Help choosing the right JCM900?

[SLA]

the jcm 900 mkIII gives more of the classic jcm 800 marshall crunch and beyond, more vintage sounding than the dual 900. The dual 900 sounds tighter and more metal and you can get an great crunch from the clean channel also.
I bought an dual 900 for about 200 usd and flipped it for 400 and bought me an mkIII instead for 300, but i think for you maybe the dual is an better choise. Dont pay to much!!

 

[Landshark]

Just out of curiosity, and not to derail too much, but which preamp tube is controlled with the Sensitivity control on an SL-X? I've been scouring the interwebz and can not find it anywhere.

 

[Masliko]

I have owned them all,and i prefer the MKIII's over them all. .I own one now.You need to play one(DR),some people love them,some hate them.

I like the DR's,but only with EL34's not the 5881's but others prefer them,the 5881's are smoother which you might like, but IMO the clean channel only come good around 7/10 and its not like Fender clean or bluesbreaker clean if that's what you want.The are a tough head,they can take alot of abuse.

The MKIII"s are freaking brutal for Marshall tone but the DR's are not like those.

 

[BowerR64]

I have owned them all,and i prefer the MKIII's over them all. .I own one now.You need to play one(DR),some people love them,some hate them.

I like the DR's,but only with EL34's not the 5881's but others prefer them,the 5881's are smoother which you might like, but IMO the clean channel only come good around 7/10 and its not like Fender clean or bluesbreaker clean if that's what you want.The are a tough head,they can take alot of abuse.

The MKIII"s are freaking brutal for Marshall tone but the DR's are not like those.

Thats good to read.

I just got a MKIII and its all i think ive ever wanted. More then enough gain and has just the right tone. Guy threw in a couple GT power tubes with a #1 rating and i cant wait to try em.

 

[tschrama]

750$ sound grazy for a 4100... I like mine but would pay 400$ for it max!

 

[tubes]

Thats good to read.

I just got a MKIII and its all i think ive ever wanted. More then enough gain and has just the right tone. Guy threw in a couple GT power tubes with a #1 rating and i cant wait to try em.

Cheers Bower,
I'm probably on the same page there.
My MK3 has the nicest tones. But I still usually plug in my 4100 for rehearsals.
But that's probably because we play covers in a lot of different styles and the MK3 is not really multi-channel.
Your playing situation might be different.

But the MK3 has the nicest tones.

 

[Nmoc strat]

Nothing wrong with the 900 4100DR, after all thats the JCM900 Marshall is still producing this days. Great clean / crunch channel, for use with a classic sounding Humbucker like a Dimarzio Super Distortion or a Seymour Duncan JB, for that classic Rock, early Metal sounding. The Lead channel is fantastic too, forget about the diode cliping talk, it has that classic Marshall roar, its all about the EQ, just lower the trebles.

I have the 4100, and its a classic sounding Marshall beast, lots of power and low end, no wonder that many pros still use em.

Now, on the other hand, 750$ is a bit high for the head alone used, you can get it for way less, or else, get a proper 1960 4x12 included, at least.

 

[twothemax]

mark III 2100. sweet.
i believe there is one on ebay start price was 400.00. snag it if you can.

 

[seeker88]

I have both the MkIII and the DR, both 1990 made, both 50 watt heads w/ el34's. I'm holding onto them and like them. I had metal panel SLP's (one w/ a pro cascading gain mod), a 1987x and various 800's (Silver Jube) back in the day. I'm 49. I like the plug and play with the more modern 900's. To each their own I guess.

I agree, the MkIII is easier to dial in and sounds more traditional Marshall to my ears. With that said my DR gets pretty mean and aggressive on the lead channel, something I favor from time to time.

I will say though, with both of these heads they need a 4x12 cab to sound proper, one preferably with V30's, GB's or similar but not the scooped GT-75's IMO.

The clean/crunch channel on the DR takes pedals nicely but tends to get middy with less sparkle vs the lead channel which btw sounds killer with single coils.

I personally think the DR's are underrated and unforgiving (less user friendly) compared to the 800's and the newer stuff, DSL's and beyond. But I'm only speaking about the 90-92's w/ el34's. I had a 50 watt DR 112 combo back in the late 90's but can't fully remember much about it. I can say I didn't know about using the FX loop which is a must with these to get any kind of balls from them.

 

[fat_lenny]

Nothing wrong with the 900 4100DR, after all thats the JCM900 Marshall is still producing this days. Great clean / crunch channel, for use with a classic sounding Humbucker like a Dimarzio Super Distortion or a Seymour Duncan JB, for that classic Rock, early Metal sounding. The Lead channel is fantastic too, forget about the diode cliping talk, it has that classic Marshall roar, its all about the EQ, just lower the trebles.

I have the 4100, and its a classic sounding Marshall beast, lots of power and low end, no wonder that many pros still use em.

Now, on the other hand, 750$ is a bit high for the head alone used, you can get it for way less, or else, get a proper 1960 4x12 included, at least.

I agree, nothing wrong with the JCM900 4100. I always loved mine, had it converted to EL34's and (once a few issues were ironed out) love it even more.

Channel A is what I use the most, but Channel B has some great sounds if you don't go overboard with the gain. I use it with an attenuator so I can really push it, but it is a great amp.

Price though, I see them second hand over here (Australia) with a 1960a box regularly for $1,200 - $1,500 (well under a grand US). So $750 for a head alone sounds a bit steep.

