i'm still looking for a tube head, and am now considering the used market, and i was wondering peoples opinions on the marshall JMP 100 watt head.
The reason i'm considering this is because after reading up on it, ive been fairly reassured that components wont just blow out after 3 days unlike some jcm 2000's i know of. I just need an amp that can get decently heavy distortion and sweet cleans at the same time. I dont mean super high gain distortion like cannibal corpse, more like between he buried and me, or the chariot, or poison the well. I realize its single channel, and i'd rig it to do this by going


Guitar --> a/b/y switch /--->ibanez ts 808 --> high input
................................\---> low input

would this work? or would it make more sense to go for a jcm 2000 and get a padded box for it and handle it like a spinal injury?

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For that kind of sound I would honestly look for a Mesa Rect-O-Verb 50. Same heavy rectifier distortion with way better cleans that any of the Dual or Triple Rec's.

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I don't know what btbam you're listening to but they have a pretty "brootal" heavy distortion sound. Thats by far the hardest band i listen to. But i know what you mean by real hi gain. To be honest just kind of reading your specification i would probably go for the 2000 dsl myself. I was in the market for one of these and ended up getting the crate bv though. I would personally attempt go to play them in store and compare.

And here is a tip which i think alot of people don't really get, get the people at the store to adjust the amp while YOU play. They know the amps and they can dial in the tone. If you like hte tone then get it, and make sure you look at the settings, not to mention ask questions about the tone and what not. I'm not going to say they know everything, but they know enough from being around and messing with the equipment.

I think thats why alot of people say they can't find a good tone at all with the amp i use. I would definately say if i didn't have the guy there adjusting the tone and hearing it myself that i wouldn't have gotten the amp. its possible that if he had been doing the tone with the 2000 i tried right before that, i may have had gotten that, but i found it to have horrible sound (remarkably, meaning i had no idea what i was doing with that amp, if that many bands use it and have that good of tones)

If i'm not mistaken you have a blue voodoo right? Why switch?

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sadly, i dont have a voodoo, i have a Spider II, and i HAS to go. I'm probably going to end up using it as a trade in. This is why im moving into tube territory... tubes are just flat out better.

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Your gonna have to crank that JMP up if you want the good stuff going.

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oh i know, i was probably going to get it hotrodded, and get an attenuator goin with it too.

back to the point... jcm 2000 or a jmp?

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id say get a rectifier, or one of those big tube amps taht simulate other amps. cause then you wont get sick of just that one amp.

Alone, i find recs to be too loose on their attack. I like to have some definition of the sound of the string being plucked and not just the raw note. And if your answer to that is a 5150 or a powerball, i sadly find those wayyyy too tight... which is why im sitting in marshall/orange territory, just in between loose and tight, and i can modify the attack with a booster.

If there is a way to really tighten the attack of a recto, i'll definately consider it.

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el34s?

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i've got a marshall dsl100, awesome amp , very good cleans and awesome distortion. I'd prob go with a dsl50 head if i were u

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A fairly nice amp, but I like vintage/low gain amps. This is voiced vintage as fuck. With high gain boost in front of her, it ruins what she does best. It is meh with high gain. If your into the vintage Marshall thing, go a JCM.

so you're saying if i switch out the 6l6's for el34s, it will get rid of that framus-reminiscent looseness?

i ask because 5150's are built with 6l6's and theyre really tight... sooo yeah...




not a fan of the 50... less features than the 100. and how has it held up in respects to durability? i hear the reverb tank blows out after 3 days of use.

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Which JMP model, what year is the amp? The 1959 Super Leads of the JMP line built in 73-74 are some of the heaviest and crunchiest sounding Marshall Super Leads(non master volume). The Master Volume JMP's or Lead 100 is what it was called are the exact same circuit as the JCM800 version of the same amp(2203). The only thing different with any of the JMP 100 watt heads(the 1959 and 2203 models) are cosmetics, iron(better quality in the older heads), and the signal caps(early 70's used Mullard "mustard" caps, mid to late 70's transition from mustard to the chicklet shaped metal film and/or combination of the both, late 70's through today use all chicklet chaped metal film caps).

You wont get a modern distortion with either amp. With the 2203 you can get in the area of Slayer/old Celtic Frost/Destruction/Anthrax in the heyday, type gain. With the 1959 you can get old Mercyful Fate levels of gain if you use an MXR micro amp in front of it. Use an MXR 10 band graphic in conjunction with a MXR distortion+ set as a clean boost and you can get in the realm of Randy Rhoads' gain levels.

Tons of bands up until and even later than the 90's use/d these. I own one of each model (both JCM800 though)and I can pull modern era Blackmetal levels of gain with either one. I don't use any distortion boxes either, just a clean boost and an eq.

