Star Spangled Banner July 4th CRANKED Marshall Stack – Marshall JMP 2204 50w vs Ceriatone 2555 100w

What do you do when you have access to a brand new, empty 250,000 sq ft warehouse? Grab a couple of guitar amps and cabinets and CRANK THEM UP! In this video, we brought a 1979 Marshall JMP 2204 (50 Watt) and a Ceriatone 2555 Jubilee Marshall reproduction (100 Watt), a 1976 Marshall 4x12 with Celestion Greenbacks and a 1990s Marshall 1960B Cabinet with Celestion GT12 (either T-75s or Ms).

BIG thanks to THH for the loan of the Ceriatone and Brant for lending us that 1960B cab. Also- HUGE thanks to WS, MS, and TH for agreeing to let us use the building!!

The original thought was to do an in-depth comparison of the 2 amps to see at full volume what differences could be discerned. As it was the Sunday before July 4th, we changed course. We decided to play “The Star Spangled Banner” on both amps, and alternate between them without comment and attempt to get a decent final edit in a very short time- by the 4th. This is the result.

What is your take on the sound of each amp? We had both amps cookin’ pretty hard – not totally flat out, but just below the point of squealing and oscillation at idle. From the player’s perspective, this was an AMAZING experience. It is not every day that you can crank an amp as loud as you want. Even when playing “professionally” – LOUD amps are “highly frowned upon” by venue owners, audiences and sound engineers alike.

The Guitars

Fender American Vintage Reissue 1959 Stratocaster (stock “Pure Vintage 59” Pickups)– Played by Matt

Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal FR with EMG 85 and SA Pickups – Played by Kevin


Other Guitar Gear

There was only 1 pedal used (by Matt only) to more closely match the gain of the single coils in the Strat to the active pickups in the Charvel – A Dunlop Mini Fuzz Face FFM6 powered by a 9v battery.

Kevin played straight into both amps- No pedals.

The Recording

We close miced the bottom cabinet with a Shure SM-57 and that went direct into a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 Firewire Audio Interface

We placed a Zoom H2n Audio Recorder a couple hundred feet out into the warehouse to capture the room ambience

We used a Nikon Z6 with a 50mm Nikkor Z F1.8s Lens for the main shot, a Nikon Z30 with a 35mm Nikkor Z F1.8s on a DJI RS2 Gimbal for the handheld footage, a GoPro clipped to the top cabinet, and an iPhone 14 out in the warehouse for some distance shots. Drone footage captured on a DJI Mavic Mini