Got a new toy

Horatio_Caine

It has been a long time since I got anything amp wise, up until now soundwise I had been happy with the Marshall Jubilee stuff in which I have the black/gold 2554 combo.  Thing is, now that I finally know what I want setup wise, I felt I needed something smaller and more effective for playing in the house, two fully independant channels would be nice too, so I felt this was a nice excuse to buy something new gear related to kick me back into things.

After some searching, I ended up purchasing something that I always thought I would never buy, or even like.  Took advantage of the ex demo price from Coda Music and got this.



I'm not going to hide from it, while those little Marshall 1 watters (at least based on this one) are actually rather good, they are overpriced, although I can forgive that because it does have and does everything I am after.  Two channels clean and OD independant of each other that are footswitchable and also the must for me an FX loop, which works well from initial testing.  Volume wise it is much more useable in the house, even 0.1 watts though is loud, although it is nice to have more scope and flex on how high I can run the volume.

I've got to say I do really like the JVM sound too, I always thought JVM's would sound too over the top for me but this sounds great, running my SG Standard through it with PAF's and high gain works really well for me, gives a really nice all round sound.

It doesn't sound too bad through the 8 inch speaker, however that will always have limitations, it comes into its own when put through a 12, I tried it with the speaker in my 2554 combo.  Because of that I'll most likely be asking around for a 1x12 cab soon!  Although it is still nice to have a small manageable portable combo here despite the smaller speaker.

Next thing I'll be doing is building a compact but effective DIY pedal board setup around it, I'll update when that gets underway which won't be long, I'm looking forward to doing that.

So, along with buying an amp that I didn't think I'd ever buy, more surprisng than that is that I am now a JVM convert!

guitargeek62

Looks pretty darn cool.

Although this has just made me wonder why Marshall didn't add a 1-watt Jubilee to the 50th mini series?!

Horatio_Caine

Totally agree with you there, if they had done that I would have been all over it.  Closest you can get there is the JCM1 they did which has that boost switch that makes it take on the Jubilee flavour.  Still would have preferred a dedicated 1 watt Jubilee though.  The JCM1 sounds good and that end of line sale GuitarGuitar are doing on the combo now is tempting, however the lack of FX loop is a very large turn off for me, although I suppose you could get one of those BadCat unleash things which has one in, although that's a pretty expensive solution!

Fortheloveofguitar

Horatio_Caine;192370" said:

Totally agree with you there, if they had done that I would have been all over it.  Closest you can get there is the JCM1 they did which has that boost switch that makes it take on the Jubilee flavour.  Still would have preferred a dedicated 1 watt Jubilee though.  The JCM1 sounds good and that end of line sale GuitarGuitar are doing on the combo now is tempting, however the lack of FX loop is a very large turn off for me, although I suppose you could get one of those BadCat unleash things which has one in, although that's a pretty expensive solution!

The lack of an fx loop is why I didn't bother in the end. I don't know why they didn't put one in

ICBM

Is it only an 8" speaker? I thought that about the JMP-1 - from the sound - but it turned out to be a 10".

Apart from that it looks like it's a far more sophisticated amp than the others in the range, and more justifies the price.

I imagine the Jubilee Series is now considered difficult to market - even though it has its fans - because of the use of solid-state diode clipping in it. You can bet that's the first thing that would be all over the internet about it - despite the fact that the original sounds the way it does *because* of that.

Horatio_Caine

Yes the speaker is an 8 inch one, and the DSL1, which also has an 8, the previous three have 10's in them, however less other handy modern features (FX loop, line out).

The 8 inch speaker is in my view the weakest bit, but again at least I can put it through a 12.  And again it makes up for it in the fact that it has an FX loop, line out, is footswitchable and in terms of simplicity has everything covered for me.  I agree this one does justify its price more, although I still think it is expensive.

It's interesting as while I agree nowadays it would be harder to market the Jubilee's, from what I remember last year I read somewhere that Marshall were considering revisiting the Jubilee, although that's been about it since then.

