JCM 2000 vs JCM 800

afxwinter

Inspired
I'm trying to create a JCM 2000 tone in the Axe II and was wondering what the best approach would be to achieve this?
Should I just be turning up the drive and input drive to get it into JCM 2000 territory?
What about the saturation switch or bright or maybe any other settings you can tweak to get the 800 to be more like the 2000, any tips?
 
I really dig the JCM 2000 DSL. In my opinion it's the only Marshall worth having that's not in the Axe already. Properly dialed in, they sound monstrous live. I always felt like the JCM 2000 DSL was Marshall's apology letter to guitarists for the JCM 900.

JCM2000 amps are in my opinion a lot better than they often get credit for. I really dig my TSL60 and it's the one amp I refuse to get rid of after owning the Axe. It has a quite fender'y clean channel and the crunch channel sounds terrific with a Strat or tele. Although I'm not a fan of the JCM900s that much, they are still popular. If they weren't, Marshall wouldn't have reissued them.
 
I would think the JVM models would get you close. I remember those amps having some similar tonal qualities. The JMP-1 is also fairly similar.
 
This question has been asked a lot on here. The problem with the JCM 2000 DSL100 is that they all sound different. I'm not sure if it's bc of quality control or differences in parts & tubes. If Cliff ever models the JCM 2000, hopefully he gets a few different ones, so he can average their tones and create a "Best Of" JCM 2000 model.

I haven't tried getting a JCM 2000 tone w/ FW 13 but in previous versions I came close using BRIT JVM, BRIT PRE, FRIEDMAN, and there was another one but I can't remember and I'm not in front of my Axe-Fx II.
 
I really dig the JCM 2000 DSL. In my opinion it's the only Marshall worth having that's not in the Axe already. Properly dialed in, they sound monstrous live. I always felt like the JCM 2000 DSL was Marshall's apology letter to guitarists for the JCM 900.

Ha ha!
God those JCM 900's were horrific.
I was 18 when they came out and had been saving for months to buy my 1st proper amp. Got a 2x12 dual reverb combo. Dreadful amp. Put me off Marshall's for years.......actually I only now like the Marshall sound because of the AXE FX.
......sorry off topic I know.
 
I remember reading that part of the brief the Marshall R&D team had when creating the JCM2000s was to give the amp a decent clean channel, which was a huge bug bear for users of the JCM900 amps. I for one can't vouch for the difference because it's a long time since I've ever been near a JCM900 amp. It'd be cool to hear some thoughts on that. One thing they did get 100% right with the 900s was the cabs. My 1960a is amazing sounding.
 
I had a DSL 100 and still have a jcm900 from the 90s. Also used a tsl100 for a bit. I never was really satisfied with them. The DSL just had a real "brick wall" kind of tone. Too thick and rounded for my taste. I can't think of words other than that to describe it. I still have the 900 for nostalgia sake but I'm not a fan of it either.
 
I was never a big fan of the TSL. I actually got a chance to A/B a TSL against the DSL and found the TSL to be much thinner and weaker sounding than the DSL. The sales guy in the store at the time told me, and I'm paraphrasing here, "they got the guy who did the JCM 800's transformer to design the DSL's transformer, and they got the guy who designed the JCM 900's transformer to do the TSL's transformer."

I have no idea if that's true or not but judging from what I heard coming from the amps that day, what he said made sense. The DSL definitely had a much heavier, meatier footprint than the TSL. The difference was night and day.
 
I was never a big fan of the TSL. I actually got a chance to A/B a TSL against the DSL and found the TSL to be much thinner and weaker sounding than the DSL. The sales guy in the store at the time told me, and I'm paraphrasing here, "they got the guy who did the JCM 800's transformer to design the DSL's transformer, and they got the guy who designed the JCM 900's transformer to do the TSL's transformer."

I have no idea if that's true or not but judging from what I heard coming from the amps that day, what he said made sense. The DSL definitely had a much heavier, meatier footprint than the TSL. The difference was night and day.

It's those thinner tones I tend to gravitate towards, probably why I love the TSLs so much. Especially the crunch channel with quite lot gain, and single coil pickups it's hours of fun. Probably with a DSL I'd be cranking he gain more often and flicking over to humbucker for the full shred thang.

I tend to go for Marshally tones within the Axe, which cameas a surprise to me with all the options available. I do use the Mesa and Vox ones too and also one or two of the fender models for cleaner presets.
 
Just watched a rig run down for Joe Bonamassa and was surprised that he has obviously moved from the silver jubilee on the current tour and has a pair of the JCM2000 along with a Suhr head he is using now. Must be something to these that he likes.
 
Played a DSL head for years, my first "real" half stack, until I realized that dynamics could exist beneath absolutely ear splitting levels in other amps <- the flaw in the DSL not present in every Marshall like amp IMHO.
I don't miss it at all and think we need another high gain marshall not at all, but if someone wants it I won't argue against it, it just didn't have an especially unique character.
Its there if you take any of the other high gain marshalls and compress it a bit IMHO.

Joe can run that thing wide open and that's the one time it shines, but short of an arena like Joe, there is no point in being that loud and I never could keep the vibe with a other stuff in the chain to cut down the dbs (tried the usual stuff from THD and others)

The thing that opened my eyes and changed my playing was the Carvin Legacy (lower gain) and then a VHT Deliverance (high gain and before the Fryette spin off).
What dynamics. What touch response. A totally different character on two levels of course, but with an EQ in the loop of the Legacy and a dirt pedal out front I could do things that were literally impossible with the DSL.

They are all gathering dust or sold. The AF2, a matrix, and an Atomic Wedge replaced them all.

-P
 
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