Marshall 2525 H mini jubilee head and cab

ChrisCox1994

Quick update on my experience with the mini head: 

Positives: Sound man loved it, a lot of people who played at the jam night liked it on stage and the out front sound, its loud, present, biting or barky if you want.

Very lightweight, not cheap feeling, just light, eq ranges are broader than other marshalls too.

Very loud on the 20watt mode, a lot of the volume is in the last third of the turn of the pot though, is this is a different taper pot i wonder? 

5 watt mode can get cooking at a nice low volume, then miced up though a nice pa with monitoring it sounds fat and sustains nicely.

Downsides: clean channel isn't all that, its best used as a dirty/dirtier amp which begs the question why not have a single channel amp with a boost? but i suppose you can set it up for cranked plexi on the rhythm clip and modded 800 on the lead, so thats a plus. 

Personally however between my Redplate and DRri I already have the bases covered so I'm not sure how much use it'll get..

Evildurka

Sell it me cheap so I can profile it with my Kemper and then I'll sell it back for a bit less )

mattdavis

Hi all. Have just sold my victory v40 and am looking for a small amp head that can reproduce some of my old jcm 4104 goodness (a 2204 in a combo). Any further feedback re how people are getting on with the mini jubilee ?

Limehouse_Blues

 GAK website now shows the angled cab available.

capo4th

So I think I am gonna order this head and angled cab now that Marshall have seen sense and made it available in the UK.

The 2536A cab come with 2 x Celestion G12 vintage speakers thoughts on this combination ?

Twinfan

It's the perfect combination for the amp as the speakers are the ones the original Jubilees were designed around.

ICBM

Nerine said:

Another hilarious oversight by arguably the most historic/greatest amplifier manufacturer. Who the hell do they have in their business/strategy department??
They could clear up with so many of their classic designs just reimagined and repackaged with more flexibility.
I've said it before and I'll say it again; a power scaled plexi on channel one, and an 800 on channel two. So many other manufacturers have done something similar, so I don't see why Marshall seem to be content with pedalling crap like the JVM and Code. How old is the JVM now?? And you can tell it's a ageing product as there as special editions, the horrible "tattoo" variants, "carbon fibre" rubbish and "dark" variants. You don't see many other manufacturers stooping so low to try to reenergise a line. It's almost like they've forgotten what made them good in the first place, and they've forgotten what "cool" is. It wasn't an Astoria, Code, or special edition JVM. For God's sake, just make an amp that isn't gimmicky, plasticky, and generally naff!
A huge amount of people still aspire to have the Marshall brand in their backline, but aside from the usual classic amps in the reissue line (which must make up the majority of their sales) there is literally ZERO in their "current" range that makes anybody what to buy one.
They have some good ideas occasionally and actually the YJM was a good amp but the packaging was rubbish and it had to bear the Malmsteen signature for some reason.
Why did that need to be a signature amp? Why did the headshell need to be so large and why did it need a pre-determined OD and noise gate built into it? Ditch the shit branding, and the cheesy ideas already.
They miss the mark so often that you have to wonder what the hell is going on.
The AFD; Slash barely uses them anymore, and again they were gimmicky. A facsimile of the amp that Slash actually recorded with. They sounded average and seemed to appeal to bedroom teenagers rather than actual touring guitarists.

It beggars belief.

I understand your frustration. But they may now be caught in a difficult place - they've pissed so much money up against the wall developing series after series of crap that must have cost them loads in R&D, then cost them a lot more in warranty repairs, then gets discontinued because it doesn't sell well, that they may have little left to do something good. Recycling the old stuff may be the least-worst option.

Interesting that the YJM was good - I've never played one. But the JVM410HJS is also good - the important point is that it's the Satriani signature model, as I understand it developed after they gave him an original JVM and his tech then told them how to do it properly.

