Marshall JCM 800 2204

Made in 1985, Master volume, no bullshit, loud rulz

Kick ass sound, put the pre-amp on 10 and the master vol. on 10, plug a MXR Distortion+ before the amp, and stand way the hell back. great for playing Iron Maiden or Judas Priest.

I bought it when it was 10 years old and it has not let me down yet.

What can I say? It's a Marshall

This amp is mainly a one or two trick pony. I don't consider that a bad thing, what it does, it does well. I use a whole bunch of pedals anyway. High input, low input, master volume and basic tone controls. No reverb. No channel switching.

I play a Fralin-equipped G&L Legacy and a late '60's ES-335TD. First of all, this amp is LOUD. Too loud for me. Rare is the occasion I get to let it rip. It sure can shake the floor in a very satisfying way, though. Second, this amp is BRIGHT. Way too bright for single coils! To remedy this, I removed all of the bright bypass capacitors. With the caps out, it's just right for me. It should be noted, I prefer dark tones and use mainly single coils and reissue Greenback speakers in a ported cab. If you play humbuckers and use Vintage 30s, you may like this amp just the way it is. A few words about the tone: very harmonically rich, good bass, and really lovely clean tones with a strat. That's something the diode clipping, channel switching JCM800s can't accomplish. Vintage 30s are likewise lousy for clean.

This is a circuit board amp, probably made around 1984. The circuit board is a bummer, but the components are easily accessible. The pots and jacks are large and sturdy. No problems with this amp! Did I mention that the output transformer is massive?

A good, solid amp with a big sound. Believe it or not, you could use this thing as a jazz or country amp--that's how good the clean sound is. Great crunch when cranked. I don't run the gain all the way up because it sounds fizzy to my ears. I've never encountered a louder 50 watt amp.

The amp I own was made in 1983. This amp is great for classic rock tones through the high gain, and absolutley great marshall cleans through the low. Presence/Low/Mid/High/Master VOL. and Preamp Vol. this amp is a sweet marshall and only a marshall. It is simple and made for a guitarist who wants his gear set up in 2 mins. I play in a Metallica, Greenday Offspring band. I run a Boss Metal Zone through the front end of a Peavey Bandit, and then run that through this, and the tone is TOTAL ROCK! I also run just my metal zone through it with a little loss of my low end but that is it. I still get a kicking metal/hardrock tone.

Like I said above I run a metal zone through it. I play a Peavey patriot with a Semour Duncan Custom in the bridge. Total metal or hard rock. This suits this musical style perfectly. It also has an awsome clean tone. The tone is one to make a fender jelouse. the clean channel dosen't distort at loud volumes. If you plug into the high gain, it is pure acdc rock. Hard and loud. It pummels you to stand infront of a 4/12. When I play with my metal zone, I feel like my insides are getting a massage. The sound just rips you apart and makes you want more. totally awsome

I have one thing to say. This amp fell from the top of 2 4/12's stacked. I thought it was going to need a bit of help. I did break the speaker cable off in it too. I pulled out some plyers, removed the broken cable end, pluged in a new one, cranked it on, and it was untouched. I have also had this amp dropped out of the back of a slow moving car, and again it played with no problems. This thing is a tank!! I can't seem to break it, and that is enough for me!

Never needed it. Probably never will

AWSOME, Just totally awsome. I would by the thing all over again if I had too. But I hope I don't, becasue I love this one so much. The only thing I would gripe about it, is it is heavy. but to own the sound it has, I don't care!!

I give it about a 7 because it's a simple amp with few bells and whistles. One channel, gain, master, treb, mid, bass, pres. Pure all-tube simplicity. I have two of these heads, bught one new, one used and have used them professionally for ten years. With the right settings I can get an SRV-like greasy tone or classic crunch. When I played in a metal band in the 80's I pushed the front of the amp with a Boss SD-1 all the time and just backed the guitar off a bit for rhythm. I use quad boxes with 25 watt greenback Celestions because I like the compressed tone they give.

I use a Les Paul Studio Light with Duncan 59's and a '57 reissue strat With 2 x Lace sensors and a Duncan Lil' 59 HB in the Bridge for my main band. We play original hard rock; more punk/pop than metal, and a mix of cover stuff from 60's to 90's, and this amp seems to work well for me. With my guitars I can go from a pretty good edgy 'clean' to chunk rhythm just by turning the guitar up/down. I usually run pre on 7 master on 3 treb and mid on 6 bass on 2 pres off. for leads use Boss ge-7 or sd-1 to get extra boost. I also have a switchable second master volume fitted to my main head which allows me to preset a louder amp setting for solos at gigs where I can't play loud all the time. The only thing this amp won't do is Really heavy distortion. It's a classic rock amp. Period. Turned up full (pre 10, master 10) it is a bit 'squashy' and you have to roll the bass off although it gives pretty good sustain. For loud playing, I recommend the Tesla E34Ls Groove Tubes and the addition of transient suppression diodes to the output circuit (ask your tech). The other Mod that I did to the second head was to remove the "bright bypass" capacitor from the preamp gain control, because I use this amp with a standard strat-style guitar for blues work and it was too bright as stock. I give it an 8 because it works well for me but may not suit everybody.

