Jet City 50W head - what's it good for?

longjaw

I'm going to have a clear-out soon and am considering getting one of these.

A lot of people rate them but I'm a little bit worried:

• they might be too high gain for my musical taste and the bands I play in (rock covers a la AC/DC, The Who, Free, Cream, ZZ Top, Thin Lizzy and a Rolling Stones tribute - I have no love of metal of any kind!).
• the fx loop might not be suitable for my needs (I only use it for a solo boost with a Boss GE-7)

Any owners able to advise?

Ta

RedRabbit

I've got the 20w head and @digitalscream says they sound slightly different but it may just be due to extra headroom on the 50w version.

It sounds as though your set lists cover similar material to mine and I find the crunch channel covers these bases really well.  I don't really use the overdrive channel at all - it's all from the crunch side of things with various ODs and boosts.  I keep the gain on around 2 or 3 and it really only does clean with single coils (the 50w is probably better for cleans though) but we're not talking mega gain here. 

I use the amp on it's own for rhythm sounds on Free, Cream, Rolling Stones etc and add an OD (either a TS alike or my Joyo OCD clone) for ZZ Top, Thin Lizzy etc.  Boost is added for solos.

I tried adding a boost to the loop at our last rehearsal and it worked well enough.  I've also got a chorus and delay running through the loop and haven't noticed any problems but I'm aware that there are some issues with the loop that Digitalscream might be able to shed more light on.

At that price I'm tempted to get the 50w version for the extra head room and keep my current head as a backup.

digitalscream

Given that the effects loop is in entirely the wrong place for a solo boost (it's before the tone stack, so putting a boost there will only drive the tone stack harder), I'd do it a different way.

EDIT after @RedRabbit's post: the JCA22H's loop is after the master volumes, so it can handle a boost there without going nasty. They moved it for that model after a rather tense "discussion" between Doug and Mr Soldano, apparently

When I use mine, I use the normal channel for all my rhythm work; there's more than enough gain there to play your style of music. Then, for cleans, I roll off the volume on the guitar. You can, of course, do it the other way and set the gain low then use a clean boost to get your dirty tones (it takes pedals really well). Then just use the drive channel for lead stuff (thus getting a gain and volume boost for solos, which is more appropriate than just a volume boost anyway).

While they can do metal, they don't have to. There's a massive range of gain available (although you'll never get a clean tone out of the drive channel, no matter how much you try).

ICBM

The guitarist in my band has one. It's quite bright and modern-sounding, but will do more of a classic-rock sound too. It might actually be quite suitable for some of the sounds you've listed since it's tighter than a typical Marshall and heading toward Hiwatt in terms of voicing, although with much more gain.

They seem to go well with V30s, which take some of the top-end off - a bit oddly, since the SLO does not seem to like V30s at all.

The FX loop is quite high-level as far as I know - he doesn't use it - but the GE-7 isn't one of the pedals with low headroom, so it should still work OK (I think!). It might help with the noise issue from the GE-7 to operate it at a higher level, too.

Nerine

Errrm doesn't the JCA 50/100 have a footswitchable half a channel?

It's got the drive channel and then another gain and master for the drive channel allowing a volume (and gain) boost.

Also, I'm fairly sure that on a 100HDM I've used you could get extra level from the loop for solos and such.

ICBM

It's got two channels, yes - separate gain and master for both crunch and overdrive, with a common EQ. I think the overdrive channel does use at least one extra gain stage though. If you only want to go from one volume to another I think it's possible to set it so the two channels sound more or less the same but with different volumes, although I'm not totally sure - it's not my amp, I've just been in the room with it!

Dave_Mc

^ I think you can probably get them to sound broadly similar on both "channels", at least if you're in the middle of the gain range where they overlap (IIRC the gain cranked on the normal channel was equivalent to the gain on about 3 on the od channel). IIRC the normal channel was a bit less compressed and modern-sounding.

