Marshall JCM 800 2204

This is a late eighties 50W head without any features. Just a basic 2204. It has 2 inputs, high and low, no real channels, inputs work fine anyway. I play Satriani style rock, this amp is ok for that, Satriani plays pretty basic, so do i. Tonal controls are limited, however, you can get a very good rock sound out of it.

I use it with a heavily modified Gibson SG with P90 humbuckers, it works very well and sounds really classic. However, this is a rock amp, period! No features and only one choice of volume, loud as hell at any setting using the high input because the low input really is too low, just use it as a link to another head. The volume settings are loud-louder-ohmygod!, so don't buy this amp if you have to deal with neighbours or small bars or cafe's. By the way, it can sound very ACDC with my SG, thats cool, but actually you can get all the classic haircrime sounds out of it just like another reviewer said, this amp was actually used a lot back in the eighties so it sounds very familiar.

It is solid as a rock, i have several marshall amps, they never pooped out.

I am playing since i was 12, now i am 43. I bought this amp as a live replacement voor my original 2204 wich was heavily toured out. It does very well. If it was stolen it would be too bad, i would probably try to buy another or maybe i will try a Koch or a 50W Mesa rectifier head. It is a sad thing that these 2204 amps are becoming expensive collectors items nowadays, prices are driven up by greedy dealers mostly. It is like another reviewer allready stated, don't pay too much for a second hand 2204, they made a lot of them back in the eighties, they were not very expensive back then, and they are not scarce or vintage in any way. There even is a reissue that sounds identical to the original so that makes these originals just old amps, nothing special. They are made very basic and there are no gold or alien parts inside to drive the prices up. When buying, better avoid professional dealers.

This is a JCM800 2204 MK2 lead series amp, pretty basic, 50Watts with 2 EL34 output tubes and 3 ECC83 pre-amp tubes, Drake transformers.
It has a DI output in the back, but i never use it, don't even know if it actually works at all haha. The amp has everything i need, only thing it lacks in my opinion is an input for a channel select pedal (to switch between the high and low input) instead of 2 inputs.
I use my Marshall heads with the standard 1960 cabinet, loaded with the standard G12T75 speakers. Only mod done to my speakers is a damping filling (rockwool), as a experiment actually, i can't hear a difference but nobody feels the urge to remove the filling again so it just got left in there.

It sounds from smooth bluesy (not fender clean, just straight to the point "gee i should buy a better guitar" clean), to brutal! I do not agree with other reviewers that it is not suitable for metal, i have a Gibson LP Classic, Strat, and a Kramer Pacer bananahead with a humbucker from hell in the bridge, with the last guitar this amp screams harder then the hell this Dimarzio humbucker came from. With the LP Classic it sounds, hmm, classic? The Fender sounds pretty Jimi if you want to, but it can be very Yngwie too! The amp is a bit noisy when cranked all the way up there is a hissing sound when not playing, and sometimes some interference from the power supply can be heard through the speaker (like coolers in bars, and mobile phones beepin' through). It is not a real problem though. The amp has some nice sounds, you can get all the famous 80's rockin sounds from this amp since they actually used this amp a lot in the eighties. The low input stays well clean even in high volume playing, the high input tends to overdrive immediately and only gets more overdriven. The tone control reacts well in high volume playing, however, you should do a soundcheck with the volume you will be playing live since the tone does change a bit when pushing this amp harder. The amp could have some less low, it tends to sound really brown with humbuckers, when playing metal you should turn the low-knob allmost shut and the prescence wide open using the bridge humbucker. But finally, this amp sounds good, without a doubt 100% Marshall tone (unlike the jcm900 and newer series).

It is a tube amp, tubes can wear out so if you can afford it, just use 2 or more stacks like me, it looks cool by the way. My amps have never let me down, but i keep them well serviced by my tech.
I give it an 8 because it is a tube amp, they just need srvice once in a while.

Never dealt with customer support.

I am playing from somewhere early eighties. I got myself 5 of these amps during the early nineties, they were abandoned after a tour by the rental company that turned out to be bankrupt and selling them for jack shit, so i adopted them stowing em' away in my garage for a few years while playing my heavy modded Fender Bandmasters. However, my fenders were becomming rather old like me and allmost ripe for a museum like me, so i decided to use the jcm800's on tour just to keep my ego upright with shiny newisch amps, and i used em' ever since. I love the sound, my roadies hate the weight, i love the looks, my roadies hate the weight, i love the show, my roadies hate the weight, i love the fact that is has no useless knobs, my roadies hate the weight and i just love em generally because they are so big, lovely, shiny and smell just like a dream, oh, marshall amps are rather heavy did i mention that my roadies hate the weight WOEHAHAHAHAHA (evil laugh).
If they were stolen, hmm, first i would really like to see somebody trying to steal 5 Marshall stacks from under our noses, he would probably be reduced to a damping filling inside the cabinets.

mine is '84, horizontal input, 50W, single channel, presence,bass,mid,treble,master and pre amp volume- classic.
i bought it with brand new Groove tubes.
i'm kinda missing the FX Loop for my MXR Analog delay, but i can live even without it.

