Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Sat night I sat in on a band that was playing at one of the clubs I play in. The guy had a 1979 model Marshall JMP, 50 watter, he had a Boss Distortion Pedal in front of it. I just punched it in and used the volume on one of my 1960 Classic Reissue Les Pauls.

Man its had that heavenly 70s rock sound, we did a couple of ZZ Top songs and a couple Lynyrd Skynyrd songs and that amp and my LP just wailed.

Talking to him later he said he bought it for $50!!!! WTF

he said the tubes were bad and he put a fresh set of 6550s in it and some fresh 12AX7s, I thought they had EL 34s in them but he had 6550s in it.

Just thought I would share cause it was a killer combination. When he was playing I didnt think it sounded that great cause he kept a flanger pedal punched in all of the time. But straight amp, fuzz and the LP made for some serious honk.

That amp might be a good one if someone is looking for a deal and finds one, in fact I tryed to buy it from him, for $60 LOL, of course he just laughed!

JMPs are great sounding amps. Just plug in and crank them or hit them with an OD pedal with it's volume dimed and it's drive on zero. You will find that late '70s early '80s thick rock tone that punches through everything and kicks you right in the chest. It really doesn't get any better than that IMO. That's the tone guys like us grew up with and is what got us hooked on guitar in the first place. People know about them so most used heads go for more than $1000 and get snapped up pretty quick even at those prices. You can sometimes find the combo versions for a better price and they are just as good but HEAVY. I've seen people sell them in the $500-$600 range before. Your buddy got an insane deal. Someone must have thought it had a blown transformer or just had their head up thir a$$ because that price is stupid low even if it needed everything....tubes, transformers, caps the works.

I hear ya, I thought they were more expensive than he said! LOL he might have been pulling my leg!

I use a Mesa Triple Rec halfstack, but the sound I go for is a 90ish JCM 800. Seems to work for me for what I do most of the time, just roll off the guitar volume to clean it up and then wind it up for leads.

I havent played on a Marshall in a while, I had for a brief time a JCM 800 2x12 combo, but I had just forgotten how good they sound.

I thoroughly enjoyed the JMP!

Have a Great Evening, and Rock ON!

Very similar amp really, at least the early ones. Then Marshall looked at all the guys modifying their JMPs and just incorporated some of those changes in their new amp and the JCM800 was born....another legendary amp.

I'm running a Vintage Modern pretty much the same as you.....roll down for rhythm and roll up for leads. I like the old school way of playing the amp too. Have a good one.

Cool ...

Which one of the Boss distortion pedals were you using I wonder ?

George I didnt even pay attention to which Boss it was, LOL!

HD I listened to your marshall sample and yea thats the sound I love, have a great evening and Keep On Rockin!

You too John. I checked out some of your tunes and like the the vibe you got going on in a bunch of them, especially These guns are Loaded. I laughed my a$$ off listening to Second Hand Blues...good stuff! Keep those tubes glowin'.

Ron

One of the best sounding amps I ever played was also a sit in. Band I was in around 1980 played three 4th of July gigs, first one we opened for another band and used their equipment, but our second guitar player had to bring his amp since they were a 3 piece. I played their guitar player's amp, which was a very old blonde colored Marshall 50 watt head on an angled cabinet. I've never seen another one like it and didn't ask him just what amp it was, he just told me he usually just cranked it all the way and let 'er rip. Seems like it had large white knobs instead of the usual small gold and black ones, but I could be wrong. It's been a while.

I ended up with it cranked to 10, perfect volume level for our band and it sounded great, the only amp I've ever played that sounds as good is my current 1973 Super Reverb. I think the Marshall amp Van Wilks played probably sounds as good, his was another very old one, small logo, and I never asked him so I don't know if it was a 50 or 100 watter. But both were very old amps. Van had used his since the late 60's and early 70's when opening for ZZ Top very early in his career. He finally had to start using a JCM when the old one started cutting out frequently. Probably needs a cap job, but a lot of people won't do it because they are afraid it won't sound as good...problem there is if a cap shorts, it can fry a transformer and a cap job will only make it sound like a new amp again.

This may be something for this amp's owner to consider, if it's over 30 years old, which it probably is, a full cap job would be a very good idea. In 30 years or so the electrolyte in the electrolytics tends to dry out, making them time bombs. If one happens to short, you end up replacing an expensive transformer. He should seriously consider a full cap job.

I did my Super Reverb soon as I got it, and it was a very good thing. it was already having cap related problems. I'd play it about 10 minutes or so and suddenly the volume would drop as if you pulled a power tube. I talked it over with a local guitar store owner who was pretty good with amps, we were almost convinced the output transformer was bad. After I replaced the last of the caps, (I replaced every one in it, starting with electrolytics) it started working right and still does. I cringe every time I think about how close I was to frying a transformer...

Anyway I'm glad you got to use one of those old amps, none of the newer ones can touch the sound they got. Same with my Fender, I've played all kinds of newer amps, including Fenders, and nothing beats the old Super Reverb...and virtually all of the best sounding amps I've heard onstage have been vintage ones. Especially the old brown 50's Fenders and really old small logo 50 watt Marshalls. I don't care a thing about the newer Marshalls, they just don't sound as good.

AB763 still the best out there..

That's why they blackface, silverface amps..they just don't sound as good as that pre-cbs super reverb/AB763 circut.

Marshall stuff is nice but Fender does the clean thing better..

Ahhh, but get one of each and have the best of both worlds.

Newer Marshall....

No pedals, just the controls on my guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L94lilHX_i8

lol If you mean a JMP and a good Fender, I am right there with you, brother..

New Marshall amps? They seem to be missing something to me.

I played a Marshall Haze and hated it.

The dsl's are ok. The TSL's clean channel sux.

Hybrid I didn't like, more hype than not.

jcm/jmp/select dsl/jubilee stuff is alright if you have the $.

The avt is a flat out joke, the mg series I wouldn't even use as a doormat..