Re: Marshall JVM

"Phil S." <psymonds_no_spam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4rudnSBcGoOxf-7bnZ2dnUVZ_u6rnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi Dee,
Sorry, I haven't seen or played one of these, but I'll offer some thoughts
anyway. Why not? This is AGA. You arlready know some of what I'm going
to say, but sometimes it helps to hear it from someone else.

Thanks! Yep sometimes making up one's mind can be difficult indeed :-)
And that's what the NG's are for - discussing things and arriving to some
decisions/conclusions, hopefully.

Also, me, I like to plan ahead. If I ever get to really buying a JVM, it'll
probably be 6 months to a year from now.

A player at your level should be very picky about what he plays through.
We've heard your clips and IMO, you are a world class player.

Thanks - I hope I really was :-) but I am pretty picky about my sound. I
usually manage to get more or less the same sound out of most equipent,
though.

Right now, you've got a collection of OK amps. You are familiar with them
and you know how to use them. They make you sound really good. Having
more than one, lets you have a range choices. I don't think age of 15
years is much time at all. This equipment is barely approaching middle
age. It is not old.

Well, I'm mostly worried about things like the Marshall's battery. One day
it'll just die and I haven't the faintest where to get a new one. I emailed
Marshall about getting a spare or where can they be found, but they haven't
answered.

If you sell off everything, you are not going to get much for what you
have and you will then trade up to what could be a one trick pony. Even
if it offers a range of tones, you may not like them.

Well, almost all I have I've bought 2nd hand and pretty cheap...I might even
make profit on most of it actually.
But there be the key - will I be happy with the tones?

If you are going to buy the JVM, you need to find a way to test it out.
That means you need to be able to keep it for 2-4 weeks and use where you
indend to use it, and to play it a lot to see if it has what you want. A
one hour test in the store won't give you this and for the money, that is
too short a test period.

Absolutely! Too bad I haven't seen one anywhere...not possible to test,
thus. I'd certainly have to try it at the rehearsals for a good stretch. I
believe a few hours would do, but it'd have to include a real band test and
time to tinker.

I get from your post that you really like the Bluesbreaker's "cleaner"
channel. I assume you are meaning the EL84 based 18 watt model, and you
are talking about the low gain channel. You've got some amp building
talent. Consider building one with only the low gain channel. I realize
prices in your country are different from USA, but I think you could do
this as a head in the USA for under $300-400. It is a whole lot less
money and you will get an amp that you already know you want.

Yep, I do like EL84's...I have no idea of what channel though. I'd guess the
hi gain one. I do like overdrive very much, but I'm totally allergic to that
buzz fuzz and modern saturated tone...it has to be clean enough so I can
play full 6-string chords like 7's and such and not mush it, yet it has to
have enough gain and 'singing' to it so it'll glide and scream for leads.
The closest I get is a JMP 50W or a Bluesbreaker CRANKED and then for leads
some extra TS or boost. But both those amps are unusable in real life,
although they have that one great sound, they're no good for most other
things. JMP for instance has so piercing and bass-less sound it suits very
few songs.

But as I said, the JMP-1 is incredible IMO in that it gets REAL close to
those sounds - now especially when I have a tube poweramp as well - and
still retains all the low end and control of volume etc. But it is a bit of
a complex setup....lotsa wires, power supplies etc. to go wrong or blow a
fuse at a critical time.

Finally, consider the math: 2 guitars x 2 amps x 2 speaker cabinets = 8
combinations of tonal variety. 2 guitars x 1 amp x 1 cabinet (OK, 2 if you
consider closed/open back) = 2 or 4 combinations. Are you sure you want
to lose that flexibility?

Mm, true...basically I don't need the 2nd rig, the JMP-1 rig does it all
best. The other is a spare...I modded the VJr to sound so much like a
Marshall it really does :-)

All I really need is 4 different sounds...or hell, 2, but with variatíons.
Right now I have a clean that's pretty close to the kinda dry clean you hear
on 'Under the bridge' by RHCP. Of that I have a 'low' variant which doesn't
overdrive and has a little reverb and chorus, and a 'hard' variety which
starts to sound more like 'All Right Now' by Free when I really drive it
with the guitar and play hard. But it's clean channel (more or less)

Then I have a dry rhythm sound, overdrive, a bit like old AC&DC on
steroids, and a slightly louder variant of it for solos, with some delay and
reverb as well. 4 buttons in total and a Wah. That gives me all the range I
need along with the guitar volume knob. On the other rig there's basically
just one sound, the driven rhythm...needs pedals for the rest.

Now if I understand correctly the JVM has a whole host of sounds available;
four independent channels and each with three separate modes plus built-in
reverb, dual FX loops and total control with floorboard. From the reviews it
seems I'd skip the two gainiest channels altogether and use pretty much the
same combo of sounds as I do now.

So it's basically down to wanting it all in one package...and I'm wishing it
_would_ sound a little better still than my current rig.
It should be quiter (my rig is a tad noisey) and have more ooomh (50+50 with
EL84's just barely cuts it thru at the rehearsals now, have to crank it all
the way and it would sound better not quite that cranked)

It'd be just a nice smallish stack to put up and select the volume and
go...never needing to think about how to get a little more volume or trying
other kinds of speakers or preamp tubes to tweak it...just 4 basic sounds I
could just turn on and play, anywhere, and not worry about the amp anymore.
Just play.

But I guess I'll never know unless I actually get to play one properly!


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