I use Epi SG with Gibson 498T bridge PUP and it works pretty good, use my 2204 with 4x12 box with Celestion V30, hand made, not marsall.
The sound of this amp is warm, agressive, but controlable, with not much gain (my heavymetal friends say its unusable:), but its gotta be in your hands, not in "gain" knob, man!
i play classic hard rock and this gear is ideal for it.

i use it without a backup amp, because a had to sell my old combo (solid state 50w sh*t) to afford this screamer. but i should buy some backup, you never know..
so far there was no need for changing the tubes as ive had this amp for only few weeks.

never dealt with them. no need for doing it..

first, i wanted to buy '76 Master Model (you know, those old amps with "JMP" sign) four-hole. but what a shame, it was tooo expensive. just because of its age! this amp (2204) has the same controls (knobs), better tubes and costs half price than the old JMP sh*t! so, search for the sound not for model, guys! so far, jcm800 2204 is the best amp ive ever had..

Master Volume Series, one channel, basic adjstables, plus an ohmage selector, (4, 8 and 16). Good for playing a variety of different sounds, sounds great with classic rock in the vein of ac/dc. The amp is plenty loud, I play it through an old fender 4x12 cab which i recently put celestion greenbacks in, which boosted the sound immensely.

I use an epiphone sg-custom (triple humbucker) with this amp and it sounds really good, better pickups for my guitar would definetely help, but the amp makes these sparkle like nothing else I have used with the guitar. I play it though an old fender cab with celestion greenbacks, and the sound is very chimey and high, plenty loud, but lacking a bit of depth. The clean input is great at any volume. The gain is absolutely not for numetal stuff, but for punk rock, indy, or classic rock, it's an excellent sound. At higher volumes, when the greenbacks naturally distort it sounds exceptionally rocking, still can't match the beauty or smoothness of an orange ad-30 single channel though.

Been rocking since 1987, very reliable.

Been playing since 1994, This is my favorite piece of gear that I have bought yet. If it were stolen or lost (lost???) i would probably buy it again, if the price was right, if i was going to spend more than 800 i would hold out and get an orange though.

I have no idea when this amps was built, i think around 1988 somewhere. It is a MK2 master lead model, 50W, 2 EL34's and Drake transformers. Luxery options, it has a DI output, the rest of the options is standard. I rate it a 10 because it offers everything i need.

I use a Les Paul with PAF57' humbuckers, and a strat with vintage noiseless pickups. Both guitars sound good on this amp. It can be from very bluesy to that very eighties haircrime hardrock style, it sounds just as how a marshall should sound and how much you are willing to put the volume up. A good speaker cabinet i also a serieus factor for creating the sound. I have my marshall stack equipped with Celestion G12H-30 speakers, and this sounds great (warmer and with more definition then 25er greenbacks of the standard G12T75 speakers)
The amp has a little hiss when i put it all the way up, but it is an old tube amp, what do you expect. Variety is limited, but it gives you a good amp to use with several guitars, search for your tone here, trying several guitars or pickups. This amp won't forgive a bad player, when you play crappy, you WILL sound crappy.
I play it clean (without pedals), mostly with my Fender, it does a good job. I like playing heavy bluesrock in a 3 guys (guitar-bass-drum) formation, so i use a lot of overdrive, this amp has a very classic sounding overdrive but to break through the band in a solo, even with the bright sounding strat, you should consider using a pre-amp like the dod250 (Yngwie) to push the gain just a little bit further. I personally have 2 stacks on stage, the first is with this marshall, the second is a Mesa Triple Rectifier, i use the second to break through with solos using a switchbox but a more affordable way is the dod250.
I rate it a 9 because a perfect amp is jet to be invented, but this one is very close (to me).

I keep it well serviced, it has never let me down jet.

Never dealt with them. I bought the history of Marshall book for my tech, all schematics are in the book with kind thanks to marshall.
A good indirect customer support i guess.

