# Jet City JCA22H In The House



## keto (May 23, 2006)

Dave won't sell me back the Memphis, but do I sit around and pout about it? Sometimes. No, not really. Been thru a few amps recently, and mostly they've been good. Kinda been jonesing for a lower wattage higher gain channel changer though. My local dealer sucks (Axe? You there? Yeah, you.) and has never had a JCA22 in stock *when I have gone there* the entire 2 years the model has been out. So, I did my third great deal with Tapestry and had a head and cab shipped, they hit here today...I paid a few extra bucks for expedited shipping, and had them less than 24 hours after phoning!

Recently:
5150 III - went back to L&M in the return period, could not get the 3 channels to balance. I liked Ch2 best, but shared EQ with Ch1 and massive volume jump from cleanish 1 to dirty 2. Was a good sounding amp tho!
OR-15 - sounded good but, as widely reported, has fizzy top end that just cannot be dialed out. Not at all pedal friendly.
YBA-1 Tribute - been using it recently, doesn't have the headroom I'd hoped but is a good sounding amp for classic/old skool stuff. Is 2 channel but not in the typical '1 clean 1 dirt' sense, requires AB/Y box to switch, and doesn't yield great results used that way. For pedal friendliness, would rate it 8/10, it doesn't take real high gain/metal pedals perfectly due to the lack of headroom.
TriWatt - built the kit around Christmas, again didn't have the headroom I'd hoped and is only 1 channel. Great sounding amp, more or less a 1 trick pony. I will probably rotate this one in and out of the lineup periodically. I should have built it with the footswitchable boost, but did not as I read about the extreme level of complexity and potential for added noise and that scared me off.

Anyways, the band plays hard rock punkish-to-metalish originals. I'd been using a massive board with 12 flavours of dirt on it, but was getting flack from the boys about balancing and pedal dancing, so wanted to simplify down. I had previously GASsed for the JCA22, so I re-did a bunch of reading and listened to some youtubes, and pulled the trigger.

It KICKS ASS! The Crunch channel, set gain low vol high, is clean enough for what we need. The Overdrive channel is just SCREAMING right from the bottom of the gain range. Very very hot rodded Marshall. You can clearly hear the 'Soldano designed' element. Actually not *that far* in sound from the 5150 III, but better able to balance the channels for volume. 

Tried a few dirts in Ch1 (Rat clone, op amp Muff, OCD clone), they sound GREAT which isn't always the case at all with high gain/multi tube gain stage amps. For ch2, I tried the OCD vol way up gain way down, it sounds good but the change is pretty subtle so I probably won't do that in band context - it really doesn't need a boost. I also put an MXR 10-band EQ in the loop, with the classic 'V' shape, and got EXCELLENT metal tones. My only complaint so far is that a couple of phasers I've tried sound like total crap, both through the loop and out front. Still experimenting on that front. Anyways, I redid my board tonight with just (GASP!) 3 dirt pedals on it, and will probably only use 2 - and could get away with 0 if pushed into a corner on the subject.

The cab is around $200 and sounds GREAT, punches way above its weight class. I have no complaints at all about the stock Eminence speaker.


After a couple hours spinning knobs, I'm a little surprised but, to my ears and in the context of playing alone in the basement, the EQ sounds best quite flat. Also, at this volume it's pretty loud, but dropping the master still yields excellent tones for practice or having fun. The headroom, with a Les Paul, is acceptable for my needs but still a little crunchy if you hit it hard.


:rockon2::rockon2:


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## Mr Yerp (Feb 24, 2006)

Thanks for the review, I've been curious about these heads. Did you get to try your YBA 1 cranked? How's the gain side of things as a "1 ch. use your volume control to clean up kinda' thing?"
By the way, off topic here, but had to let you know that I use the SRO Sorta' boost pedal that I bought from you in front of my Crunchbox. Just a killer combination! Good work!


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## Intrepid (Oct 9, 2008)

Excellent review. Although I'm up to my neck in amps, I always wondered how these Jet City amps performed. Now I know. Thanks.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Mr Yerp said:


> Thanks for the review, I've been curious about these heads. Did you get to try your YBA 1 cranked? How's the gain side of things as a "1 ch. use your volume control to clean up kinda' thing?"
> By the way, off topic here, but had to let you know that I use the SRO Sorta' boost pedal that I bought from you in front of my Crunchbox. Just a killer combination! Good work!


Not sure which amp you man when you ask about cleanup, so I'll talk about both.....

