Marshall Custom JTM Offset 1watt

tbm

I've played a fair few of those 1 watt series Marshall amps over the last few years. The JMP and DSL ones were pretty rubbish. I liked the JCM amp, but they all sounded and played like overpriced practice amps.

Played a Marshall Custom JTM Offset 1watt today though. Holy shit. That's a proper amp. Glassy cleans and amazing Marshall tones with real depth. Goddamnit. The last thing I need is GAS for a €650 amp I can't gig with.

ICBM

These look and sound great from the clips I've seen of them.

I still can't fathom why they didn't do the job fully and fit it with a presence control though. They even left the appropriate space on the control panel.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was just about giggable either - through a 4x12" or maybe a 2x12" with 100dB speakers, anyway. It might not be loud enough to be heard in the room without mic'ing it but it probably would be on stage, particularly if you don't want a clean sound.

(I'm basing that on the Blackstar HT-1 which uses a similar push-pull ECC82 power amp.)

shaunm

@ICBM quite right

Jez6345789

Yeah went to that gig and he sound amazing for a 1watter

ICBM

If you think about it, 1W through an efficient speaker will produce 100dB at 1m from the cabinet, and a lot more right at the grille cloth. It's at least as loud as someone singing, so if you can mic it there's no problem... since you can mic a singer . As long as you have a decent PA and monitors then it's going to be loud enough.

I borrowed a HT-1R recently, and although I didn't try it with a band it had the right sort of tone and dynamics I like, and I'm sure it would have been loud enough if it was mic'ed - at least when I ran it through a pair of V30s, it wasn't as good through its own little 1x10".

So I like either 100W amps, or 1W...

professorben

ICBM;1080338" said:

If you think about it, 1W through an efficient speaker will produce 100dB at 1m from the cabinet, and a lot more right at the grille cloth. It's at least as loud as someone singing, so if you can mic it there's no problem... since you can mic a singer . As long as you have a decent PA and monitors then it's going to be loud enough.

I borrowed a HT-1R recently, and although I didn't try it with a band it had the right sort of tone and dynamics I like, and I'm sure it would have been loud enough if it was mic'ed - at least when I ran it through a pair of V30s, it wasn't as good through its own little 1x10".

So I like either 100W amps, or 1W...

Those v30's are 100db sensitivity, am I right in thinking that effectively doubles the volume over a 97db speaker?

ICBM

Not doubles the volume - it's equivalent to an amp of double the power, which is louder but nowhere near double. Doubling perceived volume is usually taken to be a 10dB increase, which requires ten times the power.

It was certainly a lot louder - as well as much chunkier-sounding - through them than the 1x10".

professorben

ICBM said:

Not doubles the volume - it's equivalent to an amp of double the power, which is louder but nowhere near double. Doubling perceived volume is usually taken to be a 10dB increase, which requires ten times the power.

It was certainly a lot louder - as well as much chunkier-sounding - through them than the 1x10".

Ah yes, that was it, 3db is equivalent to 50w to 100w. Cheers.

step_hent

I've got one of these and it's lovely - but it is pretty loud for a 1w amp. I bought it thinking it would be perfect to crank at home, but in reality I have to use the 0.1w mode to do that. Doesn't half sound good though, especially with a semi-hollow. Looks pretty too!

ICBM

It would be very interesting to know why these sound so much better than the other 1W 50th Anniversary amps - I haven't seen inside one yet.

The 50th series are really not amazing inside, and to me sound fairly average even through a much better speaker. The combo version of the JTM model I tried was pretty poor, to be honest. A shame, because it looked nice too.

ennspek

I've always wanted one of those.

andyoz

I sold one and regretted it. I think it's actually more powerful than 1w. The JCM is a bit less powerful so the 1w is a marketing thing. Guitar Guitar were knocking them out at less than £300 last year.

ICBM

andyoz said:

I sold one and regretted it. I think it's actually more powerful than 1w. The JCM is a bit less powerful so the 1w is a marketing thing. Guitar Guitar were knocking them out at less than £300 last year.

Interesting… does the Offset have bigger transformers? They both seem to have the same output valve, so it's hard to explain more power output otherwise.

(My mistake earlier - I thought we were talking about the JTM145, which has five controls not two, but that's not offset.)

andyoz

Not sure, I just read it somewhere. Having played then both side by side the JTM really had more drive to it. I sold mine on here and a few days aftee I'd agree the sale my G12m-20 Heritage loaded cabinet arrived ....as soon as I plugged it in I knew I'd made a mistake but couldn't pull out of the sale! Will have to buy another one as a great practice amp and would be good pedal platform too

kelv_w

just saw another JTM145 sold on ebay for slightly over £1000 today. 

ICBM

kelv_w said:

just saw another JTM145 sold on ebay for slightly over £1000 today. 

Wow.

And that's just for the head. The last cabinet that sold went for £747.

Marshall seem to have really nailed it with this one. Although I still can't understand the baffling lack of a presence knob, it just looks wrong!

breadfan

Wasn't there one of these in the classifieds last year for £250 - a head & cab?

I was very tempted, as they look fantastic, but I figured I wouldn't get the use out of it.

Bad decision!

RaymondLin

For that kind of money I get the Atma...and I did!

thisisguitar

Reviving an old thread here, but I stumbled on it when looking for reviews to share with a mate. I have on of these, and I use it almost every day. With an iPhone app DB meter I measured it as making 96db from about two metres away, it's seriously loud. I tried one at a music show on a Saturday and thought it was pointless, then on the Sunday the show was a little quieter and I fell in love with it thinking it the perfect volume when cranked. First time I tried it in a quiet room after purchase, I set it to full volume and it nearly took my head off!!

If you ever see one used I'd recommend picking one up, even four years later I'm still as enamoured with mine :-) 

riffpowers

I had my jcm800 1 watt hooked up to my jcm800 4x12 loaded with gg12-65's at the weekend.

Sounded great. No stompboxes needed either!!