Jet City JCA20H vs Egnater Tweaker 15...?

[benjuro]

Like to get into a cheap low wattage head for home use...you know the drill, low-to-moderate volume, and all my fuzz tones usually come from pedulz so the dirty amp toanz aren't that important...
I love the option of swapping power tubes in the egnater and reviews generally glow but it seems the price on a new one increased by $50 over the w/e
I like the price on the jc but it seems to need a bit of modding to get the cleanz where they need to be...so there goes the difference in $, although a used one can probably be more easily found on the cheapz.
Cool to have options, but youboob vids and GC tryouts just frustrate the shite out of me.
Skullservant was cool enough to give me some deets on his modded jc, anybody else actually use one of these?

[Gone Fission]

I really like the JCA but it's not really a clean amp or a particularly pedal-friendly one in stock form. It's like Mike Soldano's take on a lower power JCM-800 on the Marshall's lead channel. It isn't very dirty at lower gain settings and cleans up okay with the guitar volume knob, but that might not be useful with pedals. Easy move for lower gain is to get a nice 12AY7 for the V1 position. Most difficult part about the change is that the tube is between one of the transformers and the front baffle so you have to get the amp out of the case unless you've got a trick up your sleeve.

No experience of the Tweaker. It seems like a nice, well featured amp that sounds good from clips. Gut shots I've seen look a bit more a mess than I would want to get involved in.

[benjuro]

Pretty much my sense of things as well, up to and including the gut shots on the tweaker. Part of why I would want to get into a new one...3 year warranty (vs. Jet City's one year.)
Is there a hassle in sneaking the chassis out of the JCA?

[skullservant]

Nope. take the pack pannel off, 4 chasis screws, and its out!

[transients]

I think the JCA 20HV is more up your alley, I've been eyeing them for awhile now. The description basically says everything I disliked about the JCA20H is fixed - the amp is a darker, cleaner, overall better-sounding version of the JCA20h... and they look a lot nicer to top it off. The only thing holding me off from buying is the lack of decent demos out there but it's a new product so I'm sure some will surface soon.

Based upon our highly popular JCA20H, the 20HV version is also a simple, single-channel amp, and the all-tube signal path has been completely re-voiced. It’s a bit cleaner, a bit darker, and the power section has been ‘opened-up’ more. In addition to the Presence control, we’ve also added a depth switch based upon Soldano’s famous Depth control. Finally, we’ve included a post-master effects loop.

not bad for $400. not bad at all.

[benjuro]

I think the JCA 20HV is more up your alley, I've been eyeing them for awhile now. The description basically says everything I disliked about the JCA20H is fixed - the amp is a darker, cleaner, overall better-sounding version of the JCA20h... and they look a lot nicer to top it off. The only thing holding me off from buying is the lack of decent demos out there but it's a new product so I'm sure some will surface soon.

Based upon our highly popular JCA20H, the 20HV version is also a simple, single-channel amp, and the all-tube signal path has been completely re-voiced. It’s a bit cleaner, a bit darker, and the power section has been ‘opened-up’ more. In addition to the Presence control, we’ve also added a depth switch based upon Soldano’s famous Depth control. Finally, we’ve included a post-master effects loop.

not bad for $400. not bad at all.

Yeah, VERY interested in that one, all of the changes are exactly what I'm after...weird that none of the bigger dealers have them, and like you said...no demos?
An ebay auction has them for $325, which is WAY tempting...and the seller claims to be an authorized dealer. At $400 you can just about buy two of the normal JCA20H used--I know it's a different amp but still a little tough to swallow.

[muttlegs]

I am looking at one of the ampeg svt 15s for exactly the same thing.
I think somebody else on the board has one of these too.



As soon as I have some cash I will be on this!

[benjuro]

Yup, Schnikes has one, and has really fantastic things to say about it.
If it were a bit closer to $300 and I didn't already have three ampeg heads, I'd be all over it too...

[zRobertez]

Hey dude, I have a tweaker 30 so I can comment! I've never had to change the tubes in mine since I've only had it since May and I've never read much about switching the tubes on them either. But it's a great sounding amp! There really are a ton of sounds in it. I end up moving knobs and flippin switches like after every other practice and I'm like "Yeah this sounds awesome! I'm finally gonna keep this setting!"
It's got pretty good headroom I guess (first tube amp) since it sounds like you want it pretty clean. I can turn the gain up a bit over halfway with the hot switch set to clean and you have a little bit of headroom on the hot side of it too.
Sometimes I wish I would have gone for a tweaker 15 instead since I don't always know what I want to do with the second channel and MOST of the time, I don't have to turn it up past 12-1:30 on the master vol. But FYI guitar>fuzz>amp with some od/higher gain = nasty nasty fuzz tone. I have this awful trashy harsh octave fuzz right now that I kinda hate but it sounds like a fuken beastly big muff when I max it out and run it into the amp od.

I can try to answer any other q's ya might have since I'm just talking to be talking right now.
Also, ILFer julius_deane pointed me to the Egnater renegades (which you might also want to check out, they have reverb, different tubes, different toanz) and Egnaters in general and I ended up choosing a tweaker over that, and some oranges, fenders, vox, and some others that the dude at GC let me try out all side by side. And I've also read that jet city's dont have a ton of headroom and that seems pretty important to you. I say go the extra mile for a tweaker! And they just look so kewl
But also rememba, I have the 30 which (correct me if i'm wrong) I think more watts = more headroom (kinda) the 15 = less watts so yeah.

[GardenoftheDead]

I own the JCA 20h and the Tweaker 40 (practically the same thing as the 15). The JCA 20h is good amp, but the Tweaker will give you more versatility and will get much, much cleaner than the JCA can get unmodded. Also, I personally think that 6V6s just work better with fuzz and drive pedals than EL84s do.

On headroom: the difference in power tube headroom between 15 and 20 watts is negligible, especially for a home practice scenario.

[mathias]

I have a GVT15H and so does Holy Schnikes. I like mine a ton. It can do all sorts of things that I couldn't do with my previous single channel amps.

That said, I had to return my first one on warranty because the reverb was noisy. The replacement was better, but the reverb still gets a little noisy (compared side-by-side with my 90s Ampeg jet rocket II, that amp's reverb is silent and the newer GVT15 is all hiss. But no one would hear it except me in my practice space... It's just my personal preference that my amps are silent and its in my practice space, so it bothers me.)

I'd say try out as a many amps as you can. There's a lot of cool choices out there and they all sound way different.

[benjuro]

I'd say try out as a many amps as you can. There's a lot of cool choices out there and they all sound way different.

Smart advice, I really have to just suck it up and crush a guitard center I guess...thank you all for the input, I knew I could count on my bros to point the way.

[in_sherman]

ahh i want that amp stop saying good things about it