A few weeks ago, I introduced you to my Vajra JTM45 Clone - which I'm absolutely loving! It's based on the original mid-60s design, which was "borrowed" (and slightly adapted) from the Fender Bassman circuit by Jim Marshall. It's a classic rock powerhouse, and a sound we all know.
The previous owner of this amp had it running on 6L6's, but I wanted to restore it to being powered by the original KT66 tubeset....but in the process, shoot some before-and-after footage to see how much of a difference the simple change made. After shooting the 6L6 footage I took the head to my long-time local Bristol amp tech Mike Devine (aka 'Amploft'...he's an electronics genius, so do check him out if you're in the South West! https://amploft.co.uk) to pop the KT66s in and re-bias the circuit so that they were in their happy place. In the meantime I left the mics on the 2x12 cab, and as soon as the new tubes were installed, I plugged it all back in and played the same things at the same settings with the KT66s.
So...what do you think? Is one more "Marshall" than the other? Or do they make negligible difference? Comment below!
Guitar is a Gibson Les Paul Standard w/ ThroBak SLE-101 PAFs, played through a Vajra JTM45 Clone into a Zilla Studio Pro 2x12 with Fane F70 and Celestion Heritage G12H55 speakers. Recorded with an Aston Spirit Condenser, '70s Sennheiser MD441 and sE RNR1 ribbon mics, with a Schoeps CMC6 room mic.
0:00 Intro
5:24 Clean
7:31 Low Gain
9:26 High Gain
12:38 Maximum Gain
14:36 Outro
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