As some of you know I recently bought
@HHWarner's JCM800 2204. It sounded great anyway but I decided to take it to my tech for a once over. He found it was running very cold.
This morning I got a chance to plug it in for the first time since he biased it up. I plugged it in and I couldn't work out what was going on...
There was far less gain than there used to be. I couldn't figure it out at all. How could making the amp hotter give you less distortion? And even if it could, why would that reduce the amount of preamp gain?
I didn't really care, though, because I was getting one of the best just-breaking-up tones I've ever had.
Then I realised I was plugged into the low input.
It still took me a while to bring myself to switch over to the high input because it was just sounding so cool. Before, the low input was a pointless thing with a thin and lifeless clean tone and no real breakup even when cranked. Now it's awesome. So what was the high input going to do?
Just sound epic.
At first, I really hated the bright cap on this amp. When I was trying to get a mild AC/DC crunch with the master cranked and the preamp volume low, it was too shrill. By the time I cranked the preamp up enough to lose the harsh high end, I had far too much gain for the Angus tone.
I don't know why it took until today for me to think of using the knobs on my guitar.
Well anyway, this morning I finally noticed that the four knobs on my Les Paul are not on/off switches. spent forty minutes having an awesome time experimenting with different volume and tone levels. And now I can get every sound I want out of the amp. I know I'm not the only rock guitarist who forgets to use the guitar knobs. Why are we such idiots? There are killer sounds in there. It's really fun setting up an old school amp with the maximum amount of gain and treble you're going to need and controlling everything else from the guitar. I'd been sitting around of forums thinking of gassing on low gain pedals or even a different amp to get the sound I wanted, and actually I just needed to use my gear properly.
Only downside of the morning is that I was reminded how "Brit Hi" is the most unconvincing emulation in a Yamaha THR10. Doesn't come close to a real JCM800.
My YouTube channel,
Half Speed Solos: classic guitar solos demonstrated at half speed with scrolling tab and no waffle.
Comments
Chuck an sd-1 in front and thank me later
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
"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
I have a 2204 dating from 1984. Still going strong after 30 years, I gigged it this weekend. I use the low input all the time. I them use a Gigrig Loopy 2 with a Fulltone OCD in one loop for crunch rhythm and a Suhr Riot/Mad Professor Deep blue Delay in the other for lead. This makes it surprisingly flexible.
Just out of interest Jonny what cab/speakers are you using and what do you have it valved with? I currently use a Marshall 1936 2x12 and have it valve with Svetlana 'Winged C' EL34's and Tungsol ECC83 (12AX7's). Putting the Tungsols in made the biggest difference. I know ICBM questions their reliability in the middle position but I've never had a problem and they are a huge improvement over the JJ's that I had in there before. They were harsh and muddy in comparison.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd