Bands that use Roland JC-120's

[dfer]

Hi guys,


A Roland JC-120 came up for sale in my local classifieds, kinda interested in it but would like to hear some good examples of using it in modern metal for cleans.


Anyone know any prime examples off any studio albums?



And before someone says it - Metallica's Justice & Black album were JC-120 cleans but would like to hear it on a more modern production?



Thanks

 

[idiotbox919]

I don't know if it was ever on any albums (probably not) but I know Tremonti uses one in his live rig, or used to at least...

 

[Terminus]

Sublime is the only one I can think of, obviously not metal sorry.

FWIW, I played one at a gig once (Morley pedal ABY'ed with another amp for high gain) and it was the best clean tone I have ever been able to get. Too bad it was someone else's rig.

 

[storming heaven]

I believe Dream Theater's Images and Words have JC-120 used here and there. Have heard nothing but great reviews of JC 120, so if you're planning to buy i say go for it.

 

[dfer]

Cool, i just found out the guitarist from BFMV uses the JC 120 too, but i don't really know the band or songs on the albums?

 

[BLUElightCory]

Limp Bizkit used to use them early in their career. Don't know what they use anymore. They're nice amps though.

 

[Bekanor]

If the price is right I say pick it up, awesome clean tones to be had.

 

[amarshism]

Limp bizkit, Andy summers from the police. And if you like bands like poison the well, check out an Aussie band called a secret death. They used my jc 120 on their record and live quite frequently. Mixed by Magnus from cult of Luna.

 

[ze kink]

I used to own a JC-80, which is a rare 1x15" version. Too bad it started to distort on low levels, even though it didn't sound bad which was weird for a solid state amp. I would've kept it if it wasn't for that, I absolutely loved the cleans on it but I couldn't get loud enough without it getting overdriven. I only used it with a Jazzmaster and a Tele with my post-rock band, was great for fuzzy shoegaze stuff too. The chorus wasn't that good compared to a JC-120 and the eq was pretty useless. And as you probably already know, the distortion on the JC's is SHIT. Don't use it, ever. Though paradoxically on the JC-80 it wasn't as horrible, although I still would never use it.

If you can get it for cheap, then yeah, definately go for it. I know I will if I can ever find a JC-120 for as cheap as I got the JC-80 for.

 

[jeid]

Cool, i just found out the guitarist from BFMV uses the JC 120 too, but i don't really know the band or songs on the albums?

They have a nice clean tone, I very much suspected it was a Jazz Chorus. Check them out

 

[Jind]

Finding recordings that used a Roland Jazz Chorus amp is like seeing a field of flowers and asking which one used water to grow. The JC-120 is a studio staple and as such, while not a ton of guitarists will mention owning one, they have been using them for clean tones on albums since the 70's - probably some absurd percentage of albums too. And while I don't know any particular metal albums, I would not be surprised if it found it's way on to many if even in a small way. It's there in the studio and it gets used frequently when looking for pristine cleans.

I know if I owned a studio, it's one of the amps I would buy for my stable of amps for artists to use.

If you can get a good price on it, I'd jump all over it.

 

[Josh Burgess]

Paul from BTBAM used to use one live. I think it was used on Alaska and Colors.

 

[Fragle]

pretty much everything metallica. emgs through jc120 IS the metallica clean sound

 

[dfer]

Thanks for the comments guys, sound wise the JC-120 is very flat sounding to my ears compared to say a coloured tube sound of a bassman/twin. But flat isn't always a bad thing in a studio environment.

And, i suppose the other advantage is that there's no expensive valve maintenance!

 

[zer0_c00l]

As someone said, distortion is SHIT, but when i tried, the cleans were beautiful.

 

[PaulSOCW]

Steve Rothery from the prog rock band Marillion used to use a JC-120 a lot (i think he uses laney stuff more these days).
Read in an interview somewhere that he used a DS-1 through a JC-120 for a lot of the solos too.

I would never part with my JC-120, love it far too much, the distortion dosent even work on mine and never even been bothered to fix it.

 

[TheWharfRat]

Finding recordings that used a Roland Jazz Chorus amp is like seeing a field of flowers and asking which one used water to grow. The JC-120 is a studio staple and as such, while not a ton of guitarists will mention owning one, they have been using them for clean tones on albums since the 70's - probably some absurd percentage of albums too. And while I don't know any particular metal albums, I would not be surprised if it found it's way on to many if even in a small way. It's there in the studio and it gets used frequently when looking for pristine cleans.

I would never part with my JC-120, love it far too much, the distortion dosent even work on mine and never even been bothered to fix it.

Apologies for dredging up this old thread but I just couldn't resist. Like @Jind said there's a JC-120 in every studio and likely on every album since the late '70's.they're known for flawless cleans, even turned up to 10. Plus the chorus & reverb are 2nd to none. The vibrato is OK and the distortion is decent for playing Sabbath, Zeppelin & most '60s -'70s rock. One overlooked attribute is that perfect clean is… well, perfect for layering effects onto. A 60w blank canvas just waiting for someone to go Jackson Pollock on.

@PaulSOCW, if you're reading this I sincerely hope you still have your JC-120. I pawned mine long ago for much too less than I should have. I shouldn't have pawned it at all but what's done is done. Don't let your band mates "borrow" it and use it as a tabletop to leave their rapidly warming cold beers on. Or even better, they pull the electronics rack out and take a soldering pen to it in an effort to "fix" a loose wire, when they actually just blew a fuse in the garage and a phone call to me, an electrical apprentice (back then) could've saved us all a lot of time and money - just sayin.

Enough of my past, issues. If anyone reading this has the opportunity to pick up a JC-120 new or used, for a halfway decent price, jump on it. You won't be disappointed, especially if it's used, in working condition from the '80's or early '90's, when they still had the 3-way selector switch for chorus /vibrato.

Solid amp and I wish I still had mine or that I could find one like I described.