Clean Tone on a tube Marshall

Tom

Ok, so I've got a 50w Marshall JCM 900. It's overdrive is great, but I don't actually use it at the moment.
Does anyone have tips on how to dial in a decent clean tone on a JCM?
I would love to keep it for its overdrive but the whole one trick pony thing is driving me to consider selling it and getting an AC30.

Jacquesg4j

Tom wrote: Ok, so I've got a 50w Marshall JCM 900. It's overdrive is great, but I don't actually use it at the moment.
Does anyone have tips on how to dial in a decent clean tone on a JCM?
I would love to keep it for its overdrive but the whole one trick pony thing is driving me to consider selling it and getting an AC30.

Really depends on what guitar you are using! On my tele-style Parker I put the gain at about 10:30 and the volume all the way up there... Treble at 2ish, Bass at 2ish, Middle at 11... ('o'clock)

I get very useful clean tones!... I'm happy with it at least!

Tom

Really wish I was lucky enough to have that Parker. haha.

Using an Ibanez RG on neck pickup mainly. Also with GHS eric Johnson strings so they aren't as bright as the likes of my usual Dean Markley's.

Thank you!
Going to give it a try now now.

Tonedef

The one time I sampled a RG I found its tone to be very dark, maybe borrow a tele or such and see if you change your mind. After all, replacing an axe is much easier/cheaper than swapping out an amp, no?

Tom

Hmmm... I'm not a tele fan. Well I really like them, but they just aren't my thing at all.
Yea, just going to have to swing by my friend's place with it soon who happens to have a '68 tele, 70's les paul and strat ?

It is probably easier than the hassle of selling mine and then buying another.

Tonedef

Or wot about a pupgrade...?

Jacquesg4j

Yeah my Ibanez didn't give great clean tone either! What helps there is dialing down on the bass and lifting the treble! and the middle pickup on that RG should sound better than the HB in the neck for a clean in my opinion! the neck already dulls the tone down and then a humbucker just adds to that! so try that middle single coil ( of yours has it??) and give it volume!!!

Tom

Neck is the way, mid is too bright. I'm wanting more jazzy (hollowbody, eek!) cleans.
hmmmph. The eq'ing is already helping a lot, just gain's too high (got the MKIII dual master head, not dual reverb or SL-X) so with that down, a bit off on the tone pot and volume at about 2/3 and it sounds usable. I'm just not a fan of live having my volume half or something in order to keep consistency when playing.

But pupgrade is definitely on the cards. SD Jazz(n) and JB(b)?

Gearhead

Swap your v1 for a lower drive tube. Easy to do, easy to reverse. Plenty of suspects, start with ECC81 / 12AT7 8)

Tom

Gearhead wrote: Swap your v1 for a lower drive tube. Easy to do, easy to reverse. Plenty of suspects, start with ECC81 / 12AT7 8)

DEFINITELY

Thank you!

TomCat

+1 to GH's Suggestion.....also try out a JJ tube as they tend to be more mellow/cleaner

Tom

Heard a lot of hype around JJ's, although it's been all the metal guys using them in 5150's and the like.
I havn't needed to change tubes just yet so I don't have experience in which are better for what, but from what I gathered was that the JJ 12AX7's were fairly high gain and broke up at lower volumes. But thanks for the advice, retubing is happening in the next few months, depending if I am going to europe for SONAR fest(yes I am a "connoisseur" of electronic music) and maybe Wacken. They were last replaced by the previous owner in July and I have not really played it with volume past 6 more times than I can count on my hands, without being a maths nerd using binary.

Gearhead

Don´t bother retubing dude ? not necessary at all.
Just get a hold of another 12AT7 for about R150-R250 and swap the thing ?