As I said I have two of these amps and the only problem I have had was a blown HT fuse once during a gig due to old O/P Tubes. I had to replace one of the filter caps in my main head last year. I blew one 25 speaker once (think it was on it's way out) I retube at least once a year. Both amps have been in roadcases all their lives and have done many thousand kilometres and hundreds of gigs indoor and outdoor. With good maintenance and a little care these heads should go for years. Anyone considering buying one of these should find a good tech and have it checked and/or serviced.

Never dealt with Marshall directly so can't really say. Spare parts support in Australia fairly well sucks!!!! I do my own work on my amps.

I have tried a lot of other amps and while I am hankering after a VHT at the moment nothing else I have played seems to work for my style. A lot of players I have spoken to either love or hate these amps. There ain't much middle ground. Sometimes I wish it was more versatile. It basically has one good sound - controllable rock raunch I bought the first one when I started playing professionally - I wanted a Marshall; I actually thought it sounded like crap when I first used it;take a little getting used to and you definitely need tofind the right pickups for your axe to match these heads. Tonally they are warmer than the JCM 900's, and more reliable too. I also have a really nice '63 Vox AC-30 (non top boost) which I mainly use for recording and sometimes live with one Marshall and an a/b box

Basic Marshall head - Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence, Volume. Effects loop in back, PA out. Gain channel is the standard channel. I play mostly Metal, and did not find the gain enough at all, but since I don't have a footswitch, was stuck with it. Never used the reverb, the pot was dead.

Using it through a vintage Fender Strat, the amp had MAJOR buzz with the gain cranked and the volume cranked (I don't know why others say it's quiet, I don't know what head they have heard), same thing with an EMG-81 loaded Warlock (though not quite as bad, still very audible). The amp has the basic Marshall sound to it, there's really no explanation there. The EQ didn't do too much for the sound itself, just the presence knob.

Although I'm definitely not a fan of the amp, I'll say that it's built like a rock. Throughout the course of my owning it, I've had things spill into the back grill, the reverb pot destroyed (as long as it was on 0 the amp still worked fine), the effects loop busted (oops), the tubes bursting into flames (doesn't help the appearance - charred the back grill, set the front cloth on fire, quite an interesting look on people's faces as they watched it basically explode), and dropped it from about five feet in the air onto concrete, in a puddle no less. After replacing the tubes, it worked perfectly. Believe me I was amazed!

I have never dealt with Marshall.

Overall, I'm not a fan of this or basically any other Marshall (or tube, for that matter) amp. I played it for over a year, through heavy abuse, without it breaking, but the major noise and constant replacement of tubes inspired me to trade it for a Randall RG120H head, which I'm very glad I did - it's much louder and better (check out my review of it in the Randall page - I also owned a 100 watt version of this Marshall head which I compare it to in that review). I definitely would not get it again, it was too much of a pain.

Basically a one-trick pony, but it does it very well. 50 watts, all tube ( 2 x El 34's, and 3 12 AX7's). I bought this head because of the fond memories I had with a 4104 (same electronics, but a combo with 2 x 12" G-series Celestions. Controls are simple: Presence, Bass, Mid, Treble, Master, Preamp. 2 Speaker outs. High and low gain inputs. I noticed that the electronics (eq stage) is not as interactive with the volume control in this amp. With my 4104, I could roll the volume almost all the way back via my tone controls, and thus get intense, crackling Marshall tones with the Volume controls wound up all the way, and using the Bass to control the overall volume. I know it sounds crazy, but that is the way it was! Anyways, all rambling aside, this amp is pure Marshall, no frills. A great amp in terms of value, and in terms of TONE! It is excellent for my rack gear (using the LOW gain input), but I prefer to crank it through the High gain channel, with a tube screamer, or Boss super overdrive (SD-1) in front of it. Unfortunately, I have to rate the versatility as low, because I love the high gain tones so much, I prefer to use a MosValve to power my rack gear, but this amp ranks with my Hiwatts, and others in my arsenal.

