Well, a friend of mine has been bugging me to come over and check out his "old Marshall" and his "flying V" so yesterday I made it over to his house and when he brought me down to his basement I was totally shocked to see a silver Marshall Jubilee fullstack, an RR1, an Ibanez destroyer and an old washburn. He doesn't play the guitar anymore and all this gear has just been sitting in his basement for years.
The Jubilee is a little dusty but could easily be cleaned up, the only problem is that when we tried to fire it up the power came on but it was just hissing. When I asked him he said that he had never changed the tubes, ever. Does anybody know if there could really be any problems besides the tubes needing to be changed?
I made him an offer for $1,000 for the amp as is ,, but he seemed more interested in swapping the head and slant cab for my TSL601. But I think if I could get the jubilee at a good price I would like to just hang on the the TSL for a bedroom amp.
He had an old recording of himself playing the amp on some instrumental stuff he had written back in the day and the amp sounded killer on the tape.
I am going to see him tomorrow at a mutual friends house and I think I will bring 1K and see if he bites. My main concern is if anybody knows what could possibly be wrong with it, it for sure needs new tubes but is there anything else that is major that typically goes wrong with older Marshall amps? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
I'd be very cautious about handing over any cash when you're not sure exactly what the fault is.
It could just be the Valves as you said, but they don't usually just go without any warning. It's usually a gradual thing. Even '60s Marshalls with the original valves in still usually work. They might not sound their best but they will still work. Valves won't deteroriate when the amp isn't being used.
There's so many things that it 'could' be with a Marshall. My '79 JMP Marshall is older than that by quite a bit again and it's never just not worked(it's never had any problems,but then I look after it).
At the worst end of the scale it could be that something (liquid)has been spilt on it and got inside. It's not un-common for people to stand their can of Lager on top of a convenient height amp,lol.
One of the worst things that can happen to a modern-era Marshall of this type is PCB damage, and there's quite a few PCB's in a Jubilee head. Even the pots on a Jubilee are mounted on a PCB.
They're next to impossible to repair (PCB's that is)and you're not gonna' find replacement boards for a Jubilee.
I'm not saying don't get it if that's what you want, just be very careful about buying it blindly and assuming it'll just need the valves replacing.
I wouldn't even consider it without having a good amp tech check it out first.
We had already agreed that if I do purchase the amp I would have a "Trial period" to get it checked out by the local tech and make sure everything works. My friend had the idea of getting it fixed himself before selling it, but for one thing I know he would not get it done for a very long time and then even if he did get it fixed he probably would change his mind about selling it.
So my thought process was to hand him 1k cash tomorrow and get it checked out by a tech on Monday.
Why not ,as you said, get it checked out Monday,but, give him the cash after you've found out what the problem is.
Makes far more sense to me that way. It's not like he's gonna' sell it to someone else between now and Monday.
You don't actually say how close a friend he is, but assuming he's a good friend then he's surely not going to object to you doing it that way.
He's more of a "friend of a friend" and I and I'm going to see him at our mutual friends house tomorrow. I trust him and everything and he is a good guy. But yeah I think I'll just offer to give him a ride home tomorrow and see if he'll let me take the amp in on Monday and let me get it checked out. The only reason I wanted to give him the mopney up front is because 1k looks a lot better than it sounds and he is not completely convinced on selling the amp yet.
We got the Jubilee to fire up today and it sounded pretty damn good. He just plugged in a better speaker cable and the amp came alive. it was dialed in for a medium distirtion pedal level at first and it was rocking hard. But when he tried to ush the amp it would beging to cut in and out at high gain.
He offered to sell the whole fullstack for $1,500. I offered to buy the halfstack for $1,200. Either way we are supposed to both bring it in to the shop tomorrow and get an estimate on ony repairs.
I think it's definitely a good move to do it that way (safer for you anyway!).
Just make sure you've found out exactly what the problem is and preferably have it fixed before handing over any cash.
$1000 for the full stack sounded like a good deal but now $1200 for the half stack doesn't seem like such a bargain,lol.
I would have thought you could get some pretty good amps for that sort of cash in the U.S..
I would go out and buy a good speaker cable, and then try it again. Whenever I hear of an amp having problems with volume or gain levels, the problem is usually a bad cable.
I think it's definitely a good move to do it that way (safer for you anyway!).
Just make sure you've found out exactly what the problem is and preferably have it fixed before handing over any cash.
$1000 for the full stack sounded like a good deal but now $1200 for the half stack doesn't seem like such a bargain,lol.
I would have thought you could get some pretty good amps for that sort of cash in the U.S..
Old Jubilees dont just pop up over here. And we are Voracious over anything with the words marshall, hell even the solid state amps are over priced. Im wondering is marshall still a big name in England?
i had a 25/50 combo and that hated volume , well nearly full volume lol , it would cut out and then you would have to wait a while for it to come back .
We were both to busy to get the amp to the tech today, and tonight my 7 day workweek begins so we won't be able to get it in until next week sometime. This will give me some time to think about it anyway. If I buy the halfstack from him he is just going to buy a new head and idealy a new marshall might be better. I remember the jubillee sounding really full and loud but it has kind of rounded distortion. I like marshalls to have a really throaty midrange so I might want to look into a 2203RI or a TSL100.
Sounds like it could be a tube problem or need a recap, but I would need to hear it to have a better idea of course.
I would trade him the TSL straight up for it. The silver jubilee is a collectors item already, a much better amp, and you can save the money and use it to retube and recap the amp. Put it this way, I don't see you gaining any more versitility by keeping the TSL
i owned a Jubilee back when i started this site... it's a great amp and has real smooth distortion... but it's essentially a one channel amp and non-versatile... glen
He doesn't seem interrsted in trading anymore, he wants to sell the halfstack for $1,200. Do you guys think this would be a fair price, or should I be able to get it for 1K since I already have to pay for at least new tubes.
Tell him "hey bitch the thing doesnt even work. I'll pay $1200 if you throw in new JJs in the preamp and SED EL34s in the poweramp and get it properly biased or give it to me for $1000!"
1200 for a 1/2 stack in "9" condition would be in line- you're much better off spending 1500 for the whole thing if those are Jubilee cabs too. What color?
Mine was silver with matching cabs.
Sounds like you will need to replace the sockets where the tubes plug in.
No biggie. I always use Groove Tube matching sets when re-tubing.
A decent Jubilee 100 watt head alone will fetch a grand.
Colored tolex brings more. Colored cabs will fetch 500-600 each on the market in decent shape.
These are instant collector's items you will never lose money on- especially in the non-standard colors. I once saw a full stack in purple and passed on it- what a dope I was! It's now worth a fookin fortune.(Yngwie terminology).
Get it. Nice amp and as statted very valuable. They are so simple too work on too. Worst case senerio is a dead tranny. Still not that costly and at the prices he is stating you will still make out. Do it. everyone wants too... you want to... just do it....
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