JMD100 Sound Clips

JMD1 Head and Combo

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jeffsmusic4919
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JMD100 Sound Clips

Postby jeffsmusic4919 » 04 Jul 2014, 12:26

Hello all, I have owned a JMD100 since January of 2013. It is a beast of an amp and also ridiculously versatile. Kudos to SteveD in his part of the design. I was overall very impressed with this amp. After waiting for this amp for twenty years or so, I couldn't help but to mod it some, sorry Steve.

One of the main reasons I did some modding is because I chose the wrong tubes for this head. The other is I think i biased it to hot (%70). Plate minus cathode readings. I installed and biased a set of 6ca7EH. I really like this variant of el34 but, boy are they bright. They would probably sound best in a vintage amp that needs all new caps. The P.I. tube I chose the Reissue Mullard 12ax7 because it just suited my ear the best.

I liked the results except I couldn't get enough fizz out. I Should have just swapped tubes or spent major money replacing all my speakers but, I didn't because of a tight budget. So, I started to searching the web for, "Marshall anti-fizz mod", etc, etc. I came across a mod to swap the P.I. coupling cap for a higher value. While this cap in early Fender/Marshall designs isn't for tone sculpting, I did it any way. I settled on 100p because that is what the value of the JVM410HJS cap is on the drawing. Thanks Santiago. I didn't like the result though, I used the wrong type of cap. I should have went with a regular ceramic, instead I used a double space blue one. Definitely not a tone cap of my liking.

Being a compete novice to tube amp modding, I didn't want to pull apart the chassis again for one cap. So I kept looking for more mods. I found another mod where you run (1)120p cap in parallel with the P.I. resisters on the push and pull sides. Easy mod, no pulling the board again. I used the orange drop style caps. Wish I could find those in 100p 500 volt for the coupling cap because these sound awesome. These caps are problematic though when you bend them, if you crack the insulation as I did when installing them, humidity,etc gets inside them and can make the cap fail prematurely. This mod essentially creates a notch filter of about -3db (I think) or half volume of the notched frequency. I don't know how to do the math to figure out which frequency I cut but, this mod did the trick for the most part.

Still not satisfied, I put a 5hy choke in there. Simply put, this amp doesn't need it. It altered the sound some for the liking and disliking. The design of the amp and spec. of the transformer without the mod is more than sufficient. The only thing I am itching to try is a different O.T. Even though I believe it is good quality transformer, ones designed just like the transformers in vintage JCM 800's would be totally killer. Or an upgraded version of the JVM410 transformer so I can run 8 and 4 ohms cabinets simultaneously without a ohm mismatch, that would be killer. I believe each set of speaker connections in a JVM410 has a dedicated ground for each speaker connection. Normal Marshall amps share a ground that is lifted or not, depending which speaker output you are using.

I need to remove the the blue 100p cap, it is giving me a sizzling bacon kind of treble sound sometimes in the dirt channels. Unless that is the P.I. resister-cap mod because the push and pull sides are cutting different frequencies. This amp still sounds near perfect to me though. If there needs to be any corrections, etc because of of me being a novice, please do so. I am here to learn and meet awesome people. So far, mission accomplished. :Cheers

With all of this said.....on to the sound clips.

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Re: JMD100 Sound Clips

Postby jeffsmusic4919 » 04 Jul 2014, 13:46

Amp and Speakers: JMD100(see above), JCM 900 1960A with g12t75's. I normally play a full stack, unfortunately the bass frequencies bled into the mic(s) on the A cab so I disconnected it. This cab is slightly modded, I replaced all inside speaker wire with 12awg. All outside cable is 12awg as well.

I tightened all screws including all interior screws, even the pesky ones behind the rear baffle support pieces that sits right behind the Marshall logo. The speaker screws are perhaps the most important, tighten those suckers as well. All used cabinets should be pulled apart and tightened, I believe. Doing this gets rid of most of the buzzes in the cabinet and makes for a much tighter sound. I was ready to dump this cab before I did this. It sounded pretty awful. I still need to do something with those stupid and cheap plastic weight relieving handles though.

