1989 JCM800 2205

[Odad]

Hey just picked this up for 1200 bucks today
Thoughts ? It’s in great condition and sounds amazing, I cant find any for sale on reverb at the moment what the going value on these ?

 

[Kelia]

Hey just picked this up for 1200 bucks today
Thoughts ? It’s in great condition and sounds amazing, I cant find any for sale on reverb at the moment what the going value on these ?

Congrats on your new amp !
You had a good deal at $1200 , if you don't see any , it's a good sign.
The loop is fussy , it's loves old Rack units from the 80's like a Roland SDE 3000 but
hates TC Nova Delays or others , maybe it was design for rackmounts. The SDE is dead quiet and the TC is noisy like hell !
Best lead tone I ever had , does yours have channel bleed ?

 

[Odad]

Sweet thanks for the reply and info ! And no channel bleed luckily

 

[scozz]

Sounds great man, post some pics when you’re allowed.

Congrats

Welcome to the Marshall Forum,…

 

[EADGBE]

A lot of people say it's a great amp. And that they hardly ever come up for sale because people don't want to let them go. I'd like to have one. It's like a 2204 modded by Marshall.

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

To The Forum
Congratulations on your new amp

 

[cap217]

Going value is $1500-1800 on them. I have seen guitar center have a couple at $1599 that sold but took a week or 2.

 

[Bewlay]

Congrats on the new amp. I picked a 4212 not too long ago which is the 50W 2x12 combo version of the 2205. I really like the amp.
Since it was mentioned above, can I ask about channel bleed? I've read these amps are prone to it. I think mine might have it but it's something I've never come across before.
How does it manifest itself?

 

[Kelia]

Congrats on the new amp. I picked a 4212 not too long ago which is the 50W 2x12 combo version of the 2205. I really like the amp.
Since it was mentioned above, can I ask about channel bleed? I've read these amps are prone to it. I think mine might have it but it's something I've never come across before.
How does it manifest itself?

When you're on the lead section and you turn the volume on the clean channel, your hear the cleaner channel
bleed into the dirty one and it becomes unusable so for me, I always stayed on the lead without touching the cleaner
channel which by the way is not the Holy Grail.

 

[Dean Swindell]

Hey just picked this up for 1200 bucks today
Thoughts ? It’s in great condition and sounds amazing, I cant find any for sale on reverb at the moment what the going value on these ?

2205 is a pretty good amp but the 2204 tones are not in there. Back when there were a lot of great amp techs on every street some had "mod packages" for these to get the 2204/3 sounds, improve the FX loop, make the stock mediocre clean sound really nice and make the channel switching better. Notice it's all the things that were new to Marshall at the time. It's a fine amp, just don't expect typical favorite Marshall sounds. I'd contact Guitar CPR for suggestions and mods.

 

[Tatzmann]

The typical 2203/04 is not happening
with those amps.

They have a big ass mid hump, more
or less depending on the version.

Did a lot of A/Bing with my 2203.

The closest you can get to 2203/04 sound
is use the normal channel, put an eq in the
loop.

Boost bass a little, reduce mids alot and
add a little highs. Its best to try out with
an 15band graphic eq.

Or mod the amp, it took me 2 caps to
make the boostchannel 95% sounding
and reacting like a 2203.

In its stock form i could never get
convincing AC/DC or Hendrix out of it,
but very good Priestly Metal sound,
but only turned up to bandvolume,
low volume they sound like a garbage
tubescreamer into PA.

 

[Odad]

Sounds great man, post some pics when you’re allowed.

Congrats

Welcome to the Marshall Forum,…

The typical 2203/04 is not happening
with those amps.

They have a big ass mid hump, more
or less depending on the version.

Did a lot of A/Bing with my 2203.

The closest you can get to 2203/04 sound
is use the normal channel, put an eq in the
loop.

Boost bass a little, reduce mids alot and
add a little highs. Its best to try out with
an 15band graphic eq.

Or mod the amp, it took me 2 caps to
make the boostchannel 95% sounding
and reacting like a 2203.

In its stock form i could never get
convincing AC/DC or Hendrix out of it,
but very good Priestly Metal sound,
but only turned up to bandvolume,
low volume they sound like a garbage
tubescreamer into PA.

I took it to the studio yesterday was playing it out of 2 4x12s a Marshall and hi-watt cab both with 2 evm12s and 2 v30s each the sound was phenomenal, out of my Paul w some alnico 5s no pedals

you really gotta turn it up to get the tone right,
I know this is one of michael schenker‘s main amps for like 20 years specifically the 2205
so theres gotta be something to the tone in this amp itself.
I feel if I was gonna mod to get closer to the 2203/4 I would just pick one up down the line
I’m personally not so much of a pedal guy so I enjoy the way the amp sounds as is Guitar into amp

appreciate all the reply’s and opinions love to hear them all !

 

[Bewlay]

When you're on the lead section and you turn the volume on the clean channel, your hear the cleaner channel
bleed into the dirty one and it becomes unusable so for me, I always stayed on the lead without touching the cleaner
channel which by the way is not the Holy Grail.

Ah right, I see, thanks for that. I had a thing where between 7 and 9 on the Channel 2 Volume, the sound would go mostly clean as if it was pure bleed from the clean channel but then if you keep going and turn it up to 10, it goes back to where it should be.
Maybe it had something to do with where channel 1 volume was at?
I'm not a fan of the clean channel anyway so I'll experiment more the next time I pull the amp out and see can I eradicate it.
It could be an issue with mine.

 

[Kelia]

Ah right, I see, thanks for that. I had a thing where between 7 and 9 on the Channel 2 Volume, the sound would go mostly clean as if it was pure bleed from the clean channel but then if you keep going and turn it up to 10, it goes back to where it should be.
Maybe it had something to do with where channel 1 volume was at?
I'm not a fan of the clean channel anyway so I'll experiment more the next time I pull the amp out and see can I eradicate it.
It could be an issue with mine.

Turned everything on zero on the clean side and the lead channel was where I found Peace !

 

[Bewlay]

Turned everything on zero on the clean side and the lead channel was where I found Peace !

Haha nice one, I'll see how I get on