Key points: 0:00 - Intro jam (name that song to win a biscuit!) 0:52 - 'My dream amp'/early influences 2:49 - Brief history of the JCM800 3:52 - Finally getting my hands on one... 5:00 - Me live in 2010 5:54 - Universal Audio Ox and how I'm using it 6:17 - Why did I stop using this amp? 6:55 - Marshall Guv'nor vs JCM800 9:31 - Strat + Fuzz Face + Marshall = The greatest sound ever?

Back in 80's the 800 was the King! Everybody wanted one. One of the best amps ever created!

My god that clip from 10 years ago is seriously impressive. That is some crazy live playing.

Bloody hell, you were a beast at 19 Chris!

Mean Bone by Slash’s Snakepit - absolutely brilliant song! Nicely played mate 👍

I subscribed because of you playing that strat at the end. LOVED it, Mate. Also that clip of you at 29....so good. Thank you for sharing.

Great video Chris. Great info and as always, killer playing. I agree, the first time I got play a mid-80’s 800, I was absolutely blown away. All those tones I grew up on came roaring out of a 4x12 cab. It is a glorious amp for sure!!

I thought Dave Simpson was the KZfaq guitar god, but after listening to you more and more, you’re one of the greatest guitarists i’ve ever heard! You the man. Thanks for the videos 👍

Chris obviously has a whole inventory of tones in his back pocket which means seeing him play live is definitely on my bucket list. His obsession with Slash didn’t extend to the top hat which would be a convenient place to pile and store the hair as he’s head banging on the Les Paul.

Brilliant vid with great playing as always - loved the clip from the Troubadour; you were impressive even then.

Slash's guitar playing grabbed me into rock n roll. My first amp was (and still is) a 87 silver jubilee 1x12 combo, thanks to him and John Frusciante (another influence of mine). Im only 17, been playing for 2 years. Awesome tone at the end. Im currently saving up for a fuzz myself (been into alot of Hendrix lately)

Man. That last bit was spectacular. Great take!!

"it was good enough for Hendrix" Well, it sounds like a good point. And your blues piece at the end was another evidence of said good point.

That sound at the end!!! Brilliant.

Really enjoyed this one Chris. Nice to hear you unleashing your inner Slash again 😀👍

Most of us spend our entire lives chasing a certain tone. That's the best part. I'm so sorry you found it. And at such a young age. What will you do now?

I really like the tone you achieved in that live video segment with the Strat. Awesome. Awesome playing, too!

You are really GOOD and enjoyable to listen too! Very clean crisp!

Dude you nailed this review... Likewise so many common things as I started playing guitar in 1993... Your review sheds a lot of light on the Q's from back then...

Just want to say I look forward to Friday after work to tune into Chris.

Hot damn, that’s a KILLER tone in the outro jam, Chris😎👌

"It's Only Love" is such a sleeper song. I love it and that tone was spot on!

I think we all get cranky after 30... Thoroughly enjoyed this Fretworks, for me, the best clip of the week. Thanks.

Man, you are amazing.

Cracking edition of FF, really enjoyed that.

Your playing especially at the end with the strat was freakin good!

Chris, you are the man, man! What aaa sound! 🤘🏼

I was waiting for you to talk about your Blackstar. Love the tones you got with that combo

Love the Bryan Adams “only love” reference. Believe u and Pete at Anderton’s have used it recently. Great tune and great edition of “Friday fretworks” thnx

You definitely rock, Chris. I honestly think that the sounds of the JCM and its siblings are much easier to acquire and/or emulate than the sound I have been chasing for 22 years, the Boston guitar sound. Not satisfied just with the Rockman models, I want to emulate both the Rockman sound and the tone that the Boston members generated on their first two LPs. There was a time when I was also sort of pursuing the Marshall JCM tone. That was especially true when I dreamt of having an ES-335.

That live clip was incredible! Literally the quintessential Marshall tone. Gives me big Bonamassa vibes.

That strat playing - just wow.

Great as always.....

Im chasing your tone mate! Got my cb sig pickups installed yesterday! Sound so sweet man 🤘

Great show Chris!!

Brilliant tones, both les paul and strat!!!

Going back to your roots. Thanks to UA & others, it's safe to bring tube amps into the light once more!

