I have a 1986 2205. People say they’re not as good as the 2204 because of the diode clipping but if you back the gain off a little it sounds pretty close. I love it. Even though it’s on a 4x12 cab and it’s stupid loud for home use. It makes a a statement when people come into the room. And that statement is that I’m a mid-40s teenager but I have a stupid loud amp.

I actually like this base sound! Very bright, kind of scooped.

Great job as usual Jason. I bet you had one happy owner!

Thank you once again for sharing your knowledge and expertise Jason.

Great job returning this amp to its former glory. Its amazing what youll find in amplifier repair sometimes. I worked on an amplifier head one time and I kept hearing something rattling around in there I wasn't sure what it was so when I went in to do the upgrades and repair I found a small pair of needle-nose pliers just laying inside the amplifier chassis, now that's down right scary!

Another one recovered! Good work, mate!

Ouch - that was a painful listen at the start. Great work as always, Jason

Sounds better now, good job man!

Top work mate 👍sounds great after your magic touch 💪

Wow!!! 3300pF is a crazy value. No wonder it’s so bright. A typical mod is to put a 100K in series of the master volume wiper per Kevin O’Connor.

⭐⭐excellent ! this info is priceless ! cheers, mate ! ⭐⭐

The dude that said he could smell what houdini was prior cooking, -you are ON POINT. The amplifier was “tweaked” in conjunction with the owners rig. Thanks for gettin’ that damn booger outta’ there Jason! Maybe this fizz turns out fangs when it’s all mashed together in his mix? Me? I’ve always been a vertical imput dude. I sense if someone mods one of those.. -something funky’s comin’…

that PCB looks soooo clean, it has to be super easy to get into modding with one of these

This amp luckily fell onto the right hands ! Its been now properly saved / restored . The owner will be very happy , as we are now hearing it in good health . Thanks to Jason master tech ! Knows how to make them best they can be .

Wow - what a difference a few component changes make!

awesome vid bro churrrr

what a difference... listening with headphones it was unbearable before but now sounds awesome!

Thank God you got rid of all that fizz! That was mad!

Wow jason that sonds really good! before it sounded really bad nice jason. JCM 800 is back!

AC/DC Flick of the Switch. Very fitting!!

I can't imagine what that sounded like with a Strat!

On a side note…I had a chance to recently play a Headfirst MTL full build. Not sure what was better, the sound, or the fact that it wasn’t 6 grand…pretty awesome

Sounds so bad it sounds like a JCM900.

Thank goodness it was restored to stock, however it felt then that there's a blanket over the speakers, it is still missing the marshall KERRANG!!

Sounds great! Laughable preamp mods! Cool voltage drop knowledge!

Man this is what mine 2203 I emailed you about sounds like! I have a feeling after I get my Alta the 2203 will be collecting dust

What a laugh! Somebody was having a bad day and ended up bypassing the wrong pot :) I gotta do that 10k Voltage drop on my Matamp GT40!

The bright cap on the master volume is hilarious

Wow what a night and day difference!!! Obviously the tone changed but what a difference in the gain and how much tighter it is afterwards! Sounded like an ice pick had a wet fart before hand 😂

OH MY GOD!!! I've had hacked amps come across the bench, but yeah, this is probably the worst 800 I ever heard!! It seems to me, the person has no idea what they are doing and just thought....Bigger is Better!! :O NO!!!!! Brutally thin and bright. Thank God it got restored back to stock! Thanks Jason for saving this thing and our ears!!...ugh.

Interesting! I mostly play metal, so no big chords with the high strings included. To my ear the modified version is overly bright, but still has kind of a pleasant sparkle and jangle to it. The stock version lacks bite, but has a good low-mid grit and complexity. This is just speculation, but I think maybe the 10 uF bypass might have been okay. You do see some big caps on the first stage of amps like the SLO, and Rectifier. I do think the bypass on the clipper was a mistake, certainly one that big. And obviously the bright cap was just too much.

Not sure what others are smoking but the “after” sounds much more balanced and not “blown out” like a overloaded speaker. Straight nasty and not in a good way. Great job!

👍🏻👍🏻

I always find the 800 to be bright. I have owned 3 and always ended up moving them on. Now use a modelled jcm 800 on my kemper 😅

Sounded like a box of farts. And then...a real JCM 800. Bravo Jason!!!

Never ceases to amaze me how empty these look.

flick of the switch!

Hi, Can i use a 1 watt 10K vs 3 watt for the voltage change on the phase inverter?

What a night and day difference. That amp sounded like deep fried butthole before. Great video as always!

Still sounds 100 times better than my line 6

the received mod tone sound reminds me of a Boss Metalzone.

After listening again..hey man, I’ll take that thing as it is! You get in the mix with a bad ass bass guitar player & a new era Malcolm/Izzy.. -looks good from my house! I wonder how it sounded with a mid-boost type of pedal..hmmm..bacon.. What it has over the stock 800? ATTITUDE.

That before clip sounded like an icepick in my earhole.