 

[paul-e-mann]

Wow a ton of different advice in every direction but no strong consensus towards any one answer, I'd be thoroughly confused at this point if this was my thread. Any way, to add to the confusion the only 900 I ever played was a reissue DR and I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by its tone and features after reading all the bad press about the 900 around here. With that said, a friend of mine bought a DR900 head and a 1960 cab a little over a year ago used for $450.

 

[marshallmellowed]

FWIW, I believe the OP bought a DSL back in October.

http://www.marshallforum.com/showthread.php?p=1419323#post1419323

 

[seeker88]

Not to take this thread in a different direction but... the OP bought a DSL?

Ok, I can compare my 900's to an English made 50 watt DSL I had last year for a short time... That's because it broke down, no sound, nothing. I sent it back to the seller who said he was going to bring it to a tech but I never heard from him again. I was curious to know what the heck happened to it. But I was able to play it for a little while.

Compared to my 900's it was warmer, fatter (almost too fat) It had a different voiced midrange and had a wider window of usable tones if that's your thing. I normally find my tone and that's pretty much it. But since that experience I've read numerous reliability issue concerns, at least with the earlier English made ones. But I still think from time to time to get another 50 watt head again and see if it can work out. Maybe there are some good mods out there or something. But the 50 watt MIE DSL heads seem sparse on the used market lately though...?

On the other hand I can comfortably say my 900's never give me grief and I find a few usable tones from each and my sound. Normally the treble is off or barley on and the presence is high on the MkIII but very low on the DR. Bass off on both. I actually get most of the tone by just using the middle knob as a global eq. The mid knob adds volume and gain too. Through a 4x12 this works for me. Historic LP's don't hurt the process either.

 

[BowerR64]

I got mine for $800. with a 1936 loaded with V30s.

I figured the amp for $500. and the cab for $300. a couple preamp tubes, power tubes, cables and an amp cover. He also drove 2 hours to meet me which saved me a long drive which i liked. I only had to go about 30 minutes.

Its a virgin 900MKIII no mods and its in really good condition. No scratchy pots or anything. I didnt have to do anything to it.

 

[dreyn77]

well pedecamp is changing the rules and now needs a group opinion.
others are trying to keep the price of great marshall amps down low.
I don't get that. ?
let the price go up if people like to have the amp and are prepared to give money into the marshall family.

the 900 has the different sound cause that's the actual sound of that amount of gain level.
people just are so familiar with the sound of pedals, they want that sound out of these hot marshall amps and it's not possible unless you actually build the pedal into the amp like they did with the YJM.

they do make the right sound and the gain level sound they're suppose to make.

there's no reason for a cheap amp.

it was just that guys didn't have a clue what there pickups were sounding like. they didn't realise they were custom designs and so they thought all pickups sounded the same and therefore blamed the amp, when infact there's nothing wrong with the amp and the people kept trying to plug in pedals when the amp was already making that sound.

guys didn't have the vintage guitar to test out the amps basic sound. they never heard the complex sound which the amp added to the marshall history of complex sounds.
the sound had more in it with more stuff for the player to control. the amp does all that and more, but people had no idea what it was doing.

when large numbers of users say they've gotta have the amp at a certain volume setting before they will assess the sound, then warning bells should go off in the reader of such opinions.

that person with that opinion has no clue about master volume and probably has no clue what the pickup maker did to their guitars pickups and has no chance to know what marshall has done to the super custom 900 amp.

if you can't find A sound with an amp then don't bother going to another model from another era, just go to another brand entirely.

 

[dreyn77]

some of the famous pickups which people have been using are actually just a treble sounding bridge pickup.
combine that bridge pickup with the extra hot marshall and the high gain speakers and you're gonna get a treble sound which is 3 times more treble in nature.

so it's no wonder people liked the older sound where the treble wasn't so reinforced by the gear.

people didn't realize there pickup was the treble pickup AND they didn't realise the high gain sound also has that effect and the speakers were more accurite so they were totally lost in reality.

if you want a warm tone pickup you've gotta use that pickup model in your guitar.

there's no point buying a set of seymour duncans and only useing the bridge pickup and complaining there's no warmth to the sound.

the warm sound was put into the middle pickup sound.
the bass tone was built into the neck pickup sound.

most fenders where built like this too.


dimarzio builds a bass & mid rangey sound into their bridge pickup model.

so lots of guys are banging away on their strats into the 900 complaining they've got no tone cause in reality, that bridge pickup doesn't have any!
the regular gibson bridge pickup product doesn't have any either.

guys need to realise that fender gave people that great tone but they needed to use position 2 or 3 on the guitars pickup selector switch. NOT position 1 [the bridge pickup] all the time.

these major guitar companies were not making product for heavy metal music players.

the idea of only using the bridge pickup was not on their minds when they built the guitar. they knew better than the heavy metal guitarist.

the 900 amp exposed the fact that the consumer either knew what was happening or they had NO CLUE what was happening with guitar gear.

 

[klaatutooyou]

do you get free stamps or something for posting the most!?

 

[Woods]

I'm tellin ya, the right JCM900 is called a JCM2000 DSL

Yes, 1000x yes.

 

[BowerR64]

I like it, the more time i spend with it the more i like it.

The bonus is that its not as expensive as the 800 but close enough to suit my needs.

Ive run the preamp level at max and used a TS infront and then turned it off and used the sensitivity control and it actually sounds better then the TS its more full then the TS and requires less junk to hook up to get the sound.

 

[houseofrock]

Hand Amputation... not to confuse things even more but after listening to your recording ( by the way I really like it ) I hear more of an Orange sound than that of Marshall JCM900. Maybe a Thunderverb or OR series. Just a thought.