Marshall JCM 800 2204

Early 1980s Marshall JCM 800 2204. Two inputs, high and low stacked inputs. 50 watts.

This amp gets a great rock sound. Think anything from 1969 on up until the present. If you want to nail a Marshall player's tone, it's really easy to do with this amp. It's very transparent with different guitars too. Sounds funky and terrific with a Strat, thick and evil with a Les Paul, and just the right balance of brutal, thick distortion with an SG.

The clean channel is beautiful as well. I prefer the clean sound of a Marshall to a Fender Twin, to be honest. I don't think this amp is all that great by itself for metal or hardcore stuff, but you might be able to get that sound with a pedal. I personally run this through a Marshall 1960A, along with a Peavey Ultra Plus head running through a 1960B with a Mesa/Boogie 2x12 Recto cabinet stacked on top. The sound is sick (think His Hero Is Gone, Acrid, The Swarm) and definitely has a lot of balls.

Yes, it's a fairly reliable amp. I haven't had any problems with this Marshall, or a JCM 800 2203 that I used to own.

(Side note: I foolishly traded the 2203 for a Mesa/Boogie Mark III. While I missed the 2203 for it's astounding amount of volume, the tone of the 2204 is superior in every way. I think it has to do with the power tubes breaking up much earlier than the 100 watt version - at least, the EL34 equipped ones. I can't speak for the 6550 equipped JCM 800s, although one of my friend owns a 2203 that has some in it and I liked it.)

I wouldn't even bother with the Marshall company these days - especially not with vintage amps. I don't want to give them my support anymore, especially now that they're asking a grand or more for these amps when you can buy the real deal from Ebay for a much lower price used.

I've been playing for about six years. I own a Gibson SG Special, an Epiphone Les Paul Standard with a beautiful maple flame top, a Peavey Ultra Plus, this JCM 800, a Line 6 Delay modeler, a pair of 1960 series Marshall cabinets, and a Mesa/Boogie Recto 2x12. Out of all of the gear I own, this is the one piece that I hope I never decide to hastily trade. I've already made that mistake once.

If this amp were stolen, I would be very upset but I could live with it. I have a backup, although it doesn't really belong in my rig for the sole purpose of being a backup. I would probably try to find another one, and I would hurt the person who stole it. Badly.

I really love the clean tone of this more than anything, and the beautiful Marshall midrange that makes that 50 watts go the extra mile when I run this in conjunction with anything else, as well as the rest of the band. I really feel like the rig I'm using right now is the exact sound that I've been looking for.

I own a 1982 jcm 800 head 2204! I bought this animal 4 years ago. This is one of the easiest amps to use I ever saw. This has a lot of vintage feel and tone.

Only one channel, one high input, one low. I preffer the high input for raw tone and the low one if you are going to use a lot of effects.

This is an amp to play real 70's rock on. Music like Ted nugent, The Black Crowes, Led Zeppelin. Nothing more, nothing less. This is your amp!!

You won't get a high gain tone like on the jcm 2000.

this amp is 23 years old. It is as old as me. We will see who survives:)

I playt for 9 years. this is my second high quality amp. My first one was a fender blues deluxe. I've sold it to buy this head. I certainly want the fender back but I will never sell my marshall to buy the fender!

Six knobs, 50 watts, and two inputs. This amp does anything that your hands will do - ie this amp won't hide a lack of ability. If you know how to control your clean and dirty sounds with a volume know and subtly use your fingers, you're fine as far as versatility goes.

I use this with a Gibson SG Special, either straight into a Mesa/Boogie Recto 2x12 or through a Line 6 Delay modeler. I play in a hardcore band with this, and as far as the sound goes, it's perfect minus a little more bottom end chunk, but it's not LOUD enough live. I used to have a 100 watt model (the 2203) which I foolishly traded for a Mesa/Boogie Mark IV. This one sounds a lot better for recording though, because it has less headroom and compresses at a much lower volume than the 100 watt.

I haven't had any problem with noise, even with a computer sitting right next to my amp in a room. Not too many problems around florecesent lights, either.

