The Marshall JCM 800 has grown onto one of the most desireable Marshall amps. It’s a little funny beause at one time guitarists did not really care for the master volume marshall amps.

The 2203 is the 100w version. The 50w is the 2204.

The JCM 800 was a direct descendant of the JMP series of amplifiers. In the picture below notice the horizontal jacks. Earlier 800’s had vertical jacks. There were some very minor circuit changes when they switched to horizontal jacks. Many consider the vertical jack model more desireable.

I saw Extreme last night at Toads’s Place in New Haven. They were fantastic and at the top of their game. It was great to see them in such an intimate setting.

I took a few pics of Nuno’s amps setting on his new Randall signature series amp.

Also Nuno was using a Boss GT-8 primarily for effects and volume boost. Next to the GT-8 is a Boss OC-3 Octave pedal. I really didn’t notice if he kicked on the octave pedal.

Overall his tone was great. He had two heads on stage but one was a backup.

This summer Zoom is releasing the Zoom Q3 video recorder. The Q3 is similar to the H2 with the addition of video. I was pretty excited to hear about the Q3 because I really love my Zoom H2.

The Zoom Q3 uses the same capsules as the H4n so I am sure the audio recording quality will be great. This is going to be a great tool for bands to record shows and rehearsals. I think it’s a pretty good tool for YouTubers as well.

I have a feeling Zoom is targeting more than musicians with this product and is trying to capture a bit of the Flip Video consumer. To that end I’m a little disappointed that there isn’t a wide screen or HD capability on the Zoom Q3. I just assume any new video product can shoot widescreen.

I’d like to get my hands on one of these to give it a proper test.

Vox has entered the low power tube amp market with the introduction of the Night Train. The amp features two 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL84 power tubes which deliver 15 watts of power. The amp is switchable to deliver 7.5 watts in trio mode.

The preamp is pretty cool and has Treble, Middle and Bass control along with a switchable Bright and Thick mode. I haven’t seen a schematic but I imagine the bright and thick modes are accomplished by modifying the stock tone stack.

The amp is pretty nice looking and Vox has a matching 1-12 cabinet with a custom VOX Celestion ‘greenback’ speaker.

I haven’t had the chance to hear one in person. Vox has posted some excellent clips on their web site.

This is a pretty review on Youtube.

Overall I kind of dig how this amp sounds. To me it seems to have that Vox vibe (duh) and can get pretty snarly too.

A few years ago Lori Linstruth made available her Behringer V-amp library. I still use some of her presets. They sound really great for a thick solo tone. You can download them here.

Lori rhythm
Lori Solo 2 wet
Lori Solo 3 wet

Lori Linsruth

This is my latest addition to the house, a Fender Stagemaster. To be honest I wasn’t very familiar with the stagemaster. The stagemaster is no longer in production and it was made from the mid 90’s till about 02 (i think). Almost all of the stagemasters have a licensed Floyd Rose trem and a reverse headstock and at least on humbucker. There are different levels from the standard to the deluxe series. Most were made in China Or Korea. According to the serial number mine was made in 1999.

Some of the stagemasters are wicked nice with neck-thru maple necks with basswood bodies and a quilted top finish. There are seven string models too. The neck on mine os one of the thinnest necks I hace seen on a Squier strat.

I like the fact that these are somewhat similar to the HM Strat at a fraction of the price. The stagemaster sells all day long on ebay for $150-$250.

One thing I have been interested in is to use the OSP DD502 electronic drums to play Guitar Hero or Rock Band. My hopes were raised when I read the Rock Band World Tour kit included a midi jack.

I fianlly had a chance to try to connect the DD502 to the Rock Band kit and it was a partial success. The rides and toms seemed to work ok. The cymbals, floor tom, bas and snare did nothing.

It seems like the rock band kit is expecting specific midi notes from each pad of an external kit. Unfortunately I can’t find a way to change the note the DD502 send out on. I even tried to change the sounds assigned to the pad but it doesn’t seemne to effect the midi note.

I also have a Yamaha DD65 which I was able to use to play rock band with through the midi port. I had to adjust the sounds assigned to the pads to find the right notes. Unlike the DD502 the Yamaha kit seems to change the midi note when you change sounds for the pads.

I suppose I could connect he DD502 to my computer and somehow remap the midi notes and send it back out the rock band kit. I probably won’t cross that bridge until the rock band kit starts to break.

The Bugera line of amps have been out for a while now. I wrote a little overview of the 6262 here. I went to my local Sam Ash and luckily they had a 333xl head in stock. The head was connected to a Bugera 4×12 cabinet.

