Does anyone gig a Marshall JTM45

shaunm

My band has finally finished our album and now I am thinking that I will celebrate by shaking up my tone a little by treating myself to a new amp and I was thinking the Marshall JTM45 would be a good fit.

Currently i am using a 18 watt el84 5e3 2x10 combo and I think it sounds great, it's not leaving me but I was wanting a bit more volume and a touch less compression. 
I have mulled over a few Marshall choices and the JTM45 seems like a good fit as I don't need the visceral power of the 1987x or 1959 slp. 

Does anyone here use the JTM45 live? Is it too loud for pub and small club gigs? Can you use it to get break up in those type of venues? which type of cabs do you use with it?

Modulus_Amps

Do you get to crank your 18w amp, if not then no you won't get to crank a JTM45.

If it is drive tones you are after go for inefficient speakers like greenbacks or G12M-65 Creamback, but 30w cranked is plenty loud, but not loads of clean headroom

I am building 2 now, one for shows and one for a fundraising raffle for a local charity

Nerine

It's one of Marshall's best. Period. 
Theyre also not THAT loud. About ideal I'd say. 
Takes pedals VERY well. 

shaunm

@Modulus_Amps thanks for the response.

I suppose I do crank my 5e3 because after half way up it doesn't get louder just more compressed. I don't run it all the way up, normally at around 2 o'clock. 

Which cabs would you suggest for this amp? 

Do do you have any other suggestions of amps in this ballpark? My sound is pretty much right in the classic rock territory (late 60's early 70's) so fender need not apply. 

shaunm

Thanks @Nerine I know you've had a few Marshalls. How did you find the 1987x? Is it as loud as people say?

Modulus_Amps

I have cabs with greenbacks, one with G12H's and one with vintage 30's , I have creambacks on the way too. Best to try different speakers if you can, Greenbacks/G12H/Creamback G12M's is what I would go for, each sound different

I am sure others could suggest an alternative, there are lots of other builders who do variations of this amp, I know Martin at Stoneham does some nice variations.
For your genre this is a cracking amp, only thing you may want to do is get the bass tamed a little

John_A

I gigged a JTM45 for years with a g12h 2x12 and always used an attenuator for all but the biggest gigs, for pub gigs it was far too loud without it.  Sounded wonderful though!

Nerine

@shaunm Yes. It really is. Basically useless without an attenuator. Doesn't take pedals as well as the JTM either. 
Still a cracking amp, but it's unwieldy sometimes. 

Headphones

If you've just recorded an album, which presumably you want people to hear - possibly even live, isn't changing your core tone unwise?  At least until your audience are ready to move on?

shaunm

Headphones said:

If you've just recorded an album, which presumably you want people to hear - possibly even live, isn't changing your core tone unwise?  At least until your audience are ready to move on?

Im not going to move drastically away from "my core tone" but I'd like a little more clean headroom and a little less compression for a live arena. 
In the studio I had more opportunity to fiddle with the amp to get cleaner sounds, live the amp doesn't have as much headroom as I would like at times.

Voxman

I used to have one many, many years ago - lovely amp. If memory serves it evolved from and was Marshall's take on the Fender Bassman, with a similar circuit design. It had a lovely throaty break-up with lots of bottom end - as I recall, when cranked if anything it had a bit too much bottom end and I had to raise up the treble & lower the bass EQ, even on the bright channel (I was playing a Shaftesbury Les Paul copy with a DiMarzio in the bridge in those days) - I don't know if that was just mine or if that's typical - and IIRC I think the later 2x12 combo incarnation was the Bluesbreaker.  

The JTM45 head had no FX loop, no reverb, and no master volume, so you had to really crank it to get it to overdrive which was a very nice throaty, harmonically rich open tone, and the clean tone was very musical - kind of chimey in a sort of Vox way. The only pedal I had in those days was a combined Vox fuzz-wah, so I don't know how it sounded with tubescreamers or other distortions etc as I didn't have anything else at that time (this would have been around 1976?).
 
I think I swapped it later on for another head (an Orange head I think) that was better suited for the rock band I was in as it had more distortion and more 'grunt'. Unfortunately in those days if I wanted another amp I had to swap or sell what I had as I had no money to buy more than one amp.  I wish I could have kept them all - who knew they'd become vintage collectibles!

  

robinbowes

Voxman said:

If memory serves it evolved from and was Marshall's take on the Fender Bassman, with a similar circuit design.   

The JTM45 circuit is practically identical to the Bassman 5F6-A. The important differences are [1]:

• European part substitutions
• a ECC83 (12AX7) in the first preamp (more gain)
• an additional bypass capacitor at the input to the second preamp
• three times more negative feedback voltage delivered to the phase inverter

[1] from The Fender Bassman 5F6A by RIchard Kuehnel

There are also some power supply changes making the JTM45 sag a little more than the Bassman.

R.

wellsyboy

Get yourself a tone king royalist 

shaunm

wellsyboy said:

Get yourself a tone king royalist 

Are they like a JTM45?

p90fool

I gigged JTM45s for years. If you want full power amp distortion in a pub you'll need an attenuator, but that isn't their forte in my opinion. 

What they excel at in that situation is they start to get into a lovely warm natural compression which works perfectly with a good overdrive pedal but still leaves you with a little headroom for boosts and modulation effects. 

Unless you specifically have to have power valve mush as part of your core tone it's about the perfect general-purpose pub gigging amp IMO. 

shaunm

shaunm said:

wellsyboy said:

Get yourself a tone king royalist 

Are they like a JTM45?

I've just had a look at them and I don't really understand why I'd pay so much more for one of those than I would a Marshall JTM45. Largely the Marshall gets good reviews, build quality seems to be good, tone wise it is huge and as a pedal platform everyone seems to think it's up there as one of the best. I'm not saying it's not great, my findings are from YouTube alone. 

I guess my question would be what would I be getting extra for my money?

shaunm

p90fool said:

I gigged JTM45s for years. If you want full power amp distortion in a pub you'll need an attenuator, but that isn't their forte in my opinion. 

What they excel at in that situation is they start to get into a lovely warm natural compression which works perfectly with a good overdrive pedal but still leaves you with a little headroom for boosts and modulation effects. 

Unless you specifically have to have power valve mush as part of your core tone it's about the perfect general-purpose pub gigging amp IMO. 

Thanks @p90fool you seem to be saying exactly what I was thinking in terms of why I'd want one.

hywelg

Ceriatone. 3 different variants available and all beautifully handwired. JTM45, Bluesbreaker and jtm45/100.  PPIMV can be added. FX loop can be added. 

I would have suggested MJW build you one but that's not an option at the mo. 

monquixote

I really like the JTM45. They used to have them at my old rehearsal studio so I haven't gigged one, but I've played one with a band loads of times and they are great to play with pedals.

I'd seriously consider a Fender Bassbreaker 45.

It's described as a Bassman with EL34s which as I understand it makes it pretty much a JTM45. It's non MV, but it has power scaling so you should be able to get it into it's sweet spot for smaller gigs. I tried one at the guitar show and I was very impressed.

fretmeister

Used to.

Louder than a Dual Rec.

No FX loop.

Brilliant with drive pedals.

Rowby1

My MJW is pretty much a JTM45 and it's great for gigging and takes pedals really well. 

Although mine has a pair of 6L6s not EL34s, I read somewhere recently that the first JTM45 prototype was 6L6 powered. However, because they were struggling to find a supply of 6L6s in the UK they modified the subsequent prototypes to use EL34s.