Fired up the Marshall after 2 years...

[Seeker of Rock]

Everything still works, let the tubes warm for a couple of hours before playing through it. I really forgot how good a Marshall sounds. Just an Ooomph and tonal power that is incredible. Played it through my strat in the new studio. Think I'll break out the LP and give another go around. Damn fine amps, Marshalls.

 

[ZoSo58LP]

haha lucky you..i wish i had a nice marshall amp..i've only got a 90's valvestate 8040...i love the sound, but i really wish i had a nice jcm stack or something of the sort..

 

[ecktronic]

The JCM2000s arent the best.
I have the DSL50 and its a bit harsh and muddy.

Eck

 

[Elton Bear]

There's certainly better out there, but the JCM2000's certainly beat a lot of stacks around.

I have a JCM900 combo and love it to bits, just recorded some great sounds as a bit of guide, stuck 2 mics in front of it and that was that. You have to go valve though, transistor amps suck balls in general...

 

[ZoSo58LP]

i dont mean a 2000..i prefer the sound of the 800..the 2000 is too much disto for me, idk

 

[gbdweller]

A friendly tip for those with tube amps in storage for extended periods...Fire them up several times a year (after connecting a load of coarse!) This will help keep the caps healthy.. Sort of like charging a re-chargable every so often...those of you with kids who have power wheels toys should know about battery health! Those batteries are expensive, but not as expensive as a cap job and overhaul!

 

[Seeker of Rock]

Mine's a 2204 JCM800 original. After having it on for about 2-3 hours, I noticed a cutout when I plugged in the LP. Seemed like a bad cord as the volume would catch as I tweaked cord at the input jack. Tried another cord and the same. I remember something similar happening once before during a show in '91, and it was the power tubes that had gone bad, not the cord (though it acted like something in the external signal path when it was happening). It may be time for fresh tubes

Anyone want to chime in whether it is absolutely necessary to re-bias with new tubes? Installing the tubes is no problem, but I don't have the equipment to bias nor would I know how, or want to learn how, to use such equipment. I'm looking at tubes at thetubestore.com just in case it is tube related.

Besides the amp acting up, is there a way to determine if tubes are going bad by looking at them? The tubes are 15 years old but I don't recall putting a lot of time on the ones in the amp now (Groove Tubes)....maybe 100-200 hours or so. Guess I just need to go through the process of elimination one item at a time and find out why it cut out when I plugged the LP in.

 

[timthetortoise]

Get some JJs, they're tough to kill. Also, all that's really needed to do an alright bias is a volt meter, the bias specs for your amp, and a lot of caution.

 

[toddyjoe]

With a 2204 that old, it is likely the tubes (likely output tubes and not preamp). But it sure would not hurt to have the filter caps checked on an amp that old as they can cause major expensive problems if they dry out with time or short. Checking the preamp and phase inverter tubes would be a good idea but those do not fail as often as output tubes. Tubes and filter caps need regular checking and replacement if you use your amp to display fretboard fireworks and not actual fireworks. Always re-bias your amp with new output tubes as incorrectly-biased tubes can not only sound bad but can hurt your amp depending on conditions. You can actually re-bias preamp tubes as well if you are a diehard amp nut about tweaking the perfect sound but most of us do not feel the need as the risk factor is smaller.

 

[Seeker of Rock]

Yeah, if it is going to be biased, there is a local guy a few blocks down from my house (downtown Hollywood, FL) that does this, and I believe he sells tubes too. He did a repair on my Super Reverb (r.i., not original , but I still love the sound) and I asked him about tubes as I heard there were a lot better options than the stock tubes in the reissue series. He said this: even with a tube brand, different tubes of the same model sound different. He recommended me coming down and trying different tubes until I found some I like. I never did that to the r.i. because the sound is close enough to hold me for awhile, but I may with the Marshall, and let him have a look at the filter caps too. Not sure what a filter cap looks like, but I pulled the chassis off last weekend and everything inside looked new. Then again, I'm not sure what I was looking at, just that nothing looked dated or cracked or anything like that.