Marshall SL5 Slash for JCM-1C

[Marshall & Moonshine]

Nope. You broke it.
It was fine.

 

[cherrysunburst00]

Basic tone is the key term, and I agree.

There are times when either a pedal is a must have (Rockabilly Slapback) or an enhancement that takes an amp to another level (Plexi Marshall -> Fuzz Face). These are just as valid as any Guitar -> JCM 800 tone.

The "no toys in between to mess up the signal" is almost always a misnomer. Those early Ted Nugent Band records have plenty of compression, reverb and delay added in the studio mix. A key element to AC/DC's Back In Black was an early wireless system both guitarists used in the studio. There's almost always something going on somewhere in the signal.

Bringing it back to the OP - You take a decent practice amp (it doesn't even need to be tube nor expensive) and add either a matching Distortion or an Overdrive pedal and you should be good to go. Guitarists have been using this setup for what seems like forever. It's not the only way for bedroom playing, but it has proven itself very effective over the past 40+ years.




Fixed.

That's a good point about all the studio wizardry. And something like a specific tone (like a fuzz face)

**** pedals and **** modelers.

Paying homage to the original quote, I "unfixed" it

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

I'm kidding, of course, regarding pedals. But as I've said before (and it's nothing I had to climb a mountain to learn...), there are "amp in a box" distortions or distortions that you want to only hear the pedal, and there are distortion pedals that need to interact with or boost the amp's natural tones.
Which kind of box you have will largely determine how clean you want the amp to be.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

That's a good point about all the studio wizardry. And something like a specific tone (like a fuzz face)



Paying homage to the original quote, I "unfixed" it

Haha!!
All good, bro....
All good.

 

[Axeman16]

update, i went for it and made the trade.

first thoughts are great, really diggin the jcm1. tolerable volumes great tones, cleans up nice and doesnt have that apparent midrange drowning out the bottom end of the amp like the sl5. only played it for a few hours today but was very pleased with it.

may get around to swapping the speaker out. are there any other viable options in 10" aside from the g10 greenback?

 

[cherrysunburst00]

update, i went for it and made the trade.

first thoughts are great, really diggin the jcm1. tolerable volumes great tones, cleans up nice and doesnt have that apparent midrange drowning out the bottom end of the amp like the sl5. only played it for a few hours today but was very pleased with it.

may get around to swapping the speaker out. are there any other viable options in 10" aside from the g10 greenback?

Oh good, and Congrats. You know, one other nice thing too is that it has a jack for any external cabinet you may have. Personally, I find that I like the WGS ET65 with the JCM1

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

WGS ET65. They make it in a 10". You might even ask them to put a 20w coil on it to loosen it up a little (and lighten it up a lot!)

 

[jchrisf]

I was looking for a JCM1 head and couldn't find one as they are hard to find just like the SL5. I found a JCM1 clone on eBay for $300 and thought WTH. The seller was quick to respond to all my questions and said he copied the circuit and he didn't think I could tell the difference in a blind test. This is the best amp I have ever heard in the bedroom. The 1 and .1 are the perfect bedroom amps. You can crank the volume and get that great tube saturation without hurting yourself. I play through a 4x12 and it is perfect for me. I did put my digitech RP350 in front with only the distortion pedal turned on and that is where the 80's magic was for me. I was surprised to discover the Reverb and Delay sounds good in front of it too. Haven't tried anything else. The JCM has the boost switch which turns it into the Silver Jube. I prefer the JCM mode.

 

[cherrysunburst00]

I was looking for a JCM1 head and couldn't find one as they are hard to find just like the SL5. I found a JCM1 clone on eBay for $300 and thought WTH. The seller was quick to respond to all my questions and said he copied the circuit and he didn't think I could tell the difference in a blind test. This is the best amp I have ever heard in the bedroom. The 1 and .1 are the perfect bedroom amps. You can crank the volume and get that great tube saturation without hurting yourself. I play through a 4x12 and it is perfect for me. I did put my digitech RP350 in front with only the distortion pedal turned on and that is where the 80's magic was for me. I was surprised to discover the Reverb and Delay sounds good in front of it too. Haven't tried anything else. The JCM has the boost switch which turns it into the Silver Jube. I prefer the JCM mode.