It is a very good amp, but one thing that really bothers me everytime again is that some commercial dealer are driving the prices up because they turn em into "vintage amps". These 2204 amps have a very simple layout, and were sold in very large numbers back in the eighties and nineties so don't pay too much for them, they are not a holy item of rock.
I have several amps including a Mesa Triple Rectifier, Mesa Caliber 50, Red Bear MK120, Marshall JTM30, JCM800 combo and a Fender Deluxe Reverb combo. I am playing live with a combination of the jcm800 2204 and a Mesa Triple rectifier stack.

My amp is a 2204 mk2 w/horizontal inputs so I guess mid-eighties. I play punk rock, and this is more than powerful enough. I never use the low input.

I use a Gibson SG standard with a Seymour Duncan JB bridge pick up, no pedals. I had a 1977 Marshall JMP mk2 100w before this but I traded it for this one as it wasn't particularly reliable, I initially wished I could have got a 100w but soon realised that this overdrives way better at lower volumes. This amp has everything a punk rock guitarist needs, in my opinion there is no better amp for this style of music.

I've gigged with this amp all over Europe and the U.S. with no back up and it's served me well, it's never broken down regardless of how much abuse it's had! (Another good thing about the 50w, it doesn't have a grill on top like the 100w, that thing is a beer magnet!)

Never had to deal with them.

I've been playing for 21 years and I own 2 left hand Gibson Sg standards. If my JCM 800 were lost or stolen I'd hunt down and kill the recipient. The sound is incredibly dirty, nasty, powerful yet tender, warm and receptive, all at the same time, I haven't played through a better amp.

my 2204 was made in '87, i bought it last year (2003) from a friend. This amp doesn't have much for features but it doesn't really need any, well reverb would be nice but hey, a jcm 800 with matching cab for $50/week for 14 weeks, I guess i can live without reverb. This amp is very loud, I played a small club in "goat-fuck-nowhere just recently and couldn't get the master volume over 2 without the other musicians getting mad for drownong them out. (wimps)

I use a strat with fender noiseless pickups primarily, and this amp makes them sing. I have tried guitars with humbucker setups and they also sound awesome, only reason I'm not using something with humbuckers is I can't affort a really good new guitar right now. I have always played through a 50 watt Garnet combo (simalar to a fender amp)and was quite happy with it, but when I brought the marshall into the jam space and plugged it in, WoW! The dynamics, sustain, and harmonics you can get with this thing are just fantastic. Really clean sounds at high volume are somewhat hard to come by, but if you roll back on the gui volume it sounds clean enough when playing with the rest of a band. I don't have much in the way of effects, just an older digital delay rack unit w/ footswitch, Crybaby (sometimes), and cheap distortion pedal (that I seldom use). Most often the distorsion you get by cranking the pre amp and backing off on the master is all the gain you need all in all the sound of this amp rocks!

This amp screwed up one time on me, but that was because the last owner never changed the tubes, EVER! So I outfitted her with new JJ's output tubes(matched of course) and pre amp tubes and that was that. The last owner was very hard on it, he kept it in the garage @ -40*C (welcome to Canada, eh)and would turn it on without a care in the world, but the amp would take no problem. If this thing could survive 15 years with that guy it can take anything. Very durable.

N/A, never needed.

I played for about 12 yrs now, and all the while I never understood why people got so horny over "a Marshall". I always thought they were very over rated and over priced. Then I REALLY tried one. While I still think they are over priced(everything is over priced), I definatly don't think of them as over rated. If my jcm800 got stolen I, I, I... I don't want to think about that. One thing have learned, tube amps rock, especially the almighty Marshall [but i still love the fender twins, and my trusty old Garnet (for blues only of course)] If you have the chance to buy a 50 watt half stack, buy it.

This here is a 1981 JCM 800 2204, it's got vertical inputs which I guess is good. its a single channel amp with hi and lo inputs, 6 knobs and an on/off and standby switch. doesn't get much more simple than that folks. and thats partly why I got it, if you want 4 channels and builtin mega-reverb DSP flanging octave-wahs, this is NOT your amp. its 50 watts, which means basically nothing really, whats the difference between that and a 100 watt amp? not even a notch on the volume knob. it's all tube, it uses 6550's(no i don't like zakk wylde, i guess the 2204's actually came stock with these things, go figure) instead of your usual EL34s you see in most marshalls. i'm not rating based on number of features, but really how well it uses the few features it has. it does its thing and does it very good.

