Marshall JTM-60

This Marshall is pretty versatile - I play alot of funk, and the clean is surprisingly good for that. It handles Blues and Hard Rock decently as well.

Features are decent, two channels, reverb, parallel and series effects loop is quite a good feature I.M.O.

Playing some small band practices, home practice.

Playing with a Les Paul, this thing rocks. I first tried it out with a strat, and wasn't much impressed. But it seems to really, really like humbuckers - massive '80s rock rhythm, and really nice breakup on the clean channel as well - can get a pretty decent blues lead going.

Quite a quiet amp as well, considering the power it is way quieter than some comparable tube amps that I've played before.

Clean channel is fantastic - full master volume, go low on the channel volume, and you can get a great punchy rhythm clean - just love it. Distortion is OK, it has a definite sweet spot but isn't great all over the gain range.

Bought it third-hand with a new transformer and tubes - have had no problems so far. If you replace the transformer and perhaps put a fan on, AND, very important, check that you have a SLOW blow fuse inside, it should be perfect - mine blew the fuse within a week, replaced it with a slow blow, now it's been going well for months.

Never had it repaired or contacted Marshall.

Before this, I played on a Marshall MG, Valvestate and then a Crate GLX. Needless to say, it kicks all their asses. Compared to a Blackheart or Vox, I can't say, in my taste, this thing has some kind of mojo. If you prefer Vox or Fender, it might not do it for you.

Love the clean channel, and the parallel effects loop. Hate the distortion's fiddliness, useless PCB inside.

Most important of all - for this money (second hand, they are dirt cheap!) I don't think you can go better.

I have the JTM60 2x12 model. Great features for getting that vintage 70's sound. Effects loop. Clean & dirty channel. Seperate volume,gain,reverb,bass,middle & treble controls for each channel. Clean channel sounds ok but breaks up early,but who buys a Marshall for really clean anyway? Gain channel is classic Marshall, Zepp, Top,ACDC,& even early EVH sounds are easily found. I bought mine from a studio musician. He had just upgraded the tubes to jj teslas & tung sols. It sounds AWESOME to me. I don't gig anymore, just home play.

I play an Epi LP with Seymour Duncan pups w/ an upgraded wiring harness,pots & caps. Also play an 06' Gibson LP Custom. I have a good Strat knockoff i play around with,but mainly play the LP's. The sound is that VINTAGE MARSHALL ROAR!! I love it!!

I have read that these break down. I had mine serviced about a year after i bought it. One cap had gone bad & that was it. I had several more replaced while he was at it because the amp was 12 years old at that time. I have always kept a small fan on mine & had no problems. Just because i don't gig anymore doesn't mean that i don't play much. I have been playing about 40 years & still play at least 25 hours a week,several hours at a time with my buds. I LOVE IT!!

Never used it.

I have tried or owned just about every amp out there. There are a lot of better amps out there, but they can cost several thousand dollars. For the money you can't beat the tone that this amp puts out. I had a JTM60 1x12 but it didn't have the depth or volume that the 2x12 has.

Great little amp that I've owned from 2nd hand for the last 6 years. The two channels are really well balanced and make switching up for a solo or the like smooth and very organic sounding.

This amp sings. It has plenty of headroom for spanking clean tones from a telecaster. As you roll up the channel volume it begins to develop that slightly hollow sustain that sounds absolutley awesome. I play a jazzmaster and a telecaster (setup for slide) through this with a boost pedal to drive the clean channel at lower volumes - the signal this thing puts out with the jazzmaster is full of those complex little harmonics that you just can't get from most modern mass produced amps. Boutique level sounds for pennies - winner :)

As with everyone else, i've had to put this amp into the shop... once! And that was for faulty jack input (had been ragged somewhat by the previous owner). It had already been modded with a smaller transistor when I got it - so I've had no problems whatsoever with this amp in that regard. It's taken bangs, knocks, sudden power cuts in gig venues (they should really pay their bills) - even a pint of bitter which some kindly soul from another band decided to pour into it: i wiped the top and the insides down with a cloth, fired it up (standing well back) and went ahead and did the whole gig - not so much as glitch - if you get this amp sorted right at the start there's no stopping it. A 10 for reliability now, a 2 if i'd bought it new

Never had to deal with Marshall so I've no opinion.