I'd say it's a more modern-sounding amp. I reckon you could get a passable sound for those tones out of one, but if you know they're the tones you want...

Johnnyseven

Just wondering why this amp is so cheap? There seems to be quite alot of amp for £216.

ICBM

I think it must be because the R&D was all done and paid for by Soldano - they're essentially licenced copies, in the same was as a Squier is to a Fender - the manufacture is in China, and the distribution chain is pretty short so not too much mark-up.

It's definitely *not* because the amps are poor quality, although it may be easy to think that.

longjaw

Cheers chaps, plenty of useful information there.

Fez

I use one in my covers band similar to what you play. I play Hss strats so I can get clean with single coil break up with bucker, crunch with Digitech screamin blues channel two for lead. Paired with a Harley Benton V30 2X21 makes a great cheap rig.

BigBearKris

You may want to consider the new JCA20HV - I got it and for what You need it seems to be perfect. Plenty loud too!

longjaw

I have seen the 20HV and was tempted but I think I would like a bit more headroom the 50W should give

usedtobe

I'm very tempted by the 2 channel 2x12 combo!

digitalscream

usedtobe said:

I'm very tempted by the 2 channel 2x12 combo!

That's a totally different kettle of fish - it's based on the Lucky 13, I believe, so it has a proper clean channel and a crunch channel (the "normal" channel from the JCA100H/JCA50H), both with independent EQ.

I can't understand why they didn't release it as a head; I'd certainly buy one.

The JCA20H FLEX - the one with the full MIDI control of all parameters and channels, if they ever release it - has all three channels available: overdrive, normal/crunch and the clean from the Lucky 13 / JCA5212RC.

gubble

Hi,

I'm going to add my  thoughts and comments on this.

I've a Jet City JCA22H going through a HB 2x12.  First and foremost i'm very please with this amp. Recently the band I play in have started to diverse into a number of songs that require a rather clean tone. I was a bit worried about this however setting the crunch gain as low as possible and using the crunch volume quite high (about 5) I've found it to have a nice clean tone.

I'm then using pedals to drive the front end of the amp. Strangely I found my Boss DS-1 was awesome for quite heavy drive and the Sould Food good for some light overdrive with a Boss SD-1 as a boost.

The overdrive channel i used for a lead solo tone - so didn't use that much.

 

Even at 20 watts with hardly any headroom i found it loud enough when clean for a standard pub gig. Very pleased with it for sure.

The 50 watt head may have been a better choice for me with hindsight but to be honest i like this little head - cracking bit of kit for the money.

 

Cabicular

I've got the 100W

Really good amp actually for hair metal and does a convincing crunch

Plus it only takes 30 quid or so to stop it looking hideous!

usedtobe

digitalscream said:

usedtobe said:

I'm very tempted by the 2 channel 2x12 combo!

That's a totally different kettle of fish - it's based on the Lucky 13, I believe, so it has a proper clean channel and a crunch channel (the "normal" channel from the JCA100H/JCA50H), both with independent EQ.

I can't understand why they didn't release it as a head; I'd certainly buy one.

The JCA20H FLEX - the one with the full MIDI control of all parameters and channels, if they ever release it - has all three channels available: overdrive, normal/crunch and the clean from the Lucky 13 / JCA5212RC.

Yes, I've checked out a few vids, and that's the one I fancy. I might be tempted if they did a head version, but the combo would do me.. Did you see the 50w head that went on the bay, recently? £145.. I was tempted - even though I really want the other one..!

gubble

@Cabicular - where did you get the 2nd Grill from? I fancy doing that to mine

Cabicular

I'm sorry I don't remember. I had a 20 and the 100 and I got grills for them both. They may well have come from Jet city themselves

but it was a long time ago

digitalscream

@gubble - just email sales@jetcityamplification.com and ask them for one. They'll charge about £30-ish, shipped from the US (I don't believe the guys in the UK have them). You can buy the new square logo plates too, if you want one of those.