JCM800 Goes Boom:

gball said:
No doubt. Someone may not like his music but the kid sure does get great tone out of his rigs. My favorite sound of his was when he was using Budda amps, for whatever that's worth.
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I like Joey's playing for sure.
Only met him 1 time at Danny Gatton's shop.
But the advertising hype could choke a horse.
So try to ignore the advertising, and have a listen to some tasty playing. I love it.
(Joey, please stop the spam mails seriously)

 
syscokid said:
I still don't see where Robert said the the amp stopped working. Unless that is what's meant by "JCM800 Goes Boom"?
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He said it in a earlier thread:
"We had a studio mule JCM800 die last night. We were running it wide open in an isolation cabiney for hours and it quit abruptly, without fanfare."

Which amps to use...

We are back in the studio next weekend to record our second single. I am ponderimg which amps and guitars to take. The other guitarist's mom passed away so I will be recording her parts as well. I am debating the JVM to cover all the things without hauling amps around but still wonder about the...
www.thetonerooms.com
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
He said it in a earlier thread:
"We had a studio mule JCM800 die last night. We were running it wide open in an isolation cabiney for hours and it quit abruptly, without fanfare."

Which amps to use...

We are back in the studio next weekend to record our second single. I am ponderimg which amps and guitars to take. The other guitarist's mom passed away so I will be recording her parts as well. I am debating the JVM to cover all the things without hauling amps around but still wonder about the...
www.thetonerooms.com
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Thanks AMS. Wasn't aware of that reply in that thread. A little more detail on what's going on or not going on with this amp would help.

With that extra preamp tube squeezed in there, I'm wondering what the wiring to those sockets looks like... :unsure: Hint, hint... ;)
 
Robert Herndon said:
I know a Los Angeles artist that bought a Dumble Overdrive Special from the man himself. A much anticipated purchase. He was asked to sign a contract that stated he would not allow anyone else to service it or even look inside it. The amp stopped abruptly on him, so I offered to help him on the down low, just to get him back up and running. I was shocked at the sloppy soldering work that I found inside. There was absolutely nothing "trick" or "proprietary" inside that amp. The quality of work was certainly not in alignment with the prices charged.

But, TBTH, this really is commonplace in our world.

Of course, there will always be that hamburger that is on the front of the menu, but it looks nothing like the hamburger you receive.

But the hype and bull:poo: is a money maker for some...

View attachment 46271
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Oh yeah....I got one of them letters with my Blackstar HTr1 head...........er................DUMB-ble
 
Robert Herndon said:
You know, this really got me to thinking. There is a strange mindset at work with music equipment in general, and not just with the end user, but also with the manufacturers. Some equipment - like the 1959 Les Paul - is somehow elevated to some kind of God-like status, when, in reality, they are not nearly as great as all the hype when you actually get your hands on one.

When I tried my hand at putting together custom guitars, I got so many hateful and downright discouraging emails regarding things that I would post. Everything from criticizing the aesthetics of my patented head-stock design, to mixing attributes of Fender & Gibson into one instrument. But on each and every one of the 27 guitars that I produced, each and every one of them received consistently good work.

I would be happy for anyone to open one of my builds and post photos of the internals. I would never send one out the door that I couldn't be proud of. But, maybe when the workload becomes too great, the work quality suffers???

I got to a point where I realized that people like tradition, even if there is something better or something with greater attention to detail. I just totally stopped after that realization, but I feel good about the one's that I produced...

View attachment 46274

The one on the left belongs to Marty Stuart:

View attachment 46275

Ugly, but original headstock design:

View attachment 46276

My first custom build. 24.75" scale, fat '58 Les Paul profile neck with a Floyd Rose. I sank the bridge posts in the wrong place and could never get the intonation right:

View attachment 46277

This is on permanent display in Mom's studio:
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Man, I think it's down right cool that you made up some like did...
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
It's a real slop job that's for sure. A real life hack.
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It is rough as guts, isn't it. I definitely wouldn't be putting my name on a job like that.
Excessive heat from poor soldering technique does easily cause the copper foil traces to lift from the board. Once lifted they are quite fragile too. Hopefully you don't run into too many problems in this regard.
A properly designed & implemented tube buffered FX loop can be just as effective & transparent as the Metroamp (high voltage FET) loops & can offer the advantage of a variable send & return level, though looking at the rest of the work done raises concerns regarding the loop too.
Regardless of what caused this amp to first go low volume, then dead quiet, it needs some serious attention. If the owner is happy with how the modification sounded (before failure) it'd be easy enough for someone competent to re-do it properly. Cheers
 
Update,

The actual cause of the failure was the master volume pot...didn't see that coming. I swapped in a good used one and amp is running again. I did re-melt a few (obviously) bad solder joints. I also replaced the orange cap with the exposed Mylar.

But, the amount of damage caused by the modifier is very extensive.

Quite honestly, i told the owner/producer that i feel as though the work required to make this amp "right" is probably beyond what this amp is actually worth.

You can buy Morin-modded JCM800's on Reverb all day long for $1,200.00 to $1,500.00, so i really can't see the benefit of rebuilding it.

The studio already has a brand new DSL100H in and running and the producer reports it sounds even better than this JCM800 with far more adjustability.

The JCM800 will go back to the studio Friday and i will report back on what eventually happens with it.

Amp Guys - Did any of you notice the box capacitor, running to one of the pots, in the previous images???
 
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