The YBA-1 Tribute - I never did fully crank it at 40W. It's still here, so I could do that some day when I have a death wish  I've had it cranked at all the lower settings. OK, so first we have to understand the 4 inputs:
-bass channel (ch2), which other than maybe in a specialized context, sounds like crap for guitar. Intended for bass use.
-Ch1 - low. This is where I mainly use it. At the 20w setting, using humbuckers, I can't hit '2' on the volume without getting grit. This is NOT an old school YBA-1. And adding mids with the 'low range expander' adds grit, so I was running with that just about off. Yes, it could clean up some. And I never did spend any time on it with a single coil pickuped guitar, admittedly, as that's not my thing at the moment.
-Ch2 - high - so, if you want to rock out with your c..umm anyways, zero headroom, grind all the way up.
'blend' - 1+2 - even more grind

I tried using an AB/Y box to go from ch1 low to ch1+2, but had unsatisfactory results. Something do do with ch1 being on both ends of the equation was messing things up I think.

The grind is old school and sorta rounded, not as sharp or tight as a Marshall for instance. I also found it, somewhat surprisingly, to be lacking bottom end BUT (DISCLAIMER) I didn't try it with a bunch of different cabs AND the other guitar player in my band plays EMGs with a lot of bass in his amp, so this worked out OK as I dominate a slightly higher spectrum than he does. So, in a different context, the YBA1-T probably has ample bass, but it's not excessive or overly firm I can assure you of that.

The Jet City - well, from the Overdrive channel, you can't get clean no matter how far down you roll guitar vol, but that's starting from a very high level of gain. On the crunch channel, set with gain low and vol high, there's actually decent headroom. If I arpeggiate or softly strum a chord, I get clean...but you still get some crunch if you hammer a chord.

Thanks for the words on the pedal, I did a few of those and they are all, as far as I know, with their original owners and well liked. Mario has one, I forget who else offhand.

One more comment on the JCA22 - there is some sizzle on the top end that CAN be dialed out, I don't mind a touch myself. But it is NOT NOT NOT fizzy like the OR15, I even found the 5150 III to have some fizz on it that I could not get rid of (or get rid of and maintain a tone that I liked). The JCA22 doesn't in any way have this problem. That said, I generally like a pretty bright tone, and have so far left the presence at 0 or 1, it can get overly sizzly playing alone if you bump it up or take the treble much past noon....might need to bump it a touch in a band mix, don't know yet.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Congrats!

I have the JCA combo from a few years ago.
It's only a single channel and no effects loop though.

These are under-rated amps, I think that there are plenty of mods available for these too.


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## dcole (Oct 8, 2008)

Damn. Now you got me jonesing for one of these. My Marshall Lead 100 ain't cutting it and I have a nice 4x10 cab to use with an amp like this. If there is enough gain on tap for you, have you thought of using 5751 tubes or something similar to gain some head room if needed?


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

dcole said:


> Damn. Now you got me jonesing for one of these. My Marshall Lead 100 ain't cutting it and I have a nice 4x10 cab to use with an amp like this. If there is enough gain on tap for you, have you thought of using 5751 tubes or something similar to gain some head room if needed?


Yup, V1 is shared by both channels, you can drop in an AT7 supposedly, though one comment I read was that you lose as much volume as you gain headroom. Someone commented about wanting to try a 5751 but I haven't found where anyone's done it yet (I'm sure somebody somewhere has.) It's fine for me as-is, I think...will know for sure tomorrow at band practice.


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

It was between the combo version of this and the Laney I ultimately got when I last went amp shopping. I really don't need channel switching and wanted big wattage so the Laney won, but it was a near thing! I agree, very good amp, regardless of the price. Enjoy!


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## ElectricMojo (May 19, 2011)

Congrats, awesome!


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## elliottmoose (Aug 20, 2012)

Congrats on the NAD! I agree: definitely underrated!


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Sits really well in the mix, better than any of the amps I listed in the first post. Can get LOTS of variety with 2 channels and a Les Paul, can wind the high gain channel down to a pretty mild crunch with vol knobs. Also, I'm surprised how well the character of the guitar comes through - even at full roar, any one of you would be able to tell a) which pickup I'm on and b) about where the tone knob is rolled. 

Feedback on demand, check. Takes dirt pedals very well, check. Crunch channel cleans up actually quite tight if using soft attack, check. This amp is a winner. And STILL no complaints about the cab, this absolutely has to be the best bang for buck cab anywhere, at around $200 for the 1x12....decent speaker (not everyone loves it, but that's personal preference - I won't be changing it), sounds good miced up. Didn't try the XLR out, forgot to do that when we were setting up.


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