Which Jet City...

CHrisP86

I've decided to give Jet City a go on my search for a small portable amp.

I can't decide which of the Custom 5, Custom 22 or JCA22H would suit me best.

I like the Soldano sound and I think Martin Kidd makes great amps as well.

Any thoughts/experiences that might help my decision. 

PolarityMan

I have a jca50h and its beasty

monquixote

What do you want to achieve/ use it for?

longi

The Custom 5 isn't a Soldano or Martin Kidd design, I forget who designed it but it's not either of those guys. That's not to say it's not a nice amp though. I have a Custom 22 and think it's a great amp for the price.

usedtobe

Do they make an amp with a clean channel? All I seem to see are crunch/overdrive ones...?

monquixote

Custom 22 has a proper clean.
Some people claim to get a decent clean from the 22h but i never could.

digitalscream

monquixote said:

Custom 22 has a proper clean.
Some people claim to get a decent clean from the 22h but i never could.

It's possible, but you have to put a 12AT7 in the V1 position at the very least.

Basically, it comes down to the Custom 22 if you want clean cleans, or the JCA22H if you don't. If your budget extends a fair bit further then there's the Amelia (£480-odd), which is awesome; however, you'll have to go to Thomann for that.

EDIT: It's also neither small nor portable, but it is great

ThePrettyDamned

monquixote said:

Custom 22 has a proper clean.
Some people claim to get a decent clean from the 22h but i never could.

The jca 20h I tried *could* be clean, but it was single channel and wasn't a traditional "funk" clean, more that slightly hairy John Frusciante style clean. 

At low volume it could be clean but... Yeah, I'd say go for the custom 22 if you want clean cleans. 

usedtobe

Thanks chaps! 

CHrisP86

I might actually buy an Amelia as well at some point as a backup to my Cornford MK50, or if I end up selling the Cornford. 

I would just be using it as lighter option to take to rehearsal (maybe small gigs) and a 'cleaner' clean channel would probably be better for me.

Does everybody change valves on the Jet City amps as soon as they get them? 

digitalscream

CHrisP86 said:

Does everybody change valves on the Jet City amps as soon as they get them? 

A lot do, but I actually quite like the sound of the cheap Chinese valves they use, to the point where I got Doug to send me 10 of them so I could have some spares

PolarityMan

I didnt change the valves on mine.....it's still beasty.

I got my clean by bypassing the preamp and using a fender model on my multi-fx instead but bear in mind my cleans are completely clean. If you like a tiny bit of hair or a clean tone that breaks up when you dig in then you'll get what you need out of the JCA.

Dave_Mc

usedtobe said:

Do they make an amp with a clean channel? All I seem to see are crunch/overdrive ones...?

I haven't tried it but the 2x12 50 watt combo was supposedly a clone of the lucky 13 (i think), which has a proper fendery clean channel. But then I think it doesn't have the high gain channel, i think its od channel is the crunch channel from the high gain ones.

digitalscream

Dave_Mc said:

usedtobe said:

Do they make an amp with a clean channel? All I seem to see are crunch/overdrive ones...?

I haven't tried it but the 2x12 50 watt combo was supposedly a clone of the lucky 13 (i think), which has a proper fendery clean channel. But then I think it doesn't have the high gain channel, i think its od channel is the crunch channel from the high gain ones.

Yep, that's right. From their description, it had the Lucky 13 clean channel wide-open (ie no gain control, just an input volume) and the normal Soldano crunch channel.

Dave_Mc

^ Thanks. I didn't realise that about the gain control, so that's interesting.

They really should name the things a bit less confusingly, as it's very easy to get mixed up- and also very annoying that the only way to get that amp (if that's what you want) is in the 2x12 combo format, which is big and heavy. EDIT: and also more expensive to swap speakers, if you're that way inclined.

usedtobe

Dave_Mc said:

usedtobe said:

Do they make an amp with a clean channel? All I seem to see are crunch/overdrive ones...?

