The Marshall JCM800

The Marshall JCM800 2203 is by far one of my favorite amplifiers of all time. Out of the box it oozes balls out rock tone. It's a simple beast, one channel, no reverb, no bells and whistles, just 100watts of raw power.

From the factory it came with three ECC83 preamp tubes (or valves depending on what side of the ocean you're from), and four EL34 poweramp tubes.

It's safe to say that the JCM800 tone is anything but subtle. It doesn't really do 'clean' tones, although with creative use of the guitars volume knob, you might get somewhere within the 'clean' neighborhood.

Having just the one channel can be a limitation, but pairing the JCM800 with a good dirt box, like a Ibanez TS9 or the BOSS SD1 will help add some versatility as well as pushing the amp over the edge into it's metal tone place.

So, who has put the JCM800 to work through the years? Some notable names include Gary Moore, Kerry King (Slayer), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Zakk Wylde. Although, Zakk is famous for swapping out the EL34 poweramp tubes for 6550's instead. He also slams the front end of the amp with a BOSS SD1.

Would I recommend the Marshall JCM800? Hell yes! It's suited for players of rock. It's meant to be played loud, so it's not for the bedroom, but its brutality is part of its charm.

You can pick the old models up reasonably cheap if you look hard enough. When I got mine it looked like it had been run over by a tank, but it functioned as if it were new. I'd suggest taking a look on ebay or second hand music stores and seeing what you can turn up. Yes, the JCM800 may be a one trick pony... but... you can be sure, it's a very very good trick!

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2007 and is filed under Gear, Guitar.

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