The Brian Adam,s intro to "its only !ove "was made for guitarists to check out the power chord tone of their amp set up ,,,what a kick ass riff !! played superbly as always by Chris,,surely one of the most ego free and gentlemanly young guitar stars of the day.

Great vid as always

Looking forward to the day when all this pent-up energy is unleashed on stage again. Put me on the list for that first "post apocalypse" gig, 's gonna be a blast for sure. When are we going to see Sally Ann, Dom & Bob on here one sunny Friday afternoon Chris, please make it happen. A jam around the fish pond or something! Com'on B&E fans, get on the case and back them into a corner and shame them into appearing. 😎

Totally agree , just bought a 2205 head from 1989 and it's the best lead tone I ever had !

I still have my 4212 JCM800 that I bought in 1984. It's the exact same amp as yours only 50 watts. Mine sat in storage for almost twenty years! It needed serious work but after a recap and some mods it is back in all of its glory.

I've had two of the 2205 amps go through my hands over the years. They are awesome indeed. I actually had a 78 master volume head as well. When it ran well it was hard to beat.

Great stuff! Got a '81 Marshall JMP... Killer amp!

Great job !❤

I’m friends with Tim Caswell the guy that did the #39 mod. Great guy, totally cool to still hear people talking about it.

931 KILLER SOUND GORGEOUS STRAT AWESOME PLAYING 👍🔥🎸🦅

Someone told me I look like Chris Buck so I came to see. We're hair twins.

Came for those to die for strat tones, not disappointed again :)

I've spent the majority of my playing doing acoustic... but have done my share of electric, with bands... Blues, Country, Classic Rock... and now, Americana... A JCM 800, 1x12, dropped into my lap. Someone "tried" to install a reverb circuit, failed. It sat for well over 20 years. I inquired, about this dusty basement piece, it was given to me. I took it to my amp tech to return it to spec... and was astounded... like you, I was chasing this tone (amongst others). Maybe a Greenback is in order. I find it amazing how just a piece of gear can inspire. Love your playing and videos.

I Chris I have a slash jcm head. Had it for years unbelievable tone and grunt. Would never sell. Beautiful

25 years ago I called a Penny Saver ad for a Marshall amp for $400. I drove across the Bay, it was a Marshall amp, and I bought it. LO AND BEHOLD, I had bought a JCM800 50watt 2x12 Combo(w the two inputs (High and Low Sensitivity). I took it to Sal Trentino for a "going through". He told me that it was the second best amp Marshall ever produced after the BluesBreaker. I will tell you that IT HAS NEVER FAILED to produce "The Tone"!(you're looking for). DIRECTLY IN(no effects), P-90s, 500T, 496R, Lipstick, Vintage high output Dearmonds, Overwound MIJs(Kent820), You don't even need to "Find" what you're looking for. IT'S JUST THERE! (As loud as your neighbors can take it!). Thanks for your post! MadRespect, Ted Furlo

The 2205/2210 is my favorite as well. Just such a great sounding classic tone in spades.

Amazing you could play like that at 19 dude😍

I'm intrigued by this video. In the 70's I owned a plexi superlead 100. This was brought back from the UK by some Kiwi mucicians in a band calleed Human Instinct. It was used as a bass amp by a local fusion player, and sold to me from a local music shop. There were only three Marshall amps in the country at the time, and when I plugged my strat into it I fell in love instantly ( having used a solid stae powered guitar speaker previously. I paid NZ$1450 in 1972, by way of HP deposit of $200 from cashing in my life insurance, and asking fir a $200 loan from my estranged dad. He eventually gave me the money and over two or three years of moving to dodge the repossession agents, I finally paid it off. Just to put you in the picture, I could have bought a house for the same money then. This amp stayed with me til 1985 when it was stolen for the second time and lost for ever. I used a tube screamer and a locally built tape echo and wah, but after losing the amp I found anothef Marshall100 with a master volume that I now realise was rebuilt into a 1x12 combo. Eventually, although I should have kept this awesome amp, I was seduced by the new JCM800 2x12 combo with channel switching and inbuilt reverb. It sounded OK, but not as good sounding as either of my previous Marshalls, snd the clipping in the drive channel sounded a bit anemic and spitty. I found the open back design not good in getting a good tone at stage volumes where the dound just spread out and disappeared. I soon got a second one which was the same but a head only. Eventually I used the bith of them, with the combo rebuilt into a head unit and two two by twelve Marshall closed back cabs. The combo amp never dounded as good as the head only unit, and eventually I sold them both. I'm wondering if your combo was the same as mine, or if it was a slightly different model becsuse I had no joy with the amp's sound, especially in distortion mode, despite uding closed back speakers. Maybe mine was a different JCM800 combo, or msybe mine was made on an off day, when whoever was installing parts used different components when they ran out of the usual ones. My friend who was a tech at the time assured me that they were both essentially the same amp on paper, but to me it never sounded tgat good driven loudly compared to the head only unit. Who knows?