I haven't tried it but the 2x12 50 watt combo was supposedly a clone of the lucky 13 (i think), which has a proper fendery clean channel. But then I think it doesn't have the high gain channel, i think its od channel is the crunch channel from the high gain ones.

Yeah, I remember that one being out briefly, or so it seemed. Maybe I was late to the party..
Sounded like my ideal amp, but I dithered, as I do, and it was discontinued. I do keep an eye out for used ones coming up, but they're pretty thin on the ground. I exchanged a couple of emails with a guy at jet city, about the possibility of a proper clean channel/other type amp, and he said there might be something suitable coming along... This was a while ago..
 The custom 22 might do me, but then I'm going to have to look at cabs, and I've always had combos. The getting the right cab rating for a head thing baffles me a bit. Sounds pathetic, I know, but it's something I've never had any experience of...

newi123

JCA20HV is my go to amp. Covers gigging from pop and blues rock to fairly metal stuff with a few pedals. I like it alot!

I did change the el84s and thought it sounded better afterwards - more headroom. 

peteri

I had a JCA22H, and to be honest I thought it was the head Marshall should have made.

As others have said, change the first pre-amp valve for something with less gain and put better quality valves in the second pre-amp and the phase inverter position.

Became a wonderful amp, with nice cleans, Marshall roar rhythm sounds and takes pedals to cover everything else very well.

Only negatives - the loop comes after the MV so if you to straight to the return that doesn't work so well, oh and it's very loud! But the master volume works great and I used it very easily at home with no attenuator.

Dave_Mc

usedtobe said:

Dave_Mc said:

usedtobe said:

Do they make an amp with a clean channel? All I seem to see are crunch/overdrive ones...?

I haven't tried it but the 2x12 50 watt combo was supposedly a clone of the lucky 13 (i think), which has a proper fendery clean channel. But then I think it doesn't have the high gain channel, i think its od channel is the crunch channel from the high gain ones.

Yeah, I remember that one being out briefly, or so it seemed. Maybe I was late to the party..
Sounded like my ideal amp, but I dithered, as I do, and it was discontinued. I do keep an eye out for used ones coming up, but they're pretty thin on the ground. I exchanged a couple of emails with a guy at jet city, about the possibility of a proper clean channel/other type amp, and he said there might be something suitable coming along... This was a while ago..
 The custom 22 might do me, but then I'm going to have to look at cabs, and I've always had combos. The getting the right cab rating for a head thing baffles me a bit. Sounds pathetic, I know, but it's something I've never had any experience of...

I didn't realise it was discontinued- they used to have it on Thomann, but haven't for a while, so you're probably right.

CHrisP86

So ended up on a slight detour as I won a Soldano Astroverb on eBay last night. Looking forward to picking it up! 

olafgarten

usedtobe said:

Dave_Mc said:

usedtobe said:

Do they make an amp with a clean channel? All I seem to see are crunch/overdrive ones...?

I haven't tried it but the 2x12 50 watt combo was supposedly a clone of the lucky 13 (i think), which has a proper fendery clean channel. But then I think it doesn't have the high gain channel, i think its od channel is the crunch channel from the high gain ones.

Yeah, I remember that one being out briefly, or so it seemed. Maybe I was late to the party..
Sounded like my ideal amp, but I dithered, as I do, and it was discontinued. I do keep an eye out for used ones coming up, but they're pretty thin on the ground. I exchanged a couple of emails with a guy at jet city, about the possibility of a proper clean channel/other type amp, and he said there might be something suitable coming along... This was a while ago..
 The custom 22 might do me, but then I'm going to have to look at cabs, and I've always had combos. The getting the right cab rating for a head thing baffles me a bit. Sounds pathetic, I know, but it's something I've never had any experience of...

Cabs are pretty simple, there isn't that much to learn, there is 2 main bits, impedance and power rating. 

For impedance, there will be an ohm rating on the back of the amp, either 4, 8 or 16, there will also be a rating on the cab or speaker. Ideally you want to match that rating, but with a valve amp you can safely use a speaker between a quarter and double the impedance of the amp. 

Power rating is also quite easy, you just need the speaker to have a higher power than the amp.