This amp has served in almost every kind of band over the last few years - with a little listening and some forethought, you can set it up for any style/genre you could wish for (barring metal natch). If it was stolen I would go right out and get another one for buttons and use the money saved from a matchless DC30 (the only other amp I've played that sounded better) to get it fixed (assuming that hasn't already been done) - try one of these with a jazzmaster and an analog sunlion boost/fuzz - you can dial in ANYTHING!

Nice set of features, effects loop, some kind of direct out XLR type thingy, Reverb, twin channel. I actualy like the colour scheme, kinda like T-rex coloured vinyl ( greeny brown ) and fawn coloured grillcloth. Twelve inch speaker.

This is where it gets real interesting. Prbably one of the best sounding combo's on the planet. Yep couldn't believe it when I heard it either. People just give em crap reviews cause
A: Its the most badly designed amp you'll ever come across making it unreliable
B: Its the most badly disined amp you'll ever come across, yep I said it twice cause it's that ****.
What have I compared it to.
Well I have a vintage Orange OR80, then there's my Hiwatt Custom 50, A White 120 valve head, a sound city MarkIV B120, a Sound City Mark III B100,

As mentioned above and heres why, The power tubes are mounted directly under the circuit board. Thats not too bad you think, then you realise that the rising heat fries the two large smoothing capacitors on the HT supply for the plates. Furthermore the rectifiier for the preamp tube filaments is mounted in very close proximity so this fries as well. Dog ****. Not to worry all is not lost.
Cut some ventillation holes in the top and fix grilles to allow the heat to escape.
Fit some silent running Pc case fans that draw the air downwards away from the pcb's and make them variable speed to off when recording if they're not quiet enough.
So to re-cap, cause you'll need to do that as well, stock this amp is ****** after mods it's probably as reliable as any other.
Before mods I'll give it a 1, after I'll give it an 8 so for a total of befre and after I'll have to give it a 5

You contact marshall and they want you to take it to some authorised dealership so they can tell you its irrepairable ( ******** ) and you have to buy a new one cause it's out of warranty.
Ask for advice on the Marshall forum and they will tell you to get rid of it and buy a more reliable unit ( ******* ). But if you do that you will no longer have this tone beast and you will sound like all the other Marshall monkey's ( Fucked up tone ) as they are jealous of it's sound and they don't know how to fix it so they slag it off.
I hated Marshalls till I heard this amp
If you wanna sound like an eighties big haired tight trousered musically masturbating guitar solo god ( it was all a bit gay for me ) then buy yourself a Marshall stack and get jerkin.
If you want pure silky valve tone to that deep throaty growl that you can never dial in get this amp cause its here. Okay so it don't do Mesa, but neither does anyone else, and if you need it buy a pedal an ram it in.

Someone gave me this amp to use as an extension speaker cause, you guessed it, it was fucked when I got it.
Repaired it, repaired it again, modded it and its now been fine for the last couple of years.
If someone nicked I'd buy another for sure and I'd mod it straight away.
The major plus is they sell for peanuts and fortunateley the monkey spankers don't like em.
One of the best sounding amps in my collection, no I don't have a marshall stack, and no I don't want one thanks.

Sweet, singing, stinging, tube nirvana. Two Channels Head and Half stack through 4 Celestion 10s.
Looks good, carries easily, and cuts through a mix like a hacksaw up on stage.
I like having the onboard reverb.
Just the right mix of power for on-stage rocking, with a bit of tube break-up.
I even used it for a country gig or two - the shimmery bite worked great for the genre.

Using with a Les Paul DC and a Strat. Likes them both.
As mentioned above, it has a steely bite that only Marshall seems to have down.
Surprisingly versatile, though - I've used it for country, and the bite can become a twang when paired with a Telecaster.
I have a great pedalboard, but with this amp I only use a volume pedal and a compressor - and the amp takes care of the rest.

Plays clean until you dime the guitar, and then the roar begins.

I use it all the time. I've never had ANY problems with it. I stick a fan in the back of ALL MY TUBE AMPS, tough, and allow them to warm up - and cool down - before engaging the standby switch.

I also only use quality tubes. They help the sound, too!

Can't say - I got it used, and have never needed anything done to it.

Been playing for over 20 years; I have about 15 amps. This is the rig I use for rock gigs; nothing sounds like a Marshall!

To me, tyhe amp is extremely versitle. I play in a Funk band but we tend to dip into many duifferent styles. Sometimes I need a thick bright sound for Ska/Reggae, sometimes I need a sound that compliments the changing tone of a wah pedal and someitmes I need a real thick and heavy crunch for powerful rock riffs. This amp accomodates all of my needs! And uits very easy to get a good balance between the clean and the boost channels.

