Educate me on Jet City

chunkmonk

Appreciate this may have been covered before but........are Jet City amps any good and which of their amps can give reasonable cleans as well as vintage overdrive (ideally two channel option) for both home and small gig levels?

digitalscream

They're excellent amps - waaaaaay better than their price tag would suggest. As is well-documented on here, I've sold much more expensive amps in favour of my JCA50H and JCA22H (although the 22's gone now that I've moved to the Helix). Framus Cobra, Soldano Decatone, had a JVM for a bit, Victory Kraken...nope.

With that said, I don't think any of their two-channel amps will do vintage overdrive on the second channel. The JCA20HV is a vintage-flavoured amp, but it's single-channel (albeit with a decent effects loop). To give you an idea, on the JCA100H, JCA50H and JCA22H the OD channel at about 2 gives roughly the same level of gain as the Normal channel on 10.

The only one with a "proper" clean channel is the Custom 22, but I actually think that the drive channel on that has more gain than the other amps, although it does have a different flavour (less Soldano-like, which is understandable given that the preamp was revoiced by Martin Kidd).

ICBM

They’re very well-made, great-sounding ‘rock oriented’ amps - basically cheaper licenced Soldanos, so they're in the higher-gain Marshall family.

All of them can do good clean sounds, depending on what you mean by clean... they will not do the scooped/glassy Fender Blackface type of clean, it’s more a vintage Marshall clean. 

The ones I’m familiar with all have overly-bright overdrive channels, but some people want that, and if you don’t it can be fixed with a small pair of wire cutters even if you’re not technically knowledgable.

It’s also possible to reduce the gain on either both channels, or the overdrive channel alone, by changing a preamp valve type - if on both channels, that makes the clean sound more open and slightly brighter.

PolarityMan

Theyre fricking great. punch way above their weight. Dont cost mush more than a pedal for chrissakes. 

paulnb57

Ive got the JCA20HV - 20W Vintage Single Channel head and I'm selling my Marshall Origin 20 Combo as I prefer the JC.....

peteri

Before I got into modelling (steady!) I had the JCA22 I think it was (two channel).

With a quick valve change, putting better quality pre-amp and phase invertor valves in and a 12AY (from memory) in the first pre-amp to reduce the gain somewhat.

I would say it was the amp Marshall should be making, great clean, wonderful crunch and heavy rock sounds. Just incredible and the best of classic through to modern. Worked well at home levels too

darthed1981

Any of these Jet City amps suitable for lowish-volume home use?

I'm looking at a Blackstar HT5R but maybe a little one of these amps and a 1x12" cab?

Grumpyrocker

darthed1981 said:

I'm looking at a Blackstar HT5R but maybe a little one of these amps and a 1x12" cab?

Asking myself the same. Am considering the HT5R Mk2 head, but the Jet City JCA20HV is half the price of that. 

clarkefan

darthed1981 said:

Any of these Jet City amps suitable for lowish-volume home use?

I'm looking at a Blackstar HT5R but maybe a little one of these amps and a 1x12" cab?

I've got the JCA20HV which is great but if you mean gain sounds at quiet home volume then you'll need a pedal or some sort of vol reduction. I use a pedal and volume box in the loop.  

They are loud (for quiet home use) with the volume and gain on 1.  First amp I've had that got the neighbours round  All the control knobs are very touch sensitive.

I think the snip ICBM was talking about was clipping out a 470p cap (C23 I think) which definitely kills some of the high end and some hiss.  On the other hand I'm going to put a different value in, snipping it out removes too much high end for home use.

digitalscream

Oddly enough, I found the JCA50H to be more controllable at home volumes than the JCA22H. At least...that's without a volume pedal in the loop on the JCA22H.

