jimmarchi1's Reviews
801 reviews Back to jimmarchi1's Equipboard
41028
great but very situational
this was one of the first effect pedals (I think the the rowe/dearmond tremelo pedal was first) and THE FIRST dirt box. The difference between this and the more common FZ1A are minimal. Mainly, this guy has better selected transistors and it runs on 2 AA batteries versus 1. These 2 differences lead to a less splitty and gated sound and a wider useable range from the 'attack' and volume knobs. Its still a pretty low output fuzz box with a limited sustain. You can see why Vic Flick took his to Gary Hurst to mod for more sustain (birthing the mk1 tonebender). At a modest 3 volts there's only so much that you can squeeze outs these old texas instruments transistors, but wheyou hit this guy right its pretty pleasing. I got rid of this because I rarely sued it and its enormously valuable... made a fortune on this when I needed some money and having acquired it 'broken' for under $100 it was a real windfall when I let her go. If yo want a balance between splitty maestro gated fuzz and like a tonebender of fuzz face, look at one of these if you can find one.
41028
meh
this is a classic pedal, a big part of Flea's sound. I acquired one when I was playing bass occasionally in a friend's industrial band. I put it out front of an old peavey bass amp but was never in love with it for bass. Later I witched over to an ampeg B25 and a fender bassman50 for amplification and just ran them so loud they were a little dirty and used a big muff for fuzz... in another friend's band I filled in on bass and was using the ampeg/fender setup a lot but wanted more hair at a lower level (this friend is a volume wimp who is always trying to get his stage volume down to a whisper) so I brought the boss back out and that was the sound of that band's low end, but I was never in love with it. It always sounds like a repurpoused or rather a re-tooled guitar pedal and doesn't touch a tube bass amp being hit hard. its particularly sterile through solid state bass rigs. There are a million sounds in this box from the 4 knobs, but none of them sound the way I want a bass to overdrive. That said, I've never found a pedal for low gain bass sounds I like better.... although since I am not primarily a bassist I stay in the cheap seats. One thing that's great about this pedal is the balance knob for clean blend, it helps with the preservation of low end for ass and also with disguising the for want of a better word, 'fake' OD sound. The stacked bass and treble controls, while clearly designed to be bass friendly, seem to work better for guitar with this circuit. When this came out treble and bass controls on any pedal not specifically aimed at metalheads were a novelty so I give it some points for that. I used this pedal a lot when recording guitars at home for synthetic sounding OD/Distortion that could reall be tuned in to hit the front end of my guitar amps a certain way. I got rid of this ages ago though, I just stopped having any use for it and couldn't justify keeping it...
41028
commanding
this was the loudest amp I've ever owned... like a louder VT40 without reverb. Not voiced specifically for bass, at least my70s version wasn't. Good bass amp, great guitar amp if you wanted a loud clean sound. A clean sound so commanding it eats a twin for lunch. Only a Hiwatt or Sunn 2000s squeezes more out of 4 power tubes. Slightly different preamp tube compliment than a vt40 so easier to retube as I recall. But pulling 2 power tubes its still louder and cleaner than a vt40 or v2. A beast. I would owner another one.
41028
I wanna rock n roll all night
These amps are loud and bright at 1. I owned an early 70s metalface in purple tolex. We called her Barney. It had a sharper sound then my plexi reissue. More of a razorblade distortion rather than a creamy distortion. My friend owned a later pelxi RI and that sort of split the difference between the two sounds. I briefly owned a very late plexi front that was similar to this amp throughout and was very bright clean but smoothed out more turned up all the way. All of these superlead amps made between the 60s and late 80s are different and none of them has been equaled in a mass produced amp since. I'm more of a vox guy, but nothing sounds like these except maybe a laney supergroup. Its a shame so many metalfaces were modded out in the 80s because they are very cool stock. This sound is very much the sound of classic KISS and ACDC, if that's your bag. Tog et the ACDC sounds you need to sue the angus settings. If you try the all knobs on 10 with this the treble will take your head off, an EQ out front is not enough to tame this beast. It won't sound good with the plexi settings either where you turn up all the tone controls and kill the presence. Its just hairier and wilder without the tone shaping. These are getting expensive now :-(
41028
!
