NIHD - New Impending Head Day

[Newc]

Now that would be nice. Considered an MD421 to mic it, and then an iso box to crank it, but lemme see if I'm gonna keep it first. After 20 years of racks with endless tonal options, this is new territory for me

[sambencuda]

1960A's come with G12T 75's. 1960AV's have Vintage 30's.

[Newc]

Oh yeah, Greenbacks. Forgot about those.

I would ask what was popular when these heads came out originally, but as with everything it's subjective, and only a small percentage of people actually had the interest to swap speakers. Most worked with whatever they had.

[TommyD]

I had a Scholz Powersoak waay back in the day,and it was a tone-sucker for anything in between living-room and half-cranked volume. Maybe mine was just a dud.

The THD Hot Plate was/is a quality piece. Tommy D.

[Newc]

I would expect some degree of tonal loss, simply because the speakers are not being driven with the same intensity, which is as much a factor as the head itself, not to mention the tonal qualities of each brand/model of speaker. As well, the only comparison anyone really has is "with" vs "without", except for those few who have tried various brands/models of attenuators on the same rig.

[roodyrocker]

JCM 800's will need some kind of boost in the front end to get the type of distortion I like. I prefer the Fulltone OCD or Retro-Sonic 808 personally but there are tons of pedals that will work. The other option is sending the head off to someone to mod it. It's one of the most heavily modded amps out there and there are guys who can make an 800 sound absolutely monstrous!
As for attenuators, I use them with other heads but I haven't with my JCM 800 Zakk Wylde head. If you do go that route, I'd say look at the Alex's Attenuator which is pretty transparent compared to others and reasonably priced. Aracom is also good but a lot more money. The Faustine Phantom is probably as good as it gets but they are very expensive and out of business. The Hot Plate is probably the cheapest route but not as transparent and no longer made but readily available used.

[VitaminG]

I'm fearful of shipped amps because of damamge but I got a Lynchbox shipped to me with no issues.

that's because they're too heavy to be thrown

[Newc]

Ok, I got the head today. Short drive made long by Memphis' never-ending road "construction" (I swear it's been fucked up for over 20 years, and all they're doing is building a retaining wall around the city and cutting off exits). Then my Magellan GPS decided to honor its namesake and take me on a tour of the countryside, rather than put me back on the interstate. Saw some nice scenery, though.

I've got it hooked up to my Carvin 2x12. I'm not seeing a problem with the gain level, although I've only run it at bedroom volume (or at least "2 minutes til someone busts in and says 'turn that down!' volume"). Definitely not as smooth and saturated as I'm used to for solos, but great rhythm tone for Major and Power chords. Definitely not doing Colossus on this one by itself.
Hopefully tomorrow I can crank it to see what it's got. Then I'll play around with the various options regarding my rack stuff.

Speaking of which, if I run my MP-1 into it, can I go through the front, into the Low input? I tried both inputs with just the guitar, and the Low is definitely the "clean channel". Last time I tried to run a preamp into a preamp the results were.......extreme. I think I may have damaged one or both

[DonP]

On the 2203 circuit, the low input skips a stage of gain. I don't think you can damage either input. Try both to see what works best.

[jgcable]

What you will notice is that at bedroom levels the amp will appear to have enough gain for most metal. As you turn it up it will get cleaner and cleaner.

[markD]

+1 the 2204/04 gets beefier as you crank it - more muscular sounding, if you will, not more gainy. it is a KILLER sound though, one that will beat your solar plexus into hell!!!!

[Newc]

Yeah, I noticed that

My Carvin cab did that with my RocPro head as well - got cleaner and punchier as the volume increased. I got the 800 up to about 2 a minute ago and it was fuck-loud, and cleaned up considerably.

Ran my MP-1 + TSR12 combo into the return and had to back waaaay off the output vol for the rack (I keep it about 75% so the mixer can hear it).


Gonna try to scare up some used pedals for this thing, and a band

[markD]

I was wanting to run my old JCM800 2204 with the band a couple years back. I plugged that fucker into a 4x12 marshall with 4 EVM12L speakers, turned it up to 2 in rehearsal....the WHOLE band was fatigued and BEATEN after about 15 minutes. I was asked to turn it off and plug the rivera back in....NEXT REHEARSAL!! hahaha, it was brutal. enjoy it, but be ready to kick the ass of everyone that stands in its way!!!!!!

[Axegrinder87]

Just sold a 2205 at work today. Really gonna miss that amp. Sounded AMAZING. At least I had it for 2 days to get some fart around time with.

[Newc]

Found the online manual for it. Seems I'm supposed to push the button Out for the FX loop to run my rack into it without killing anyone
Oh well.