Alrighty, I recently to the bigger local music store which carries pretty much all the amps on the market besides boutiques (Rivera, Soldano, etc.) and I originally went in to try a new guitar, but I saw the JSX and the new Ibanez Thermion amp sitting there, both hooked to a Marshall 1960 4x12 with the V30's. I couldn't resist.
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eavey JSX:.
First I started off with the guitar I'm looking at, a Fender ShowMaster Fat Strat with swamp ash top...my original intent is for this blues-rock project I'm working on, which gives me an excuse to buy another guitar,. I plugged this guitar into the JSX and was blown away immediately, with the master on 1. Then I turned it up to 3, and nearly blew my head off, as well as alerting everyone in the store that a guitarist was there, 
. From old school blues to modern, this thing was perfect in every way. The range of tones just for this style is countless. Sure, it's not a Fender, but I got some nice SRV-ish tones, if SRV were still alive I'm pretty sure his sound would be a little more modern these days, and the tone(s) I got for the style...man, just delicious. Then I nabbed a Jackson USA Select SL-2 Soloist with EMG's in it. It had an 85 in the bridge. The first thing I tried to do was to get the clean channel to break up even the slightest bit. Not happening. The clean is fucking pristine. It's not a Fender...again...but holy crap, a very nice clean. I played everything from simple punk to technical death metal, using a Schecter 7-string with Duncans for that, and this amp held up for everything. The FAT switches on the two distortion channels are a very nice touch. I tried other guitars, like a Gibson LP Custom, even a JS1000 they had and a JEM7VWH, everything sounded amazing through it. Leads, rhythms, shoes...I mean literally anything you throw at it, it handles and delivers. Non-stop. Usually I hate EL34's for anything heavy...but seriously they actually worked with this amp. Plus, of course, they worked nicely for lead playing. I was surprised. I fell in love.
Verdict: It's like somebody over at Peavey sat down with a 5150, and said to themselves, "how can I make this even better." Yes, I know it's the amp they made for Satch, but seriously it's like a 5150, but better in every aspect. I reall wish I could tell what the "noise gate" was actually doing. Despite that little confusion, I'll be buying one of these very soon. No doubt.
.:Ibanez Thermion:.
I started the same process on this thing as I did for the JSX. Same guitars and all. Same cab was on this thing as the JSX. First of all let me start off by saying that in a thread a while back I completely dogged Ibanez and their persuit into making a name for themselves in the amp world. I take everything I said back. This amp..it's like a fucking Recto but affordable, and you can get some other tones out of it. It's not a one-trick pony by any means...so that's where the Recto similarity ends. The lead tones are extremely usable. Very Recto-ish but at the same time very creamy. Kinda like if a Recto and a 5150 got drunk in Vegas one night and got a room together The cleans are clean, the distortion is nice. It's not really anything "original" sounding, but at least what it does sound like, it doesn't cost nearly as much as.
Verdict: Couldn't find anything I didn't like about it. A very nice effort on Ibby's part to deliver an amp that can have it's own sound, but like I said, for the most part, it's a Recto wannabe. At least it does it well. Anyone wanting a Recto but not the price tag that comes with it, look into this amp. If the JSX wasn't available, I'd seriously be looking into this amp. Fo sho.
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Well I hope these little reviews helped some people out in some way. Or gave some kind of insight to a couple of amps that they haven't been able to check out themselves. Cheers.
~006
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eavey JSX:.First I started off with the guitar I'm looking at, a Fender ShowMaster Fat Strat with swamp ash top...my original intent is for this blues-rock project I'm working on, which gives me an excuse to buy another guitar,
. I plugged this guitar into the JSX and was blown away immediately, with the master on 1. Then I turned it up to 3, and nearly blew my head off, as well as alerting everyone in the store that a guitarist was there, . From old school blues to modern, this thing was perfect in every way. The range of tones just for this style is countless. Sure, it's not a Fender, but I got some nice SRV-ish tones, if SRV were still alive I'm pretty sure his sound would be a little more modern these days, and the tone(s) I got for the style...man, just delicious. Then I nabbed a Jackson USA Select SL-2 Soloist with EMG's in it. It had an 85 in the bridge. The first thing I tried to do was to get the clean channel to break up even the slightest bit. Not happening. The clean is fucking pristine. It's not a Fender...again...but holy crap, a very nice clean. I played everything from simple punk to technical death metal, using a Schecter 7-string with Duncans for that, and this amp held up for everything. The FAT switches on the two distortion channels are a very nice touch. I tried other guitars, like a Gibson LP Custom, even a JS1000 they had and a JEM7VWH, everything sounded amazing through it. Leads, rhythms, shoes...I mean literally anything you throw at it, it handles and delivers. Non-stop. Usually I hate EL34's for anything heavy...but seriously they actually worked with this amp. Plus, of course, they worked nicely for lead playing. I was surprised. I fell in love.Verdict: It's like somebody over at Peavey sat down with a 5150, and said to themselves, "how can I make this even better." Yes, I know it's the amp they made for Satch, but seriously it's like a 5150, but better in every aspect. I reall wish I could tell what the "noise gate" was actually doing. Despite that little confusion, I'll be buying one of these very soon. No doubt.
.:Ibanez Thermion:.
I started the same process on this thing as I did for the JSX. Same guitars and all. Same cab was on this thing as the JSX. First of all let me start off by saying that in a thread a while back I completely dogged Ibanez and their persuit into making a name for themselves in the amp world. I take everything I said back. This amp..it's like a fucking Recto but affordable, and you can get some other tones out of it. It's not a one-trick pony by any means...so that's where the Recto similarity ends. The lead tones are extremely usable. Very Recto-ish but at the same time very creamy. Kinda like if a Recto and a 5150 got drunk in Vegas one night and got a room together
The cleans are clean, the distortion is nice. It's not really anything "original" sounding, but at least what it does sound like, it doesn't cost nearly as much as. Verdict: Couldn't find anything I didn't like about it. A very nice effort on Ibby's part to deliver an amp that can have it's own sound, but like I said, for the most part, it's a Recto wannabe. At least it does it well. Anyone wanting a Recto but not the price tag that comes with it, look into this amp. If the JSX wasn't available, I'd seriously be looking into this amp. Fo sho.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I hope these little reviews helped some people out in some way. Or gave some kind of insight to a couple of amps that they haven't been able to check out themselves. Cheers.
~006
