JCM 800 modding

[zeegler]

Zeegler

yes I have and it's awful. I'm not looking for a JCM800 with a pedal in front of it, if I was I would have done that.

This will retain all the clarity and tight responce of the 800, but with a new preamp design in it. 2 footswitchable master volumes. This thing is going to sound great!

C

Really? Damn, I was wanting to try one out. I'd heard they were pretty fucking good. Well, I'm still going to try one. I've heard some really good clips.

[SpiralArchitect]

Zeegs

I was underwhelmed to say the least, the assault/gate is not a footswitchable option, no loop, and all the pots are cheap plastic shaft pots, It sounded like Kerry, but that is not for me, what I'm doing will be totally different.

C

[thenine]

lets see a pic of yer slime green cab Bro!

[SpiralArchitect]

Hey man

here is a shitty old picture

[MSGfan]

+1 on the Splawn Nitro. I have an 85 JCM 800 I was ready to dump a ton of money into with Voodoo mods. I decided to keep it stock since its great at what it does and picked up a Splawn Quick Rod. So now I have a hot rodded Marshall sound with the Splawn and I still have my original JCM 800.

You were smart not to dump a load of money on a Voodoo mod!
I bought a Voodoo modded 1980 JMP 2204 50watt off of Ebay and simply hated it! It had the High gain mod(can't remember the name) and the low boost too. Now, I play hard rock and metal, and like lots of gain and low end but this thing just wasn't for me and it didn't sound like a Marshall any more. Sold it quick!
I found some basic Marshall mods at www.tone-lizard.com and they worked out great!!! Had my amp guy slightly mod my `78 JMP 2204 to increase the low end to the max recomended, had a tone stack resistor changed, a high end cap clipped and nothing done to the gain. I still use a modded overdrive pedal like a Keeley SD-1, Keeley modded TS808, or BB preamp.
I love this amp even more now! Still sounds like a Marshall but a little bit beefier!
Best thing is that it cost very little to have done too!

[broken_fusion]

You were smart not to dump a load of money on a Voodoo mod!
I bought a Voodoo modded 1980 JMP 2204 50watt off of Ebay and simply hated it! It had the High gain mod(can't remember the name) and the low boost too. Now, I play hard rock and metal, and like lots of gain and low end but this thing just wasn't for me and it didn't sound like a Marshall any more. Sold it quick!
I found some basic Marshall mods at www.tone-lizard.com and they worked out great!!! Had my amp guy slightly mod my `78 JMP 2204 to increase the low end to the max recomended, had a tone stack resistor changed, a high end cap clipped and nothing done to the gain. I still use a modded overdrive pedal like a Keeley SD-1, Keeley modded TS808, or BB preamp.
I love this amp even more now! Still sounds like a Marshall but a little bit beefier!
Best thing is that it cost very little to have done too!

I chose not to have it modded, Instead I took it to the best amp tech I could find in NJ and had him go through it. He fixed a few little wear and tear problems, re tubed it with Rubys and it was good to go. I recently started using a volume control in the loop technique and a been toying with either a tube screamer or the Gov'ner up front and this thing sounds better than ever. I probably would not have bought the Splawn had it been sounding this good before! I saw the stuff on tone lizard. I may tinker with it a little at some point,but now I'm really enjoying it. You can hear it in the Biyang delay demo I posted last week.

[SpiralArchitect]

Okay guys because you love this thread so much here are some preliminary pics





This thing is a new monster! I should have it back after Mike comes home from holidays!
Mike didn't want to rush it so it would not be ready and I think that is a solid plan!
I have a pic of the inside of the chassis, and it looks impeccable!

I can't wait! Super high gain 800 with low noise and a TON of power!

Killer!

C

[SpecialEdYaay]

Nice ! Whats the knob on the far right, on the front panel ?

[SpiralArchitect]

The the good old gain knob! when Mike get's back he is going to add a second gain knob underneath it so I have a switchable gain and thus have 2 gain tones.

the two vertical kobs to the left of the gain are the grind and girth!

C

[SpecialEdYaay]

The the good old gain knob! when Mike get's back he is going to add a second gain knob underneath it so I have a switchable gain and thus have 2 gain tones.

the two vertical kobs to the left of the gain are the grind and girth!

C

Good idea ! Whats the function of the preamp knob now ?

I assume the far left one is the 2nd master ?

[SpiralArchitect]

I think mike said the master was master #1 and the preamp was #2

I have the Bones prototype in my possession now and it's godamn amazing! and I saw the JCM 800 today and Mike is doing alot of coool things to it!
it's going to be awesome!



C

[jk2171]

Really? Damn, I was wanting to try one out. I'd heard they were pretty fucking good. Well, I'm still going to try one. I've heard some really good clips.

Zeegs, you should still try out the KK. It is a great sounding amp. It does suck that it has no loop, and the Beast button is not footswitchable, but you can get quite a few sounds out of it. I love mine.

[MSGfan]

I ran a hotmod by soldano in my 81 JCM 800 and itwas fantastic. Damn i miss that setup!

I just put a Soldano HotMod tube in a `76 Marshall 1987 JMP 50 watt, that's been modded with a basic master volume. I link both channels together and use a Fulltone OCD ran at 12 volts to boost it. This amp is Now one of best sounding Marshalls I have ever heard!!!

[roodyrocker]

I just put a Soldano HotMod tube in a `76 Marshall 1987 JMP 50 watt, that's been modded with a basic master volume. I link both channels together and use a Fulltone OCD ran at 12 volts to boost it. This amp is Now one of best sounding Marshalls I have ever heard!!!

I was just commenting in another thread about running my OCD with the Marshall RR head, basically a JMP. That is a great sounding combination! Have not tried 12 or 18v though. Did you notice a big difference from 9v with the OCD?

[MSGfan]

I was just commenting in another thread about running my OCD with the Marshall RR head, basically a JMP. That is a great sounding combination! Have not tried 12 or 18v though. Did you notice a big difference from 9v with the OCD?

I just tried the OCD at 18 volts for the first time yesterday and it even has more punch than at 12 volts! There is a little bit of difference between the OCD at 9v and 12v, but you can notice quite a bit with it ran at 18v.
If you're useing the pedal as more of a distortion pedal (amp with no master vol.) I sudjest the OCD at 18v but if you're useing it as a clean boost (an amp with a master vol.) I sudjest running it at 9v or 12v. BTW, if you own a Voodoo lab's Pedal Power 2, you can run the OCD at any of these voltages.