lonewolfsx
Well-Known Member
After a bit of a screw up with a modded plexi clone, I lucked out and while returning that amp, found this one in the store. I spent a lot of time with it in the store as it was a previous customer return, but I'm not sure why - I can't seem to find anything wrong with it. The only complaint I have I suppose is that the reverb is a little fuzzy if you turn it to max - but I'm pretty sure that's just the natural of this kind of amp circuit (and Marshall's first iteration of built in reverb, as far as I know at least).
It's dated from 1985, so I wasn't sure if it was the new or the old version of the circuit. Thanks to some old threads I knew to remove V2 and see if the clean channel stopped working - which it did, but the boost channel is unaffected. So it seems like this is indeed the later version of the circuit which is just great since that's what I wanted. I never got along with my 1982 2205 which I sold years ago.
Anyway, it's in good shape and looks clean on the inside. The logo is a little worn/yellowed, same with the piping, but it has a full set of pretty new looking tubes and a pair of fat Sovtek 6550/KT-88's in the power section. Drake transformers all around and the caps don't look bulged or weird, although they do have 1985 date codes so they are the originals. I suppose I'll just keep my eye on them and play the amp a lot to keep them in good shape.
I won't go into a ton of detail on the sound like I have in some of my previous NAD posts, but suffice to say it sounds fantastic, and I'm actually really surprised how much I like the clean channel. I have the master very low but the clean channel gets SUPER loud, louder than the boost channel, but stays very sparkly. I did test while I was on the boost channel if I turn the gain down and the clean volume to max I can hear the clean channel just a tiny bit through the boost channel, but I really can't imagine a time I'd ever use this amp with both the boost channel gain and clean volume maxed at the same time. I actually think the clean channel maxed and the boost with the gain lower has a unique kind of grit to it, fills out some of the sound, sort of like mixing in the clean signal with distortion (for example, like the Voodoo Sparkle Drive does), I wouldn't use it all the time but it could be a neat trick for an interesting recorded sound.
The boost channel is the main reason I wanted one of these of course and I'm very pleased. It has enough gain for what I want to play on its own, gets an extra push with an SD-1 or tubescreamer up front of course, and cleans up nicely with the volume despite what people say about the clipping diodes. To my surprise, it actually feels like it has more gain than my JCM900 SL-X, probably because that amp is very immediate and clean sounding gain, while this JCM800 has a bit more hair on palm mutes and the like so it sounds a little nastier. I like the two together a lot - it's supidly loud but it's a great sound.
Now that I have a JCM800, 900, 6100, and 2000 I really need to put together those sound clips I keep promising. Hopefully I will have some more time to set that up tomorrow or next weekend.
Anyway, a few pics:
It's dated from 1985, so I wasn't sure if it was the new or the old version of the circuit. Thanks to some old threads I knew to remove V2 and see if the clean channel stopped working - which it did, but the boost channel is unaffected. So it seems like this is indeed the later version of the circuit which is just great since that's what I wanted. I never got along with my 1982 2205 which I sold years ago.
Anyway, it's in good shape and looks clean on the inside. The logo is a little worn/yellowed, same with the piping, but it has a full set of pretty new looking tubes and a pair of fat Sovtek 6550/KT-88's in the power section. Drake transformers all around and the caps don't look bulged or weird, although they do have 1985 date codes so they are the originals. I suppose I'll just keep my eye on them and play the amp a lot to keep them in good shape.
I won't go into a ton of detail on the sound like I have in some of my previous NAD posts, but suffice to say it sounds fantastic, and I'm actually really surprised how much I like the clean channel. I have the master very low but the clean channel gets SUPER loud, louder than the boost channel, but stays very sparkly. I did test while I was on the boost channel if I turn the gain down and the clean volume to max I can hear the clean channel just a tiny bit through the boost channel, but I really can't imagine a time I'd ever use this amp with both the boost channel gain and clean volume maxed at the same time. I actually think the clean channel maxed and the boost with the gain lower has a unique kind of grit to it, fills out some of the sound, sort of like mixing in the clean signal with distortion (for example, like the Voodoo Sparkle Drive does), I wouldn't use it all the time but it could be a neat trick for an interesting recorded sound.
The boost channel is the main reason I wanted one of these of course and I'm very pleased. It has enough gain for what I want to play on its own, gets an extra push with an SD-1 or tubescreamer up front of course, and cleans up nicely with the volume despite what people say about the clipping diodes. To my surprise, it actually feels like it has more gain than my JCM900 SL-X, probably because that amp is very immediate and clean sounding gain, while this JCM800 has a bit more hair on palm mutes and the like so it sounds a little nastier. I like the two together a lot - it's supidly loud but it's a great sound.
Now that I have a JCM800, 900, 6100, and 2000 I really need to put together those sound clips I keep promising. Hopefully I will have some more time to set that up tomorrow or next weekend.
Anyway, a few pics:
