Overdrive and JCM 800

[LRGman]

What is anybody using in front of their JCM's. Thinking of taking my 2204 out of mothballs and retubing it. When I first got it I used a Ibanez super metal and later went to a chandler tube driver rack mount-both I have since sold since I have just been playing a triple recto.

But I miss the open bright sound of Marshalls. Anyone slave out of your recto through a JCM? Also curious about some of the fulltone stuff. Any opinions or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks Leon

[toddstaples]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

MXR ZW-44

[RacerX]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

Nothing, mine's modded. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Hollywood]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

I'm fortunate to have 2 great sounding amps. I have 2 JCM 800's, and don't need anything in front of them.

[jgcable]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

My 2210 really doesn't need anything either but a YJM308 , FX51 Juice Box and the DOD 250 all work great in front of it. You could also try that new Zack pedal or go with a Boss SD-1.

[joe web]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

check out a hughes&kettner tubefactor.
very nice stompbox with 2 gainstages and a ECC83 preamptube in it, really good sounding booster/distortion pedal.
the negativside: it is a bit expensive.

[lerxstcat]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

[ QUOTE ]
My 2210 really doesn't need anything either but a YJM308 , FX51 Juice Box and the DOD 250 all work great in front of it. You could also try that new Zack pedal or go with a Boss SD-1.

[/ QUOTE ]Your 2210's distortion channel is a diode distortion circuit, basically a built-in Tube Screamer. The 2-channel JCMs are made that way.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

with a 2203 or 2204 my 2 choices would be a Boss SD-1 or an Ibanez tube screamer. I ran a SD-1 and GE-7 in front of my 2203 before I installed a Soldano Hot Mod in V2, now it has more than enough gain so its not needed. But when stock, the SD-1 was great in front.

[jgcable]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My 2210 really doesn't need anything either but a YJM308 , FX51 Juice Box and the DOD 250 all work great in front of it. You could also try that new Zack pedal or go with a Boss SD-1.

[/ QUOTE ]Your 2210's distortion channel is a diode distortion circuit, basically a built-in Tube Screamer. The 2-channel JCMs are made that way.

[/ QUOTE ]

The diodes are in between the preamp stages... right?
I read that most (if not all) of the JCM800's, 900's and the newer ones all have this circuit. The 2205 and the 2210 were the first JCM's to have it. Marshall added this "high gain circuit" to address the 80's heavy metal scene. Does the Marshall Silver Jubilee also have this circuit? The reason I ask is that many Marshall collectors have told me that the 2210 was known as the "poor mans Silver Jubilee".
The Jubilee is basically what Slash used so I guess his signature amp must be very similar to the 2210.

[joe web]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

the silver jubilee has 3 different gainstages.
a normal "clean" and if you pull out the gainpot than you have a crunch channel, and yes i think in this channel there is a diode. it sounds nearly like the 2210/05.
last but not least my favorite chanel the "lead" channel (switchabel via footswitch) and this channel does sound way better than the 2nd channel of the 2210/2205 and there is no diode distotion if i remeber correctly.
i asked a guy who makes tubeamps and he told me that by looking at the wiringdiagram.

i love my jubilee:

[lerxstcat]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My 2210 really doesn't need anything either but a YJM308 , FX51 Juice Box and the DOD 250 all work great in front of it. You could also try that new Zack pedal or go with a Boss SD-1.

[/ QUOTE ]Your 2210's distortion channel is a diode distortion circuit, basically a built-in Tube Screamer. The 2-channel JCMs are made that way.

[/ QUOTE ]The diodes are in between the preamp stages... right?I read that most (if not all) of the JCM800's, 900's and the newer ones all have this circuit. The 2205 and the 2210 were the first JCM's to have it. Marshall added this "high gain circuit" to address the 80's heavy metal scene. Does the Marshall Silver Jubilee also have this circuit? The reason I ask is that many Marshall collectors have told me that the 2210 was known as the "poor mans Silver Jubilee".The Jubilee is basically what Slash used so I guess his signature amp must be very similar to the 2210.

