NAD: Mojotone British 800 2204

[cliffenstein]

Surfing Reverb several months ago and a Mojotone kit built 2204 that looked to be very nicely modded/upgraded showed up on my screen. It was assembled/hand-wired by an amp enthusiast from McKinney, TX in 2022 operating under the name of Jasper Amplification. The owner of the amp was doing a big gear purge and was letting things go at very good prices. After watching some youtube footage of these Mojotone kit builds and watching a video of this specific amp that Jasper Amplification made, I decided to take the plunge. The amp arrived several days later. I plugged it in and could tell it definitely had the bones, but I didn't like any of the mods (a PPIMV, a gain boost and a mid boost). I called my tech and after talking through things with him, I decided to get this thing totally back to stock. I gave him the amp and the schematics and let him go to town..."do whatever you have to do to get this thing sounding like a healthy JCM 800 2204 should!" While he was doing that, I started making plans to completely turn this thing into my own personal ultimate custom amp.

I went round and round for a while with aesthetics ideas, got several Mojotone logos made for me (in both their official font and in the Marshall font) but ultimately settled on using the actual Marshall logo, because this amp is Marshall's full on 2204 circuit and schematics (well, the amp was built using Mojotone's schematics, but my tech referenced both the Mojotone schematics and Marshall's and changed things in favor of the Marshall schematics as he went along), so putting their logo on it seemed right...and it certainly LOOKS right!

I contacted Mojotone and had them make me custom front and back faceplates (I settled on using BRITISH 800 instead of JCM 800 because Mojotone calls this kit the British 800 kit, I replaced Jim Marshall's signature with my own, and I listed Mojotone as the manufacturer, the name and company of the man who originally hand-wired this amp, and my tech on the back faceplate). I also had Mojotone send me Marshall feet to use for a new headshell. I purchased a proper 11" Marshall logo online from Amplified Parts. I then sent the logo and the feet to Sourmash for them to install on a 2204 headshell, I even paid extra for real Marshall tolex (it's worth the extra time and expense!).

Several days into it and my tech called me to let me know that he had the amp back to stock based on the schematic, but it was pretty much all treble and he didn't think I'd like it. I asked him to make any changes necessary to make it sound like it should. He ended up doing the following changes:

Increased fizz cap value from 47pf to 120pf
Added .002uf fixed resonance capacitor to negative feedback
Changed 1000pf bright cap to 100pf
Reduced 2.2uf V1 cathode bypass capacitor to 1uf
Changed bias resistor to allow for adequate bias adjustment
Installed external bias test points

I got the amp back and blammo...absolutely incredible sounding. Big, Heyboer, Plexi grade PT, OT and Choke give it that wonderful, in your chest feel. It's insanely loud...just like a proper 2204, it goes from no sound at all to uber loud with barely anything in between. Mojotone's coupling caps are great...no need to change them at all. JJ power and preamp tubes throughout (I've got a ECC82 in V2 to tame the gain a bit so I can run the pre-amp on 8 like I usually do).

Plate voltage: 417
Bias 17.5W per tube (70% dissipation)
42mA at cathode

My headshell came in yesterday and now the whole thing is complete. I LOVE THIS AMP!!!

PHOTOS (external only...sorry...it looks awesome inside!):

[ajaxlepinski]

Totally AWESOME!!!! Spectacular too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tortuga]

Wow! Very nice!

Gut shots?

[cliffenstein]

Wow! Very nice!

Gut shots?

I'll take pics of the inside this weekend and post them on Monday...maybe sooner, I dunno yet.

[Marc G]

wow that looks great

[GuitarBilly]

That looks great, very nice personal touches.
The mojotone kits are awesome, really high quality components.
Really awesome project man. Congratulations!!!

[maggotspawn]

Very nice! Congrats.

[Tortuga]

That looks great, very nice personal touches.
The mojotone kits are awesome, really high quality components.
Really awesome project man. Congratulations!!!

Yeah, and their customer service is killer!

[BleedingWhiskey]

Damn, I wish I could score a JCM 800 like this. I'm moving to a house soon, so I could have something like this now. Also, Cliff, I still have the Jet City 100LTD you sold me a few years ago. I remember because that Epic Amps amp was in the photos you had on your list. I still love the amp!

[Telephant]

Never played a Mojotone amp but I’m betting it’s awesome. I do have experience with their PAF’s and their greenback clones, both are very good sounding.

[BleedingWhiskey]

Never played a Mojotone amp but I’m betting it’s awesome. I do have experience with their PAF’s and their greenback clones, both are very good sounding.

Their speaker cabs are killer, too. I had a vintage Marshall style straight 4x12 from them that was killer. Wish I hadn't sold it. Also, their Wide Range pickups are the shit. Best bang-for-buck WRHB pickups. Wish I still had that orange sparkle Tele Deluxe, too.

[cliffenstein]

Damn, I wish I could score a JCM 800 like this. I'm moving to a house soon, so I could have something like this now. Also, Cliff, I still have the Jet City 100LTD you sold me a few years ago. I remember because that Epic Amps amp was in the photos you had on your list. I still love the amp!

Those 100LTD’s are great and I’m super glad you’re still loving it! I’m a happy owner of an upgraded Jet City Custom JCA800 (JMP 2204), too…#801, it was the first one sold!

[Telephant]

Never played a Mojotone amp but I’m betting it’s awesome. I do have experience with their PAF’s and their greenback clones, both are very good sounding.

Their speaker cabs are killer, too. I had a vintage Marshall style straight 4x12 from them that was killer. Wish I hadn't sold it. Also, their Wide Range pickups are the shit. Best bang-for-buck WRHB pickups. Wish I still had that orange sparkle Tele Deluxe, too.

I had them build me their Grand Canyon 4x12 in snakeskin to match the SLO and it’s awesome!

[cliffenstein]

Took a bit for me to get around to taking inside photos of the amp...here ya go:

But first...one more from the outside!


Okay, okay...here ya go!

[GuitarBilly]

Nice, clean build. Better build quality than an actual 800.
I'm getting a Mojotone modded Superbass tomorrow. Their amps are great.

[Chris Z]

NICE

[cliffenstein]

Nice, clean build. Better build quality than an actual 800.
I'm getting a Mojotone modded Superbass tomorrow. Their amps are great.

You planning on doing some Malcolm Young stuff or something?

[GuitarBilly]

Nice, clean build. Better build quality than an actual 800.
I'm getting a Mojotone modded Superbass tomorrow. Their amps are great.

You planning on doing some Malcolm Young stuff or something?

hahaha no, it's been modded to super lead/2203 specs so technically it's no longer a superbass but it started out as the Mojotone Superbass kit.

[cliffenstein]

it's been modded to super lead/2203 specs so technically it's no longer a superbass but it started out as the Mojotone Superbass kit.

Ohhhhh...that makes sense. Mine was way too much high end, but after some extra work it's just all kinds of awesome. So if yours is that way, just know it CAN be adjusted by your tech (I assume you have access to a good one) to make it all it can be.

[spawnofthesith]

Looks awesome, congrats!!

[cliffenstein]

Just played a weekend of shows in Ohio with the new amp…DEFINITE keeper!!!!

[nightflameauto]

Looks great. Bet it sounds great too. Congrats, man.

[VTM]

Amp looks incredible inside and out!

[cliffenstein]

Thank you all…it has definitely moved into the number one amp slot for me. Just played Reggie’s in Chicago last night and I even let another band use it for their performance. It’s really a beast of an amp…just perfect in every way. Playing Pittsburgh tonight with it, after that central PA and then DC.