We recorded with an '80s (maybe 1985-6?) JCM800 50W (2x12 I believe) combo - for one day. It was a loaner. I was 18 or 19, it was around 1991-92. Just when Grunge was breaking. We dimed *everything* , isolated it in a concrete stairwell, close-mic'd it off-axis and then a second mic at the top of the stairs - then we sealed the stairwell and I did the overdubs in an iso booth 50m away in the studio (the stairwell led to the studio toilet LOL). I got feedback! It's to this day the best tone I've ever achieved. A MIJ VOX SG and no effects - just the massive reverb from that micing technique and that magic amp. Too bad I couldn't really play back then...but we made a glorious noise. EDIT: I think it was that amp! The 1988-89 2x12. it looks exactly the same as the one we had (I won't ever forget that).

wow. that's impressive. nice sound.

If Slash had played a Strat he would’ve sounded like that 2010 clip. 👍

Always loved that Snake Pit riff 👌

Chris, have always thought your “in the box” sound has been great and impressed that you seem to be able to maintain your feel. However, the immediacy of this sound is next level. I am assuming you are experiencing a big improvement in feel under the fingers as it were.?

The clip of you playing live when you were 19 almost made me cry... I’m honored of living in the same era of one of the best guitarists of all time.

That Bryan Adams riff has become an absolute classic. It’s the second thing I play with a chorus pedal every time.

Epic!

I had a 100W JCM800 Head and 4x12 cab for a while. It's equally amazing and stupid at the same time :D It was designed in a time where this was your only option to get a huge tone to fill a big space. But these days you can get the same huge tone with a small, lightweight board on the floor and an XLR to the PA.

Can’t escape that Bryan Adams riff!

Dang I'm sad I wasn't the first one to comment about Mean Bone! I LOVE Snakepit and I listened to that album non stop when I was younger. Slash was and still is my favorite guitar player 😎

subscribed in 5 seconds after watching the video

The JCM 800 (+ Strat) is my favourite amp so far. However, Slash was also a fan of the Vintage Modern.

Man, you're huge!

Soooo now I’m ripping down my whole rig? No I’m not! Yes I am! Dammit!! Thanks Chris!😁

You were getting down in that club clip! ::applaud::

My early 80s jcm 800 100watt 6l6s with mullards and jjs 12ax7s mixed with 4-12 eminence speakers. It was 1of a kind. True dumble tone. Sold it too big for retirement. Still miss it.

Can you tell us more about how you learned to play guitar? What age did you start? How many hours per day did you practice? Did you have a teacher? Did you use books or did you just play songs? A video about your early guitar playing development would be great. I know learning guitar is a lifetime journey but if I could play as well as you did at 19 I would think I would have arrived at my destination!

Mine is 100watt from 85 or so and it IS the greatest amp ever. I have had a couple others both older and newer but this is THE ONE. Admittedly, I don’t play it much anymore because I honestly don’t need 200 pounds, 100 watts of Marshall Stack. But I will hold it. I do crank it up a couple times a year. But her sweet spot comes in around 6-7 and up. I can’t afford to keep buying windows and having the cops at my door anymore.

10:40 The JCM900 went the way of the Parker guitar pictured next to it (and the Dodo). Thank goodness!!

I’m a few months late but I own a 1985 JCM 800 5212. It’s amazing for sure

It was all about thrash metal for all of high school and many years after. Just about every band I listened to used this amp.

I have no idea what that intro song is, nor have I heard it before... BUT HOLY CRAP ITS AWESOME

THAT OUTRO JAM THO.