I have seen those and wondered how they were; I almost bought 1 just to compare, but decided not to. That's great that you are digging it I too really like the .1 mode on my JCM1 head

 

[jchrisf]

I guess the like button is gone? Yeah Cherry... if you get a chance to get one from the guy I got mine from I'd recommend it. I don't see any for sale to link to right now though. Mine really roars at bedroom levels. It doesn't have much thump but lots of roar and punch... and can get loud if you want it too. I've noticed that if I run the 16ohm out into the 16ohm setting of my switchable Marshall JCM cab and then switch both amp and cab to 8ohm (now only 2 speakers on the cab) it is twice as loud at 8ohm as it is at 16ohm.

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

Yeah, I wouldn't expect a lot of "thump" from one lonely watt.

 

[les paul sound]

the sl5 is the biggest error in their amps

we can't have all the sounds that made Slash famous
it's too much for a bedroom
it's not rock and hard rock
so? it's a beautiful amp and good with some pedals : that's all
so, buy a jcm1 if you want : )

 

[sonar]

update, i went for it and made the trade.

first thoughts are great, really diggin the jcm1. tolerable volumes great tones, cleans up nice and doesnt have that apparent midrange drowning out the bottom end of the amp like the sl5. only played it for a few hours today but was very pleased with it.

may get around to swapping the speaker out. are there any other viable options in 10" aside from the g10 greenback?

Hey, congrats!

I hope this one works out better.

As for speakers... you know the old JCM800's were all about V30's and Anniversaries. I'm not sure there's anything in a single 10" that will emulate those speakers, specifically in a 1 watt amp. Maybe a G10?

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

I think it depends on where he wants to focus his rig. If it's 70s Rock, then yeah... V30 all day. If he's more into the 80s stuff, then it's all about the 65's, either from celestion or WGS. And like I said, WGS can put their 10" 65 on a 20w coil, which would really loosen up the amp. I don't get how people can run 1w into 4x12 cabs, probably 100w+. I ran my 8w tweed Princeton into a pair of Vet 30's and it sounded totally anemic, but that could be preference. At full throttle, the speaker cones barely moved. But that same amp throws a pair of 10" Veterans (40w, total) around like rag dolls. I bet a 1w amp would work well in that. In fact, you might just try the 10" Veteran right off the bat. It's mid-friendly, will handle 1w of bass response easily and has just the right amount of top end for me. They're cheap and light. I think they weigh 3lbs.

 

[Axeman16]

ive had v30s and my only concern is it will just make it too mid heavy. ive always been a celestion man and they dont have the most offerings in 10". never tried wgs or scumback. feel like jensen will be the wrong flavour for a marshall

 

[lwk5150]

Not to get off topic, but I just picked up a JCM1 head - what's a good 1x12 or maybe2x12 for it?

 

[Marshall & Moonshine]

ive had v30s and my only concern is it will just make it too mid heavy. ive always been a celestion man and they dont have the most offerings in 10". never tried wgs or scumback. feel like jensen will be the wrong flavour for a marshall

I'd email WGS. Their prices and quality is pretty hard to beat. They've gotta be the bang for buck champs, right now.
I only push the ET-65 because the sought-after JCM 800s, with the vertical inputs, mostly came with the G12M-65's, and were the voice of 80s Rock/Metal. The WGS equivalent is the ET-65, and they recently started making a 10" version, but it's 65w. If you could get a lower watt coil on it, I think it would work great with that amp. It might be just fine with the full coil, but it will weigh quite a bit more and could be a little stiff. I imagine it will take quite a while for that amp to break in a high power speaker.
I'd email them. If they don't get back, email them again until they do. They usually get right back to me, but once I had to nag a little.