You actually don't want a volume pedal in the loop of the JCA50H or JCA100H; because the loop's between the gain stages and the tone stack, and some of the clipping actually occurs within the tone stack itself...if you suck the volume out at that point, you'll lose some of the trademark "zing".

p90fool

I agree, my JCA100 was easier to use at home than my Custom 22, although that was fine really. My 20H is fine right down to just-above-the-strings volume. 

chunkmonk

Thanks for the information...most appreciated!! I like the idea of 2 channels in order to have a degree of versatility from the amp, and thinking the JCA22H maybe the way forward....

What are the thoughts on a getting a relatively clean sound from channel 1....i’m not after sparkly clean but at something that gives a bit of definition but can also dial in a bit of grit if required.

digitalscream

chunkmonk said:

What are the thoughts on a getting a relatively clean sound from channel 1....i’m not after sparkly clean but at something that gives a bit of definition but can also dial in a bit of grit if required.

My favourite way of using the JCA50H and JCA22H is to run the normal channel gain on full, and then use the guitar volume to get clean tones. It works brilliantly well, if you're OK with the fact that your clean will be quieter than your gain-y sound (which is usually what you want anyway).

In fact, I like doing it that way so much that I use my Helix the same way!

ICBM

chunkmonk said:

What are the thoughts on a getting a relatively clean sound from channel 1....i’m not after sparkly clean but at something that gives a bit of definition but can also dial in a bit of grit if required.

It's ideal for that.

chunkmonk

Thanks for the info.....my next question (and I think may I already know the answer) is given the price tag, do many come up on the used market?

digitalscream

chunkmonk said:

Thanks for the info.....my next question (and I think may I already know the answer) is given the price tag, do many come up on the used market?

Not really. You'll occasionally find them on eBay, but only for about £30-40 under the price you'd pay getting them from the UK distributor.

On here, you occasionally see a JCA22H in the £130-150 range.

Generally, selling them isn't worth it - most folk keep them around because a) they're handy even if you're not using them, and b) selling one would barely get you enough to buy a decent drive pedal these days.

darthed1981

@digitalscream

Pick your brain...

Would a JC head make a good pairing with one of those Harley Benton V30 cabs?  If so which one?

Mostly for home use.

theimageofall

I have a Custom 22 head and cannot sing its praises enough.

I also have a Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier and prefer the Jet City.

Shared EQ for clean and drive channels “might” be seen as a downside, but I prefer it - less knobs to worry about!

The feedback on these amps from users is almost always positive and what encouraged me to pick one up.

digitalscream

darthed1981 said:

@digitalscream

Pick your brain...

Would a JC head make a good pairing with one of those Harley Benton V30 cabs?  If so which one?

Mostly for home use.

Hmmm...I wouldn't choose that pairing for heavy rock/metal (which, as you know, is my thing). The only reason I'd say that is I had one, and I preferred the Jet City 2x12" - those Eminence speakers are just really, really good for a modern sound. V30s feel a bit more classic to me; I was using both a JCA50H and a JCA22H at the time.

I also wouldn't suggest V30s at all for home use; they're so efficient that you're going to struggle to get these amps down to a reasonable volume. The Eminence speakers in the Jet City cabs are also "better" from that perspective.

With that said...if you scoop the mids a bit and bring up the presence a touch (from the floor, because I always use these amps with the presence on zero), you can get to roughly the same place tone-wise.

For home use, I'd actually recommend the JCA50H over the lower-powered heads, because to me they're just more controllable at the extreme low end of the volume scale.

If you can stretch the budget a little, though, I'd say try the Jet City 1x12" cab for home stuff. Just don't get the ISO cab, 'cos the general feeling is that it's not actually that good.

Grumpyrocker

Any of you any experience with the UK Jet City online store? How soon do they dispatch from ordering? 

ICBM

digitalscream said:

I also wouldn't suggest V30s at all for home use; they're so efficient that you're going to struggle to get these amps down to a reasonable volume.

V30s are also some of the few speakers that really do need to be 'pushed' a bit to sound good - at low volume they're quite stiff and harsh, and even worse if they're not going to get broken in quickly.