Jesta..

To answer your question..YES..the 2205/2210 do have more gain then the 800 03/04s..They have 5 preamp tubes as opposed to 3 in the 03/04..they also have reverb..and the reverb is BETTER then the reverb on the 900 series. Additonally, the 2205/2210 have an FX loop in where the 03/04s do not.

Now I know some of the purist type on here may want to crusify me for this...but I LOVE running BBEs (362 only) in my Marshall's FX loop. They do INCREDIBLE things for your tone not to mention really help boosting the gain..BIG TIME...all WITHOUT losing one ounce of tone. I've been doing this for quite awhile now and have tried many, many different equalizers (including MXRs 108) and the BBE blows em' all away.

BBEs are simply amazing imo..they 'ehance' your sound completely all while seemingly maintaing that worderful organic nature that Marshalls are so well known for.

I read one of your posts, and you mentioned the 2205 JCM 800 and 2203 are similar. I was wondering, does this extra gain stage give it that hotted up/extra overdriven 800 tone notable in 80's metal?