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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The Ugly Truth About JHS Pedals

I'll admit that I am little late to this game. Like, way late. Couple years too late in face. But, there has been more information come to light and I'd like to talk a little bit about JHS Pedal and all the hype (good and bad) that surrounds them.

1. They Are Cloners

In the world of effects, detail get a little murky. Ask a person of average intelligence was any pedal does and you get colorful langue about Highs and Low ends. Maybe there is a Mid-hump, maybe it flattens out the Mids. But in reality all "dirt" circuits work similarly. Image that your guitar signal is a water hose. Your clean signal is the water flowing the the hose unobstructed. Then distortion would be similar to you putting your thumb overt the end of the water hose. This has a term, it's call "clipping". Every dirt pedal that I've come across does this in some way. Before the distortion pedal, guitar would push their amps to "breakup". This meant pushing their amps very hard to make a distorted sound. Early early pioneers took what guitarist were doing with their amps and boiled it down until they could replicate it on a small scale. In a way, amps were cloned to create the first pedals. Today we have a very popular pedals that are recreated in many different ways by many different people. Ibanez's Tube Screamer is a circuit that has been emulated by many manufacturer. I actually own a Tube Screamer clone made by EHX. Others have cloned and tweeked the circuit and sold it as being something completely different. This is what JHS is accused of. Is it true? Yes. But it's also true of Boss, EHX and others.

2. They Over Charge For Their Pedals

There is a lot of talk about "how much it cost to make a pedal". I can put together the parts to build a pedal for about $20. A more complicated pedal would cost more, of course, but to a varying degree that how much buying an enclosure, knobs, jacks, and internals. Some say that buying in bulk would decrease that price, so a manufacturer should be able to produce a product cheaper. So then, when JHS charges $200-$300 for a pedal, it raises some eyebrows. Let's look at it from a business standpoint. A product is worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. If there are people out there willing to buy a hand built pedal for boutique prices, then that's just fair trade. plenty of people have opinions about how much things should cost, but in reality, people can charge whatever they want for their products. Some people however don't live in reality.

3. They Pass Off Their Copied Circuits As Their Own

So we talked about how many manufacturers make circuit that are basically the same as others. Electro Harmonix barely mentions the Klon in its description, and only stated that it "inspired" the design of their Soul Food Pedal. Boss doesn't even mention the TS-9 in their description of the SD-1 even though those pedals are so similar even some mod instructions are the same for these pedals. It's not like this is unprecedented. In many cases the pedals that JHS produces are based on other pedals, but they have mods or features that didn't exist on the originals. If you spent enough time to design, breadboard, and build these pedals, you'd probably think about these pedal as your own too. Even though the designs might not be 100% original the work that was put into building the pedals, business, reputation for quality products make what he offers have value. How much value? See point 2

4. Bad Business Practices

OK. This might be legitimate, however, it might be hearsay. There has been allegations that JHS stole a design from another builder and put it into another pedal of his. Also, there might have been a case of criticizing a builder causing a store to stop carrying the other builders pedal. This again might be true, however, I find it unlikely that someone dropped a line of pedals just because a competitor had something off-putting about them. So then, in the worse case, the guy behind JHS might be a little bit of a jerk. (or shrewd in business lingo) This is compounded by the fact that people generally believe Josh Scott of JHS pedals to be a christian. This is because he did an interview for a christian magazine one time. So, in the case that all of this is true, we have a christian guy building his take on popular pedals and charging a mint for them. If he is a christian, should he give them away? (I wouldn't mind taking a few)

5. Poor Quality

If what I've seen is to be believed, then this is true... kinda. The pedal that "prove" this claim look like what I'd build. Like early work of a pedal builder. This is explainable, because it was probably early work of a builder. I learned most of what I know about this "issue" by reading forum post and another blog post that was very detailed. You can read it here. Josh Scott has already made replies to post about poor workmanship offering to exchange any pedal with poor build quality for a new pedal. It looks like this problem has been recognized and corrected.

In Conclusion

I don't own any JHS pedals. I would probably be more interested in some of the mods or other services. Plus, I'm kinda cheap, so... you know. Here's the thing. If you look hard enough at any company, then you're probably going to see something you don't like. Small pedal builders are very personal products. Don't forget that these people just want to do something that they enjoy and make money at it. Somewhere along the way they have to make a business out of it. The best way to make any business to change their practices is to not buy their product. If enough people agree with you, then the business will change, or go out of business. If you don't like them, don't buy from them. Do they deserve the hate they get in the forums? I don't support hate, although maybe organize a boycott, or create an online petition, something more constructive. (for more ugly truths about JHS, check this out)