choctaw said:
When I got my JCM 800 it seemed to be a disapointment until I spent some time working with the knobs, and replacing the EL34's that came in it with the Marshall name on them, with EL34's NO Name and had the bias set. I could not believe my ears........the amp came to life and I do enjoy playing it thur a Marshall 4/12 cab. I sometimes use a Boss GT5, POD or just use the pre amp of the Marshall for overdrive......it sound fine to me.
I use 3 different guitars.... a PRS, LP, and my new Parker NiteFly Mojo which is a real thing to get acquainted with, all the guitars have different sounds that are specific to their nature and I could not get the different sounds I like from only one of them. So I call them the Trinity and love to experiment with the Marshall.
One other thing........ I have a Marshall POWER-Break that is supposed to allow the amp to be turned all the way up to get the full effect from the loudness, but this divice is supposed to absorb the high sound but let it do its job at a lower output to the speakers. I DO NOT use it as of yet for the following.
Many tech people have told me NOT to use the PowerBreak.......that it will in time hurt the electronics of my amp. They explain that it is like driving a car in low gear at 60 MPH. Any comment about using a PowerBreak would be taken into consideration
First off, people are morons.
Second, power brake doesn't shorten the electronics lifespan, it shortens the tubes lifespan. But that is okay because you WANT the sound of the tubes working hard. Its not like driving a car in 1st gear at 60 mph. Thats the dumbest analogy I have ever heard. For one, most cars won't go 60 in 1st without redlining well before hitting 60, and if you down shifted to 1st while going 60, you will redline before you have even made the full motion of the shift, and probably break some teeth off the gears in the tranny.
An amp with a power brake is like the car going 60mph, but you are only going 10mph. Which is impossible so thats why its such a bad analogy.
Second, IMHO, you need a good clean boost pedal for that 800, not
a GT5 or a POD or any other crap.
EDIT:
Okay how about this one...
The power brake is like LOW RANGE (not low gear) on a 4x4. The power brake would be like the transfer case, multiplying the gear ratio. It allows you to focus all your power into one area.
(but that is still not the same as driving fast in first gear)
As long as you don't readline (the amp can't, they are designed to be turned to 10, or 11, or 12, or whatever your amp goes to), you will be fine.