hey im not sure if this has been asked before but what are you thoughts with a marshall jcm-800 my band is playing a battle of the bands and they want us to use there equipment also what would be a good setting? thanks

its a classic amp, if your gonna use it either use it at full blast so the tubes can reach their saturation point or bring some kinda boost pedal, because they do lack a little in the gain department

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A little? Bythemselves (Unless you crank it I guess...), they're pussy amps .

Run an overdrive in front of it and boost the gain, then dial it in.......just remember, leave some midrange...don't take it out completely.

mids = balls

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i have a jcm-900 and it's simialr to the 800

don't use amp distortion, it's pretty rubbish, i use my distortion pedal through the clean channel and yes use mess around with the mid til you it sounds the way you want to.

It's a good amp to play though, if you've got your distortion pedal handy.

I use a Sansamp GT2 distortion.

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JCM 800 (2203 and 2204 model) have a very special sound (if you ask me, I love it) which fits very well in in the mix along with a mesa amp for example, but I've only heard this, so nothing I can tell you from my own experiences..

But you need to boost the signal given to them and crank it to get the tubes in it going high gain..

If you wonder how it sounds when it's cranked and boosted, check out slayer and zakk wylde

Nope, Slayer and Zakk Wylde are what the JCM800 CAN sound like. Most of us have shitty gear, and just plugging into them with an overdrive won't make it sound exactly like them.

A JCM 800 can EASILY replicated a slayer or zakk tone.

Zakk doesn't use anything special http://www.sdmfworldwide.com/gear.htm

Nor does slayer, get a guitar with emgs, an overdrive pedal or a seperate eq and if you still cant get a tone like them then your an idiot.

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I was referring to someone with like a cheap 400 dollar Jackson with Duncan Designed pickups, yeah those EMG's really do make a diff. And the fucking eq is a big thing too, since I was also referring to just plugging in and trying to dial in that tone with an overdrive, it won't happen.

I managed too..

And the extra EQ isent needed.. Zakk dosent use one.. only Jeff and Kerry do.

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if you've ever played a jcm 900, you wouldnt say it sounds much like an 800 at all. much less in bass, and way more in gain, the jcm 800 has a totally different tone to it.

you're crazy for using a distortion pedal with it. what's the point in having such a good distortion amp? i mean, if you're going to buy a nice tube amp just to use a distortion pedal with it, why don't you buy a clean amp? because frankly, the jcm900's(or any marshall for that matter) arent exactly known for their cleans.

i practiced and gigged on a jcm 900 for several months, using only the amps tones. it was awesome.

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their tone isnt much special.... i can get pretty close with my triamp, or my old jmp-1...

it's just a chunky medium/high gain tone with a bit of midrange.

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Hence why its extremely easy to obtain.

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yeah, im gonna have to agree with xDx on everything he said.

800's sound nothing like 900's, the 9's definitely have more gain, but i didnt notice the bass part as much, but then again, i havent had the chance to tweak around with an 800 the way i would like to.

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Don't forget the heavy chorus that Zakk uses a lot.

http://sdmfworldwide.com/gear.htm

If you still cant get Zakk's tone with that info then your an idiot.

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Yeah xdislexicx you hear that? If you still can't get it, then you're a doosh .

Actually I was talking to you...

Since you seem to have difficulty achieving generic metaltones on a JCM-800.

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Yeah that was the whole point of the joke.......come on now BLS, you can do better.

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Distortion pedal = bad. Boost pedal = good.


There's a difference between the two, you could'nt use a Metalzone for a boost pedal, for instance. A Pro Co Rat or a Tubescreamer makes a great choice, or Zakk Wylde's Overdrive pedal, it has a very smooth gain augmentation to it.





This should be put on a sticker, then applied to the tolex of every JCM 800 currently in production.

isn't tubescreamers drive knob a tube simulated overdrive which people have come to love togeather with their tube amps? ....

.... which is not a real signal boost like EQ's?

thank you captain fucking obvious...

you think i don't know what the fuck a boost pedal is? don't talk to me like i'm a fuckin newb man.

he said he's using a distortion pedal with his jcm 900, i said he's fucking nuts. because jcm 900's can hold their own on the distortion part. i did so in a band environment for several months, with no boost pedal.

and yes you could use a distortion/overdrive pedal like the metalzone as a boost. whether it would sound good is debatable.

normally pedals labeled as boost/overdrive/tubescreamer 's are more of a gain boost with less eq involvement. which is desireable because you'll get more of the same kick ass tone from the amp, but with more gain. but essentially a distortion pedal is an overdrive pedal...

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Speaking of all these Marshall's, I went to my friends house today to play his JCM800, and damn it is loud. We hooked it up on the "high-sensitivity" with an MXR chorus and a Zakk Wylde overdrive, and it was ripping our ears apart and it the volume knob wasn't even past like 1. They're nice, but I prefer something more heavy in the gain, more knobs to tweak the sound, and separate channels for dist. and clean.

what about the Marshall 2553 Silver Jubilee's? any good? I don't mean for death metal of anything like that but more like rock/thras/heavy metal?

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800s are fukken loud. ive had the volume on my 1987 build 2203 on 4 in a rehearsal room for 5 mins, and it took about an hour for our hearing to return.
although, it sounded like a good rock amp, but i wasnt satisfied, so i pushed it to 8. it was getting there for a decent metal tone, but its just too fukken loud.
i wanna try this thing in a recording in a room on full volume, but otherwise id rather not gig with this. good for leads tho.

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thats where a thd power attenuator or dr z. air brake some in handy...

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Amen to that.

how much do they usually go for? the second hand market in englands crap for that sort of thing

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i agree, i just hate putting anything in front of or behind my amps. my signal goes straight into an amp and into the speakers.

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I was'nt talking to you!!!

then why did you quote me?

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I quoted you on the boost pedal comment, and elaborated further, explaining that you could'nt use say, a DOD Death Metal as a boost ( I've actually seen kids in music stores try this ) to augment the statements as a whole. We don't want the starter of this thread to bring a Line 6 Uber Metal to the gig only to find that it only makes things worse. I've seen lots of people trying these things for the first time, and many thought that a Tubescreamer was essentially the same thing as a distortion pedal, until through trial and error they found out otherwise. I was'nt trying to explain to you that you could'nt use a MetalZone as a boost ... as that is useless rhetoric beyond the painfully obvious to state that to you ... I thought you had more faith in me than that, xdx

read the comment again... and tell me it doesnt look like what i thught it looked like.

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You do have quite a valid point there. Since we've always gotten along well, lets call a truce, and vow never to speak of this conversation about boost pedals again.