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2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:58 am
by stevejamsecono
As I'm home on spring break this week, I decided to start the week off by stopping off at the local Guitar Center in Millbury. Now normally this is a relatively disappointing experience due to the fact that its a newer store, and it doesn't usually have a great used inventory.
This time however, I found a real honey. Now I know that normally these kind of get the short end of the stick from Marshall people, but I for one really enjoyed it (and to think I was in there looking at Peaveys!), a JCM 900 100 Watt Dual Reverb Model. Now to be fair, for the majority of the time I was playing it, it was with one of the "hallowed combinations" (i.e. les paul, 1960a cab), but it really was a set of sounds I dug. The two channels were pretty versatile, and it was just a sound I really really liked that I have never got out of any of my pedals. So for the first question, does anyone own a JCM 900 and could speak on its behalf? They seem to be pretty cheap as far as marshalls go, so it might be easier for me to get than my other choice in Marshalls (JMP MV heads..  :? :? :? :?)
now the second part:
I'd like to keep using my Bassman 70 head if I did get this Marshall, so I'm contemplating a two head 1 stereo cab setup, and switching/combining using an A/B switch. The 1960a cabs seem to have a stereo option, I'd run both at 8 ohms (the Bassman is 4, but I've been told running it at 8 wouldn't damage it) through it.
Does this seem viable, and secondly does anyone actually do this and could speak to it working/not working?

Thanks all

-Steve

Re: 2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:00 am
by northern_dirt
I have a JCM 900..
It was part of my sound for years..

Re: 2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:04 am
by Stereordinary
I'm a Marshall fan myself.  And I think JCM 900s are just fine.  Maybe not the best sound, but I dig 'em all the same.

And I've also tried the two heads into one cab thing.  It was with my Marshall JCM 2000 TSL60 and a Sovtek MiG 60.  It sounded pretty massive.  Unfortunately my AB/Y box sucked and the Sovtek was very unreliable (melting tubes and generally making smoke smells), so I couldn't carry on like that for very long.

Best of luck to you if you try it out.  Just get a high-quality AB/Y, maybe the Lehle little duo or something.

Re: 2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:18 am
by northern_dirt
When I bought my head.. the guy had it plus a 50 watt JCM 800...
I took the 900 cause of the wattage.. should have gone with the 800..

Especially now that I want to sell my marhsall the 800s are more sought after.

Re: 2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:32 am
by mynameisjonas
we recorded some songs with my band this weekend, and for my guitar i used a marshall MOSFET and a tiny terror plugged into my 1960A cab. it worked great, and the two amps complemented eachother really well (i had them both running at the same time). i did this one solo where i sent half the signal through a fuzz factory into the marshall, and the other half through a dunlop jimi hendrix octave fuzz into the tiny terror. combined it sounded completely ridiculous.

the only experience i have with JCM900s is an SL-X head i played many years ago. it was part of the inhouse backline at a gig we did, and i loved it. but this was more than 10 years ago, so i might feel differently if i try one now.

Re: 2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:34 am
by zhivago
the 900s are cool, but the 800s are definitely cooler.

one of my faves was a JCM800 Bass amp I played through for a while...the bottom end was nothing short of amazing.  :)

Re: 2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:40 am
by Superfuzz
My brother has a JCM900 MkIII, the one with NO reverb and two switchable master volumes, these are know for being JCM800 with an added gain stage..it sounds very good indeed!

Re: 2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:47 am
by stevejamsecono
ahhh.. I can still hear that sweet crunch ringing in my head a day later.. crapppp
half of me almost wants to take that tax return and my Bassman 70 stack and just go and see if I can get some straight trade action going on, but I'd probably regret it later.

nice to hear that I wasn't out of my mind with my ideas here. I'll let you all know how it goes whenever I can get the money together to try it all.

-Steve

Re: 2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:28 pm
by stereosanctity
I'll swear by my 900 any day of the week.  Especially awesome for crazy textured drone.

Re: 2 Parter: JCM 900s? and, anyone run 2 heads through 1 stereo cab?

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:51 am
by ohm-men
yup, can be done. As long as you put on the right speaker load on both amps. Can't remeber the output loud on the JCM 900 as I haven't played one for ages, but I think it was about 4-8-16? I know my JCM 900 B cab had those switch options.

Sure brings back memories, the JCM900....Nice loud amp. Solid tone but didn't really stand out. But I liked it. Did like my Sovtek MiG 100 more though. I had a very solid one, never ran into any trouble with it in 8 years of use. Sold it for a lot more then I bought it new. (all of a sudden they were a hype....)