NAD! Jet City JCA50!

Trevoire520 said:
That's 6 people bought Jet City's since the start of this thread! Maybe I should be getting commission or something :lol: Looks like Jet City could quickly become the new budget metal amp of choice around here. Ironic as the UK distributor for has pulled them all from the market as they weren't selling well enough!
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seriously considering one of these too now,:lol: there is a local 20w being sold with dan gower mods, and im tempted between that and the 100w on thomann, wouldve went a 50w but they are all second hand in the uk and more expensive than the 100w discisions
 
Personally I'd go for the 100w so you've got enough power for gigging and the clean channel, plus I feel it's better geared towards the heavy stuff than the smaller head (which needs the gain up max and a tubescreamer with the level cranked for the clips I've done here)
 
yeah the 100w definatly has advantages, the only thing that was really stopping me is that i wouldve had to have bought an attenuator or load box for home, but i bought pod farm today for writing and recording at home (made the move to protools and missed lecto and other awesome amp sims so much), so i suppose i could just buy the JCA 100 and keep it at the studio,
 
wutzington said:
So my JC2112rc arrived today.
First impression: dissapointed.
Sounded very flubby - big loose low end.
Muddy distortion.
Turns into fuzzy distortion when you add a tubescreamer in front.
The stock eminence speaker is crap too.

What most of you people hear in these clips are actually the speaker cabs.
As soon as I hooked the amp up to my 2x12 with 75Ts in it sounded just like my old solid state. Just worse. Less tight, flubbier, muddier.
I don't find the amp very inspiring. The cleans are mediocre (and are only available from 0.5-1 on the preamp gain). The transition from clean to distortion happens from 1 until about 5, after that it just gets muddier.
Maybe I'll get used to it. Expected a bit more tightness from listening to the clips so far.
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Admittedly the 20w heads are a bit harder to get sounding tight compared to the big ones, but I still think you should be able to get something that sounds alright, playing my 20w through a Marshall 2x12 (T75 & V30) I certainly wouldn't say it's like a solid state amp at all. I found pulling the mids back a bit and adding a touch more presence/treble helped alot. Also raising the tone on the tubescreamer can help things sound brighter/tighter. Also what pickups are you using?

I've not used any of the jet city cabs/combo's so I can't comment on the stock speaker, maybe they're causing your trouble? Chain only as strong as it's weakest link and all that.

I don't honestly know what you were expecting for cleans? It is an amp with just a single crunch/od channel after all. It's like complaining that a JCM800 has shit cleans, it wasn't designed for clean sounds in the first place!
 
I'm thinking of getting a JCA100H, I like what I've heard of it, and I like the current Thomann price! Is the clean channel any good on this amp? I'm really in to post-rock aswell as the heavy stuff, so I want an amp that can do both, but I guess the distorted tone is more important as I use lots of effects with the clean.

I've been looking at Bugeras too, namely the 6262 or 6260 infinium models as I love the 5150 tone, but are the cleans on this amp usable? Not bothered about the whole reliability thing for now, mainly a bedroom guitarist and play a few shows so I think I'll be ok.

Anybody offer me some guidance, maybe some other amp suggestions that wont break the bank. It can be smaller than these as it's mainly going to be a bedroom amp, but needs to be loud enough to be gigged without a PA in small to medium venues, I guess 30 watt minimum

inb4 buy a fire extinguisher along with the bugera, your band must suck to be playing a venue without a PA etc etc. Also, first post, hey guyz
 
tomhoward22 said:
Is the clean channel any good on this amp? I'm really in to post-rock aswell as the heavy stuff, so I want an amp that can do both, but I guess the distorted tone is more important as I use lots of effects with the clean.
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I've not messed with the clean channel too much but I'll give it a proper go sometime in the week and post a clip for you man!

wutzington said:
Update: Put 2 Sovtek/EHX 12ax7s into the v1/v2 position and nearly pissed myself with joy as soon as I turned the amp on again. Sounds fucking awesome now. Nice and tight. Not 5150 tight. Very unique. Without a screamer and the stock speaker I can get tones ranging from Kvelertak/Mastodon (the stock speaker has a fat and non-fizzy midrange tone perfect for those rumbly, grindy Kurt Ballou tones) to Porcupine Tree-style crunchy cleans. With the Tubescreamer in front it definately covers a lot of metal. It reminds me a bit of that Engl Darkane used on their newer albums (Savage?). Very charcteristic high mid range when you crank the treble with the stock speaker. With celestions it really can do a lot of modern tones. Not compressed enough for those chugga chugga squeal squeal deathcore tones, but perfect for more classic marshall-ish highgains. I ALMOST got a Djent tone out of it by turning the tone up the screamer and cranking the treble while keeping the presence low - wasn't really saturating enough though. It's difficult to get nice sounding pinch harmonics out of this amp.
I'm so glad I made this tube change. The thing sounds like a different amp now.
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Really got me interested in trying some new preamp tubes now. Though I obviously love the sound I'm getting with whatever tubes are in at the moment (not sure if they're stock or the previous owner changed them) it's always nice to mess with stuff!
 