I owned a hacked (by a moron) and then restored (by me and my buddy) '63 Fender Electrical Instruments first-run Dual Showman. Didn't say Dual on it yet, guys, but it was 4 ohms to drive a 2x15 instead of a 1x12 or 1x15 with the 'tone ring'.... Mine was really similar to the ones Dick Dale still tours with. I know this because he and I were comparing notes one time at the Northstar in Philly. I'll say this for my Showman, it had a big, punchy clean tone. Almost too big and too punchy. A twin by any other name is just as stiff....
41028
another 800 copy from laney
These amps are JCM800s with an extra switchable gain stage and a shitty tube/IC hybrid effects loop. They also include a soldano inspired depth switch that can help get added chunk for those that find the 800 to be low on bass even with the bass dimed. They feature a very durable and quiet toroidal power transformer, something rarely seen in guitar amps. The only other difference between this and an 800 is that the low gain input doe NOT bypass a tube stage, but instead is padded down. This puts both inputs in phase, a good idea, but it gives the second input a totally different sound due to the extreme bias of the first tube stage in an 800. Still, this amp is a superb 800 on a budget and served me well as a backup. They don't appear to be built as well as an 80s JCM, but they're plenty robust. I never had either of mine go down, not once. This amp also features switchable bias between EL34 and 6L6 giving it another voice if you want.
41028
a russian JCM800
ind esign these amps are JCM800s, but the use of 6L6 tubes and all the Russian components give them a unique sound. These amps have gained quite a following distinct from the more popular 50 watt model that's like a tweed bassman in a head. This is not a budget marhsall, it will never sound like a marshall, but the sound it has is very, very good and falls well within the 80s marshall camp if that's your cup of tea.
41028
laney's nswer to the 800
these amps are hot-rodded 800s (the ones with more knobs go beyond that, but the 1st generation is really an 800 with more gain and that's it). These amps do everything you wouldw ant but theya ren't made quite as well as an 800. The PCBs are flimsier and the pots and jacks are board mounted. A solid budget marshall… have a backup.
41028
country crunch
I owned a mid 60s bandmaster with the matching small box 2x12 cab. This was without a doubt the best sounding piggyback fender I've owned for Americana type music. It had THAT SOUND from so many 60s recordings of every style... wonderful edge of breakup tones. You can bridge the channels on these because both channels are in-phase with the trem disengaged... the amp had what one friend called 'cowboy crunch' when bridged and pushed hard. I sadly was forced to sell this amp on short notice to sam ash because my wife needed a couple grand in emergency dental work :-( I got great money for it versus the $800 I paid for the whole rig, but I've enver seen one this clean that sounded this good since... even the beaters don't sound like mine. Last I checked it was still owned by sam ash, so if I ever have a couple grand burning a hole in my pocket I'll meet their asking price. A lot of people are down on this amp versus the bassman because the smaller output transformer gives it a weaker sound and less headroom (by their standards) but I found it to have just the right amount of grit to the tone and the tightest bass of any large fender I've played aside from the tremolux heads. No boominess at all. Very much a giant deluxe reverb without reverb... not all blackface bandmasters are created equal though. mine sounded really good.
41028
meh
the pro reverb is an underrated amp in general, but the silverfaces are the worst sounding versions. Mine was great for Ska, but that's about it. Defiinitely far off from blackface! If you want a 50 watt early 70s twin check out the pros of this era. Very similar to the bandmaster reverb heads of the time. Not my cup of tea, but not a bad stage amp for a pedal player.
41028
excellent small bass amps
the B25B is a B25 with a grounded cord stock. The transformers aren't robust and the rocker switches aren't durable, although not all B models have rockers, just later ones... the first one of these I had showed up with a dead power transformer and another one I owned blew an output transformer, so be aware and don't overpay. These amps sound great though. See my review of the B25.
41028
low wattage, great sound
These amps need to have a 3 prong power cord (no pun intended) attached and the 'death cap' snipped, but they are excellent small venue and recording amps. The sound and design is based on the portaflex, but you can really 'tune' them to fit the gig via cabinet choice. Expensive to retube due to the rare 7199 pentode/triode phase inverter. Can be modded to accept a more plentiful pentode/triode with minimal change in tone. The 7199 is the crème de la crème though, used in dynaco hifi amps etc.... sort of an ef86 and 12au7 combo tube.
