50 Watt JCM 900

[straycat]

Just a killer little amp all the tone and none of the cumbersome weight!!

[Grandturk]

I prefer the Mk III myself.

[straycat]

I saw a 78 JMP MKII head today but it had been hammered pretty hard and they were asking $1900.00 for it.I may have paid $900 MAYBE! It was trashed out really bad.

[Grandturk]

No I meant the JCM 900 Mk III. That's the 900 for me!

[straycat]

I know what you meant.LOL

[jgcable]

I owned the head version and ran it for years through a 1960B cab. I always got compliments on my tone.
Great amp. Outstanding 80's and early 90's metal clean and gain tones.

[Chief_CrazyTalk]

I never understood why they got such a bad reputation. The ones I've heard and played sounded pretty good to me.

[Grandturk]

The do sound good. But the interweb has convinced people that they have a digital watch inside of the 900s that makes the distortion instead of unobtainium NOS 12ax7's.

[Twitch]

ALL the 900s have a diode clipping circuit except the SL-X. No bigge though, thats no different than throwin a tube screamer in front of it. Thats what I dont get about the 900 ney sayers. Theyre 90% the same people that put a SS boost pedal in front of their vintage amps but bitch about the 900s diode clipping circuit. How do they think a tube screamer works, fairy dust??

[straycat]

Sounds more gainy than an 800 but dial the gain back and you're in the same tone range of an 800.
Ran an OCD thru the clean and its very 800ish big and fat sounding.Thru the dirt channel with the gain cranked meh too much saturation.
Dial back the gain and let OCD push the amp it sounds really smooth.
Great little amp overall.Try it thru my 1960 cab today and see what it sounds like.

[Twitch]

Ive liked all the 900s Ive had. I used the DR 4100 for everything for 3 years or so. They sound great and they come at little expense.

[mjtripper]

I like all of them also with the slx being my favorite due to having more gain. It's not tons and tons more but it's nice to have.

[Hellbat]

I tried out a few Marshall heads a few months ago to see if I bonded with any of them. I think a TSL100 and a DSL50 (or 60?) and the 900, and I far and away preferred the tone of the 900. I still have to plug in to one of the Mesa Stilleto heads one of these days to try it out, but lately I'm jonesing for a Splawn.

[VitaminG]

Thru the dirt channel with the gain cranked meh too much saturation.

I haven't found an amp that sounded good doing that anyway. Gain dialled back, as you said, is the ticket.

I only sold my DR 4100 to offset the purchase of my RM100. it was a good amp & I never understood the naysayers either. Mine even had 6L6s!

[straycat]

I get dogged about my Crate stealth 50 watt head with the 6V6's but it has a great thick tone and with the gain about 4 it sounds huge.
Gain does not = tone in my book.