state preamp section paired with power tubes.

The Lead 100 Mosfet has a solid state power section to go with the Artist's solid state preamp.

They can be picked up quite cheaply and have the Marshall sound. Even the Lead 100 Mosfet has the Marshall sound... the best value in Marshall heads on the planet IMHO.

I used to play through all 3 in the 80s and I didn't miss the tube preamp section when I downgraded from the JCM800 to the Artist... and I didn't miss the power tube section of the Artist when I further downgraded to the Lead 100 MOSFET.

Great amps.
 
Re: Marshall gurus give me some guidance

I have a solid state Marshall already a VS100 I love the thing. The half stack is more about go big or go home.
 
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