When I bought this in 1997 I played every amp in the store. It was far and away the best sounding amp they had, Marshall or otherwise. The tone is absolutely amazing! Ever since I got this amp I've frequently gotten compliments on my tone and since I was a pretty bad guitar player for the first few years that I had this amp, I attribute the compliments to this amp's sound. Very rich, especially the boost channel.

Oh the heartbreak of this amp! I had it for about 2 years before it started to break...regularly. The problem I had was the fuses would just blow constantly. I took it to the best of the best in my area. They replaced tubes, replaced fuses, replaced circuit boards, etc, but none of these things addressed the root problem because the amp would break again everytime. Finially I took it to a guy I really trusty and said "Find out what's fundamentally wrong with it, how evber long it takes." He had the amp for 2 years. Meanwhile I bought a hot rod deluxe with 1x12 cab (very reliable, by the way). It was ok. But I missed my baby!

So I finnally got the amp back and my electrician said he had replaced a transformer. I don;'t know jack about electronics or how an amp works really, so I just said "ok" and took it back. Being without this amp for so long really made me realize how wonderful it sounds. When I plugged into it after 2 years' hiatus, my heart melted. It was amazing.

It's now been 4 years since then, and the amp hasn't failed once.

Epilogue:
About a year ago, my band played a show at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa, Fl. They always hire really great guys for running sound. The sound guy (I can't remember his name at the moment) asked me about my JTM. I said I loved it but that it had a lot of problems for many years. He told me he was a liscenced Marshall repair-dude and that these amps were notoriuos lemons. And he said the problem was in one of the TRANSFORMERS!! He said the original one was "too big" and was overpowering the amp, or something like that. Again I know nothing about the inner workings of this or any guitar amp, but it turns out that my tech back home had replaced the orighinal transformner with a different kind entirely. So it seems that this is the root problem for these amps. Mystery SOLVED!

Hope this helps!

Never dealt with them.

On the one hand, they made this really great sounding amp.

On the other hand, it is a total lemon that they never should have sold to unsuspecting customers.

I have played for 16 years and I owned this amp for 11 of them. I currently play a Stevie Ray Vaughn Strat. This combination is absolute TONE HEAVEN. I would replace the amp instantly (and replace the transformer first thing!). I've played through a bazillion amps and there is nothing that sounds this good for under $1500. Period. But I can't give it more than a 7 due to its unreliablity. If you own this amp, own a backup as well.

the features are fine, minus the reverb. if this is their effort at reverb, they shouldn't have even tried.

i love the sound of this amp. i use a seymour duncan pick-up booster to drive the front end of the clean channel and it is amazing. it breaks up so wonderful and natural depending on string touch.

this is the reason i am writing this review. these reviews are really a communal attempt to honestly circumvent the bs the manufacturers spin about their products. what is the reality, good and bad of this product? again, i love the sound of this amp, but mine just died, too. i actually got this through a really smart trade (seemed smart at the time) and read the reviews before i proceeded. it seemed that if i used a fan on it, i would be able to bypass the over-heating issues. this amp worked fine when i got it, had my amp tech go over it, and he is no hack. i have never used it sans-fan and yet it is dead. some users who apparently better specimens have produced reviews stating that perhaps those of us with dead jtm's didn't take care of our amps. i know my **** and take care of my stuff. it just died. bad design, perhaps unrectifiable? they might not all die, but it seems that many are given time.

you know, i don't expect marshall to stand by a 13 year old amp. call me crazy. read the other reviews.

playing 15 years, i own a telecaster, hagstrom swede, custom strat, les paul, fender deluxe and a slew of pedals. the hagstrom sounds great through this amp. sounded great, anyway. i play weird stuff, indie rock, think built to spill and modest mouse.

I use a Les Paul and it is the best ive ever played.
Ive tried the New Mesa Boogie but this Marshall Sound is the best
you can get.
The clean channel have a smooth overdrive
and the boost channel is wonderfull to play heavy things.

I had no problems with this amp.
I changed the Tubes to Nos Telefunken El 34
and I dont even have to reset the bias.

I Germany there is a good support for Marshall Amps.

All in All this Amp is a perfect Amp for Clubgigs and with the
matching 4x10" Cabinet it is the best sound for me.

1x12 60w combo full-featured amp with 2 channels, all the options you need. Check other reviews for detailed features. Great for rock, blues and pretty much any style from clean to heavy; clean is awesome and creamy, not to be confused with fenders. Not too heavy to carry, standard size.