I’ll start out by saying that the clean channel is what impressed me most about this amp. I started out on the clean channel just to dial in some volume levels and I didn’t expect to spend any time on the clean channel. But to my surprise the clean channnel sounded really great. It was about as clean as a tube amp could get with lots of headroom. It is a very dynamic channel that was a lot of fun to play with.

My next stop was the crunch channel. At the lower settings you can get a classic rock crunch tone like AC/DC. As you increase the gain you move more into an 80’s metal gain. The built in reverb sounds really nice.

The tone controls are active and very responsive. You can really hear a difference just by moving the tone controls a little bit. The lead and crunch channels have an “XL” button. I think it’s Bugeras attempt at a loudness control to make the amp sound fuller at lower volumes. I can’t say I heard that much of a difference with it in or out. I will say that this amp sounds perfectly fine at bedroom volumes though unlike a lot of other tube amps.

Another cool feature of this amp is a noise gate. It works well and the model I tried was pretty quite even with the noise gate turned off.

I really enjoyed the crunch channel and I would probably spend most of my time on it.

My next stop was the lead channel and it has more gain on tap than even I knew what to do with. Let’s just say it is teh br00talz.

Overall I am really impressed by this amp. The clean channel is excellent and the crunch and lead channels deliver in spades. I don’t think I would gig with it if I was a working musician due to an unproven reliability track record. However it is a no brainer for the home musician.

The Marshall Lead 100 Mosfet model 3210 amp was produced in the mid to late 80’s. It was one of Marshall earliest solid state amplifies and predates the Valvestate and MG series of solid state amplifiers.

A mosfet is a type of solid state transistor. Mosfet is an acronym for
Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor

The lead 100 mosfet is loosely associated with the JCM 800 line of tube amps. The physical size of the head is a little smaller than a JCM 800. There are two channels that share a common EQ. The amp has an reverb and effects loop. There is an optional two button footswitch for boost or reverb. Without the footswitch plugged in you can actually combine the clean and gain channels for some different tones.

The voicing is similar to a JCM 800. It’s not a modern high gain amp and delivers more of a crunch tone. The amp is quite capable to pull off classic rock tones such as AC/DC and Aerosmith and early Def Leppard. To get more modern distortion tones or a real singing lead a boost is required. The clean is not totally clean and has some grit to it.

Like most older Marshall the tone controls are basically useless. The treble has the most effect on the tone. The mids and bass are much more subtle. Thanks in part to the limited tone controls it’s hard to dial in a bad tone. There seems to be a high pass filter which limits the bass response compared to some modern amps.

Another thing I really like about the amp is that it is a great head to run a POD or floor processor through. All you have to do is plug the modeler into the effect return and you bypass the preamp and go straight into the power amp. The bass response is totally happening when bypassing the preamp in this manner.

In the picture below my head is sitting on top of a MG412A cabinet. I know a lot of people knock the MG cabs but this setup sounds pretty good to my ears.

Overall this amp is a steal for the price. They sell all day on ebay for about $200-$225. It can get classic Marshall tones on a budget and it looks cools as hell. Thanks to the effect return you can also plug a modeler into this head which really adds to the versatility.

Early last year Bugera released a series of amps which included the 6260, 6262 the 333 and the 333XL series. At the time of release many models were available for under $500 for an all tune 120w amp. At this price point these amps were very appealing. Bugera is owned by Behringer and many questioned the quality of these amps.

In recent months there seem be very little complaints about the quality. There also seems to be growing number of guitarists snapping up these amps and raving about the tones. It seems like the Bugera line is gaining some credibility.

I’m interested in either a Bugera 6262 or the Bugera 333XL. The 6262 is considered to be a “5150 II Inspired” model. Unlike the 5150 however the 6262 has a usable clean channel. The amp is a two chanel amp with a clean and a lead chanel. The clean channel also has a switch to engage a “crunch” mode which essesntially makes this amp a three channel ampo with clean, crunch and lead.

There is an effects loop and unlike the 5150 the bugera has a reverb. A footswitch is included which allows you to select between the clean, lead reverb and effects. I would have left the reverb switch off and added the capability to switch on the crunch mode instead.

The 6262 can run either 6L6 or EL34 power tubes and Bugera makes it very simple to select and adjust the bias to run either. This is a nice touch. Also unlike a lot of tube amps the Bugeras sound good at lower volume levels.

Here is a Youtube video which shows the amp in action playing some Van Halen (not me).

Bugera 6262 guitar amp