My JCM900 STAYS! :)

I was considering getting a three channel amp ... I used to have one.. a JCM2000 TSL60, but then traded it to get the JCM900 which I thought sounded better ... then I got upset that I lost my channels ...

However!!!!

I have gone off the idea of the three channel amp.

I can't believe I never tried this before ...

I have a JCM900 4500 head. I just tried something I read on the Marshall Amps forum ....

I'm running it on the clean channel. Ignoring the distortion channel.

I have the gain on 10 on the clean channel ... and volume to whatever needs to be ....

I can control my clean/cruch VERY well with the volume pots on my Gibson Les Paul ... and for boosts, I'm running straight through the Zakk Wylde ZW-44 pedal ... gain on 10. Volume and tone quite low.

This is giving me a beautifully warm, crisp, responsive distorted tone. VERY VERY nice. It's not metally gain, yet I can pull off Zakk style harmonics at all times if I choose. It's stunning to hear! I'm ... well, happy as hell!

Ok, so lead boosts... I'm using a 7 band EQ (Danelectro... will get BOSS or MXR for the solidity of it)... boosting the mids just a TINY amount, gives me lots of extra push and cut into the sound.

So technically, using the volume pots, I can get around 4 sounds ... clean, crunch, hard rockin' rhythm, and pushed lead.

I'm so short sighted sometimes and didn't even consider reading up on this stuff.

My problem is this ... I always want the distortion of my amp to be awesome. Well, the JCM900 is too metally on the lead channel. But the clean is LOVELY! So, boosting with the ZW basically pushes the clean channel to become a rock monster!

On a related subject ... I also, last night, purchased the SD-1 Boss pedal. I'm going to test out both the ZW and the BOSS and see which one gives me the tone I want. So far, the ZW is ... mindblowing. But I'm gonna see how the BOSS sounds too.