wallythacker
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- Oct 27, 2014
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I was googling images of various Marshall head innards (talk about good pr0n), 800's , 1959's, 900's, 2000's, JVM's and it struck me like a brick.
Right now, today, we can get any Marshall head from any any era repaired to work as good as new. The older Marshalls are the easiest to repair as discrete components still exist by the boxcar load and there are companies still producing the parts. Maybe Marshall doesn't sell the parts but tons of 3rd party companies do.
Now let's jump ahead to more modern Marshalls, let's choose the 2000 family as an example. Let's say your TSL 100w head takes a dump. Let's say it's an op-amp on a board that died on you. At this point in time I don't know if Marshall has a part they will sell you. Just how long does Marshall keep parts for older equipment? 7 years? I suspect you'll have to look on ebay or CL to find a used board to repair your head. But chances are great you'll find what you need. Will a 3rd party have such a part to get you going? Pretty iffy, unless it was a badly designed part in the first place ans some 3rd party companies took the initiative to make a better replacement.
Now let's have a look at the newest Marshall stuff, the JVM. It's pretty sophisticated gear from what I've seen. Well engineered too from what I've read. If there is an issue with your new JVM stuff Marshall will have a replacement part ready to drop in to fix your baby. Off you go happy.
Fast forward 30 years. Your '83 2003 (now 61 years old) stopped working and needs output caps and a few resistors to be back at 100%. Unless the entire replacement component market disappeared you can get your caps and resistors and your '83 2003 roars like it did in 1983.
How about the guy with a now 40 year old TSL100? How does he fare? He's fine getting tubes and pots and caps but he's not getting replacement parts from 3rd parties (not unless it turns out every part XYZ on the 2000 series fails and it makes economic sense for a company to make a better replacement) for any electronic circuits in his beloved head. In many cases he'll be able to score the chips because they were used by a variety of companies in similar applications. So he's got to hope the Ebay/CL market has the parts he needs at a reasonable price. He might get caught in that bind we all hate, the part is plentiful on the market, but the price is stupid high. The part is non-existent on the used market but goes for peanuts, or the worst case, the part is really scarce and the price is stupid high. I think though, overall, with diligence this whole era of gear will be repairable.
But still, I see a lot of guys sadly carting their heads out to the trash. Or parting them out hoping to recover enough to cushion the cost of buying a new head.
What about the guys buying JVMs now? IMO, when they break down in 30 years wheeling them directly to the curb on trash day will be the most intelligent thing to do. Most electronics in them will be custom designed circuits that only exist in Marshall JVM gear and when that supply is gone, it's gone. There are no 3rd party, aftermarket or compatible components available. So you eat the cost of owning it and go buy another. $2500 flushed. Which is crazy because you could have bought a perfect condition '83 2203 for less than you paid for your 410.
So the 410 goes to the trash. The 800 keeps roaring.
Something to think about the next time you lay down $ thousands on gear.
Having rambled on like this I realized I'm going to take what I just read and it put it to use. I'll buy the boards from Ceriatone to convert my cheaply bought Ma100c into a nice vintage sound point to point 2203 jcm 800. In 30 years it's likely my kids will probably need to replace the mdf cabinet moreso than replacing anything major with the electrics.
tl;dr
A $1500 1983 JCM 800 will probably still be servicable in 40 years time while a $1500 JVM will become trash long before then.
Right now, today, we can get any Marshall head from any any era repaired to work as good as new. The older Marshalls are the easiest to repair as discrete components still exist by the boxcar load and there are companies still producing the parts. Maybe Marshall doesn't sell the parts but tons of 3rd party companies do.
Now let's jump ahead to more modern Marshalls, let's choose the 2000 family as an example. Let's say your TSL 100w head takes a dump. Let's say it's an op-amp on a board that died on you. At this point in time I don't know if Marshall has a part they will sell you. Just how long does Marshall keep parts for older equipment? 7 years? I suspect you'll have to look on ebay or CL to find a used board to repair your head. But chances are great you'll find what you need. Will a 3rd party have such a part to get you going? Pretty iffy, unless it was a badly designed part in the first place ans some 3rd party companies took the initiative to make a better replacement.
Now let's have a look at the newest Marshall stuff, the JVM. It's pretty sophisticated gear from what I've seen. Well engineered too from what I've read. If there is an issue with your new JVM stuff Marshall will have a replacement part ready to drop in to fix your baby. Off you go happy.
Fast forward 30 years. Your '83 2003 (now 61 years old) stopped working and needs output caps and a few resistors to be back at 100%. Unless the entire replacement component market disappeared you can get your caps and resistors and your '83 2003 roars like it did in 1983.
How about the guy with a now 40 year old TSL100? How does he fare? He's fine getting tubes and pots and caps but he's not getting replacement parts from 3rd parties (not unless it turns out every part XYZ on the 2000 series fails and it makes economic sense for a company to make a better replacement) for any electronic circuits in his beloved head. In many cases he'll be able to score the chips because they were used by a variety of companies in similar applications. So he's got to hope the Ebay/CL market has the parts he needs at a reasonable price. He might get caught in that bind we all hate, the part is plentiful on the market, but the price is stupid high. The part is non-existent on the used market but goes for peanuts, or the worst case, the part is really scarce and the price is stupid high. I think though, overall, with diligence this whole era of gear will be repairable.
But still, I see a lot of guys sadly carting their heads out to the trash. Or parting them out hoping to recover enough to cushion the cost of buying a new head.
What about the guys buying JVMs now? IMO, when they break down in 30 years wheeling them directly to the curb on trash day will be the most intelligent thing to do. Most electronics in them will be custom designed circuits that only exist in Marshall JVM gear and when that supply is gone, it's gone. There are no 3rd party, aftermarket or compatible components available. So you eat the cost of owning it and go buy another. $2500 flushed. Which is crazy because you could have bought a perfect condition '83 2203 for less than you paid for your 410.
So the 410 goes to the trash. The 800 keeps roaring.
Something to think about the next time you lay down $ thousands on gear.
Having rambled on like this I realized I'm going to take what I just read and it put it to use. I'll buy the boards from Ceriatone to convert my cheaply bought Ma100c into a nice vintage sound point to point 2203 jcm 800. In 30 years it's likely my kids will probably need to replace the mdf cabinet moreso than replacing anything major with the electrics.
tl;dr
A $1500 1983 JCM 800 will probably still be servicable in 40 years time while a $1500 JVM will become trash long before then.
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In 30 Years I doubt if I will be able to LIFT a Les Paul, let alone play it.....
