The All Tube Path, Non Channel Switching Thread?

[Trapland]

I'm curious if anyone else loves Marshalls that meet the above criteria exclusively. For many, many years this has been my personal benchmark of whether an amp is likely to stay in my stable awhile, or if I'm going to pass it along like a rented mule.

I don't care if it has more than one input like a JTM or JMP, or even different input sensitivity and I don't care if it has a master or not, I just need to be able to go from near clean to near full saturation with only guitar volumes. I rarely find channel switchers or diode clippers to work for me.

For at least 20 years plus it's been JMP 4 holers and basic 6 knob master amps for me. I prefer 50ish watts, but Superleads sound great too.

I get why people do it with modern convenience, but I like what I like. Anyone else?

 

[jack daniels]

WOW! which planet did you come from? It's just a joke as there are getting to be less and less of we like minded vintage amp aficionados especially here on the MF. The more junk you introduce into a signal path the more processed the sound is which is fine for some, just not for me. The ONLY amp I have in my stable that doesn't fit the vintage criteria is my THD Bivalve head which has proven invaluable for testing and rolling numerous 9 pin preamp tubes and 8 pin output tubes. The rest of my amps are BF Fenders and Marshall JMP 1959 SLP, JTM50, and 2061X amps. Only when my estate is sold off will they become 'rented mules'.

 

[Gunner64]

Ive been a JCM800 2204 user for decades. While I have other Marshalls and other amps the 2204 is a constant..and the only one i can truly get that crack, crunch, and balls..and the tone that I feel is perfect. Cleans up with the guitar volume. Nothing compares to my 2204s ( a 82 bought new and a clone) cranked to 4 or 5..or 6..I have a 18w 1974x clone thats a close second tone wise..like a mini plexi with a master volume..all tube...including rectifier. I have higher gain amps, a 900 sl-x..a little blackstar..a couple of s.s. Marshall heads..But the tone in my head's a JCM800..cranked somewhere between kiss my ass and fu@# you...oh I mean 4 and 8...haha..

 

[Trapland]

@jack daniels .... I totally get why people like the more modern ones. The foot actuated channel switching folks NEED that or they feel cheated. I've owned jcm900mk3, dual reverb, jvm, mutliple DSLs, TSL, 6100le, and others, not to mention countless other brands, and liked a lot of them. In fact, if I was playing variety covers or modern metal, I'd grab a JVM in a heartbeat, I think they are great sounding. But I can't control it from the guitar, so I'd have to relearn how to use it. Since the 90s I've mostly played originals or Zeppelin, so I don't use channels.

The twist of a guitar knob can go from quiet clean to loud clean to subtle break up to crunch to total mayhem.

One thing I especially like is when a NMV amp is turned up to about 6-8, it's pretty saturated, yet as loud as its gonna get, then you back off the guitar a bit and it cleans up so well without much apparent decrease in volume. Pedals? I haven't needed any for dirt ever since I started playing Marshall.

@Gunner64 I had a 2203 back when you couldn't give them away. I was too green to know how cool it was and traded it for a BF Princeton Reverb. That trade me some money. Later that had a couple JMP master volumes and liked them. But I just got a 4010, which is basically a 2204 in a 1x12 combo and I'm in love with it! I love my half and full stacks but now I know if I had to downsize from 5 bedrooms to my car, I'd still have a great Marshall!

 

[mickeydg5]

Everyone is different.

 

[Trapland]

People may be different, but I'm right!

 

[mickeydg5]

Only if you stopped listening to music after the 1970's.

 

[jack daniels]

Now I believe we're diverting the thread and entering the Twilight Zone of gain and multi channel prosaics.

 

[Trapland]

Only if you stopped listening to music after the 1970's.

There's a big point. Yes, 70s and 80s amps make great 70s and 80s music. But lots of the best modern music use those style of amps too.

Lots of up and coming broke musicians used the castaways of the generation before to make new music because they were cheap and available. The hardcore punk of the 80s was made on the JMPs nobody wanted cuz Mesa was the new buzz. 80s hair metal was written on modified JMPs, the JCMs weren't up to the tsk yet or widely available, but there were lots of unloved JMPs waiting to be butchered. The grunge of the 90s was made on the channel switchers of the 80s, like the later JCMs, Mesa mk2, even Peavey. The pop rock of the late 90s and 2000s was written on jcm900s, 6100s and Mesa rectifiers. And a lot of that was set with the amps clean and pedals for dirt. Heck, when I was coming up, if you used a distortion pedal, it meant you didn't have money for a good amp.

