low wattage jcm 800 style amp?

[Greenfuz]

my main amp is a jcm 800 combo, I was just looking for something to jam with at lower volumes


$800 though dang

neighbors suck

[retinal orbita]

Toronto Yo...

As long as it's not 905.....

[doommeow]

DLS or similar into a clean amp.

[insubordination]

Not in production anymore, but the Bumbox Lead 1 pops up used now and again for good prices:

http://www.bumboxamps.com/lead1.html

[theavondon]

Isn't the Jet City 20w one supposed to be like a jcm?

[fishtankdork]

Jet city is supposed to be a soldano

[fishtankdork]

I think an astroverb

[Greenfuz]

Toronto Yo...

As long as it's not 905.....

ANGSTY SUBURBAN PUNK KID

[Gone Fission]

Jet city is supposed to be a soldano

Yes, but Soldano is modified Marshall. The JCA-20H is the same basic topology as the High input on a JCM-2203/4. Lower wattage, a few circuit tweaks, most noticeably to the EQ, but pretty damned close for practical purposes. If I wanted that 800 vibe for teh cheaps, I'd be very happy with one -- it does well on many of the sounds from the 80s and 90s alt rock I came up on. That channel or a close variant appears in every Jet City amp except the Picovalve, too.

[Holy Schnikes]

After researching, those mini Marshall heads look pretty basic inside for "handwired" status. Just pcb construction. Looks like modern day Orange stuff.

My buddy has the JTM1 head and it sounds tits tho.

[fishtankdork]

Jet city is supposed to be a soldano

Yes, but Soldano is modified Marshall. The JCA-20H is the same basic topology as the High input on a JCM-2203/4. Lower wattage, a few circuit tweaks, most noticeably to the EQ, but pretty damned close for practical purposes. If I wanted that 800 vibe for teh cheaps, I'd be very happy with one -- it does well on many of the sounds from the 80s and 90s alt rock I came up on. That channel or a close variant appears in every Jet City amp except the Picovalve, too.

i did not know that, i did own the jet city jca 20w and my brother currently has a soldano astroverb 2 12 combo as his only amp and they sound radiclly different from my marshalls. more buzzy to my ears. i can kinda hear the similarities now tho. is it minor tweaks or big circuit tweaks? kinda wanna borrow my brothers amp and do some a/b's now

[Butch1970]

I must be living under a rock or something. Never even heard of these. Seem killer! I've got an old 50W JCM 800, but a 1-watter would be really useful.

[Gone Fission]

Jet city is supposed to be a soldano

Yes, but Soldano is modified Marshall. The JCA-20H is the same basic topology as the High input on a JCM-2203/4. Lower wattage, a few circuit tweaks, most noticeably to the EQ, but pretty damned close for practical purposes. If I wanted that 800 vibe for teh cheaps, I'd be very happy with one -- it does well on many of the sounds from the 80s and 90s alt rock I came up on. That channel or a close variant appears in every Jet City amp except the Picovalve, too.

i did not know that, i did own the jet city jca 20w and my brother currently has a soldano astroverb 2 12 combo as his only amp and they sound radiclly different from my marshalls. more buzzy to my ears. i can kinda hear the similarities now tho. is it minor tweaks or big circuit tweaks? kinda wanna borrow my brothers amp and do some a/b's now

Minor tweaks should go a long way. Compared to the 2203/4 stock preamp, Jet City does away with a treble peaking circuit between the first and second stage, which is generally to the good for most people, and adds a cathode bypass cap on the third gain stage, adding some gain and treble emphasis but easily removed. Everything else is just component values, as everything else is dead on of component topology.

The HC amps forum has a big thread of Jet City mods (actually, one for the single channel and another for the two channel amps), and I think some of those folks may have relocated the discussion to a new forum home, too. I don't know that anyone has specifically gone down this road, but it's definitely doable to Marshall it up. Also worth looking at the Tone Lizard "Tales from the Tone Lounge: Ultimate JCM-800" page for a good walk through of the preamp, its issues, and talking through mods for something other than gain for gain's sake. Unfortunately, I'm only able to grab it in archive form right now, which means the illustrations aren't showing: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... =firefox-a