I'm still tempted to buy a JCM1 though despite the lack of loop, even if I don't do anything with it for ages.  It does sound good from hearing a lot of demos.  Just noticed more places are dropping the prices so they are obviously wanting to shift the last lot out, even the head version I prefer has been reduced to £379 at Bonners Music. 

ICBM

Horatio_Caine said:

Yes the speaker is an 8 inch one, and the DSL1, which also has an 8, the previous three have 10's in them, however less other handy modern features (FX loop, line out).

That's odd, if the cabs are the same size. Is there room to get a 10 in there? Or is there some other part of the circuitry (I know there are more valves than in the basic models) in the way?

Horatio_Caine said:

It's interesting as while I agree nowadays it would be harder to market the Jubilee's, from what I remember last year I read somewhere that Marshall were considering revisiting the Jubilee, although that's been about it since then.

It wouldn't surprise me either way. They do have a following, even with the criticism about diode clipping. They "re-issued" the JCM900s, after all. (Although I'm still not convinced that was more than using up old stock - I recently needed a replacement back grille for one, and they could only sell me a DSL one.)

Horatio_Caine said:

I'm still tempted to buy a JCM1 though despite the lack of loop, even if I don't do anything with it for ages.

I suspect they have looked at the market and reckon the 'older' models don't need the FX loop because very few people who use those amps use much in the way of effects.

How different does the JVM-1 sound from the JCM-1, anyway? (I genuinely don't know, I haven't heard either of them - just the JMP-1.)

Horatio_Caine said:

Just noticed more places are dropping the prices so they are obviously wanting to shift the last lot out, even the head version I prefer has been reduced to £379 at Bonners Music.  

It must be a bit embarrassing for them to have to shift the last of a limited edition at a knock-down (ish) price, too...

Horatio_Caine

ICBM said:

That's odd, if the cabs are the same size. Is there room to get a 10 in there? Or is there some other part of the circuitry (I know there are more valves than in the basic models) in the way?

My guess is the same as yours there, aside from having more valves, I reckon it might be the way the circuitry is designed to accomodate the extra features that makes it not possible to get a 10 in there.  Or it could be that they can get one in but didn't because it would push up the production costs too much.

ICBM said:

I suspect they have looked at the market and reckon the 'older' models don't need the FX loop because very few people who use those amps use much in the way of effects.

How different does the JVM-1 sound from the JCM-1, anyway? (I genuinely don't know, I haven't heard either of them - just the JMP-1.)

That could be why, it is a shame though as fitting one in would have alone made the price of them more justifiable at the full retail price, but oh well.

I've not heard a JCM1 in person, however I'd say that the JVM1 does have a more aggressive and harder edge to it.  It has that chewyness and chunkyness when playing those sort of 80s chords that I like to do which I like.  The JCM1 can do the same thing I am after from what I can tell, however it will most likely sound a bit smoother, and if the Jubilee Boost button is anything to go by, will probably sound a bit darker and change the mid emphasis.

ICBM said:

It must be a bit embarrassing for them to have to shift the last of a limited edition at a knock-down (ish) price, too...

Yes they will probably be glad when they have all gone, I mean it has been a while since 2012 when they stopped making them, and here we are now and main shops still haven't shifted them.  I think that just demonstrates that a lot of people think they were overpriced, and now they are only really selling when they are being knocked down trying to get them out the door.  I remember when they came out, and some people on other forums which I won't name were saying to hurry up and get them now because after 2012 they will skyrocket in price and become a massive collectors item.  I'm pretty useless at predicting things but on this occasion I could tell that prediction was going to fall way off target!

Horatio_Caine

Right I know in one of my sale threads that I wouldn't but I couldn't resist, another new toy came through the post today, from guess where!?  I found a good enough reason to buy it in which I could find a use for it.



Not opened it yet, however I was surprised and pleased that it was brand new, I actually thought it would be ex display.  Not all the the preamp valves I ordered for the JVM have arrived yet either, but when they do I can shed some light on my pream valve experimenting has gone on the JVM, and also how the JCM compares soundwise to the JVM to my ears on not just based on assumption.  Also got a few other things to add in time.