Wow. My '85 2204 is the same: modded and (allegedly) returned to stock. Super bright and buzzy. I got it to sound pretty good with 65w Creambacks but it's really buzzy with V30's.

Geez that mod was just plain stupid! Good job on the amp Jason.

When you said "worst sounding jcm800" that's exactly what I was hearing in my head😂

Wow!! 100% better!!!

Great job, it was a farty mess before

Why did you change guitars for the last sample??

The before sound was so hard to listen to, how did you stand it to have to record that? Great job returning it back to normal!

This is why I buy new amps!

The PCB support is ridiculous, if you think about it it's not held by the pots and jacks, it's actually held by the solder joints! Joints that aren't wrapped around a terminal or even on a double sided PCB. It's not cost cutting, two standoffs, it's just engineers living in their own bubble.

It’s just a flick of the Switch!!

It's hard to believe there was a bloke whom thought his 2204 wasn't bright enough.

Bright as sin, yep well said😂

From 220ful to 2204! 😅

It almost seems like the person doing the mod put a bright cap on the master volume by mistake but didn't want to pull the board again to fix it. I bet he wanted to add a .0033 cap in parallel with the stock .001 bright cap to get it closer to the .0047 value used in the superlead. Definitely an amateur job, thankfully it was limited to only a few small changes.

Those mods had zero thought put into them.

You could probably replace those two 10K/3W resistors with maybe a 20K or 21K/3W resistor.

sounds like my peavey windsor exactly ,real mushy.

That’s a night and day difference.

Yeah I prefer the modded tone, stock sounds more like hearing it through insulation foam in another room. I mean yeah the modded version could've used some work but I certainly prefer it.

Hey mate, you mention JC being no good for components, do you have some recommendations to point us noobs in the right direction?

The fact that they didn't ground the shield on the shielded signal wires tells me they have no idea what they're doing. Fundamental knowledge about the Faraday effect is prerequisite for understanding electricity and why shielding is used. I do all my own work now. I used to have any random idiot do my retube or repairs but no more. I've realized I know more than most of the people who've worked on my vintage 70s Marshalls.

Wow. Went sounding like a busted walkman to a clear marshall tone

Oh man, bright cap on the master volume, that is painful

you are right... that was the worst sounding JCM 800 I've heard... what a farty and fizzy mess beforehand... it's still no SLO though 😆

That was painfully bright.

It's a personal taste. I preferred the tone when you received it, it's brighter with more sustain and attack.

I way prefered the sound before actually

What do you mean bad sounding? It’s the “brown sound” that everyone fawns over in that first clip lol

For me, the before and after tones are like live versus a studio take. The stock sounds much more full and like the presence is nearer to 0 than 11. The modded version would be ace for Slayer leads with a boost pedal up front.

💌📫

The 10uF is fine tbh. extra bass will filter out at the first 0.022 coupler. Fender value of 0.047 or 0.1uF would be a problem but is fine with 0.022. That 100uF is a BLUNDER. Why so anal about the brand though? At 63V, its already over specced for that position. Also, you couldnt find an electrolytic 0.68? The one you put is needlessly massive. What is it? 250V?

Surely if you are going to mod an amp you only make changes that make it sound better. You might use pspice to test your ideas but rely on your ears as the final quality gate. Every amp mod I've seen on amps i have worked on usually gets undone. Usually the original designs sound better than a lot of the mods out there. It seems some people just like to make changes without any real testing and think their changes makes it sound better.

I had a worse 2203 this week.

I hate to say it, but...I liked it the way it was. More highs. A little sizzle. Now it just sounds...stock. Myself. I'd actually do the #34 mod to it. (-8 But that's just me. LOL!!!!

Blocking distortion at its finest… if you first try modding, you will need to learn that. Pay attention class, Jason is teaching you!

Curiously colourless.

You haven'´t tried Abbath's Marshall ... it's absolutely hideous!!

Sounds like a 800 again

Flick of the Switch rules

Kinda like the way it sounded before you put it back to stock. After your repair it sounded dull like a blanket had been thrown on it. I bet that amp was used as a back line amp for metal bands that's the reason for the increased bottom end as we all know the 2204 is a little thin in that department. However, it was a little fizzy in the top and got a little flubby in the bottom end on your Les Paul. Pretty sure with a proper metal guitar paired with the right speakers and a tube screamer it was a pretty heavy sounding amp. Not good for rock but pretty good for metal, minus that fizz in the high end.

Jcm 800, 2 rules. Treble to zero. Mids to 10.

Wow. What a joke

Although I maintain that DIGITAL is SUPERIOR in every way shape and form to these archaic relics that you deal with; I have become forced to admit that there are some glorious magnificent tones very unique in nature that come from these very inefficient collections of antiquated parts. There is a certain magic that happens with these outdated relics. I perhaps might one day try one of these "things' based solely on your skills with them and your unrelenting attention to detail when servicing these "artifacts from another time." Another excellent video and a great "sales pitch" for the continued use of these "relics."