Marshall pedals: JCM800 vs 1959

B

Bucksears

Well-known member
Just curious if anyone knows (yet) if the JCM800 and 1959 (Marshall pedals) have the same architecure, just different part values?
Or are they completely different circuits?
Marshall put all of these in nearly identical configs (same pedal enclosures, all have four knobs), so I'm wondering if there is an internal commonality there.
 
I don't think you have to worry! :p

Actually IMO the Tubescreamer is unnecessarily complicated for something so bland. There are many pedals with a more complex sound and which have better control which have way fewer parts. And the JCM800 2203 and 2204 are actually very simple amps. A lot of modern pedals which claim to emulate the sound of those amps have way more parts than the actual amps do. Look at the Friedmans series of Marshall-inspired pedals - waaaay more complex than the amps and frankly I don't think they capture what I love about a good Marshall at all. Too much fluff in the sound.

I think there are many, many pedals which are ridiculously complex for something which just distorts a signal. I haven't yet heard an overdrive with more than two ICs that I like or would use. There are only a few with two ICs I like. And for transistor based ODs my limit seems to be four transistors! My favourite transistor ODs have two or three.

Bear in mind that I am a bit of an anal minimalist... Don't get me started on amps with lots of knobs!
 
@HamishR Sounds like we’ve had the exact same experiences. Less parts usually sounds better to me! I fully agree about the Friedman pedals as well.

@rossbalch The 59 is a YATS? Couldn’t tell be the demos. Sounds great. There’s plenty of YATS being sold for insane amounts of money though. I just like easy pedal builds that sound great!
 
bluedmc777 said:
@HamishR Sounds like we’ve had the exact same experiences. Less parts usually sounds better to me! I fully agree about the Friedman pedals as well.

@rossbalch The 59 is a YATS? Couldn’t tell be the demos. Sounds great. There’s plenty of YATS being sold for insane amounts of money though. I just like easy pedal builds that sound great!
Click to expand...

I have nothing against simple circuits per se. The electra is an absolute banger. There's a difference to me when a boutique seller with a lot of overheads is selling a YATS, vs a big corporation with scale production in China doing it. That's my point.
 
Oh I got your point! That's why I said I don't think you have to worry. I was just trying to express how unnecessarily complex a Tubescreamer is for what it does. I agree with you about the lack of originality in a lot of commercially available pedals. And there are loads of boutique builders making barely altered copies of existing circuits and using mojo to sell them. It seems that the new range of Marshall pedals are at least somewhat original, which is encouraging. Not a lot of that around.
 
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