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!
Comments
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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.
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.
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!
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.