This amp is surprisingly quiet, even when cranked! A real rocker, but good for clean tones when you use the low gain input. PLENTY HEADROOM!!! I always underestimate the power and balls of these amps. They ooze with Marshall tone, at all volume levels (the louder the better!) It has great punch and definition, and is everything a Marshall should be. I have compared it with newer Marshalls ( 900's and those JTM-60 things), and they are lacking something. I think the new Marshalls are lacking a soul. I know it sounds crazy. People said the same thing of the JCM-800 line when it was introduced, so I don't want to sound like a hypocrite! But the newer amps do not do it for me. They just don't have the balls that the older Marshalls have.

I am not gigging live at present, so I defer to comment!

Marshall have been good to me in the past. They sent me a unique Christmas present one year, after Efkay Distributors (who used to handle Marshall imports in Canada) would not get me some Marshall parts I ordered (nine months in passing!). I wrote to Korg USA (the American distributor), and they forwarded my letter to the Marshall factory in Milton Keynes (GB). They responded with an apology, and stated that the did not want to lose an "avid" Marshall user. To make up for my suffering, they sent me the parts from England as a gift. God bless them (Jim too!).

Overall, I can't give this amp a rating. You either love them or you don't, plain & simple. A Marshall by any other name would ever sound so sweet (as long as it was made before the 900 series!). Grab one, before it is too late.

Very simple...Presence/Bass/ Middle/ Treble/ Master vol./ Preamp Vol. And it all works perfectly. Single channel operation.... and I wouldn't have it any other way!

The sound is MARSHALL.... it's only one sound, but its the THE sound that a hell of a lot of guitarists try to get using crappy little transitor amps, or wimp valve amps! You can't beat it! You plug it in, turn it up and it "kicks arse" from the very start. The music I play varies from rock originals to Joe Jackson to Hendrix to REM to..... and the 2204 does the job. The amp is REALLY quiet! and I use an Ibanez JEM777 through it! It's great. Preamp on 6 and master volume on 3, and for all my rhthem sounds I use the single coil settings on the guitar for a clean (with slight edge) sound, and then for any solo... forward or back to the two humbuckers.... and KA-POW! Start stripping the paint off the walls. As you probably realise... I'm as happy as a pig in poo!

These things are built like Mack trucks, so they could be on bloddy fire, and it will still work perfectly! INDESTRUCTABLE!

Haven't need to... Its simple, sounds great, and works!

I have been playing since I was 9, and that was thirty years ago! I have played professionally for 6 of those years, and I have had regular gigs for the rest of that time. (21 years at about 2-3 gigs per week for 40 weeks of the year) Other gear includes Digital home recording gear, on old Seymore Duncan 100w Convertible (if it's good enough for Jeff Beck...etc) and a few guitars and samplers. I've always played in 3-4 piece bands where I play lead guitar, and lead vocals. Yes... I would buy another one if required... this old JCM800 is just to honest and sounds to good for such a little price... if you were buying a "designer" amp, you would pay twice as much for the same outcome. I don't hate anything about it... as I said... it's simple, solid and sounds GREAT! If you are looking for an amp that cranks... get one!

The MK II 2204 50Watt is probably my favorite of the newer Marshalls. Bear nuts and bolts, no effect loops, no channel switching. Just the basic with master volume, input gain, high and low sensitivity inputs Very Simple, All Tube, 3-12ax7's, 2-EL34's. For what I use I would not any more features.

If you use rack preamps & effects this is about the best head to use. It's warmer than 100 watt. Input on low sensitivity side, pre-amp gain at about 8. This will make just about any processor happy. Real Warm clean tones with early Marshall flavor. High gain presets will bring out more modern character. using this input makes for very quiet (for a Marshall) operation, at least mine. With out the loss of an effects loop. Really brings tube warmth to processed sound. This 50 Watt 800 and a 4-12 really puts out. I use a 100 Watt 900 Dual Reverb half regularly (for convienience only) Front end my rack into it on clean side. I can't get my effects to sound good thru loop. This 2204 will blow the doors of this 900, other players that have tried this particular head are amazed of the level of output. Also distortions can be warmer and more natural than the 900's. My set up is an old twin(clean) and this Marshall half(Edge). I A/B VIA midi loop processor, still use an echo-plex, as well as digital stuff. The RAT also works this set up pretty good. High gain side sounds real good although not metal, it has early Marshall character, it really cuts thru. I'm happy with my tone, I can get that Marshall edge tone while being able to use current processors. Can give great vintage and modern tones.
I had a 1959 post-plexi(71')4-holer 100watt stack in early 70's I really miss it if you see a 1959 #2388E, or 1960 A&B's #07354, #07231 Please Email info@hamptonplace.com

No problems with it yet, I bullet proof my amps.

No experience.

Absolutely!! Its my favorite of this breed. I bought the head and a slant 4-12 for $625.00. The previous owner wanted to buy a motorcycle and he moved it cheap! This thing is flawless looks never used, not even faded grill cloth. (In which if you use a little Armor-all on a sponge, it won't fade.)