HEADache, possible recommendations

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:25 pm

I'm having a similar problem fran. the bottom end of my tweed is getting better, but for what i want to play, it's not right. i'm going for that black crowes/ stones kinda crunch sound and that higher gain free/bad company kinda sound.

mainly thinking one of four options
1: extension cab for the tweed
2: better on board speaker for tweed
3: mod cabinet to be closed back.
4: get a marshall!!!!!

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:28 pm

Number 4.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:32 pm

I'm quite shocked at the price of amps. Especially new. I#m even considerating valvestate or transistor, as long as it sounds good i dont care. Tubes are a pain in the arse half the time anyway.

euan · Post by **euan** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:33 pm

Get an old Laney. Rock out.

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:36 pm

I was gonna second that fran. saw an AVT 50 going cheap on fleabay the other day.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:15 am

Get that Vintage/Modern Proggie

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:34 am

I have the AVT150H, and I love it to pieces.

The versatility of the thing is immense, although obviously you won't get spnagly Fender cleans (why would you want to?). The clean channel is lovely and warm, and OD1 is straight out rockin' that gets very gainy. OD2 is great too, for ridiculous gain riffs or for ridiculous gain solos. More flexibility is afforded by the presence knobs and a 'scoop' function for each of the overdrive channels (not particularly useful in a band setting, but great fun for bedroom chugging).

There are sixteen or eighteen (I can't remember) digital effects, with nine of them being reverbs. I know people on here don't like that sort of thing, but I do, and the different reverbs all sound great. Some of the other effects aren't particularly useful, but some are, with a personal favourite a setting that combines chorus, room reverb, and delay (for killer, searing soloz). The delay setting by itself is useful too, although obviously isn't the same as a delay pedal.

Having said all that, I am going to upgrade at some point in the next year or two, the reason being that no matter how good these amps are, they aren't the same as an all-valve Marshall. Whilst the gain on the AVT is excellent, it isn't the pure, liquid gain (christ) that you get on a cranked JCM. I've only played with one other Marshall head, and it was a JCM 2000 TSL, I think, but I'm not sure. It completely opened my ears, and made me realise just how much the AVT is lacking.

I think that in terms of getting the most amp for the least money, the AVT makes a lot of sense, and I would recommend it to someone starting out who wants to get their first serious amp. I got my half stack for six hundred quid, although I understand their cheaper now. Personally, I would go for one of the older ones, if only because the new ones look shit.

Relliablity really shouldn't be a concern with an essentially solid-state marshall, however, there are a few things to report. Early on, mine starting making a groaning noise when it was turned on. I suspect this is the fan struggling, and it usually goes away after five to ten minutes, depending on how warm a day it is. The acoustic channel on mine stopped working at some point too, but I never noticed, as this was always set to zeero, so that I had a way of killing the sound at the amp from my feet. Apart from that I had had no other problems with mine, except that quiter recently the clean channel and the OD1 channel stopped working. This is annoying, because there's nothing that the user can do about it, and I'll have to take it to a Marshall dealer or something to get fixed. I've not heard of any other problems with these amps.

In conclusion, the AVT is a great amp, and terrific bang for buck, but if I were you and had three or four hundred to spend, I think I would save a bit more and get the amp that you'll always be happy with.

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:26 am

Mike wrote:Get that Vintage/Modern Proggie

if i could find one cheap enough i would. plus most places i know aren't taking amps in trade. i'd have to get rid of the tweed in order to afford it.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:27 am

Shame you'd have to sell to buy. I'm just saying, if you want low end thump, that combo is the answer. Straight Up.

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:40 am

i know, that amp would solve all my problems in one. though i have thought about sticking an EV 12L in my tweed, for now.

DanHeron · Post by **DanHeron** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:02 pm

1 day left, still NO BIDS:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Marshall-JCM800-J ... 240%3A1318

James · Post by **James** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:50 pm

I came across an excellent condition JCM800 today. 50w 2204 model from 1980. It basically looked like new.

It's wide panel and vertical input and looked exactly like this..