I should mention that I traded in a DSL-100 for this puppy, and not one regret either. this thing had a whole new dimension of sound, it doesn't have as much variety but who cares. my only regret is that its not 100 watts. not because i need more power, actually the opposite. but i've found 100 watt amps have more punch to them, oh well. this amp gets dirty, i play dirty gritty rock, this is what it does very nicely, you're going to have to turn it up though of course, which i don't get a chance to do very often, but when i do... it's sweet. it only really does that one thing, but it does it so well that its all worth it. its clean is... well its better than my peavey rage 158. the DSL's clean was better but, who cares about how well a marshall can do clean? thats not what marshalls are for, they're here to dirty up the joint, and thats just what this one does.

the first preamp tube socket is moody. this is because its not stock, its' definately been replaced. and it sucks. the volume will cut out sometimes, i need to have it looked at. but this is not marshalls fault, all of the other tube sockets work fine.

never dealt with them, they'd probably just tell me to shove my 20 year old amp where the sun don't shine anyways - i'm pretty sure whatever warranty it had expired around the time i entered grade school.

Overall this is a kickin amp. it does its thing well except for when the preamp socket gives me trouble, its simple and thats why i like it. i'd like 100 watts as it'd probably be more punchy but, these amps are hard to find and i don't want to pay the ridiculous 1300 bucks for the reissue. but its definately the best sounding amp i've had regardless.

Mines a 1984 vertical input 2204 w El34's. Features already explained. It sounds fantastic....now. When I bought it used it had a tube effects loop installed and the amp sounded farty with the crappiest bottom end. I had it checked out by Dennis at Central Jersey music in NJ. This guy and his shop know their shit bigtime and found a problem with the loop mod. I had him rip it out set the amp back to stock. After I got it home I couldnt stop playint it. Its sounds great. Its a 1 channel amp that can clean up a little bit when the guitar is turned down, but its made to rock and rock loud. Plenty of power for a 50 watter. Its somewhat limited in its versatility but its a Marshall and its made to be cranked. If you wanna play Donnie and Marie Osmond tunes this isnt the amp for you!!

Gibson les paul 60's reissue with 500t and 496r pu's. Also a Fender Strat plus deluxe with EMG's and a mid boost. 85 in the bridge and 2 SA's in the mid and neck. It screams. I play all kinds of rock from Eagles or Zeppelin and everything in between and this amp works well cause I play more of the heavier stuff and out other guitarist takes alot of the clean stuff. The distortion is great but not heavy like the Boogies Dual rectifier. Its more of a cramy distortion not a fuzzy buzzy type of fuzz distortion. Pure British. I know for sure that if you plug in a guitar made of less quality wood..like an Epiphone or a Squire strat, the amp will not sound no where near as well.

Built like a brick (IMO) I dont carry anything extra to a gig cause I have enough crap already. Its roadworthy

Never had to deal with them

I love this amp. Loud, big, brutal. It sounds great thru a 2 x 12 cab or 4 x 12 1960a with 12h-30's. Tight bottom end, but the speakers are desighned for that. I had lots of amps and have sold all SS and gimig modeling toyz and have only my Marshalls and Boogies left. I had a 2204 and sold it years ago and regreted it to thid day so I plan to die with this one. If it were lost or stoled I would buy another one after I kill the one who stole it or lost it on me.

this amp was built in 1988 ,one channel presence bass middle treble mastervolume pre-amp volume and two inputs low/high.
can't be eazier.
i like it that eazy, but if you want extra's you have to use pedals
and it doesn't have an effect loop.
this isn't an amp for at home , because i don't live in the dessert and i'm not deaf

it's 50 watt,i use the high input with a gibson sg (?1970).
motorhead,ac/dc etc. is the kind of stuff i play.
the sound is great but even greater with an ibanezz turbo tubescreamer.
i'm not interrest in to have exectly the same sound like the bands that i like , just wanna have a rocksound straight in your face,and
now i have it!
first i wanted a 100 watt butt i (and the audience) found out that
this was MORE than enough,it was connected with a marshall 1960 cab.
i played in a big tent and not over the p.a,with both volumes not even turned on half!
when i first got this amp it was very noisey,extreme on high volume.
and when i used the high input,it sounded like a boeing 747 having starting troubless 2 meters in front of you.
the store where i bought it (used), said that it was completly checked
didn't went back to the store.
just went straight to cmw musical amps in driebergen(holland)
because i needed it fast.
where it got new tubes/better wiring and some other new stuff in it.
now its almost completly quiet even at the hihgest volumes.
like i said it is an amp best for one cool sound , maybe it needs a little more gain.

does it's job every time but i haven't got it that long.

i play guitar about ?6 years, first i had a marshall vs 8240 combo.
there was much variety in that one but i always sticked by one setting
and needed more power,.....so the jcm 800 was the answer .
if it was stolen i would buy the same amp again.
one of the reasons that i bought the jcm 800, is that i could't
find annyware one bad word by annyone for this amp.