ido1957
9K Gold Member
Anyone have any experience playing through one of these? How do they sound? Compared to DSL or TSL?
F
Frambo
New member
Hi Idol,
Heres my subjective impressions (I also googled reviews and found just has many that hated the Marshalls as liked them. Also, have a look at http://www.marshallampforum.com/).
I recently had opportunity to spend a few hours comparing a JVM210H (which I guess is the a 410 with 2 channels instead of 4), a Vintage/Modern 100 ; JVM250H and a Mesa Stilleto Duece (no DSL or TSL available to compare). I was also hoping to compare a Line6 Vetta but there were none available. The band sound is along the lines of classic hard rock and so the multiple amp models and effects of Line 6 aren't required anyway even though I'm quite a fan of them. This band needs just guitar and amp. I'm using a Line 6 Variax 600 but only on the Les Paul settings (maybe I should get a real Les Paul for this project)
First impression with JVM was nice rich drives and good harmonic overtones. Clean settings were ok but the material we are doing is never 'clean' so I either turn the guitar vol down or play with softer dynamics to lessen the crunch or switch to the green setting of channel 1.
I could get nice controlled feedback when neccessary and it was very responsive to my playing dynamics.
The JVM took a little fiddling to get a good volume match between green setting of each channel and the orange and red ~ the gain affects all channels and the channel volume is only for orange and red. Initially the greens were louder than others.
Having 2 master volume settings is useful and the footswitch remembers the last setting you had on channels including master volumes and reverb.
I thought the JVM 50 would be ok for the job and it had enough volume but it was noisier than the 100 at the same performance volumes and the 100 seemed to sing a bit more (the other guys in the band also said they preferred the 100). My complaint with it is that there is a fraction of a second time lag when switching channels ~ I'll have to learn to work around it but its annoying. There was no time lag with Vint/Mod or Stilleto footswitches.
I thought the Vintage Modern was really expressive and responsive to playing dynamics but its not as versatile ~ I needed a few more variations of tone and drive that could be quickly channel switched and didn't want to do it with drive or preamp pedals etc. The bass response especially at loud volumes (and the amp sounds better loud of course) of Vintage/Mod was a bit fizzy and farty thru the Vint/mod cab (not bad, but not my sound) but it sounded tighter and more defined thru a 1960A cab. I liked it but not right one for this band.
The Stilleto was great (we tested it with both channels set to 50watts). Solidly built (the Marshalls look a bit flimsy in comparison), great sound. I thought a little edgier (even after eq'ing) than the JVM, and it cut through well and has got balls. We all immediately put the Mesa as a finalist for the job. It sounded Marshall-ish (I guess because of it's EL34's). Great features, responsive. In our part of the world this Mesa head and Rec cab were 35% more expensive than the Marshall JVM210H and 1960 but we ignored the price and tried to be objective.
In the end we went with the JVM210H and 1960A because there was something about the fundamental tone character that was right for our sound. One of the guys said the Mesa sounded too 'American' for our sound ~ good one
I spoke to a local tube amp guru who is disappointed in Marshall's current mass production techniques (excluding the custom stuff) and reckons that since the JCM900s they've been poor quality and difficult to work on with there cheap components, wiring and printed circuit boards. Time will tell how this stands up to the job.
Anyway, I hope this long-winded post helps.
Heres my subjective impressions (I also googled reviews and found just has many that hated the Marshalls as liked them. Also, have a look at http://www.marshallampforum.com/).
I recently had opportunity to spend a few hours comparing a JVM210H (which I guess is the a 410 with 2 channels instead of 4), a Vintage/Modern 100 ; JVM250H and a Mesa Stilleto Duece (no DSL or TSL available to compare). I was also hoping to compare a Line6 Vetta but there were none available. The band sound is along the lines of classic hard rock and so the multiple amp models and effects of Line 6 aren't required anyway even though I'm quite a fan of them. This band needs just guitar and amp. I'm using a Line 6 Variax 600 but only on the Les Paul settings (maybe I should get a real Les Paul for this project)
First impression with JVM was nice rich drives and good harmonic overtones. Clean settings were ok but the material we are doing is never 'clean' so I either turn the guitar vol down or play with softer dynamics to lessen the crunch or switch to the green setting of channel 1.
I could get nice controlled feedback when neccessary and it was very responsive to my playing dynamics.
The JVM took a little fiddling to get a good volume match between green setting of each channel and the orange and red ~ the gain affects all channels and the channel volume is only for orange and red. Initially the greens were louder than others.
Having 2 master volume settings is useful and the footswitch remembers the last setting you had on channels including master volumes and reverb.
I thought the JVM 50 would be ok for the job and it had enough volume but it was noisier than the 100 at the same performance volumes and the 100 seemed to sing a bit more (the other guys in the band also said they preferred the 100). My complaint with it is that there is a fraction of a second time lag when switching channels ~ I'll have to learn to work around it but its annoying. There was no time lag with Vint/Mod or Stilleto footswitches.
I thought the Vintage Modern was really expressive and responsive to playing dynamics but its not as versatile ~ I needed a few more variations of tone and drive that could be quickly channel switched and didn't want to do it with drive or preamp pedals etc. The bass response especially at loud volumes (and the amp sounds better loud of course) of Vintage/Mod was a bit fizzy and farty thru the Vint/mod cab (not bad, but not my sound) but it sounded tighter and more defined thru a 1960A cab. I liked it but not right one for this band.
The Stilleto was great (we tested it with both channels set to 50watts). Solidly built (the Marshalls look a bit flimsy in comparison), great sound. I thought a little edgier (even after eq'ing) than the JVM, and it cut through well and has got balls. We all immediately put the Mesa as a finalist for the job. It sounded Marshall-ish (I guess because of it's EL34's). Great features, responsive. In our part of the world this Mesa head and Rec cab were 35% more expensive than the Marshall JVM210H and 1960 but we ignored the price and tried to be objective.
In the end we went with the JVM210H and 1960A because there was something about the fundamental tone character that was right for our sound. One of the guys said the Mesa sounded too 'American' for our sound ~ good one
I spoke to a local tube amp guru who is disappointed in Marshall's current mass production techniques (excluding the custom stuff) and reckons that since the JCM900s they've been poor quality and difficult to work on with there cheap components, wiring and printed circuit boards. Time will tell how this stands up to the job.
Anyway, I hope this long-winded post helps.
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