You can get a variety of great sounds out of this amp. It's very transparent and really lends itself to whatever guitar you're using. I'm sure with this amp and a Strat you could nail Hendrix, Clapton, etc. It's a Marshall...it sounds great. I just wish it could nail the bottom end of a 5150.

This one is built like a tank, but I wouldn't throw it out of a building.

I've been playing for about 6 years now. My biggest complaint is that live, this is NOT loud enough to play unmiked. The band I'm in tends to play basements and small venues where the PA is usually only used for vocals and not drums, bass, or guitars. I like to have a wall of sound so to speak and I need to get more equipment. However, the tone of this amp is to die for and it makes a great recording amp. It needs a little more juice live though.

This is a review of a 50W JCM 800 2204 made in 1987 (horizontal inputs and EL-34 power tubes). One single channel and only six knobs: presence, bass, mids, treble, pregain, and master volume. This has all the features I wanted. It does one thing - amazing distortion. And it does it better than anything I've heard. Don't be swayed away by the 50W rating - this amp is loud enough to play anywhere and I'd say is actually more desirable than the 100W model 2203 because you'll get a more saturated gain sound at a lower volume.

But it is one channel with no reverb or effects loop, so I'll knowck its rating down a little.

I have three guitars that I use with this amp: a custom made "Uli Roth Sky Guitar" (fans of the former Scorpions lead guitar master would know what this looks like. otherwise, check out <<http://www.yehao.com/ulijonroth/ulihome.asp>> and look at the photo galleries). The construction or mine is like a Les Paul- mahogany body with a maple cap, and a mahogany neck with an ebony fingerboard. It has a Seymour Duncan Hotrails at the neck and a Gibson 57 Classic at the bridge. The other guitars are a Gibson BB King ES-355 (Lucille) and a Fender Strat with two Texas Specials and a Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon.

I play this through a 4x12 Marshall 1960BC, which is the square cab loaded with 25W Celestion Greenbacks. I tried out all the Marshall 4x12s and found the Greenbacks delivered the best sound for my purposes. I should note that it sounded great through EVERY Marshall 4x12, though.

This amp sounds absolutely amazing for my style, which is metal down to rock. If you like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Dio, etc., then this is the amp for you. I believe Maiden used these very amps on the World Slavery Tour (supporting Powerslave) that eventually was compiled into the "Live After Death" album.

Plugged straight into the amp, you'll get a very crisp distortion sound that cuts very well through the mix. This is perfect for rhythm, though for leads, I'll generally use an Ibanez Tubescreamer or Boss SD-1 for a boost in gain.

I should really stress how good this amp sounds as part of an entire band- during rhythm playing, it blends in perfectly, and if you solo, it cuts so well that you don't need to get turned up either by a soundman or by using a volume pedal or eq pedal. This is an important featre, because if you're using, say a Mesa rectifier amp, the mids are so scooped that your sound won't cut through when you solo and you WILL need to fool around with volume boosting.

So, overall, if you like the sound of metal bands like Maiden, then this is the amp for you. NOTHING will do that sound better. If you like more modern sounds, like Soulfly or Limp Biscuit, then this is not the amp for you.

Regarding clean sounds- the amp won't get absolutely crystal clean, but will deliver a very very good clean sound. All you have to do is turn off any distortion or volume boost you've got going between the guitar and amp and roll down your guitar's volume knob. You won't loose overall volume, you'll just lose distortion if you do this right.

This is a tube amp, so you need to treat it nicely by not banging it around. You should also use the standby feature when turning the amp on or off. Also, the tubes will need to be replaced now and again, though I don't consider that to be a reliablilty issue. That's more of the sacrifice you make to get the better tone if you choose to play tube amps. One other thing with the 2204 is that it has Drake transformers, which are considered superior to the 100W's Dagnall.

Considering the fact that my amp is 16 years old and still works perectly, I'm giving this a perfect score.

I consider myself very luck to have found this amp, particularly at the price I paid (I would have paid at least another $200 more to get this same amp). The "vintage" JCM 800 2204 and 2203s are getting harder and harder to find, and with the modern reissue and Zack Wild models now available from Marshall, promoting the 800's visiblity, I'd expect the demand for the older ones to increase, driving up prices.

