1 Topic by RICjunkie (edited by RICjunkie 2009-11-29 20:57:55)

  • From: The Gates of Delerium
  • Registered: 2008-05-07
  • Posts: 1,412

Topic: New Amp

I braved the crowds at my local Guitar Center on Black Friday morning... (OK it wasn't that bad, only about 15 people at the door when they opened up at 8 AM). tongue

A friend put me onto Jet City Amplification a month or two ago. They're a start up company and one of the partners happens to be Mike Soldano. Mike is handling the design of their products. They rolled out their first rig at Guitar Center on Black Friday. I actually had one in my hands last Monday but GC had a corporate mandate not to sell them until Friday, which explains the necessity of braving the mass insanity of Black Friday to get my hands on it.

The rig is their JCA20H head: single channel 20 Watt head. 3 x 12AX7 and 2 x EL84. With the gain turned down it's pretty clean with lots of head room. Crank up the gain and the preamp tubes saturate from a nice warm crunch to a bada$$ overdriven scream. I'm talking Marshall scream. $299 list

The output is through their JCA12S cabinet. A 12" Eminence speaker rated for 70 watts. It must be a high efficiency speaker because this rig gets LOUD. $249 list

Of couse with the balck friday coupons I walked out of there with it for under $500. Next time you're at a Jet City retailer you really need to check one of these out. Outstanding value I think.

Next up is their 100 watt 2 channel flagship head (with the Soldano designed drive channel). I expect this to come in under $1K when it is released next year. Soldano 100W heads go for well over $3K so should be worth checking out too.

http://www.jetcityamplification.com/

Major Tom to ground control...
  • From: Florida, USA
  • Registered: 2008-06-04
  • Posts: 1,420

Re: New Amp

I played the very amp you are describing about 2 weeks ago and I thought they sounded very good especially given the price.  These amps are going to give beginners a really cheap way to get a nice little tube amp setup without spending over $1K.  I sure wish amps like this were out when I started playing!  They don't seem like they are for beginners only, however, because I seemed to like it better than the $$$ PRS amps that I played before it.  I just hope that they have a tight control over the QC and they don't start blowing up right out of the box...

'67 and '74 Fender Twin Reverbs, '74 Marshall 1987 lead mkII, Metro Superlead 100. Pedals from TC Electronic, Ibanez, Dunlop, BK Butler, Electro-Harmonix, Fulltone, Maestro/Gibson, Loopmaster switching, VoodooLab, Boss. Gibson and Fender guitars, Dimarzio pickups.

3 Reply by RICjunkie (edited by RICjunkie 2009-11-30 03:26:27)

  • From: The Gates of Delerium
  • Registered: 2008-05-07
  • Posts: 1,412

Re: New Amp

You could use this rig on stage if you miked it, it sounds that good. I did some online research on it, one article desrcibed the oversized traces on the board and it being double wave soldered. Mike Soldano has been designing amps for over 20 years and was doing repairs and mods long before that so he knows his stuff.  Agree on the QC aspect. Another rig I was scoping out was the Egnator 30 head, but one review I read, the fellow had bought one of the first of them available and had nothing but problems.

Major Tom to ground control...
  • From: N. Little Rock, AR.
  • Registered: 2007-03-02
  • Posts: 463

Re: New Amp

Yeah, that little Jet amp is cool! Tried one last week, and thought it was a great deal. I would like to hear it with different Cabs and Speakers, too.

    Pretty aggressive little sucker!

Early 80's 1957 U.S. Vintage Reissue Stratocaster (Surf Green)-Warmouth Soloist  Pearly Gates Neck, Pearly Gates Bridge- Larrivee D-03 (Mahogany/ Spruce)
Carmen Ghia Head- Marshall 112 Cab W/G12H 30  or  Custom 4 X 6v6 Head  or  Budda Twinmaster Plus Head-Traynor 212 Cab w/Eminence Texas Heats. 
Mo'D-Eternity-Blues Pro- Timmy-BYOC Chorus/Vibrato- TC SCF- Korg DT 10 Pedal Tuner