Since there is no radio rock anymore, just oldies like Rage Against the Machine and Bush, I'm watching country closely. Les Pauls through non channel switching Marshalls seem to be a growing segment there. Another oddity I've seen is jazz being played with JTMs and superbasses. I really think the classic amps will always have an following, especially for players who choose to use their fingers more than their feet.

 

[spacerocker]

I played though nothing but a JMP 2203 for 23 years. Great amp. Great Rhythm sound - but so limited! The inability to get both a decent rock rhythm guitar sound and a great lead tone with a meaningful volume increase, drove me nuts!

Which is why I bought the JVM. Suitably modded, it can replicate the 2203 sounds and do so much more! My 2203 doesn't get played a lot these days!....

 

[jack daniels]

Gee, I wonder how the classic rock groups and guitarists ever got by with those single channel non-MV amps for all those years? Sounded pretty damn good too. Maybe that's why all these threads, " Which modern Marshall amp gives me the tone of a vintage plexi? " Maybe if they started out owning one they wouldn't be asking those types of questions. And they are extremely redundant questions.

 

[JohnnyN]

I like, but I'm old school - stubbornly old school, and to me a JCM 2204 is a very modern amp
Not because I didn't listen to music after the 70s, but "The Day The Music Died" is September 25th 1980 in my book.

 

[Gunner64]

The day bohnam died...and L.Z.

 

[GT08]

You can always play a multichannel amp using just ONE channel....it's no big deal.

 

[jack daniels]

You can always play a multichannel amp using just ONE channel....it's no big deal.

It's just that all that other circuitry gets in the way of a fairly pristine signal whether the other channels are used or not.

 

[GT08]

What about the transistor/diode clipper stomp you stick in front of your amp then, does that not effect your "pristine signal" path?

 

[iron broadsword]

I'm no expert but to my understanding channel switching is achieved by using a transistor as a gateway, where if voltage is not supplied to the transistor then the signal goes one way, and if it is powered then it will go the other way. Something like that alone won't alter the sound.. if it did then we're all screwed cause we listen to music via solid state and digital devices.

 

[jack daniels]

What about the transistor/diode clipper stomp you stick in front of your amp then, does that not effect your "pristine signal" path?

Sure it does, the trick is in finding one that lets your pristine guitar signal shine through. This is why some guys prefer transparent boost pedals to OD pedals because they only boost what is already there.

 

[marshallmellowed]

It's just that all that other circuitry gets in the way of a fairly pristine signal whether the other channels are used or not.

This theory could only hold any validity if the signal passed through solid state components, either needed for switching or other functions (FX loop...). There are switching amps that use only relays in the signal path for switching (JVM), whose contacts are no more degrading to the signal than the input jacks on your guitar or amp. As far as pedals, if it's got solid state components (tranistors, op-amps...), which almost all do, your "pristine" signal has been exposed to the bi-products of those components, no way around it.

 

[jack daniels]

This theory could only hold any validity if the signal passed through solid state components, either needed for switching or other functions (FX loop...). There are switching amps that use only relays in the signal path for switching (JVM), whose contacts are no more degrading to the signal than the input jacks on your guitar or amp. As far as pedals, if it's got solid state components (tranistors, op-amps...), which almost all do, your "pristine" signal has been exposed to the bi-products of those components, no way around it.

Let's just take this subject a step further, say I take a simple Fender amp circuit, and I add on the hi gain, and multiple channel circuits to that original circuit. When comparing the signal before and after the amp modification you're saying that the newly modded circuit will not affect the original signal and that said signal won't be degraded whether other channels are used or not? Hmmmm

The reason many old timers prefer the vintage amps of old is because of lack of additional B.S. in the circuit so as to make their signal as pristine as possible. There are phase differences in any circuit. The more intense and complex the circuit, the more phase differences. From electronic theory you have voltage leading current in an inductive circuit by 90 degrees, and voltage lags the current in a capacitive circuit by 90 degrees. Now just add more capacitors and inductors and viola....