I have been playing for seven years (I'm now 23) and in terms of "quality" amps, I also own a Peavey Classic 50 2x12 combo. While that is a really great amp, I have never been more pleased with my tone. And that includes experiences at rehearsal studios, in which I've used JCM 900s, Peavey 5150s, and Mesa rectifiers.

If you like metal, then this is the amp you should get. Period.

1986. one channel. no fx-loops or anything that'd make you sound ok even if you weren't "good" player at all...
Althou it's "only" 50 watts, it sounds very loud.

I'm using two strats: Big apple with 2 humbuckers and '68 re-issue with single coils, and must say that only the Big Apple is the right one for this amp. The sound is nicely warm and full(filled with bottom end...)
When I'm using "Hendrix Woodstock"-strat, the sound is like RHCP's By the Way-type...Sort of Lo-Fi, but sometimes it's just what you needed.
I'm using only one setting: presence 0, bass 10, mid 3, hi 5, master 5, gain 1...The reason for using as little gain as possible, is because it's so piercing: if it'd be more like peavey's classic 30, I'd be delighted...but it's not, but I can live w/ it: I'm using Tech's Comptortion to get warm distortion.
Everyone else who's been playing with it, says it's shitty, but I like it: I've finally created my unique tone with this marshall.

This amp has never let me down: it's worked well thru every gig...

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If you like the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication" & "By The Way" albums, this is the amp...
And if somebody would like to steal this amp: I'd hope it'd go to a nice family...

1982 800 Model 2204 vertical inputs with one glorious channel. This is the one amp that I cannot live without. I have plowed through many others, but the 8 is here to stay. Versatile enough for me, just roll back the volume pedal and I get a very usable clean although I do not use clean sounds much. Loaded with all Sovtek tubes, this baby bleeds tone.

My rig: Gibson LP custom with duncan 59 in the bridge. I use a valvulator to push my signal through my maze of effects and it ends up coming out of my greenback reissue cab. Nothing sounds better to me. Distortion is just right and if I require a little more bite, I just stomp in the Tube Screamer.

Never had any problems from the head or any of my gear for that matter. Take care of your gear and it will take care of you.

Never had to deal with Marshall, no need to.

Silly questions suggested by HC here. Overall, this is the best rock amp I have ever had the pleasure to play through. There are lots of good amps out there, and this one takes the cake. It will never get stolen...I don't let any of my gear get in a situation where it could be.

Made in 1981 - this is the first year for the JCM 800's. This amp for all intents and purposes is a cosmetically altered (and a little brighter) 50 watt 2204 JMP with a JCM exterior. I see a lot of people giving this a low versatility rating - not true at all. We play from Santana to Stray Cats, Bush to Black Sabbath, Toadies to Ted Nugent - with a few alterations - this amp does extremely well. No reverb, no effects loop, 6550 tubes - warning: this amp is very very loud. Too loud for most applications. I bought a THD Hotplate which I would think is a necessity with this amp. I play this amp through a Marshall Reissue 4 x 12 with Greenbacks and it sounds extremely good.

I have been playing lead guitar for 22 years. I have a ?88 Gold Top Thin Line with Seymour Duncan SH1 pickups and a Strat with a Seymour Duncan JB Jr. in the bridge and SD Duckbuckers in the middle and neck. For the types of music we do (see above) this amp is unbeatable. I did replace the preamp tubes with the Groove Tube Special Marshall High Gain setup (Myles at Groove Tubes was extremely helpful) ? which I think helped out somewhat. The amp isn?t really noisy at all. I run the amp at full 10?s for the most part ? backing off the tone at times. Believe it or not, when you crank back the preamp, and the master, increase the volume on the Hot Plate ? the amp is very bright and usable. I believe the 6550?s are partly to blame for the cleanness. I see a lot of people change them to EL34?s ? this will definitely reduce the versatility of the amp. It is by no means Fender clean ? but I really have no use for that! For Stray Cats and Bill Haley and using my Les Paul in the middle its sounds great. Having the THD Hotplate is really the way to go ? otherwise this amp is way to loud! I also have a TSL 60 ? the JCM 800 is really night and day from the TSL. The TSL is probably half the volume of the JCM. The JCM has unbelievable compression, very girthy growly distortion - very great sounding amp.