wutzington said:
Update: Put 2 Sovtek/EHX 12ax7s into the v1/v2 position and nearly pissed myself with joy as soon as I turned the amp on again. Sounds fucking awesome now. Nice and tight. Not 5150 tight. Very unique. Without a screamer and the stock speaker I can get tones ranging from Kvelertak/Mastodon (the stock speaker has a fat and non-fizzy midrange tone perfect for those rumbly, grindy Kurt Ballou tones) to Porcupine Tree-style crunchy cleans. With the Tubescreamer in front it definately covers a lot of metal. It reminds me a bit of that Engl Darkane used on their newer albums (Savage?). Very charcteristic high mid range when you crank the treble with the stock speaker. With celestions it really can do a lot of modern tones. Not compressed enough for those chugga chugga squeal squeal deathcore tones, but perfect for more classic marshall-ish highgains. I ALMOST got a Djent tone out of it by turning the tone up the screamer and cranking the treble while keeping the presence low - wasn't really saturating enough though. It's difficult to get nice sounding pinch harmonics out of this amp.
I'm so glad I made this tube change. The thing sounds like a different amp now.

So, anybody wanna buy 6 JJ ECC83S for 60 euros? :D
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Glad to hear you are feeling the Jet City love... :)
Like I said before, the tubes in the stock amp need to be swapped out immediately - they are horrible. I have a hi-gain JJ in V1, a GT 12AT7 in V2 and an EH in PI and they are great. But..... the biggest change was the update to Mullard EL-84's. Holy fuck are they really amazing and have tightened my JCA20H so much. It's unreal and the amp feels like an old vintagey Marshall now.
In my 2x12, I swap between my Greenback, V30 and WGS Reaper drivers. I think I like the Greenback and V30 the best. With a few tweaks, the Jet City amps sound great and you can really get some of those classic Marshally tones out of them. Watch that presence knob though - too much can get you into ice-pick territory quickly.
 
Hmm, that sucks if you wanted to buy one!
I'm glad I snagged a JCA100hdm, really love that top. Put in other tubes last night in the V1 and V2 spot to get the amp a bit tighter, and I'm glad that worked out good (still have to use a boost for the ultra tight stuff, but I can switch boost and channel with one foot when I put the boost just above the channel switch). Only thing that worried me was that one of the preamp tubes had really bent pins at the bottom, while I took them out very carefully... gonna check the other tubes tomorrow.

Btw: does anyone know what the function of the preamp tubes is? There are 2 with a cover, I believe these are for the gain stages, but what's the function of the other three? I guess one is for the FX loop and one is for phase invertor, but that leaves one more tube and in what order are their functions?
 
Trevoire520 said:
Super quick and sloppy (old strings, didn't even tune the guitar!) but here's a clean clip!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1949675/Jet City Clean.wav

Apologies for the fret buzz, only just got this guitar the other week and not had chance to set it up yet.
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You know if you used Top Hat amps the old strings wouldn't have mattered and the guitar wouldn't have buzzed. Those amps are just that good. :D
 
Hahaha, I know. Have you been to the JCA thread on GS today? He quoted you and then reposted the same clips saying that the search for tone is over. My personal favorite is a thread I started asking if anyone has used a Vox AC50 and if they're close to the AC30. He responded with "No and no". I asked for clarification and he posted one of the Top Hat promo videos done right and some dude recording the Vox with a camcorder mic and said the Vox sounds like shit in comparison. He's awesome.
 
I ordered a Jca 100h a couple of weeks ago from thomann but couldn't get a good tone from it. It had this harsh
shrieking highs every time I got beyond 4 on the presence or treble. the pots didn't really work in all settings
and was crackling. So I sent it back and got a new one yesterday. On this one the foot switch didn't work and it had no
bass. Had to crank the bass to get any lows at all. So I'll guess it's just to send it back again. I must be cursed when it
comes to ordering amps from thomann because i had the same experience when I ordered my Windsor.
 
eken said:
I ordered a Jca 100h a couple of weeks ago from thomann but couldn't get a good tone from it. It had this harsh
shrieking highs every time I got beyond 4 on the presence or treble. the pots didn't really work in all settings
and was crackling.
Click to expand...

I purchased a JCA50H some time ago and experienced the exact same thing. Such a disappointment.
Got a Blackstar HT50 instead and am pretty happy with it right now.
 
Really crap to hear that you guys had such bad experiences, I will admit that the power LED on my JCA20 flickers from time to time, the JCA50 is rock solid despite having taken a bit of a beating from the previous owner. I guess the quality control isn't quite as good as some other amps.
 
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