New or Used Marshall JVM

G

Gish_85

New member
Hi guys,

I am having trouble making a decision and was wondering if you could help me.
I have pretty much decided on getting a JVM410H as it sounds amazing to my ears. I am in England so Marshall's are much cheaper than mesa's and such.

If I were to buy the amp new it would cost £950 and would come with a 3 year marshall warranty. I have no experience with their warranty service so any input on that would be helpful.
If I got the amp second hand it probably wouldn't be more than £600 which is more than a third off and it may even come with a flightcase.

So this makes me think even if the amp does break is likely to cost anywhere near that to fix??

All input is appreciated
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

The only things I like to buy new for the warranty are digital or modeling units....stuff that only the manufacturer can repair.

I never worry about warranties for guitars and rarely tube amps.
The weakest link on a JVM would probably be the pots, so just baby the amp. Save money and buy used.
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

Not sure what the pounds to USD conversion is, but you really gotta ask yourself.. if the thing catches fire or starts throwing sparks... it's pretty much fuked so...

For 350 pounds more, you can have 3 years of assurance vs buying used for 600 and then either having to pay for repairs or buy new.

That's of course a worst-case scenario but buying used is always a gamble.
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

Thanks for the input, pretty much the extent of what I could do to fix an amp is change the preamp tubes or change the pots so let's hope you are right gearjoneser.
The amp has gone for less so perhaps I should wait on that, based on what you are saying Brock.

What's the most expensive to fix amp problem you have ever had?
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

I bought mine used. $1300 seemed smarter than $2100 to me.
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

^^Agreed. Just picked one up with my other guitarists (lives in my garage - sweet deal :laugh2: ), and we got it for 1200 after taxes, used at a GC. The only issue so far has been with the footswitch, as it seems the previous owner replaced one of the switches with a latching instead of a momentary SPDT switch, but that's probably a super flukey thing!
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

With those JVM's I'd be more worried about the switches on the amp itself, they seem kinda sketchy.

I'd totally buy used though, it's probably a lot cheaper and the fix for it can't be as bad as it may seem.

The digital stuff would be the issue, but I think overall, as long as you're using the footswitch more than the actual switches, you'd be a lot better off.

Man am I ever dying for one though.
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

Sweet yeah, thanks for the reassurance. I didn't even think about the switches, I'll probably be using the footswitch all the time so it seems cool.
I envy you Americans, what I really want is a boogie mk5 but here the combo is £2600 in comparison to the jvm410c which is £1100. Cos of that the boogies are too rare to get a decent deal second hand:(
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

Gish_85 said:
Sweet yeah, thanks for the reassurance. I didn't even think about the switches, I'll probably be using the footswitch all the time so it seems cool.
I envy you Americans, what I really want is a boogie mk5 but here the combo is £2600 in comparison to the jvm410c which is £1100. Cos of that the boogies are too rare to get a decent deal second hand:(
Click to expand...

I feel your pain, the Mark V is a killer amp...but I would never turn down a JVM410...that is a Marshall I can really enjoy.
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

I'm thinkin any amp that fires up and sounds good is going to do so for quite a while. Being a Marshall, it's not the cheapest made amp out there. Sure, you can have issues with tubes going bad, or a transformer kicking the bucket, but overall, I think the Marshall in used condition would be a good buy as long as it's not beat. Check it out and go for it! Use the savings for some NOS Mullards.

Cheers
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

Just to reassure you and give you a statistic. I've owned around 80 guitar amps, and have only been to a tech about 4-5 times, and rarely spent over $100. It was usually fluke things.....that could happen to any amp at any time. In my experience, Marshalls are pretty much bulletproof. I repaired one, only because it has a diode bridge that went out, which was just a fluke. That was on my Jubilee, years ago. Most tube amp problems are simply tubes, so have extras sitting around and you can probably fix anything that goes crazy.
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

the jvm is really good at what it does, and thats sounding GOOD at everything, but any 4 channel monster won't sound as good as a 1 channel that does the same thing, so if you need crunch, get a plexi RI, need moderate higain get a jcm or a mark 1, need clean go blackface
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

Cheers gearjoneser, that's good to hear.
Tonefreak - I do need an amp that does everything so that's why I was looking at the jvm.
On an unrelated note the blackstar series one 200 is an amazing amp too, but 200 watts is too much as I don't want a 4x12. Also in a £1250 amp could they not just put in a reverb?!?
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

Gish_85 said:
On an unrelated note the blackstar series one 200 is an amazing amp too, but 200 watts is too much as I don't want a 4x12. Also in a £1250 amp could they not just put in a reverb?!?
Click to expand...

Then can't you just run it at 20 watts? It's got some sort of built-in attenuator. I think it's marketed as working differently, and I don't know the specifics, but they call it dynamic power reduction, I believe. Also, the only amps they have with reverb on them is the HT Venue series, and those are digital anyways. You could probably get something that suits your needs just as well if not better in a pedal, perhaps one of their own.
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

Yeah but the DPR is on a pot with 20 and 200 labelled on either end, so I probably wouldnt trust running it through 120w of speaker (2 vintage 30s).
I am not a massive reverb fanatic and use it pretty rarely, but its one of those things if you need it you really need it. They're reverb pedal costs £200 as well :/
 
Re: New or Used Marshall JVM

I bought the jvm410h today and thought that I would report back now that its too late to play.
I got it for £500 ($740 us), and am very happy.
I spent a few hours in a large music shop trying out the different versions. One thing I didnt expect was the quality of the speakers in the combo version, the marshall site says they are marshall/celestion vintage and heritage so I figured they would be worse than proper celestions. They were considerably better than the G12's in the 1960 lead cab I also tried.
Peace
 
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