Only had the amp for several months - my understanding is these things are pretty reliable.

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I bought this amp on Ebay. You will see many of these amps listed there. They are not all the same. I have a vertical input model. The horizontal input designs, though fetching the same (or more) money on Ebay - can't hold a candle to the earlier models. Things were cheapen up quite a bit in the later models, i.e. smaller transformers, and other short cuts. I guess the Canadian models are even worse?.

JCM 800, Master volume,1986, UK, 50 watts all-tube head. The 2204 offers two Sovtek EL34 an three sovtek 12AX7 pra-amp tubes. Two inputs jacks (the high input provides full gain ), no effects loops, no reverb,six knobs, one channel sound exaltly the way I want. Dual spaker outs and inpedance selector 4,8, or 16 Ohms. Not a lot of features but is perfect for me.

Using Fender,Strat Plus (USA, 1988) loaded with SHR-1 HotRail (Seymour Duncan) in the bridge position. Stage pedalboard includes Morley Pedal volume, NS2, BF2, CS3, DS1, GE7, DD2,ZOOM 5050 Choir run through Marshall, JCM 900, 1960B, 4X12 cabinet loaded with Celestion G12-75, 300 watts. Great tone, very good sounds, terrific distorded
sounds (with BOSS DS1). Setting the 2204: Presence 3, Bass 10, Midrange 3, treble 6, Master volume 4, Preamp volume 8. This is a real amp.is made to play loud.

No problem, Marshall perform to the highest standards.

None required

The 2204 amp built to rock and I think late '60s Plexi, 70s Marshall Super Lead, JCM 800 2203 and 2204 are the best Marshall ever made.

My amp was made in 1985 and it has the horizontal inputs. Right now it has el34's and ecc83's in it. All the features has already been said.

This amp is the best. I play punk, hardcore, indie rock, and jazz. I use a Hamer echotone, squier strat. , and a american series telecaster. It sounds awsome for all the types of music I play except jazz. This amp isn't very clean, but who cares?

I've had this amp for about 2 months now and I'm sure it won't kick the bucket any time soon. It looks real bad; it has holes on the sides and on the bottom, the chassis is oxidated, dusty, and rusted, and it's missing many screws. That's what I call reliability.

I've been playing for about 6 years and I've played on some good and some crappy amps. This amp is incredible, I want to buy another one.

This Marshall is a 2204 50 Watt MK 2 SuperLead Series,JCM 800.Made on 27/6/1988. Serial No S/A W23789. Single channel with side by side Low and High Sensitivity jacks. Presence,Bass,Middle,Treble.Master Volume and Pre-Amp Volume.These are all the controls needed on a Classic amp like this.

The only thing between the 2204 Marshall and me is a Gibson Les Paul 1960 Classic Reissue.With this combination you can get AC/DC ,Guns and Roses,Led Zepplin,Pete Townsend,Deep Purple and Thin Lizzy etc, you just have to know your Amp and Guitar settings.Some people say it would be nice to have more Channels,Reverb switching and such gimmicks.But as my Amp Tec Danny with 30 years of experience said " Anything that goes and changes that Layer of Signal ie,Transistors for switching Channel or Reverb, the Real Virgin Amp sound is gone" When you stop and think, it that makes sence.

New set of JJ's Power Valves and Pre-Amp valves when I brought it to start a fresh, Still rocking since it was made in 1988 that's what I call Reliability.............................

Marshall has allways answered all my emails .Not like some other companies, once you brought it your on your own.

I have been playing for 20 years and have had all the different types of Amps and Guitars. Tried all the gimicky foot pedals,Zoom boxes for the Dial your amp type.They cannot touch the Full force of this 2204 Marshall Amp. If you have one of these models I suggest you keep it, they WILL BECOME A COLLECTERS ITEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!