Guitar Cables: I didn't get the JMD foot switch with this head. The amp was 400 USD, used, I couldn't pass on such a steal. So, buying a foot switch for this head new is about 170 USD. I really didn't want to spent the money for just a pedal so I bought a Vox tonlab as a midi switcher. Not to mention extra effects and the bonus of having extra amp models that can be patched in the switchable effects loop is just to much for my brain to process sometime. So many channels so little time. The only downfall seems to be a little lag time between switching channels.

I run (2) good quality cloth coated cables. One to the board and one to the input.

Guitar, Strings, Pick: I used a '98 or '99 (can't remember) Gibson Les Paul Studio with stock pickups. I chose this guitar because these are common guitars. The pickups are decent although they have a cocked wah type of sound going on at times. I used D'addario XL 11's, awesome strings, 10's are just to small for me. I am not a lead player really so I don't bend much. I use Dunlop Tortex orange picks because I like the way the pick attack sounds when I play the strings.

Tone Is In the Fingers(hands), ect: Beleive it or not , I think it is true. It sounds this way because I am playing it. Not just because we have the same gear, etc.

Signal Chain, Mics and recording Gear: I really wanted to just use the emulated out on this because it is so good but, having modded this head, I basically ruined that function. So I used 3 mics and the emulated out to capture what I hear when in the room with the amp. One Shure SM57 against the top right speaker grill cloth, right in the center of the speaker. One CAD E100 on the top left speaker, centered. One AKG C5600 as a room mic, centered about 2.5 or 3 ft away. I was initially happy with just the two close mics but adding a little the room and a little of the emulated out with a -20db pad gave it more of a "being there" type of sound.

All of that went into a 100ft snake, to a Mackie 1604 VLZ and out to a CDRW for a live to two recording. I recorded all of these clips in a single take. I am not as good as many people on here so I hope you enjoy.

I might post more clips with single coil sounds if asked. Thanks, this forum rocks. Any questions or comments are welcome.

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Re: JMD100 Sound Clips

Postby jeffsmusic4919 » 04 Jul 2014, 15:33

I just made up one riff for all channels demoed then I put a couple clips using OD 1 and the boosted settings playing made up riffs to show how you(I) would normally use these channels. Only four of my mostly used channels in total are demoed. Hopefully with more to come. I think these clips a pretty similar to what i heard recording. All the digitizing kinda messed with the treble. I would have to say though, you wouldn't now it is a digital preamp on these amps. I will post the settings in the settings section when I have time.

JVM Clean: All three pickup configurations. No effects or gating.

http://soundcloud.com/jeffsmusic4919/jmd100-clean1

JCM 800 Crunch: All three pickup configurations. No effects or gating.
http://soundcloud.com/jeffsmusic4919/jmd100-crunch1

JCM 800 OD1: All three pickup configurations. No effects or gating.

http://soundcloud.com/jeffsmusic4919/jmd100-overdrive

JCM 800 OD2 Boosted with Tube Screamer Simulator in Vox tonelab le: All three pickup configurations. No effects or gating.

http://soundcloud.com/jeffsmusic4919/jmd100-boosted-od

JCM 800 OD1: Made up riff.

http://soundcloud.com/jeffsmusic4919/jmd100-od1

JCM 800 OD2 Boosted with Tube Screamer Simulator in Vox tonelab le: Made up chugga type riff my friend wrote when we were 15.
http://soundcloud.com/jeffsmusic4919/05-jmd100-chugahs

JCM 800 OD2 Boosted with Tube Screamer Simulator in Vox tonelab le: Dropped D tuning. A little riff I am working on. Will be in dropped B though.
http://soundcloud.com/jeffsmusic4919/jmd100-metal

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Re: JMD100 Sound Clips

Postby jeffsmusic4919 » 04 Jul 2014, 16:05

I need some help either embedding or adding these file as an attachment. I am a total newb to this kind of thing. I have never posted clips before today. I thought there was a tutorial on here about how to do it correctly. I couldn't find it. Any help would would be apreciated. To the mods, let me know if I should change anything. Thanks in advance.

