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$500 = fair price for a used Marshall JCM 600 head?


tonethrone

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A buddy of mine is selling one and i'm considering buying it. He claims that both transformers are new (replaced by a certified tech) and all the tubes are JJ's with under 25 hours of playing time on them.

 

What do you guys think? It's kind of a bitchin little amp. However when he demo'd it for me there was definitely a hot tolex, fryin' pushed output tubes kinda smell goin on after about 15 minutes. May have just been old dust fryin.

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See, he's stiff on 500, which is understandable. He claims he bought it for $500 used from some dude 7 years back and has since blown it up and had to take it in for repairs. (Hence the new transformers and all that)

 

It would be in the "cool pick-up" category, not my main amp. I play death metal soo..

 

It would just be sweet to have it around to jam some nasty rock riffs from time to time. I want to use a tubescreamer to push it, hence my current thread on tubescreamers.

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I'm actually wanting to use it to get a sound similar to the YOB album "The Unreal Never Lived"

 

Anyone heard this album? It's insanely good and the guitar tones are godly. I think a JCM 600 pushed with a tubescreamer might come pretty close.

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I'm actually wanting to use it to get a sound similar to the YOB album "The Unreal Never Lived"


Anyone heard this album? It's insanely good and the guitar tones are godly. I think a JCM 600 pushed with a tubescreamer might come pretty close.

 

I think the guitarist for them uses Matamp stuff?

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You know, I was interested in these amps a couple of years ago. From what I've learned, these things were built poorly and it's only a matter of time before it hits the shop. The main problem comes from the location of the power tubes, which does create a very notorious overheating problem that fries a lot of these amps. Most people end up installing a small fan to try and remedy this. Otherwise, these amps are literally rebranded 90s JTM series amps which were also notorious for overheating problems. They do sound pretty nice though and have good cleans and bluesy drive tones. Just keep in mind that they really aren't built very well at all and have a poorly executed design. I'd talk him down to $400 and try to find out if the amp has a history of repairs. Maybe there's a reason why he had to get new transformers for it considering the reputation of these things:poke:.

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I wasn't even aware there WAS a JCM600
:freak:

 

I almost completely forgot about them myself. IIRC correctly they were made in the late 90's toward the end of the 900 production and before the 2000 series. I think they were 60 watts, but I'm not entirely sure.

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Otherwise, these amps are literally rebranded 90s JTM series amps which were also notorious for overheating problems
. :.

 

I don't get the re-branded part...the JTM60/30 originally came out in the '90's,...:confused:

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I don't get the re-branded part...the JTM60/30 originally came out in the '90's,...
:confused:

Yeah they're the same amp but Marshall decided to start calling them "JCM 600" instead of JTM as a marketing move.

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I've worked on a few for minor stuff and thought they sounded pretty good.

As long as they're not biased too hot so they don't over heat and the ribbon connectors between boards are good (easy to fix anyway) then you shouldn't have any problems.

500 is a little high, I'd say 400.

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