Request for a future Friday Fretworks: That JCM 800 wound up with some gainage through one of the V30 cabs in the Ox Box, tone for the ages that. P.s: Got your Helix preset a few days ago, some *chef kiss* tones in there, and very much enjoyed reading the write up along with it, cheers for your work on it! :)

you cant really talk about Slash's tone w/o talking about his sig pickups (Alnico II ) but just the regular Alnico II pups gives you that sweet tone. I still need to put one in the neck position on my guitar.

The take on Voodoo Child at 9:30 is magic! Incredible tone. Any chance you’ll be tabbing that one out at some point? 🙏🏼😬

Killer soung and killer player

Any chance we can get a Friday Fretworks recounting your tale of pursuing fender amps?

Bloody hell. I sooo regret selling my original Guv'nor. What a cracking pedal that was. It was my very first pedal purchase. Actually bought it in Anderton's, when I was 15, so some 30 years ago...

Mean bone. Great tune

Don't know the song, but where's my biscuit? Great video, and as usual... some tasty playing!

I did not expect you to play a Bryan Adams song, haha Nice job!

When you say "JCM800" it generally means the single channel. This is the split channel with reverb which is quite different. It has diode clipping like the Jubilee but still quite different and no two sound alike. Think of them like this... When they came out in '83, the boost channel was intended as lead sustain channel with boosted mids. The later versions got much gainer and more scoopy. The "normal" channel is very warm and compressed and doesn't do a good "crunch", it's better used clean. They made a circuit change in '87 that gave it a little more bite but that's about it. But the boost channel is insane, just crank the gain and scream!

Great reflections, Chris. I enjoyed this episode. I've never owned, nor even played a Marshall amp. But in 1989 I did employ a Guv'nor to elevate the tone of my Rickenbacker through my Roland JC-160. Did it sound like a Marshall 4x12? In a word, no. But it did make my solid state 4x10 combo amp sound bad ass. [I do not miss lugging that boat anchor of an amp to gigs in the back of my GTI with a bungee cord holding the hatch closed]

good thing you had that security at Knebworth back in '10 ...

In the late 90s I traded a Marshall Master Lead 30, which was supposed to be a solid state "version" of the JCM800, for my first tube amp, a 1966 Fender Princeton Amp. I had no idea at the time that the Blackface Princeton was quite a prize - the Marshall was given to me so, I essentially got the Princeton for free; I wouldn't realize how lucky I was until a few years later. At the time of the trade, my main gripe with the Marshall was that there was no clean headroom above conversation volume levels (oddly enough the Princeton that replaced it is the complete opposite - the non reverb models are renowned for being clean to ten). While I don't regret the trade at all, and getting such a prize as my first tube amp, I do miss that Marshall, which tone-wise fell somewhere between the tube JCM800 and the Guv'nor pedal but much closer to the amp.

Mean Bone! Slash's Snakepit! HOLY SHIT that stuff took me back to highschool!

I have same amp jcm 800 100w 4211 with the exact same speakers. So far, i can tell that this amp sounds best passing volumes 3 or 4. I am still trying to get more saturation, kess fizziness, more warmth. What pedal will help?, should I refresh pre am tubes, different speaker?. Please suggest.

Had one of these in the early 90s. Made of black holes. Mine was the single channel but with a low and high input. 50 Watts if I remember rightly. I miss that amp

Lucky enough to see GnR at the Marquee in 86 before Appetite. Slash had mix of 70s Master Volume and JCM 800. Izzy had Mesa/Boogie 1x12s. And yes they were fuckn great!!!

I prefer the Jubilee's tone, it's meatier, doesn't get fizzy in the highs, has more oomph, overall tone is more mid-rangy to my ears. And has an incredible clean channel. But yeah, JCM800 is the rock sound of the 80s

Do your frets wear out fast due to the way you play? I am curious cause I am hard on my frets.

im 19, been playing 20 months and have put a cm plexi tone with a ts808 screamer behind it going through a mg30 amp and that gets me fairly close to the GnR tone that im after

New power valves! Find some NOS valves, bias the amp right, and you will be in heaven. A really nice ANOS 12AX7 in the first preamp slot ... BTW when I was 19 I dreamed of playing guitar half that well and 42 years later still do. 😄