With my JCM800, like the TS to help with the mid saturation and PM. Helped me get the Metallica sound. With the JCM900 I didn't need it, but used TS more as a boost. A good punk and metal amp. But just dial your gains back a bit and rock tones come out beautiful. I'm glad we agree on this amp. Thanks for the in-depth video.

To much talkin man

Appreciate your love of Charvel but if you are going to talk about company history at least do some basic research. Grover Jackson bought the company and Charvel brand from Wayne in late 1978. There was no merger, Grover was the guy behind it all from early on.

On my bucketlist... But not at they current used market prices... They need to re-release it. Please, Orange...

TV50 ChA no boost better off with gain at 3 o'clock. At least mine is. But thanks for the video, and also great website!

Reverse head, deep wide lower cutaway. HH nothing in neck. Thats what. Whats the difference between R1 and R2 ?

At first I thought to myself, 'fuck, here we go again...' then I continued to listen to you speak and realised you actually know what you're talking about. Also, much respect for that beast of a Kramer, has that bad boy got a Dimarzio SD in the bridge? Love the contrast. Subscribed. Edit: SH-8 Invader I see.

helpful video, thank you! Just about to pickup a 5A!

I’ve had the mk iii as my first tube amp in the 90’s and I swear it was brighter and more classic sounding than the el34 SLX I had a few years ago. The SLX sounded more low mid and really didn’t wow me as much. I traded it for a Mesa OS cab back when you could still pick up 900’s for $600 or so. Now that they’re 1100 and up I almost feel stupid but it’s God’s cab so not really, lol. Nothing sounds bad thru it and I’ve got a 2204 modded Origin to play with.

I have an 86 3A with a 5 way switch. Double Jackson humbuckers. Contradiction to your statement. Great video though

I think you hit the nail on the head.

EPIC!"

THANKS FOR THE DIAGRAMS

I'm diggin the thunderverb. I bet its all way different in th room, but from wat I can hear. The kramer sounds kinda whimpy, Id like to hear this with a les paul with 498t or even a 57 classic.

If you ever get a chance,play a real one. You will never forget it.

That Dual Dark is great sounding for more modern metal. Its tighter than the Thunderverb or the rockerverb and almost gets into Mesa Dual Rectifier sounds

I have a 5A and took the tremolo and has a fixed bridge now

Fantastic video!

I have an '84 2205 that was converted to EL34's. It's an awesome amp.

I now have an SL-X (5881) and an MKIII (EL-34) The MKIII sounds identical to my '90 JCM800 2204, I can't tell them apart. The SL-X is still my favorite, but that comes down to personal preference.

I bought one after watching your video and 20 others but I have some trouble dialing it in. The amps input start overloading real quick with hot pickups and boosts. I have to cut ALOT of low end in the boost so I can add some highs and output to not overload the amp. If I don't use a boost pedal and use the Lead Boost button on the amp it only gives low end distortion and sucks out high end distortion. All high end disapears from the static hiss the amp makes. Is this normall? The same for when switching from Chrunch 2 to Lead, It gets thicker but loses some definition and aggression. There is no way to add that aggession back in. The presence knob acts more like a freqentie point for the treble instead of adding more or less bite. I tried it with a Celestion H100 loaded cab and a V30 loaded cab. Do I take it to a tech as it isn't sounding like yours at all.

Im looking at a 1987x from the 90's ...price is good enough but im just still not sure...i have enough pedals to get some good tones im sure but a decent departure from what im used to owning... decisions decisions

i just got a 900 2100 used. I like it a lot. It goes great with my JCM800 2203 and Freidman BE DLX.

This is GREAT! so much info - when people talk about the JCM 800 - they need to see this to know WHICH JCM800. I have the 2210 from 1988 and I love the sound. A tip from Euge Valovirta in this video kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ibR6krGkuqilnXk.html put the gain and boost volume on 10 - the difference between 9 and 10 is a jump in treble - it's quite significant!

I'm lucky to own all 3 versions of the JCM 900 series. I love em all!

I have a Kline Baretta Beer Mug model. Not heavy at all. Autographed Duncan JB wound by Maricella Juarez. Hot stuff!

I got on in flip flop blue/red. Bought it in 1986. Still rocking with it live. Built like a tank!

