Marshall JCM 601

[astrozombie]

Lately my rig has been kind of a strain, with no road crew to carry everything around for me it's difficult to justify a half stack setup/

Then I found a Marshall JCM 601 combo for sale locally, offered the seller my vox ac50cph and my laney cabinet in a trade. he said he's interested (obviously).

the vox sounds great but I'm no international touring pro. I'd keep my marshall cabinets and use them with this combo. from what I understand it's cleans are pretty good. at 60 watts the added headroom is nice.

In case you don't know what amplifier this is, here are some photos. They have a bad rep for overheating but in most cases the owners have stated they had it up against a wall, etc.





I've heard all sorts of demos and am sure that my Firebird and 333 will work fine with this EL34 amp.

what do you guys think?

 

[DankStar]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

Great amp. I like the look of the jtm60 better but the addition of the top vent is a plus. Just make sure it's biased correctly and you shouldn't have any overheating issues. The only issue I have with its cousin (jtm30), is I need to keep a patch cord in the loop.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

Yeah. These are better than the jtm60, but still have a poor reputation for reliability. They just bandaided the problem. My 60 lasted about 5 months before frying. They do sound good though. Mine was equipped with 5881s and the clean channel cranked was very cool. Gain channel was decent. More like a 2205 than a 900.

 

[CTN]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

jesus.

do some pushups. get them muscles pumped up.

half stacks are a thing of beauty. both in sonic qualities as well as imposing stage presence, only bettered by full stacks or walls of stacks.

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

I'm inclined to agree with CTN. You're still a young guy so yanking around cabs shouldn't be enough to get rid of them. That's why old guys switch to solid state amps and lightweight axes...its because they're old and can't lift it.
I had a Rogue 2x12 that weighed in at around 75lb for a while. I hated lugging it because it was a cheapo turd, not because it was heavy.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

jesus.

do some pushups. get them muscles pumped up.

half stacks are a thing of beauty. both in sonic qualities as well as imposing stage presence, only bettered by full stacks or walls of stacks.

I'm in the middle of moving and don't really have a place where I can store my arsenal of guitar cabinets, that's the reason why I'm downsizing.

Im interested in a combo because I could use this particular model as either a head and cab type setup or just a combo.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

Great amp. I like the look of the jtm60 better but the addition of the top vent is a plus. Just make sure it's biased correctly and you shouldn't have any overheating issues. The only issue I have with its cousin (jtm30), is I need to keep a patch cord in the loop.

what's the tone like? I understand this is a cleaner marshall. That's cool. I want cleaner sounds, ala hendrix and srv. obviously this isn't their rig but if it'll give me the headroom ill be happy.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

Great clean channel and judas priest sad wings of destiny type heavy tones.

 

[everdrone]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

I dont like open back cabs for heavy rock music

I do like lightweight compact stuff.

whats better than this combo? A lightweight head and cab which is about the same size, and it will sound better for heavy rock thump and chug and is more flexible cause you can change the cab later on, and is lighter weight cause the head and cab each weigh less than the combo. if you are worried about it being laser like directional, then just get an amp stand.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

I find combos worse for roadying to gigs. My larger stuff has wheels. You just push it. Combos you have to lift and carry the whole way.

Back when was in the market for a gigging combo, none of the EL-34 Marshall combos I tried sounded like a Marshall. I got closer to a classic Marshall sound with a Vox Valvestate (I think it was a 120 with a blue grille) than I could with the Marshalls. YMMV

 

[everdrone]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

also I like my rocknroller cart and back brace



but ya its still dangerous and easy to overwork muscles when playing a long show and you did not warm up and your muscles are cold outdoors etc


still, its an
easy way to get a repetitive stress injury or back injury

 

[Aceman]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

Great amp period. If you are worried about the heat, get a small floor fan.

I understand completely about the "Where can you play a half stack anyway" Most places here won't let you rock one at volume anyway.

And yeah - do some push ups b!tch!!!! :lmao:

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

Great amp period. If you are worried about the heat, get a small floor fan.

I understand completely about the "Where can you play a half stack anyway" Most places here won't let you rock one at volume anyway.

And yeah - do some push ups b!tch!!!! :lmao:

:laugh:

I'm going to try to keep my marshall cabinets, should be loud as it is with that thing but the 410 would give it a boost in case I ever need to play a big show.

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

Get a marshall major and 2 more 4x12s. Don't be a kitty.

 

[zzmoore]

Re: Marshall JCM 601

Just make sure you have it on/play it at volume for 10-15 minutes.
These amps were prone to:
1. Blowing the rectifier for the preamp heaters.
2. Having parts failures in the channel switching circuit.
3. Bias runaway...or +/- bias drift that was uncontrollable.
Just make sure the amp works.....not for 2 minutes, but for 15 minutes.
best