Marshall JMP - studio questions

goin postal · Guest

I play an '76 Marshall JMP head. I am absolutely in love with it, in fact I think it has one of the best tones that I've ever heard. Anyway, I'm getting ready to take it into the studio to record. The only problem with this amp and all tube amps is that it takes a while for it to warm up and get "that sound". So I'm not sure what to do.... do I leave it on for a half hour so it can warm up before I start to lay down some tracks. Is this bad for the amp? Also, if anyone wants to give me any tips for the studio that would be great....

Thanks in advance

TimC · Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2003 1:07 pm Post subject:

I wonder how many people have rejected an amp they were trying out after a one minute warm-up? goin postal, you could leave the amp set to play, without a plug in the input. This won't hurt anything. Not having an instrument plugged in, or turning the volume all the way down, would eliminate the possibility of feed-back. I think the very best tone comes after the output transformer warms up good. You have to be playing for this to happen.

Jeff H · Guest

Definitely warm it up. A Hiwatt won't sound right until you can fry an egg on top of it. The other post is dead on too, you need to play thru it. Besides, you should be plugged in while running your modes and arps practicing so you can check that you're doing them cleanly and the engineer can being checking the mic placements.

goin postal · Guest

This might sound a little silly, but do I need to be playing through it at loud/stage levels when warming it up? I mean usually I play through it while it's warming up... like when we have band practice. About half-way through the practice it has reached it's sweet spot. I'm wondering if I can warm up the output trasformer by playing through it quetly instead of having cranked.

TimC · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2003 2:18 pm Post subject:

goin postal, the louder you play, the quicker the OT will warm up. What you need is a power soak,power brake or attenuator (all work the same). I've got a Marshall model that has a rotary switch on the front that lets you dial in different %'s of attenuation. This also lets you practice with "that sound", although it's not exactly the same. It definitely would let you warm up the OT quicker at normal volume levels.
I'll email admin and let them know that new posts are not showing at the Main Stage.

goin postal · Guest

What about getting good sounds out of an amp like this at lower volumes. Sometimes I play at venues with crappy PA's and I can not find a way to make this head sound good without being way too loud. Someone suggested that I run my head at a different ohm than my cab (which is 8 ohms). I'm not sure if I should try this. Will it harm my cab or head to try it? How about some suggestions on different settings I can use to make it sound warm and distorted at lower volumes.

Silvafish · Guest

Goin Postal...
Respectfully-- I think the most irritating thing to do in the studio while engineers are setting up is for people to be twiddling and fiddling around at even moderate - let alone high - volumes. The whole amp will warm up naturally just by having the heaters on in the tubes (amp on standby). The output transformer is in the same confined space and will warm up naturally.

If you need some time to play and "settle" with your amp before tracking, just let people know you intend to do that... when they've finished placing mics and doing line checks they can leave you for a while to warm up yourself. When anyone first plays a loud amp at any given time of day it's often intimidating and you need time to reacquaint yourself with the seemingly unforgiving beast. Once you've establish who's boss and you feel more comfortable with the volume and behavior of the amp, call them back in. I think sometimes it's a case of how the amps' interactive behavior changes with the heat moreover than how the sound changes. Be careful of your ears.

I personally think it's important to track rock guitar amps as loud as everyone can stand. I also think it's important that you (at least yourself) play in the room... the speakers need to "see" the strings. Play with cans to monitor other instruments but leave one ear off to listen to your amp and the room. Plan on recording the room and experiment with ambient mics. Most studios tight mic amps to minimize leakage but three inches in front of a guitar speaker is not where we usually listen from. If you want rich fat natural sounding guitar by all means tight mic, but also have mics placed... for example... six feet off the ground and four feet away from the front of the speaker cab an SM57 will work great for this. Then another mic in the furthest away point in the room, up where you might see a CCTV security camera... up in the ceiling in a corner. I personally like leakage from other instruments but you have to pull it off in one or two takes and play live in the studio. It's usually cheaper (time-wise) and sounds real. If the studio has tube/ribbon mics take advantage of them, they sound great for guitar. I often record three or four amps simultaneously with tube mics and then pick and chose what I want in the mix (usually all of them all the time).

Hope that helps some.
Silva

Silvafish · Guest

Sorry...
Just to ad that extreme ambient mic tracks often need to be moved during mixing about three milliseconds for every twelve feet on the computer to tighten the mix... otherwise you're hearing a delay the width of the room.

Also getting amps to break up and sound big in a live setting is and always will be a *sometimes angry female*. I use low wattage, small amps... and aim to move "more-air-less" rather than "less-air-more". That way it's less painful for everyone but you're still moving air in the restrooms without having one hot spot of sound pressure. People complain less. What do you other guys think?
Cheers
Silva