Nerine said:

And another thing... Why do they seem hell bent on using those white and red plastic jack socket surrounds on the back of the amp? Make them metal like you used to!! To me, it all adds up to an inferior product. Plastic "nuts" do not scream quality to me.

Not so - those plastic-nut Cliff jacks are excellent. The plastic is tough and slightly flexible so the jack doesn't break if the lead gets tugged sideways.

The problem with them is that Marshall then did something really stupid, and used the switching contacts in them in the speaker path, both in the DSL/TSL amps and in the cabs. This is a major cause of blown transformers when the jack contact gets a bit stressed or dirty and briefly goes open circuit.

The plastic jacks that really need to be avoided are the ones with a prominent centre barrel and a metal outer nut - like you find on many cheap amps, the Fenders from the 80s/90s, and the FX loop on the DSL/TSLs. Those are crap because the plastic is a brittle type rather than tough - not simply because they're plastic.

ThePrettyDamned said:

The 1 watt jtm was fantastic.

The other ones in the 50th Anniversary series weren't though.

There's a DSL1 combo in the shop just now - these amps were over £600 new if I remember right. It sounds SHIT. Not just not very good for the price.

It's illustrative that it took about three years for the dealers to finally get rid of the last of these "limited edition" amps, at heavily discounted prices.


I really wish they would do something good again. I grew up playing Marshalls, but I've never liked or would want to own almost anything they've made they've made since 1990.

The reason the Jubilee isn't available in the UK is probably because they can charge a lot more for them in the US, and while they haven't reached the limit of demand for them there there's no point in selling them for less in the UK.

Fortheloveofguitar

If it's the usual shitty Marshall chipboard cab then I wouldn't  touch it 

Twinfan

I think new ones are ply now?

Limehouse_Blues

The sweetwater listing says all birch with mdf corner bracing

ICBM

Limehouse_Blues said:

The sweetwater listing says all birch with mdf corner bracing

WTF? Yes, I know it has zero impact on the tone of the cab, but that's just stupid. Penny-pinching for the sake of it - it can't be more than pennies, if even that.

Sadly typical of a company who just can't do anything *right* without trying to cut corners.

Fortheloveofguitar

Limehouse_Blues said:

The sweetwater listing says all birch with mdf corner bracing

That's better but still MDF bracing, jeez 

capo4th

So shall I just buy the Tone King Royalist and forget about budget. I need a Marshall sounding amp.

Limehouse_Blues

Well, I put the new jube 2x12 through its paces tonight and it sounds great. I find the amp quite bright so keep the presence rolled back a bit. The cab has some balls though. Tight bottom end.

capo4th

Do you own the mini and matching cab ? @Limehouse_Blues ;

Limehouse_Blues

Yes

capo4th

Happy ? 

Limehouse_Blues

So far yes. Not played with drummer at proper volume yet though I think the amp will sit nicely in a band. It's bright, so will certainly cut through. I part ex'd my jvm which had 3 channels i never used. The jube is simpler but there's nothing superfluous. The high gain sounds out of the jube are more pleasing and less noisy than the jvm. Fired up the jube is quieter too, no hiss/buzz.

Reverb would be nice but I've yet to try the fx loop. Shared eq is not ideal - the eq controls are v.sensitive and what sounds nice on clean isn't always the best on the lead channel. However, even at high gain on lead things clean up really well when rolling off the guitar's volume. The 5 watt setting and output master make it easy to get sounds that won't pi55 off your neighbours.

The distortion on the lead channel might sound fizzy to some ears but I like it. It's the sound of the 80s to me. The rhythm clip on the clean is ace. Instant SRV. The clean itself is a bit meh (a bit sterile and lacking the warmth of my Lionheart) but who buys a Marshall for cleans?

capo4th

Thanks for the feedback I need to go and try them although Mailorder via guitarguitar is a wonderful thing. 

jesone

@Limehouse_Blues which of the cabs did you get? The vertical one or the 1936? Thoughts on it?