Ugly Truth: Jet City JCA2212C Combo

I've been preoccupied, lately, on the idea of adding to be amp collection. But what to add to it. I was browsing recently, and noticed this combo on a decent sale. Which raised the question, is it worth it? I wanted to try it out. So, at my earliest convince, I gave a fair amount of time to the combo in question. I've been please with the Jet City Buffered Line Driver. It, in my opinion, is a match made in heaven for a Vox AC15. But what about the amps? They are designed by Soldano. I've never played a Soldano. But they sure are proud of their amps. So, Jet City makes amps at a fifth of the cost. And now someone has marked them down even more. Time to investigate. And investigate. I did...

They're Small

They are a 1X12. It is the same as a Fender Blues Jr. are Vox AC15, But it is smaller than either one of them. A compact cab is nothing to complain about, but with a closed back and straight forward cab, at any other angle than directly in front, it sounds small too. Not to say that it isn't loud. It's plenty loud. But it does come off as small. There is plenty of flexibility in the EQ section. The Low, Mid, and High controls give you more than enough room to play. The Mids are expressive and useful. The Highs pinpoint just the right frequencies to offset any muddiness. and the Lows are powerful without being too muddy. But all this relies on you point of reference. Off to the side and this cab losses a lot of it's appeal.

They're Light

Moving the combo around was a breeze. In fact, I moved it about without even trying. Most other units take a little heft to get it to move from here to there, but not this combo. Quite a contrast to my Vox. Lighter than a Peavey Classic 15, this amp would be a ideal small gig/working man's rig. That is if it wasn't for the features. It is light on feature as well. I love the break up and gain on the amp. The Saturated tunes make this combo a delight. But as I fiddled, I couldn't find a clean tone. Hot pickups will send this unit into break up even at the lightest of settings. Single coils will clean it up to a degree, but you need to back off of either to get something close to 'clean'. You could try a different type of tube, but you'd be backing off the overall volume still, and this is a low wattage amp to begin with.

They are a little confusing

If you take a look at the selection of amps from Jet City, you are bound to be confused. There is a JCA Combo, Head and another option that has different features all together. I don't really know what to make of this expect that they are a little confused. I like they include effects loops, but the fact that there is not a master volume, or something that controls the gain enough to clean up the signal. But they seem like a one trick pony. I like the trick. But it is like a dirt pedal. It have a sound, it can be a good sound, but it only has the one. You could defend it by saying that you don't need a dirt box to send it into overdrive, although I'd like to option to engage when I like as opposed to 'on all the time' as it is now. Oh well. maybe if the price drops to a certain point it will be worth having a fun little amp like this.

Conclusion.

This amp is very fun to play, It has a few limitation... ok, I lot of limitations. This is not your 'Jack of all trades' kind of amp. But I don't think that it wants to be. It knows what it wants to do, and it does it. It gets nasty. It gets loud. You can have a lot of fun with this amp. But when it is all said and done, you'll still want your clean amp and your pedal board. I like Jet City, and I like the sounds this amp makes, but it doesn't make sense to add this amp to your collection unless you already have your fill on clean little combos. If you are looking for something out of the ordinary or different than your bandmates, then this amp might fill the bill. If you are looking for something of a more 'all around' nature then you should look elsewhere.

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Ugly Truth: Jet City Buffered Line Driver

I picked up a pedal a while back because I was temped by the price. For less than $40 I picked up a Jet City Buffered Line Driver. I've always been interest by Jet City's offerings. The designs are pretty impressive and the costs are rather low, so of coarse they are interesting. Jet City doesn't seem to design very much. What they seem to do is take a licensed circuit and lower the manufacturing costs by taking to the far east. This seems like a rock solid plan to sell gear to cash strapped musicians. However, few guitarist are using their stuff. Why is that?

The Line Driver Is Designed By Non-Other Than JHS

Yes, no matter how you feel about them, there are tons of people pay top dollar for JHS pedals. The average price of any pedal is about $200, some go for more than $300 and yet a $40 pedal design by the same minds that brought you the Color Box (one of the most heralded pedals of the recent past) gets overlooked. The JHS buffer sells for over $70. Considering that the Jet City pedal is a buffer, boost, and A/B, it seemed to be a whole lot more pedal for your money. JHS designed both of them. They may even share the same buffer circuit.

The Boost Is Clean...ish

Yes, it is a very simple boost. One knob is all it takes. No tone control, which puts you at the mercy of the circuit. This one is voiced a little fat. It's very transparent but it tames the highs. When using pedals like the Klon and other treble heavy pedals, a boost can send your tone into 'ice pick' territory very quickly. A single knob makes it foot-friendly. I paired this pedal with an AC15 with a Top Boost channel. It was practically the only thing you'd needed to have a load tones at your disposal. The A/B switches channels and the boost hit the pre-amp to add some overdrive. The fact that it's buffered lets you travel far from the amp without worry about your cable's impedance

Conclusion:

This pedal plays nice with a pedal board and all by it's self. It's a useful tool and one that has found a steady place on my board. With the popularity of true bypass pedals, buffers are becoming something people are starting to consider. Before, Boss and Ibanez pedals provided the buffers. Now, people get very particular about where and what kind of buffer they use. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact,. it's good that people are taking control over their tone. It's important to under just what happens to your signal as it passes through all those feet of cable. I can't speak for everything that Jet City makes, but this pedal is solid choice.

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