900 dual revrb

[crzyfngers]

so i blew one of the gt-75's that came in the thing. in a rush (i gig) i bought an emminence beta II which was 8ohm so i had to switch the other 75 with an 8ohm vintage 30. now this freaking thing sounds great. i was hating it but now i might actually use it outside the house.

[reggieband]

The 900 dual reverb was the first head I bought. It has a nice punch but I found it muddy. How do the new tubes alter the tone?

[cpsdawg]

when these amps came out i thought they sounded like crap . real compressed and lifeless. i find now that by cranking the master on both channels and keeping the gain low, they come to life and will really sing with an od in front of the amp. speakers definately make a huge difference.

[stan p]

THey can probably be modded to any Marshall spec? The chasis, OTs and powers supply are all there

[crzyfngers]

Originally Posted by cpsdawg

when these amps came out i thought they sounded like crap . real compressed and lifeless. i find now that by cranking the master on both channels and keeping the gain low, they come to life and will really sing with an od in front of the amp. speakers definately make a huge difference.

that's the ticket. the master has to be above 7 for it to open up.mine has been modded to take some of the shrillness out of the high end. i'm starting to like it.

[reggieband]

With the master so high how are you managing gain? I mean I practice with this thing at master 3.5 and full gain with a full band and I go home with ears ringing ...

Do you have a pedal for your distortion/OD? Is Master at 10 + a pedal bearable?

Whenever I used pedals in the past they lacked the balls-shaking sound of the Marshal gain. I mean, even if they sounded technically better they didn't cause my insides to shake (if you know what I mean).

[crzyfngers]

Originally Posted by reggieband

With the master so high how are you managing gain? I mean I practice with this thing at master 3.5 and full gain with a full band and I go home with ears ringing ...

Do you have a pedal for your distortion/OD? Is Master at 10 + a pedal bearable?

Whenever I used pedals in the past they lacked the balls-shaking sound of the Marshal gain. I mean, even if they sounded technically better they didn't cause my insides to shake (if you know what I mean).

try it with the master at 7 and your gain at 4. it doesn't take a lot of pedal to push it into creamy goodness. you might bump the bass a little but it's up to you. i think the pedals sound better when they're pushing the power tubes and not the preamp tubes.

[DISTORT6]

reggieband-

Try a EQ pedal in the loop. It's like FM radio compared to AM radio. I use one all the time whenever I use my JCM900 2100 head.

[alvagoldbook]

Any JCM 900 sounds like crap...that is until you crank them....then they sound like gold. If you can afford it, if you have a JCM 900 and power brake is a good thing to have so you can crank it at bedroom levels.

[Veritas]

I agree with most things said here. I had a 50 watt dual reverb for a lot of years as my main amp, and if it was cranked, it was amazing. Also, speakers make a huge difference with them. I always thought the GT75's sounded bad with the 900, too tinny. As stated above, an eq in the loop works really well for tailoring the tone.

[Mark Robinson]

These amps get slammed so hard. I think a lot of the problem is the speakers that Marshall was using in those days.

I used one for years, picked it up after seeing a great band with a guitarist who played mostly clean with one. Mine was the single 12" model, and it sounded so good into a regular Marshall 4 x 12" that I used it that way a lot too. I put an EV 12L in and had a tech put a bright bypass cap on the clean volume, so that I could run the highs low on the dirty channel and still have some sparkle in the clean. So there I was with a "grab and go" 100 watt Marshall. Well maybe "grab, grunt and go" . The shared e.q. was a problem. But the amp ran great for a long time, then the pot connections to the board started failing here and there, and I eventually got to a point where I could fix that myself. I never sounded bad because of that amp. Might have sounded bad for other reasons but not the amp.

[reggieband]

I wouldn't say I disliked the amp or the tone ... I felt it was close but just not perfect (I guess I see it as an 8.5 out of 10.). It has its issues too like dirty FX loop plugs sometimes blocking the signal and I've had my share of retubes and blown fuses. To be fair, it has put up with a fair amount of abuse.

I got the speaker cab at the same time as the head (Marshall 4x12 slant cab the previous years model to the head) so maybe it also has to do with that - not sure of the exact type or quality of the speakers, I just remember they are celestians.

In the end, for the price I paid and the use it has seen (in the range of 10 years) it has been a satisfying purchase. However, if it was lost or stolen I would definitely upgrade to something a little nicer.