Â£499 and I don't know what it'd cost to post to you, probably Â£20-40.

If you're interested give me a shout.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:58 pm

James wrote:I came across an excellent condition JCM800 today. 50w 2204 model from 1980. It basically looked like new.

It's wide panel and vertical input and looked exactly like this..

Â£499 and I don't know what it'd cost to post to you, probably Â£20-40.

If you're interested give me a shout.

Fuck you bastard. I'm actually interested in this.

James · Post by **James** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:06 pm

Do you remember the dodgy cut and shut 'JCM800' I played and posted about a while back?

To summarise, I played it and it sounded good. I was obviously hesitant because it looked weird. They had it marked as Â£349, i asked if he'd take an offer on it and he was in no mood to consider it. I went back a few months later and they still have it and it's now Â£275. A while later still, it's back to Â£349 or so for some reason. I was in there today to try and buy a pedal for cheap (got outbid on ebay and realised the price in the shop was cheaper than I thought, and if I could knock a few quid off it'd be in line with current ebay prices and in my hands with the box and all that) and turned around to see if the amp was sat in it's usually place. It wasn't. What was was the JCM800 portion of the panel of that amp. They look bloody huge when you're used to a smaller Fender sized head and you turn round to find one at eye level and inches form your face.

While I was looking for a pic that matched it (most wide panel ones have horizontal inputs and the ones with vertical have smaller faceplates with the rounded edges, JTM45 type? something like that) somewhere mentioned that they switched to vertical inputs in 1985. I'm not sure if the facts line up to this properly, but that could mean they're mistaken about it being 1980. I don't think that has any impact on the value or sound other than you lose a few extra years of vintage mojo.

Damn this post is long. Anyway it was raining and I needed to get home in order to try out the pedal and sort myself out ready for work later, so I didn't try the amp. If you or Fran are interested I can give it a blast but I probably wont be able to tell you much beyond it's loud and sounds nice. If either of you want to buy it I'd happily make the purchase and sort the posting at cost in exchange for a day or two with it

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:17 pm

I'm definitely interested mate, but I guess Fran gets dibs if he can come up with the readies. Would definitely want you to play it though.

The vertical inputs are the more sought-after models, when the inputs are horizontal the jacks are PCB mounted.

Basically that's my perfect JCM800. I've always wanted the 2204 - 50W rather than 100W.

James · Post by **James** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:21 pm

I'd be happy to play it though would want some guidance as to what to look for. An alternative option is you could come here to play it yourself, have a game of darts and a cup of tea and drive back with it. If you didn't want to do the drive both ways in one day staying overnight wouldn't be a problem.

James · Post by **James** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:23 pm

Mike wrote:Basically that's my perfect JCM800. I've always wanted the 2204 - 50W rather than 100W.

I'm fairly sure it's the exact model I wanted too. If it had been in the shop when I went and tried the mangled one I did, and at a slightly more market at the time price, I would have probably got that and never even considered a bassman.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:27 pm

James wrote:I'd be happy to play it though would want some guidance as to what to look for. An alternative option is you could come here to play it yourself, have a game of darts and a cup of tea and drive back with it. If you didn't want to do the drive both ways in one day staying overnight wouldn't be a problem.

Basically just how it sounds, it should be too bright with the treble knocked down below 12 o clock and similar Presence and you should be able to dial in a healthy full growly Marshall tone on the High input with high bass and mid settings.

It's about 2 hours to and from Gloucester which is doable for this weekend, and Doog might be unable to meet up as we'd planned so this could be a possibility.

James · Post by **James** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:31 pm

Yeah it's about 2 hours in the car.

I'm working Friday night, finishing at 6am Saturday morning. That's not a big problem though, I've no plans for the weekend so I can be up awake by lunchtime or so.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:38 pm

James wrote:Yeah it's about 2 hours in the car.

I'm working Friday night, finishing at 6am Saturday morning. That's not a big problem though, I've no plans for the weekend so I can be up awake by lunchtime or so.

Is there a possibility of you going to the shop in the meantime or is that a massive pain?