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Re: JMD100 Sound Clips

Postby Woodhead » 05 Jul 2014, 14:28

Do you like the tone better after the mods ? One of the amp guru guys here , did some mod to tame the brightness by switching a resister . It's posted on here somewhere . Good luck with the amp .
I know it's only rock and roll , but I like it .

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Re: JMD100 Sound Clips

Postby jeffsmusic4919 » 19 Aug 2014, 15:21

Sorry WoodHead for the late reply. I have been getting my butt handed to me at work, tons of O.T. and I have some cool things, including band rehearsal stirring in the pot as well. :Stir I purposely stayed away from going in to to much detail about the mods as to discourage others from going mod crazy on a perfectly good head.

Since you asked, the choke is barely noticeable in the feel department but still an improvement. It has an overwhelming and somewhat troublesome jump in bass frequency. If a choke is to stay in long term, I might go from 5hy to a 10hy. The whole reason I switched to a choke was to kill the fizz. It didn't do a damn thing for the fizz. Apparently the input transformer is more than adequate. Not sure about the O.T. yet though.

The P.I. coupling cap mod is awesome, it did lower the treble some. I just need a different style Cap at a higher value to lower the highs some more.

The P.I. resister mod made the most difference. Noticeable right away, much nicer to my ears. Hopefully it's on the way out after I adjust the coupling cap value. This type of design is in Mesas sometimes. :no

With different speakers (perhaps the gt-65's at Surfs suggestion and online sound whoring) and tubes this head would be more to my liking. Regardless, it is a head I hope to never part with any time soon, thanks to SteveD and Marshall Amplification.

I hope to post some settings soon, sorry everybody.

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Re: JMD100 Sound Clips

Postby jeffsmusic4919 » 06 Sep 2014, 21:06

These settings can be found here: http://marshallroadhouse.com/viewtopic. ... 41#p153941

It starts with pristine Clean.

Can you tell I like the JCM 800. :doh This amp has so many good sounds though.
These are just what I use the most frequently.

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Re: JMD100 Sound Clips

Postby surfnorthwest » 07 Sep 2014, 06:12

Those are all respectable tones Jeff, amazing you can get all that from one amp. The JMD1 is a amp that grows on you and will be one of the most dependable amps you ever owned. I liked the JCM 800 OD2 Boosted with Tube Screamer best.


I fixed the Soundcloud files for you. In the future follow these steps to embed a file.

Click on the Soundcloud Icon in your editor, Sound Cloud brackets will appear


Paste your link in between the brackets.
Paste your link here

Be sure to remove the "s" from the "http" in the link (https://soundcloud.com/jeffsmusic4919/jmd100-metal)

should be

http://soundcloud.com/jeffsmusic4919/jmd100-metal
My Gear
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'When I Don't Have Anything Interesting to Play, I just Play Fast' But then who wants to hear 64 bars full of 32nd-notes except the douche-bag blowing them from the stage.


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Re: JMD100 Sound Clips

Postby jeffsmusic4919 » 08 Sep 2014, 16:03

Thanks Surf, glad to know I am not wasting server space. :laugher Seriously though,Thanks. I could've made it sound better but I wanted it to sound like I was standing next to the amp. I didn't want people saying " I used the settings and it didn't sound like yours at all" type of thing. For the newbs who bought one. Although I would have to say, most owners, it seems, don't want to part with theirs. :whoo Their are some really great artists recording and sharing on here including you. I don't know If I could reach that level but my new board should help when I get another (used) computer.

Thanks for noticing the work I put into the boosted sounds. I spent months figuring out what I liked as this channel is on most of the time in the band I am in currently. I am still highly disappointed I couldn't use channel 16 for this as I did when I first bought the head. I just couldn't quite get it there. No slight to anybody though, that channel is a beast. Also on a side note and no slight to anybody as well, the preamp output through my Marshall 9005 into my 1960's is outstanding. There is some serious mojo going on through that setup. I am assuming it's the classic transformers and extra tube gain stage. Not that the JMD100 is a slouch, the power section has some ear splitting power.

In regards to the soundcloud embedding, thanks again. I looked for a tutorial and couldn't find any. I am still a newb to this kind of thing. :Cheers

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