JeffB
Let it B
One of the best SOUNDING Marshall series was unfortunately the shortest lived, and had a terrible reputation.
I'm of course speaking of the JTM series of the 1990s and their replacement the 600 series.
The JTM 30/60 were plagued with a major design flaw that roasted the PC board-oftentimes burning up with a few days. They were extremely unreliable, and Marshall redesigned them as the 600 series.
I had a JTM 60 model combo Frankly, I thought it kicked the crap out of the 900s, especially when run into a 2 or 4 x12. I'm sure Marshall brought them out as a alternate for those who did not like the 900 tone. I've no idea if the JTM/600s had diode clipping or not, but they sure sounded better than the 900s to me. I sold my Dual Reverb 900 in disgust shortly after buying it, but the JTM60 really impressed me a few years later and I bought it. It was somewhat similar to the old 2205/4210 split channel 800s in layout and features.
The Clean channel is still I think the best clean channel Marshall has ever done and totally made up for the awful 2205 cleans- kind of a JTM45 type thing that when really cranked to hell got a wonderful early Angus Young crunch.
The gain channel was similar to the 2205 in level of gain on tap (perhaps a tad bit more), but had more tonal variety (i.e. better EQ response), and a more organic sound that was not quite as edgy as the 800s. The gain channel also did a wonderful "just starting to break up" tone.
Unfortunately my JTM60 fried a few months after I bought it- by that time I had bought my 1987X and the JTM sat for years as I never got around to getting it fixed.
I suspect the JTM/600 series died sales-wise long before being discontinued due to it's poor reliability rep. Not to mention it's price point was somewhere between the 900 series and the Valvestates- which is a business no man's land for amps. Of course not long after , Marshall brought out the 2000 series, and IMO, a really nice sounding Marshall series was pushed out of the way for that buzzier, fuzzier, higher gain stuff that Marshall felt players needed/wanted. Sad because the JTM/600s were the last simple (relatively speaking) classic sounding Marshall amps, IMO.
So I've been perusing Youtube and found a few nice clips of these old amps (there are more, but these are the better recorded clips I've found).
Enjoy.
JTM30 combo
Clean Channel JTM60 goodness
Here's the odd 3 x10" combo
Here's a 600 series head
Another JTM 30
I'm of course speaking of the JTM series of the 1990s and their replacement the 600 series.
The JTM 30/60 were plagued with a major design flaw that roasted the PC board-oftentimes burning up with a few days. They were extremely unreliable, and Marshall redesigned them as the 600 series.
I had a JTM 60 model combo Frankly, I thought it kicked the crap out of the 900s, especially when run into a 2 or 4 x12. I'm sure Marshall brought them out as a alternate for those who did not like the 900 tone. I've no idea if the JTM/600s had diode clipping or not, but they sure sounded better than the 900s to me. I sold my Dual Reverb 900 in disgust shortly after buying it, but the JTM60 really impressed me a few years later and I bought it. It was somewhat similar to the old 2205/4210 split channel 800s in layout and features.
The Clean channel is still I think the best clean channel Marshall has ever done and totally made up for the awful 2205 cleans- kind of a JTM45 type thing that when really cranked to hell got a wonderful early Angus Young crunch.
The gain channel was similar to the 2205 in level of gain on tap (perhaps a tad bit more), but had more tonal variety (i.e. better EQ response), and a more organic sound that was not quite as edgy as the 800s. The gain channel also did a wonderful "just starting to break up" tone.
Unfortunately my JTM60 fried a few months after I bought it- by that time I had bought my 1987X and the JTM sat for years as I never got around to getting it fixed.
I suspect the JTM/600 series died sales-wise long before being discontinued due to it's poor reliability rep. Not to mention it's price point was somewhere between the 900 series and the Valvestates- which is a business no man's land for amps. Of course not long after , Marshall brought out the 2000 series, and IMO, a really nice sounding Marshall series was pushed out of the way for that buzzier, fuzzier, higher gain stuff that Marshall felt players needed/wanted. Sad because the JTM/600s were the last simple (relatively speaking) classic sounding Marshall amps, IMO.
So I've been perusing Youtube and found a few nice clips of these old amps (there are more, but these are the better recorded clips I've found).
Enjoy.
JTM30 combo
Clean Channel JTM60 goodness
Here's the odd 3 x10" combo
Here's a 600 series head
Another JTM 30
