Marshall JCM 900 Question

[hiwatt357]

A guy in my office is considering getting his 13 year-old son a half-stack for Christmas (lucky little bastard). I told him that I'd look around and if I saw anything of interest, I'd let him know. I've already convinced him that buying a tube head used would be better in the long-run than buying a new (or used for that matter) solid-state head. Plus, he told me that his budget was about $1,000.00, and I told him that if he bought new, that'd only get him a head...no cab. He didn't believe me until we went to Guitar Center last night.

So anyway, on Monday, I got a line on a Marshall JCM 900 4100 model head and a 4 x 12 1960 straight cab for $900.00. It seems like a good deal. I'm pretty much being the eyes and ears for this purchase, so I went over to the seller's house with my '76 Les Paul to check this out.

Physical condition of the amp is fine. It has one (1) 1" - 2" Tolex tear on the top of the cab and one small (maybe 1/2") tolex tear on the side...but that's about it. Head has no visible marrs.

Here's where I have questions, since I do not own a Marshall myself, and I know that different amps have different behaviors. I mean, I have a HIWATT 100W head & cab, a Fender Twin and a Peavey Classic 50, so have a pretty good idea about what happens when certain knobs are at certain places with those amps, but I don't have a good idea of how Marshalls react.

So...here's what I noticed. I put the pre gain for the clean channel (A) at about 12 o'clock and the gain for the lead channel at about 2 o'clock. Then I put the master volumes for the clean (A) and lead (B) at about the same levels (around 12 o'clock to 1 o'clock). The lead channel (B) sounded fine at this volume, but the clean channel (A) sounded kinda thin. It wasn't until I turned the master volume of the clean channel to about 3 o'clock that the tone started to fatten up. The lead channel (B) at 3 o'clock would peel paint. Do these points for the master volume sound about right for the power tubes to start working and giving the tone some balls? Especially for the clean channel?

I mean, it seemed pretty normal, but I guess I kinda expected more "umph" with the master volumes around 12 o'clock, but maybe Marshalls don't start getting balls until 2 - 3 o'clock.

I just wanted to get some feedback from some folks with more experience with Marshalls than I have.

But still, $900.00 for this head & cab seems like a pretty damn good deal.

Thanks in advance for the input.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that it's tubed with EL34's (not the 5881's I had read that the came with...although I just read that some did, in fact, come with EL34's.

 

[metalhead28]

In my opinion, a JCM 900 doesn't sound good until about 5 o'clock......

Seriously, I like the clean sound of mine, but to get it I turn it all the way up and just nudge the gain up to about 1 to 2.
For a lead sound I run the volume all the way up, and the gain from 7 to 10.
I also use the half power switch alot, and when using it even full up is a pretty managable volume. The clean channel is not real loud at all.
By the way, there is no "clean" channel on a 900 technically, just two channels. However the A channel will sound a little cleaner at low gain settings.

 

[hiwatt357]

In my opinion, a JCM 900 doesn't sound good until about 5 o'clock......

Seriously, I like the clean sound of mine, but to get it I turn it all the way up and just nudge the gain up to about 1 to 2.
For a lead sound I run the volume all the way up, and the gain from 7 to 10.
I also use the half power switch alot, and when using it even full up is a pretty managable volume. The clean channel is not real loud at all.
By the way, there is no "clean" channel on a 900 technically, just two channels. However the A channel will sound a little cleaner at low gain settings.

Thanks for the response. So, it appears that this one was behaving as it should have been. Good to know.

And yeah, I understand about the "there is no "clean" channel". It's kinda like my HIWATT (Lead 100R) in that regard. But from what I've gathered from my co-worker, he'll be playing clean and dirty through it, so he'd probably use Channel A as a clean, so I wanted to at least see how that sounded. Channel A did have a nice growl to it when I cranked the pre to about 3 o'clock.

Seriously...if I had $900.00, this kid wouldn't be getting this for Christmas...'cause it'd be at my house!