Europe – The Final Countdown (Expanded Edition)

John Norum first recorded and toured with a JCM800 2205 when he recorded "The Final Countdown" with Europe in 1986 and toured with them a year afterwards, before leaving the group. They have been his main amps throughout his solo career and he's still using them when touring and recording with the reunited Europe, as can be seen in the 2004 rig rundown video.

"I only use 50 watts because I think they sound... they sing a little bit more than 100 watts, and you don't have to kill the rest of the band with the volume and stuff like that - they think it's pretty loud anyways"

"I have two JCM800s that I brought from USA. They aren’t S-certified (a security certification for electric products from Sweden). They have a volt switch between 110, 220 and 240 and also 4,8 and 16 ohm. The Swedish ones has only 4 and 8 ohm. I usually put them on 240 volts and 16 ohm"

Otherwise, they're completely stock except for John having changed the tubes from EL34s to KT88s, in vein of Richie Blackmore and Mick Ronson.

John can be seen talking about the amps 3:00 into the video.

Fun fact: one of John's 2205s has previously been owned by his idol Michael Schenker, and Norum refused to sell it back when Schenker regretted parting with it!

Norum uses Boss Od-1 in The Final Countdown album

In a video from "Friday Nights with Europe," Gunnar Mathias Michaeli confirms that the synth used for the pad sounds in "The Final Countdown" was a PPG Wave 2.2. However, during live performances, these pad sounds were played using a Roland JX8P, which is likely the same synth used to record the fanfare riff for the song. This information was shared in response to a fan question on the YouTube channel Europe Fan Media Corner on December 17, 2021.