Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

its really tough to crank it to make it sound good cause its too darn loud!

I bet you already knew that, after trying out any type of distortion pedal with it. I think an excellent attenuator and a good distortion pedal will get you where you want though. if you do not crank it, there is no pedal that will sound good though to my ears.
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Yeah, I was slurring my S's after a few minutes of standing in front of it Thursday. Life was good :D
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

For Overdrive / boost , the OD-1, Dist.+, Rat, TS-9/808, Guv'nor , Bluesbreaker, DOD 250 for classic sounds with a tube Marshall. I use some original and some reiisues and Cost is the main factor keeping me from going all original- with classic pedals, older always sounds better.

For more modern, I use some pretty high end stuff- King of Tone for one , and I must confess I don;t bother with cheap pedals, as I believe a greatly built and designed pedal will always yield a noticeably better tone then a cheap pedal .

There are lots of great cleans boosts and modern overdrive pedals like my KOT. They do great things, but they don't sound classic for the most part, and they dont have the sweetness or richness / depth of the organic tone of a vintage pedal.
 
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Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

JCM 800 and a BAT Black Forrest sounds like a match made in heaven - if you ask me !

I also like what the Fulltone Catalyst do for an 800.

My 2cents.
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

When I had it, I used a combination of a few pedals. I had a TS9, a Keeley Sd-1, Rook Od, a Wampler Paisley and a KOT. The best were the TS9 and SD-1. They just sounded flat awesome. I'm sure a modded TS-9 would do even better. But the Keeley SD-1!!!
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Thanks all. Gonna drag it out to a couple of local shops this weekend and see what they have for pedals.
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Go with a clean booster pedal. The Duncan Pickup booster works great.
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

I second the TC Elctronic line booster. Its fantastic. OD still stays tight

If you want aggressive i love my Wylde OD
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

I would go for a Mad Professor Little Green Wonder for crunch or to push harder the disto.
If you cannot krank the amp then, The RAT is hard to beat (whiteface is more subtle and refined than the RAT 2. RAT 2 has more gain and roughness but, works flawless and it's ridiculous cheap).
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

FWIW I have an '83 2204 and have tried many pedals to boost (I play in the same vein as your looking for tone wise), everytime however I keep coming back to my TS808 with Level maxed and Dist anywhere from 0-3 depending on how loud I can push the amp. I currently have the ProCo Deucetone on my board too (basically 2 RAT's) which is real nice, but even that I think will be taken off soon as the TS has been used 80% of the time anyway.

Just make sure you can get that master volume at LEAST past 3, and I'd even say 5, or else your just not going to be able to hear that the amp/ pedal will do for you.

And a sidenote: If your not playing in a band or able to play loud often, a jcm800 may not be practical for you. There's a reason it stays at my jamspace.
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Kamanda~SD said:
Just make sure you can get that master volume at LEAST past 3, and I'd even say 5, or else your just not going to be able to hear that the amp/ pedal will do for you.

And a sidenote: If your not playing in a band or able to play loud often, a jcm800 may not be practical for you. There's a reason it stays at my jamspace.
Click to expand...

+1 :)
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Didn't James or Kirk use a Boss DS-1 on Kill 'Em All? You might not need anything else.

A buddy of mine has a Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret. It's a nice-sounding pedal. The Wampler Sovereign might be worth looking into as well.
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Didn't get a chance to hit the shops yesterday or Friday (and of course everyone's closed Sundays for some reason). Gonna try again on my next weekend off (2 weeks).

Looking on Ebay is no help - there's so much stuff that seems reasonably priced, but there's SO MUCH! DS-1, OD-2, MT-2, Maxons, Rats, MXRs....I really don't wanna be the guy with a thousand pedals doing the YouTube pedal-comparison shtick :lol:


Cranking it won't be a problem; once I get the tone(s)/pedal(s) I'm looking for (and brush up on my vintage Thrash/Metal covers) I'm going to find or build a band.
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Drunken Bowling said:
Didn't James or Kirk use a Boss DS-1 on Kill 'Em All? You might not need anything else.

A buddy of mine has a Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret. It's a nice-sounding pedal. The Wampler Sovereign might be worth looking into as well.
Click to expand...

perhaps, but they wern't using 800's.

DrNewcenstein: Have any used shops around you? I've bought/ swapped a few dirt pedals through mine, you obviously lose a bit of value each time but takes away the pain of buying new all the time then trying to find a seller before trying out another one...just a thought.
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

I haven't been to the semi-local shops in years. The one shop in my town is pretty much the guy's hobby, as there's just no interest here. Not to mention the internet is killing brick-n-mortar all over.

There's a bigger shop (or used to be, years ago) in a larger town about an hour away, but I haven't been there in years. I'm hoping I can just wheel my amp and cab down there and try out whatever pedals they have, new or used. That would be better than buying and selling, even used. Guess I could see what the local pawn shops have, but around here that's generally tools, tvs, guns, and video games.
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Oh well, sitting around bored and stupid on a Sunday morning and hit Ebay. Picked up a few pedals to try out:

Rat2
SD-1
MT-2
GE-7

Maybe between those 4 I can find something.

Looked at the Fulltone and Maxon/Ibby TubeScreamers. A tad pricey for a single-function pedal IMO (but then back when I was paying $100+ each for new pedals back in the late '80s, it was ok :lol: )
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

I just finished turning up my rat2 gain today and jamming, boy it has a nasty flavor :)
 
Re: Marshall JCM800 head: tell me about gain boost/OD pedals

Youd be best served by a King of Tone. Thats basically a modern Bluesbreaker. Thats one of the newest pedals thats probabaly better than the original, which was masterminded by the great Jim Marshall.
 
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