All,
A friend of mine recently bought a Marshall JTM30 1x12 at a yard sale. He plans to resell it. He knows nothing about guitars or amps so he asked me to check it out.
It's kind of in rough shape. I've posted pictures below. I can post more if necessary.
After testing it quite a bit yesterday, here's what I found:
Items that work or are in good order
1. Channel footswitch jack and channel push-button.
2. Clean Volume
3. Boost Gain
4. Boost Volume
5. Bass Control
6. Effects Loop
7. Master Volume.
8. Speaker Output
Here are the faults with the amp:
1. Half of the split shaft for the mid control is broken. The pot will need to be replaced.
2. The entire shaft of the treble control is broken off. This pot will need to be replaced, too.
3. The speaker wire will need to be re-terminated into a new plug. It was poorly terminated by the previous owner.
4. Four attachment bolts used to attach the amp chassis to the cabinet are missing from the top of the amplifier.
5. The feet are missing.
6. Missing one control knob. There was a baggie in the cabinet with a knob to one of the broken pots.
Here are the two big issues:
7. The reverb does not work at all.
8. The boost channel cuts out and just stops working as you move the master volume up to about 2:00. Even then, it doesn't get really loud. I don't believe its the pot, because when I get the amp to that point, I can switch to the clean channel and it's fine. If I switch back to the boost channel, it's dead. Also, as you play through the amp, there is an odd crackling on the boost channel that isn't there with the clean channel.
Honestly, as it sits now, my little Marshall DSL-5C is louder than this.
At this point, I'm not looking for troubleshooting advice. That may come later.
I'm looking for advice on the following three questions:
1. I have considered buying this amp from him, myself. Is this a smart move?
2. I am not at all worried about faults 1 - 6 above. I can fix those. I could even live without the reverb as I could use a reverb pedal in the loop. But item number 8 is a show-stopper if it cannot be reasonably repaired. Is this amp worth the effort and expense to fix?
3. If I were to buy it, what is a fair price to offer in its current condition?
Here are the Pics...
Amp Front:

Amp Top:

Back Plane:

Speaker:

A friend of mine recently bought a Marshall JTM30 1x12 at a yard sale. He plans to resell it. He knows nothing about guitars or amps so he asked me to check it out.
It's kind of in rough shape. I've posted pictures below. I can post more if necessary.
After testing it quite a bit yesterday, here's what I found:
Items that work or are in good order
1. Channel footswitch jack and channel push-button.
2. Clean Volume
3. Boost Gain
4. Boost Volume
5. Bass Control
6. Effects Loop
7. Master Volume.
8. Speaker Output
Here are the faults with the amp:
1. Half of the split shaft for the mid control is broken. The pot will need to be replaced.
2. The entire shaft of the treble control is broken off. This pot will need to be replaced, too.
3. The speaker wire will need to be re-terminated into a new plug. It was poorly terminated by the previous owner.
4. Four attachment bolts used to attach the amp chassis to the cabinet are missing from the top of the amplifier.
5. The feet are missing.
6. Missing one control knob. There was a baggie in the cabinet with a knob to one of the broken pots.
Here are the two big issues:
7. The reverb does not work at all.
8. The boost channel cuts out and just stops working as you move the master volume up to about 2:00. Even then, it doesn't get really loud. I don't believe its the pot, because when I get the amp to that point, I can switch to the clean channel and it's fine. If I switch back to the boost channel, it's dead. Also, as you play through the amp, there is an odd crackling on the boost channel that isn't there with the clean channel.
Honestly, as it sits now, my little Marshall DSL-5C is louder than this.
At this point, I'm not looking for troubleshooting advice. That may come later.
I'm looking for advice on the following three questions:
1. I have considered buying this amp from him, myself. Is this a smart move?
2. I am not at all worried about faults 1 - 6 above. I can fix those. I could even live without the reverb as I could use a reverb pedal in the loop. But item number 8 is a show-stopper if it cannot be reasonably repaired. Is this amp worth the effort and expense to fix?
3. If I were to buy it, what is a fair price to offer in its current condition?
Here are the Pics...
Amp Front:

Amp Top:

Back Plane:

Speaker:
