Marshall JVM-1 | guitars

Marshall JVM-1 50th Anniversary Limited Edition 1W Head

So. The 50th Anniversary Limited Edition 1W series. These things were a huge corporate piss-taking exercise in extorting good money (... they were kinda expensive) from hard-working Marshall fans. A series of teensy little wheezy amps that were sold by the same folks that brought us Marshall smartphones, Marshall headphones and (I'm guessing) Marshall sunglasses and branded swimwear. When you've got a big name at the top of your headed notepaper, there will ALWAYS be a market for any old shite that you crank off the production line.

Marshall's speciality is big, foreboding amp stacks that (when cranked appropriately) can knock flocks of migrating birds clean out of the sky ... not pissy little heads that offer less juice than my daughter's Disney sing-a-long microphone.

So ... WHY?

Well, I wondered why for a long time. Sure, they were desperately cute, but no better looking than an old $50 Lead 12 head. So, although I was intrigued, I steered well clear, and preferred to pity the fools that fell for the marketing bullshit ... those guys who could have snagged a usable 100W head for what they just paid for a single Watt.

I agreed to take this in a trade when I was thinning my herd of guitars ... the 'buyer' asked about the guitar (and clearly wanted it a lot) but spouted the all too common crap about not being able to afford the asking price. Really, I've bought and sold WAY too much gear to react to psychological games ... if you can't AFFORD it, then you don't get to BUY it ... the theory is pretty simple. What a surprise then, when our buyer-guy offered a decent wad of cash AND an as-new, boxed JVM-1 head. I shook his hand (through the Internet pipes, of course) and sent off the guitar. As a side note (and don't tell anyone I said this ...) that guitar was a 'barn-find' which I picked up for virtually nothing ... WAY less than market value, so I was very happy with the deal. The cash that came with this head was actually within a few £ of what I paid for the guitar, so my accountant would say that the amp was free ...

No matter. I opened it and couldn't help but smile (its SO cute after all ... a new-born-sized Marshall). No need to clean it, no need to replace any worn bits, and no need to stick down any bits of tolex from the inevitable whacks that Marshalls seem to gravitate towards ... this thing was MINT. All the collector-trinkets were in the box (certificates and shit), and it was still wearing its factory-applied 50th Anniversary sticker.

Now, let's be clear, I didn't expect this to sound great ... a JVM sounds like a JVM because of the bits and pieces inside it ... and this doesn't use the same bits and pieces that a proper, grown-up JVM does. The JVM410 has the usual compliment of four EL34s and five 12AX7s, whereas the JVM-1 has two 12AX7s in the preamp, and a single 12AU7 standing in as the power-amp. As an aside, the 12AU7 is pretty similar to a 12AX7, but draws a shit-load more current and has much lower gain. Whatever, this is never going to sound as savage as a grown-up JVM410.

When I plugged it in, however, I realised what a cynical piece of crap I can be sometimes ... as this thing is RIDICULOUSLY good. The parcel was sent to my office so, naturally, I plugged it into the speaker of my office amp (my 6101). Whoa. Not only was it oozing with juicy Marshall tones, but it was also curiously loud ... who'd have thought. Not loud enough to be heard over a tame but determined drummer of course, but (thankfully) I have no need for such creatures (drummers) since I hung up my gigging trousers.

Anyway. The range offered by Marshall was: a JTM-1; a JMP-1; a JCM-1; a DSL-1, and a JVM-1. The amount of control over each increased through the range (as you'd expect), as did the amount of available gain. I've had this dialled in all over the gain range, and settled on a raspy crunch (clean channel), a rocky crunch (lead channel with the gain at about 9 o'clock) and full out metal leads with the lead channel gain at about 3 o'clock. I neither want nor need any more gain than that (although there's LOTS more available).

But back to the story. These were released one at a time, from the JTM to the JVM, every 10 weeks. Although each one was still available out of its 10-week window, production was limited. The upshot is that they all seemed to go relatively quickly, but have been dribbling into the used market since then, and although some sellers seem to expect quite sensible prices, many seem to think that the 'limited' status allows them to ask silly money.

The combo versions of these ran into quite small drivers, which sounded pretty decent, but ... you know ... you always suspect that shit is going to sound better through a nice 12" Celestion (or preferably several of them). And what do you know ... you stuff this little guy into a 4x12 and it's a truly lovely thing. Not to mention surprisingly loud ... certainly more than you'd expect from a wheezy little 1W amp. If that is still too loud for your delicate little eardrums, there's a power reduction switch on the back that takes the output down from 1W to 0.1W ... although folks that know more about this stuff than I do say that it is more like 0.025W.

What that means is that you can absolutely smash the crap out of this little JVM, run it wide open, and still be able to hold a conversation. Try THAT with a JVM410! Let the valves cook a little, and this thing makes some truly great tones.

So. I wasn't convinced, then I got one, and now I'm convinced. If you're not convinced, get one ... you might be convinced.