Need education on marshall tones

[cdc3jj]

I had a jcm600 for a while and it was cool but didn't really cop those classic overdrives and distortion marshall is known for. I'm now looking for a pedal to cover those sounds but I think I really need to hear what to look for first.

Can anyone suggest listening examples for the jtm45, the plexi and the jcm800 series? I heard G n'R paradise city on the radio earlier and really dug that sound and all the old allman bros stuff is awesome and I think I heard duane used plexi's but I'm not sure. Any help would be much appreciated.

[muchxs]

Originally Posted by cdc3jj

I had a jcm600 for a while and it was cool but didn't really cop those classic overdrives and distortion marshall is known for. I'm now looking for a pedal to cover those sounds but I think I really need to hear what to look for first.

Pedal... Radial ToneBone Hot British.

Originally Posted by cdc3jj

Can anyone suggest listening examples for the jtm45, the plexi and the jcm800 series?.

JTM45 is a '60s rock tone, think Bluesbreakers, Clapton "beano" tone, early Jeff Beck, maybe Screaming Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends. Big bottom, creamy, not what we'd consider to be an aggressive distortion tone. Loose and flabby compared to JMP or JCM800. Remember, a JTM45 is a very close copy of a tweed Bassman. It's really a "bass" amp. A lot of the "good" vintage Celestions are the "low resonance" (55hz) versions. They're bass speakers.

JMP is a late '60s through the '70s tone. The amp changes include split cathode networks, EL34 tubes and fixed bias. The split cathodes are the big thing. The 820 ohm cathode resistor and 220uf capacitor shared by both channels of the original Bassman got shoved over to the "normal" channel, the "bright" channel got 2.7k/.68u. That's a more typical "Marshall" voicing. A JMP can cop a woofy grunting almost JTM45 tone or it will do the hairy gnarly but not quite high gain (JCM800) tone that's more commonly associated with Marshall.

JCM800: '80s. Zakk Wylde, Kerry King, countless others. Lots of amps in the series including amps that were for all practical purposes JMPs. When they say, "JCM800" they generally mean 2203 100 watt and 2204 50 watt. Vestiges of the old JMP "bright" and "normal" channels are still there but they're shuffled around a bit. The signal first goes into a facsimile of the old "bright" channel, then into a stage similar to the old third gain stage, then into another stage with the 820 ohm cathode resistor from the old JTM45! That's the soaring searing Marshall tone made famous by guys in Spandex trousers who played pointy headed guitars. Or you could plug into the low gain input and get a tone like the "normal" channel on a mixed-up JMP. An amp tech or a roadie who knows what he's doing inside that amp can get anything from Van Halen tone to Brad Paisley tones, believe it or not!

Originally Posted by cdc3jj

I heard G n'R paradise city on the radio earlier and really dug that sound

Slash uses 25th Anniversary 2555 Silver Jubilees (which Marshall has reissued as a Slash signature amp). Rumor has it G & R rented every Marshall they could find in L.A. when they recorded "Appetite for Destruction" and simply refused to give back the few Slash really liked! We're coming up on the anniversary of the Saint Louis riot (July 2nd, 1991) where Slash lost his beloved Marshalls. He currently plays through a couple Jubilees, one with 6550s for clean stuff and the other with EL34s for his distortion tone.

Originally Posted by cdc3jj

and all the old allman bros stuff is awesome and I think I heard duane used plexi's but I'm not sure. Any help would be much appreciated.

Check out Dickie on tour with Great Southern at a venue near you. Same old Marshalls ('70s handwired JMPs), same old slant front cabinets loaded with JBLs, same holes cut in the back of the cabinets, same Dickie. Doug Hoffman thoroughly massaged them and gave them a clean bill of health, they are truly awesome Marshalls.

"People down in Georgia come from near and far

To hear Richard Betts pickin' on that red guitar..."

[cdc3jj]

I'm finding a lot more ear candy in the jtm and the plexi sounds. Sounds like the plexi is the most versitile. I looked dickie up on you tube and he's got the tone. No wonder they come from near and far.