With strats and HH guitars, this is it, it will give you that Hendrix fat blues sound and some harder rock too, an awesome sounding Marshall in a combo. I play blues and classic rock for twelve years, this is my practice amp, I trust it, very reliable and great tones, versatile. I use it with boss pedals, my friends love the sounds I get from this, I got it used it was very affordable and you can't beat the value.

Never needed a backup to this, never got any problems, it's great. If you're going to review an amp and not say anything about it and put (1/10) just because you messed up yours (for god knows what reason), that is not fair to users of this site. You probably blew it up from neglect and bad use or wrong tubes. You're probably one of those people using a stratocaster to play Metallica, thinking you're so smart. My amp will last another long while! Great amp.

Marshall sellers always were of great help with my amp, and I'm able to find enough documentation online.

I use it for practice at home and with friends, it's perfect. If it was stolen I would look for another one its not expensive. Marshall rule.

This line of amps was made mid-to-late 90s, from 1995 for 3 years production and later in anniversary editions. It is full-featured with 2 channels. Don't be thrown off by what people say. A few specific units are reported to maybe have a heating problem, but those occurred only on a few instances from the early batch of JTM; but then again the issue was fixable by simply adding a cooling device or fan to the faulty unit. Luckily, the JTMs that are still around 10 years later are prone to be the reliable survivors that do not carry any problems of that sort, or they already carry cooling devices. In fact, a tube amp is supposed to get warm, it's in its nature. Compared to a newer DSL, Traynor YCV red and blue editions, Peavey's and other amps, they all dramatically heat more than my JTM60.

The JTM-60 gives a smooth 60w through a 1x12 Marshall Heritage Celestion Eminence speaker that brings a nice vintage colour to your tone without sacrificing more modern sounds. It offers 2 independent footswitchable channels, each with their own EQ, a spring reverb with dual controls (one for each channel) and FX loop. It uses four ECC83's and two EL34 tubes (I have the 2 Groove Tubes). It has a simple 1 button footswitch. The panel is pretty straight forward and complete. There is a Presence button on the back. The amp has a nice vintage-themed golden tolex and mat golden black finish. I give it a 9 for features because it's complete, even if missing the 3rd channel (boost). The 2 channels cover enough sounds anyway.

This amp is aimed at any Marshall type of people, sounds just awesome with a touch of vintage sound. It is quite versatile for most people, although some Fender purists may feel it's not "Fender" enough for them. It's quiet enough, but if you plan on playing boost with distortions, you should use a noise suppressor (guitar 101).

The clean instantly rewards you with an awesome sound, definitely not generic at all. Add a little reverb and you're in guitar heaven. You have also a master reverb if you want to saturate with more of it. Volume is quiet enough to use this amp for practice and bedroom use. Push it to 2-3o'clock on both volume and master, and the decibels will start to kick in louder, loud enough for basement playing. It's 60w and 1 speaker, so don't think it's a 100w half stack. It can get loud, but reasonably loud.

On channel 1, you can play some jazzy sounds, many different levels of clean, country, light rock, blues, rock, classic rock... Totally Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan etc. Kick in the boost/drive channel and you can go from nice ACDC rock to heavy chunky chug-chug metal sounds but with the amp's tone colour. I like to add distortions (Metal Muff, tubed OD) or Line 6 multi-effect modern hi gains to get a metal-like sound. It will handle those and newer Zoom G7 floorboards and Vox's without sounding too digital or out of place.

Tested with G&L strat default specs, Washburn X-Pro with Headhunters p-u, another X-Pro with Seymour 'custom-custom', BC Rich mockingbird, Jackson Dinky with EMG85-81, and a few other guitars with Seymours. I play blues, rock, classic rock and a lot of chunky heavy or even metal. I love me some gain, compression and sustain.

My model is about 10 yrs old and it does not carry heating problems or other technical problems. I just replace the tubes when it's time. I have no incident or anything odd, nothing. If it was going to break, it would have broke a long time ago. I don't gig live or abuse it, I like to take care of my gear.

Never dealt with them. The Web site has the manuals in PDF format, but they could add a few more details for all the amps, bu it could be worst.

I have been playing casually for about 15+ yrs but have been more interested with quality gear early 2000's. I also have been playing bass. If the amp was stolen, for the low price it costs, if I found another one used, I would definitely consider it, cheaper than a DSL. Because I love blues and metal, I would either consider a Marshall or a modern amp, anything with Celestion Vintage 30 would be sweet.