41028
not bad at all
before I got my first old marshall 4x12 I had a JTM30 combo with two 10" legends and despite the boxy cab I quite liked the overall response of those speakers so I got a bunch of 12" legends and was trying them in my laney cabs and even in my 800 combo. I quite liked them versus reissue greenbacks and they had more power handling. They're a very underrated speaker. They have that woody tone, compressed bottom and upper-mid honk when pushed, but are generally brighter than any M magnet celestion. A very good choice for modern rock.
41028
didn't appreciate it when i had it
When I got my first marshall and went head/cab in my late teens my buddy sold me his beat up Mesa/Boogie upright 2x12. It was half closed and open on the top, a very cool design giving it focus as well as stage dispersion. I thought the cab was hideous and I quickly sold it and acquired a pair of marshall 1965 cabs. They were too small for my head too and they caused me to realize the plit channel 800 was not to my liking so I sold that and started exploring non-channel switching british heads. I miss this cab though. I think it had EV12Ls in it... maybe not the best choice for a marshall but it would sound great with some of the stuff I like now. If you see one of these, buy it. They've become quite rare.
41028
I accidentally posted this udner MIDIverb III originally
A friend gave me this along with my Roland MKS. I happen to have turned up the midi cabled remote control for this when I helped that guy clean out his home studio, it does not help you to program it.... basically all your editing is controlled by the input, mix and output knobs, the reverbs are super preset... I have heard you can program it from your PC via midi, why bother? It sounds just like the affordable and better-featured nano-verb to my ear... as soon as I figure out where I put this piece of garbage its getting sold. Definitely not in the same league as the quadraverbs I've had, and I do not like those much either.... but at least you can program those suckers if you are diligent about menu diving. It has 1 thing going for it and that's a cool reverse patch. In the cheap seats of old DSP racks I'll take the Yamaha SPX stuff over any alesis product any day of the week. But I sold my SPX90 too...
41028
not reinventing the wheel, but totally sweet
The preamp from a blackface fender showman with the opto trem circuit removed from channel 2. Sounds great. Tried replacing my showman with this and some stereo effects into an H&H but I missed the output section.
41028
4 big stars... for bass!
this is a 4 star silverface fender... AS A BASS AMP... bassman 50 and 100 are excellent fender-sound bass amps, the best fender ever made. Not powerful enough back in the day, but in these days of low stage volumes they're an excellent choice for vintage bass tone. These guys deliver that Carol Kaye sound and then some with much better transient response than a blackface. If you want a guitar amp? look elsewhere, but the bassman live only became a guitarist's favorite because it was so bad at bass. Fender kept making regular bassmans in addition to the 50 and 100 but these 2 bass-voiced bassmans are pretty much the only thing CBS did right! They're a real sleeper if you can find one that hasn't been hacked by someone trying to make it into a guitar amp.
41028
it deserves these 4 stars, trust me
this is a 4 star silverface fender... AS A BASS AMP... bassman 50 and 100 are excellent fender-sound bass amps, the best fender ever made. Not powerful enough back in the day, but in these days of low stage volumes they're an excellent choice for vintage bass tone. These guys deliver that Carol Kaye sound and then some with much better transient response than a blackface. If you want a guitar amp? look elsewhere, but the bassman live only became a guitarist's favorite because it was so bad at bass. Fender kept making regular bassmans in addition to the 50 and 100 but these 2 bass-voiced bassmans are pretty much the only thing CBS did right! They're a real sleeper if you can find one that hasn't been hacked by someone trying to make it into a guitar amp.
41028
a good deal
along with the G1265, the G12S50 graced many a JCM800 cabinet and combo! These share a magnet with the old greenback S speakers I like but have more than twice the power handling and a more modern sound, but still very good. One should always have a few of these in the closet, they have a distinctly early 80s trash rock flavor in pairs or quads. Efficiency is about the same as a 'pre-rola' G12M greenback. So not too loud.
-s.webp?v=1784876486)