If you listen to bands of this era, the American bands usually sounded a bit heavier, this is because the American amps came loaded with 6550 power tubes and the European bands used EL34 loaded amps. This is not set in stone though. One thing to look at if you are thinking about either are the tubes. Don't use current production tubes in these. Get yourself a couple of sets of NOS 80's era RFT preamp tubes for v1&2 and a balanced "real" Tesla tube for your driver v3(closest to the power tubes). For power tubes, look at NOS 6550's or EL34's, you don't have to look at the uber expensive NOS Mullards here, look into the JAN 6CA7(military equivalent EL34), or one of the 6550s from the era. These amp MUST be driven hard and new production tubes just do not cut it. NOS tubes while expensive up front ALL have rough estimate 10,000 hours lifespans per tube, new tubes will hardly run 1000 hours biased at the correct 70% max plate dissipation. One new pruduction tube that seems to be doing well as far as reliability and tone is the Chinese Shuhuang EL34B 11th generation only(2006 production).

Another thing that you might want to experiment with is non matched tubes. Or rather a loosly matched set which is off only about 7-10ma from one end to the other. This goes for all you guys who use tube amps. The whole idea of a tightly matched set of tubes was an Aspin Pittman idea in order to sell more tubes using a process that is not totally needed. All one should need is tubes that will let you set your bias (across all 4 or 2 power tubes depending on whether you are using 100 or 50 watt amps) in accordance with the spec range of the tubes you are using. Using loosely matched tubes will create 2nd and 5th order harmonics which are the harmonics that make the guitar sing out of the amp. The tighter bias will tend to remove these. remember we are using an electronic device that is not supposed to be audiophile perfect.

my dsl's really reliable, i've had it nearly a year now and i purchased it second hand of this dude who had previously had it since 2002 i think. So its done pretty well. I do love it to death, could prob need with some new tubes though. Need money

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wow necrovore... jeeez hahahah. You are THE MAN. Anyways, i've shifted my views to multi channel amps, and since brand new tsl 100's go for 1700$ canadian where i live, i might be going into jcm 2000 territory. Its either that, or a 1500$ dsl 100, or a mesa triple rec, or a 6505+ i have to go play them and test cleans vs disto. Mordor has renewed my faith in marshall hahahha. Thanks so much guys.

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fuck man, $1500 for a marshall dsl 100, geez. Mine cost me £300 second hand, new price is about £550/600 here in england. But then again i suppose there an english company.

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yeah... list price for north america is like 1700$ US, so i feel like im getting a deal.

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DSL's can be had here for $13/1400AU.

There is a second hand store here in town that has a couple DSL's and one TSL all 100 watters and want IIRC around $1100 for the TSL and about $900 for the DSL's. I can understand what you are saying about multi channel amps, but with the single channel you can go from clean to dirt with a flick of your volume knob on guitar if that is what you are after. But hey it's your money.

Yes check them all out. A friend of mine just bought a Genz Benz El Diablo head that really sounds good too. He picked it up for around $1300 or so.

The only thing I do not like about the DSL's or TSL's is that the iron(transformers) that is used is shit compared to what was used on the older amps. I have heard that an upgrade of these componants makes a night and day difference. Just buy the amp that sounds best to YOUR ears. Make sure you turn the amp up as well and play through it at rehearsal volume. If the store won't let you do this, walk away. If you are buying at a Guitar Center or Sam Ash type huge brick and mortar store, ask them to pull out several heads from the back for you to check out. The display amps more than likely will have some sort of problem, (esp. if the store will not allow you to turn the amp up) and who wants to pay >$1000 for gear that has been finger fucked by every runny nosed booger picker in your city.

When you check whatever amp out, don't plug into it right away. Make sure the amp is correctly hooked up to the cab and then power it up, hit the standby after a minute or so, then go through each knob one at a time turning it all the way up and down. Listen for any crackling. Once you do that put the amp back on standby, plug your guitar in, turn all the tones to 12:00, volume upt to at least 4, then roll in the preamp and gain knobs and hit a couple chords and let them ring out while you fiddle with the gain. Once you get the gain to where it is slightly clipping play some chord runs, scale runs. Get a feel for the voice of the amp, how it responds to your touch, pluck strings hard, soft etc... Once you like the amp that way roll the gain to where you like to normally have it. Play for a bit(no less than 10-15 minutes per amp). Max the gain now, see how the amp sounds, repeat playing for 10-15 minutes.
Repeat for the next amp. After about 5-6 amps start narrowing down which ones sound good/bad, discard the ones that you think sound bad. Once you have it down to 2-3 amps is where you will really have to figure out which one calls to you and wants to go home with you. This sounds funny I know, but trust me on this, YOUR amp will choose you as well as you choosing it.

When you go pick out your amp, if after a small period of time the salesman starts acting impatient, just politely tell the guy that you have saved up for a long time for a good amp and want to take your time choosing the right one. If he still acts like a cock, slap that wad o green on top of the amp and tell the guy firmly, I plan on spending this on an amp in this store, if I am wasting your time, then I will leave. Get up, put the cash back in your wallet, hand the guy the guitar and start to move towards the door. At this point the salesman will aquiesce and behave. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what to do if he still acts like a dick(leave). Go to another store and tell them of how the last salesman treated you and show them that you wanted to spend (show money) this on a great amp and if they could please help you. You will be treated like a king at the second store.

Good Luck man, lets see some pics of your amp when you get it.