These are the best amp vids on KZfaq 🙌🏾👊🏾👏🏾

Channel one is great for a straight up Fender clean tone. The fat switch I think is a mid boost. The tweed setting is totally unuseable. This amp is VERY bass heavy so you have to watch the bass control. It's also VERY loud which is great for headroom on a cleansound. That sound alone is worth the price of the amp. I find channel 2 completely useless. It is totally impossible to create a Marshall type classic rock guitar sound. Marshalls have this lovely bite up the top end that no matter what you do, you cannot reproduce on this amp. Channel three extreme mode (Which is not extreme at all) is a great controlled solo sound. It is a tricky amp. You have to work to make it sound good. The clean channel is as good as it gets when you get a setting you like. Unlike a Marshall that where ever the knobs tend to be randomly set - will allways sound great. It is almost impossible to make a Marshall sound bad. A Mk5 sounding bad is the default setting untill you spend serious hours working out how it works (You will never really work out how this amp works, it way too complicated and life is too short). Any amp that sounds great, would not need a graphic equalizer on the output. As three channel amps go - a Marshall JVM wipes the floor with a MK5 all day long.

It was a modified fender black face Princeton with a beefed up fender bassman power section to make it louder

That is a great axe! Criss Oliva man!

I've owned several of the originals and they were miles ahead of these re issues. I'm sure what you have is a great guitar tho'.

Also i turned my mark 5 25 watt 2 channel amp into a foot switchable 3 channel amp and it works perfect and looks factory, clean, crunch, and lead channel and they are easy to mod.

Things people didn't understand about the mark amps, the pull bright was meant for low volume playing, turn them off live because the amp becomes brighter as you turn it up, the pull deep was meant for people playing strat single coils to fatten them up. The lunch box amps are great because they typically use the smaller El84 tubes break up much sooner than el34 or 6l6 tubes at lower volumes.

you didn't have to spends hours tweaking on it if you used boogies typical settings diagram that came with the amp, it was basically strapped to the top of each mark 4 and people just ripped them off and threw them away. big mistake.

I have 5 of mark series amps, Green stripe, Red stripe, Blue Stripe and a a IIC+.. if they were vastly different they wouldn't have just swiped each version with just a magic marker swipe or a black dot or a + sign. The big difference in the IIC+ and the Mark III was the third channel. Mesa got noticeably different with the Mesa badging vs the Boogie badges. The Rectifier series,The lone star, Road King,Nomad, etc came later and did sound different... The stiletto was probably the most different being EL34 based shooting toward the Marshall tone. Even my newer Mark 5 EL84 based amp sits in my studio with the older mark III'S and IIC+ it too sounds really close even all these years later with totally different power section/ tubes. The petrucci amp is a modern Mark amp and you can line up all the Mark series amps and NO one in the audience would ever know the difference and most guitar players blind folded couldn't pick them out one from the other especially with the transparent EVM 12L black shadow speaker or an MC-90 black shadow. The IIC+ landed production in the right time to become the flagship vintage boogie. Thats when 80's music was huge and that amp was produced at the right time for the players who made it famous. it didn't make them famous. I would argue a Mark III purple, red, blue or green stripe Mark III could have been used by the players who made the IIC+ famous and those albums and concerts wouldn't have sounded any different. They just weren't available at the time those bands recorded those albums. They stopped the IIC+ when the mark III came into production. They stopped the III when the Mark IV started and so on....they are all great amps and tonally are the same. Most of those bands stopped playing the IIC+ and went to the mark III when it came out because the sound was basically the same but the 3 had a third channel, everyone loved that.

You wanna sug it?

Thick fretboards (Jackson) and big frets are the best (imho) for any kind of playing, except maybe slide. Predators were really playable and sounded good too. Just maybe a different bridge pickup. I know, personal preference.

Missed you!

Really good analysis as usual.

Damn.. I thought Weezer reigned at being big rock pretending to be nerd rock, but you may have them beat. 1000% holding back..

Nice review , got me thinking , how hard would it be too put a extra pre amp tube in place of the clipping diode on the MK III , , the controls are the same ,the sensitivity controls the extra tubes in the SL-X and the clipping diode in the MK III , besides drilling an extra hole in the chassis for a 4th tube ,and adding the socket , doesn't serm like a major project since the controls are all the same , basically a Tube for diode swap no ?? Then you have an SL-X Still with the MK III label , but who cares About what the front panel says !!!

Too much time auditioning show the effects show how the guitar sounds in different modes

Hi. Whats the brand of your Pickups? Thanks

Fantastic video - just subbed to your channel. JCM900s are great amps - Dave Navarro used two JCM900 combos (and later used heads and half stacks) for the original Jane's stuff.

Thanks!

Great video!

You need to do a video on that Friedman there. Those are some of the best sounding amps I’ve ever heard.

Love that guitar!

Thanks for the overview and review - I learned a lot.