[/ QUOTE ]I don't know exactly where the diode circuit lies, I just recall Pete Twisteramps mentioning that the dual channel JCM800s had diode distortion. Not that it's a bad thing,it's better than having to buy batteries or have a separate power supply, extra 20' of guitar cable, etc...Those Carvins we love all have diode distotion as well, it was pointed out to me, John, which with 5 12AX7s surprised me, but hey, if it works, I dig it!I used to goose my '78 JMP 50 watt master volume head with an SD-1, and that sounded pretty fukking awesome too! Oh, I miss that head...

[Twisteramps]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

The diodes in the 2 channel JCM800s (including the Jubilees) clip the signal. Thing that is cool about diodes creating the overdrive/clipping is that they have a threshold - above that point, they affect the signal, below it, they don't.

Why is this cool? Because you can roll the guitar volume down and they clean up VERY well - that JCM800 that JGCable has sounded better imho than the jubilee head I had.

My advice to everyone is to use your ears... if you like how it sounds, then it's good. Whether it's all tube hand made or a modelling amp, the bottom line is how it sounds.

Also, a lot of tube snobs will slam the front end of an all tube amp with... a pedal that uses clipping diodes. What's the difference if it's in the front or inside the amp? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Pete
oh, btw, if anyone is interested in a custom boost pedal, email me at [email protected]. So far, I've had good reviews/results with JCM800s, Boogies, Soldano SP77, Soldano HR 50+, some of my homebrews, and other amps. It's not a transparent boost, it adds some grit, girth and mids - but most of the people who have tried one really dig it.

[DTP]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

Try the MXR ZW-44, I like that one a lot in front of my 800. Until that came out I used an SD-1, not to bad either.

Jason

[jgcable]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

I would suggest to any JCF bro's that are looking for a very cool custom boost/preamp pedal to email Pete and get one on order!! It is unique, it is totally custom made and it really kicks your preamp tubes hard. Really hard. I have used it in front of the following with fantastic results:
Mesa Nomad 45
Carvin X100B
Marshall JCM800
Carvin MTS3200
Mesa Studio 22
Soldano Astroverb






One more thing.. if any of you ever worry about your guitar cord coming out of a stomp box while your a playing you can forget about it with one of Pete's boost pedals. The input and output jacks in his pedal are so strong you can almost hang your guitar from the pedal and it won't unplug. I even dig the mushroom cloud graphic on it. It is the same one as my son has on one of his custom skateboards.

[Soloist1]

Re: Overdrive and JCM 800

[ QUOTE ]
oh, btw, if anyone is interested in a custom boost pedal, email me at [email protected]. So far, I've had good reviews/results with JCM800s, Boogies, Soldano SP77, Soldano HR 50+, some of my homebrews, and other amps. It's not a transparent boost, it adds some grit, girth and mids - but most of the people who have tried one really dig it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can reply on that one. Balls is probably a good all in one word that I can say it adds. lol Sounds great with my sp77. It gives chords a growl that I find similar to George Lynch's type tone. Being that's the type of Rhythm tone that I prefer I have been leaving the boost pedal Pete made on all the time. The lead tone gets a boost in the mids and takes away the bright highs that a lot of people don't like about Soldano's stuff. I like both type lead tones so it adds more versatility to my rig. Regardless of whether you have the boost adjustment set to equal volume in/out, or whether you have set to boost the volume a bit as well, it still changes the tone to what I described above. I like it as a tone shaper more so than for just a boost in the lead tone. If I recall I think Pete said the pedal is also great for people who like to adjust component values to custom tune their tone also. I'd recommend Twister Amps in a heart beat. First Pete turned me on to using good vintage tested tubes. Then he suggested I change the resistors in my sp77 to good quality metal film ones, after he dug up schematic of the sp77 that I needed to fix the half ass mods or repairs the previous owner had done. That suggestion fixed everything I didn't like about the sp77. And now the boost pedal.