Marshall 2555 amp thoughts?

Farview said:
Look up the ebay prices for the Jubilee. You might be able to buy this and sell it for enough money to get a JCM800
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That's kinda what I was thinking. An actual '87 Jubilee isn't a cheap head to buy nowadays, and to have one available for $950...would be tempting to buy it and sell it for twice that...
 
Exactly. They are from the same era as a JCM800, but they made relatively few of them AND there is a myth about them. They should be much more expensive than a normal JCM800.
 
pikingrin said:
Well, I had a chance to do that this afternoon. It's a small shop so I wasn't able to crank it but it wasn't exactly what I had in mind... Like Greg said, through miner's post, it wasn't the "classic" marshall sound. So, I didn't get it. I really want that JCM800 but I won't be able to swing that kind of change around for another year or two...
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Buy that dumb Jubilee, flip it, and buy the JCM 800. You can double your money. Some bedroom shred warrior will want that amp and want to brag about it. If you want the more classic JCM 800 sound, it aint in the Jubilee. The Jubilee is more akin to a JCM 900 than a JCM 800. Yeah, really, I said it.

Jubilees = overrated.
Slash and Bonamassa are probably the most famous Jubilee users, but neither of them use one anymore. They could also play through anything and sound the way they sound.

For the record, this is the one I play with sometimes. An actual true 1987 Silver Jubilee. Not a reissue. The real deal. And it's definitely not "classic" Marshall tone. It is it's own kind of tone animal, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not. It's fun to play with, but I've never once wanted to use it live or for recording. A JCM 800 2003/2204 kills it to death.
 
Greg_L said:
Buy that dumb Jubilee, flip it, and buy the JCM 800. You can double your money. Some bedroom shred warrior will want that amp and want to brag about it. If you want the more classic JCM 800 sound, it aint in the Jubilee. The Jubilee is more akin to a JCM 900 than a JCM 800. Yeah, really, I said it.

Jubilees = overrated.
Slash and Bonamassa are probably the most famous Jubilee users, but neither of them use one anymore. They could also play through anything and sound the way they sound.

For the record, this is the one I play with sometimes. An actual true 1987 Silver Jubilee. Not a reissue. The real deal. And it's definitely not "classic" Marshall tone. It is it's own kind of tone animal, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not. It's fun to play with, but I've never once wanted to use it live or for recording. A JCM 800 2003/2204 kills it to death.
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Is it any different if the Jubilee I looked at was in a black tolex box and not a silver?

I doubt that it's going anywhere anytime soon; it's a small shop in a small town and amps don't seem to move too quickly there - especially at that price point. I still think there's a chance I can grab it on another trip up there and list it on reverb or something after I get to know it a little better. The same guy that's got the 2555 and JCM800 head on consignment there also has a JCM800 1 x 12 combo but I'm not sure what the price on that one is. I'm inclined, due to not having a proper cabinet (yet), to lean towards the combo BUT I know, eventually, I'll have the room to use the head/cab setup and not have to worry about how much noise I make. It's still quite a few months out but it will happen... Hell, I dunno. I'll check in next time I'm up there and see if there is any more wiggle room on the Jubilee...
 
pikingrin said:
Is it any different if the Jubilee I looked at was in a black tolex box and not a silver?
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No, they're all the same amp. The silver look was for 1987 only as that was the 25th anniversary for Marshall. They continued making the same amp after 87 in standard Marshall black/gold attire. There's also a Slash model from the mid 90s. The 2555SL Slash model is a Jubilee in black/gold with a snake logo on the control panel. They're all the same amp. The silver is obviously the most valuable, non-silver Jubilees can be found here and there, and the Slash model is pretty rare. I've only seen one Slash model in my whole life.
 
$950 for an original head is a steal and a half! They're great sounding amps, and you could definitely turn it for a profit. I was always under the impression that the Jubilees had a bit more hair than the JCM800 heads?
 
IsDoingWell? said:
$950 for an original head is a steal and a half! They're great sounding amps, and you could definitely turn it for a profit. I was always under the impression that the Jubilees had a bit more hair than the JCM800 heads?
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They do. 800s are not "high gain" amps. Not the classic 800s anyway. The split channel 2205/2210 JCM 800s have more gain than the more classic and desirable 2203/2204 800s. The Jubilee has a lot more "hair" than all 800s. The Jubilee essentially has a distortion pedal built into it. That's a loose generalization, but that's basically what's going on, and what they sound like. They don't have the organic, open, blooming, blossoming, textured sound of the older Marshalls. And that's fine if wailing gain is your only consideration. The Jubilee is very flat and compressed, not very dynamic, but leads do jump out of the amp. It's a lead guitarists amp - very thick in the mids and has a lot of compression and gain.
 
I've never saw one in person, but GC Online has one for $1999 in VA Beach.....


JCM Slash Sig Head


From the way you've described your experience with 'em Greg, I'd doubt I'd like that amp myself, wouldn't know 100% until I tried, which probably ain't gonna happen....
 
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