http://youtube.com/watch?v=3iV7YsQg2kI
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ngQ866cPljE

That sounds fucking perfect to me. The sound is perfect imo, my Engl fireball has way more gain than that but I never really go much past what that dude is doing. I think with a higher gain tube in the v1 section it would be perfect.

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i've seen these videos. I've never gotten a 900 to sound this good in store. I think its the mullards let alone the el34's. I hear mullard pretubes can get pretty brutal too. dunno if he has those though.

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In the first video it says he's using mullard power tubes and one Harma preamp tube and 2 groove tubes in the preamp. He wasn't playing the amp loud(you could hear the strings rattle in the first one) so the power tubes weren't breaking up.

The only thing it lacks is a bit of sustain but for playing some fast paced brewtal stuff who needs sustain!

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yeah, powertubes don't need to break up to contribute to distortion. I have a bunch of random buttons on my amp that screw with my poweramp, and they all definately effect gain for some reason, which is wierd because you'd think gain comes from the preamp right? I dunno.

Jcm900's do have lovely gain, its just that its limited and it doesnt get BREWTALzzz!!!! just moderately heavy. Though, the louder you turn them, the more distortion you get. I demoed one at a store while picking cabinets, and the dude slowly turned up the volume and it just got heavier and heavier. it was sweet. I'm probably guna get a 900... fuckin gas.

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I took my jcm900 to some rehearsal space about a year ago, and when i got the opportunity to crank it somewhat (to about 5/6... this is a 50w amp too), i ended up taking the overdrive out and backing off on the gain on the amp... it's got plenty of gain to do 'brutal', and you can easily achieve tones like that in those videos. Granted the amp may not have as much gain on tap as something like an ENGL (or my Laney VH100R), but the amount of usable gain the 900 has is astounding- none of it goes to waste With high gain modern amps, rarely can you have the gain set at max (or even 3/4) and it still be of use.

900 = wicked amp, pure quality

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Me neither... it sounds fuckin great in the video though.

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That's a 4100 like I used to have so I know what it can do. Plenty of gain for me.

I don't find the tone in the first clip to be "brutal" by any means with the amount of gain, which is nice because I like the clarity of "just enough" gain. The second clip definately sounded like there was more gain dailed in. Maybe he adjusted the settings, maybe it's the placement of the camera. Maybe both.

The 2100 and 2500 SL-X models have an extra 12AX7 for two more gain stages. No clipping diodes. They're a lot more brut3lz. I personally prefer the 4100 model though, it cleans up better and the distortion is a little tighter due to the s.s. clipping diodes.

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I had a jcm 900, one of the sl-x 2100... and it was IMO the best amp I have had a chance to play. the louder you can push the amp the better it sounds, I had it running through a peavey sheffield loaded cabnet.

my only problem with the amp is that it is one channel, so I would have to use a volume pedal to have a clean channel..... but that is only if you wanted to play clean