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So i basically spent the day today doing guitar amp maintance and routining.
First thing i did was decided to get my 1982 JCM800 2204 ready for sale, i took pictures etc.. And to my surprise i figured i would check the bias, and it is reading 10MA's, sure enough some idiot put in EL34's without doing the mod, I couldnt get it up past 15MA's. Lucky I had a brand new pair of Tung-SOL 6550's, so i threw them in and biased them at 45MA's and that amps sounds so damn good i almost dont want to sell her. But at the same time i took my 1984 2204 and put in a brand new pair of groove tubes and biased it at 45MA's and that amps sounds just as good... That takes care of these two amps.
Then i grab the 1977 JMP 2203 and unwrap the tubes and throw them in, of course the guy had mismatched tubes, he purchased the tong-sol's that are now in the JCM800 and included them with the amp, he did this because he was only running it at half power with two jan-phillips tubes, so i put the tubes in and flick the switch and no glowing red light. So now i figured i am screwed, couldnt remember how the damn switch worked so i had to look at another marshall amp, anyway finally realize the bulb is burnt out but the amp still works fine.
So anyway of course the tubes are highly mismatched, the tong's are reading 49MA's while the Jan's are reading 32MA's, so anyway knowing that neither one was pulling to much current i knew i could play it for awhile. Even with mismatched tubes, old preamp tubes this amp sounded killer! I cant wait to get some good 6550's in, anyone have a good recommadation? Anyway i put the amp aside and wont play it again till i get some new tubes in there.
Now on to cabinets, the 1978 i got in i knew i needed to replace one of the speakers, it had Three 16 ohm blackbacks and one 8 ohm blackback, i took the 8 ohm out and replaced it with a 16 ohm hellatone 30 watter.
But i open it up and holy shit, some idiot wired it like a retard, it wasnt even properly wired for 16 ohm and someone just twisted wires around the posts with this huge ass monster cable wire. So i took my time, wired it up nicley, soldered everything nice and the cab is sounding awesome now. Like i said before, i never realized how much different greenbacks from then sounded compared to todays greenback.
Now i just have to pull the V30's out of my JCM800 cab and put back in the 75's, now that i got rid of my 1936 cab i need one with 75's and since i have my mesa traditional with V30s i am set there. I also know the cab is missing some screws that hold on the front part that holds the speakers so off to home depot to get some.
Oh i didnt tell you guys, i took my 1936 cabinet and traded it for that ferrington by kramer explorer accoustic i posted about a few weeks ago. I have a feeling this one is a different one because of a few things, either way i am happy with it and it sounds great.....
First thing i did was decided to get my 1982 JCM800 2204 ready for sale, i took pictures etc.. And to my surprise i figured i would check the bias, and it is reading 10MA's, sure enough some idiot put in EL34's without doing the mod, I couldnt get it up past 15MA's. Lucky I had a brand new pair of Tung-SOL 6550's, so i threw them in and biased them at 45MA's and that amps sounds so damn good i almost dont want to sell her. But at the same time i took my 1984 2204 and put in a brand new pair of groove tubes and biased it at 45MA's and that amps sounds just as good... That takes care of these two amps.
Then i grab the 1977 JMP 2203 and unwrap the tubes and throw them in, of course the guy had mismatched tubes, he purchased the tong-sol's that are now in the JCM800 and included them with the amp, he did this because he was only running it at half power with two jan-phillips tubes, so i put the tubes in and flick the switch and no glowing red light. So now i figured i am screwed, couldnt remember how the damn switch worked so i had to look at another marshall amp, anyway finally realize the bulb is burnt out but the amp still works fine.
So anyway of course the tubes are highly mismatched, the tong's are reading 49MA's while the Jan's are reading 32MA's, so anyway knowing that neither one was pulling to much current i knew i could play it for awhile. Even with mismatched tubes, old preamp tubes this amp sounded killer! I cant wait to get some good 6550's in, anyone have a good recommadation? Anyway i put the amp aside and wont play it again till i get some new tubes in there.
Now on to cabinets, the 1978 i got in i knew i needed to replace one of the speakers, it had Three 16 ohm blackbacks and one 8 ohm blackback, i took the 8 ohm out and replaced it with a 16 ohm hellatone 30 watter.
But i open it up and holy shit, some idiot wired it like a retard, it wasnt even properly wired for 16 ohm and someone just twisted wires around the posts with this huge ass monster cable wire. So i took my time, wired it up nicley, soldered everything nice and the cab is sounding awesome now. Like i said before, i never realized how much different greenbacks from then sounded compared to todays greenback.
Now i just have to pull the V30's out of my JCM800 cab and put back in the 75's, now that i got rid of my 1936 cab i need one with 75's and since i have my mesa traditional with V30s i am set there. I also know the cab is missing some screws that hold on the front part that holds the speakers so off to home depot to get some.
Oh i didnt tell you guys, i took my 1936 cabinet and traded it for that ferrington by kramer explorer accoustic i posted about a few weeks ago. I have a feeling this one is a different one because of a few things, either way i am happy with it and it sounds great.....
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