jet city 20 watt combo

ken361

ken361

New member
Played on yesterday I really liked it! reviews are good, been wanting a hot rod marshall type amp to go along with my thick high gain mini rectifier. Jet City really shined with the les paul on its clarity/crunch. So after a retube atleast the preamps, not sure if the el84's need to be biased? how does it sound fully cranked? noise at all? stay tight and clear? thank ya all:)
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

ken361 said:
I dont believe that for a sec
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I swear to God. It's at least 5 years old... a 12" combo that I liked the first few times I played through it. Although with increased inspection, the amp sounds like a fart. I now consider it one of the worst amps I've ever played through.

Okay, it is the 20 watt combo.
 
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Re: jet city 20 watt combo

well at low volumes at the store sounded very good, might get it tonight. Will see after I retube and crank it. Theres alot of love for these, Mike wouldnt put his name on junk your buddy prb has some bad tubes going there. Those cheap tubes can go just like that
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

ken361 said:
well at low volumes at the store sounded very good, might get it tonight. Will see after I retube and crank it. Theres alot of love for these, Mike wouldnt put his name on junk your buddy prb has some bad tubes going there. Those cheap tubes can go just like that
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Never seen a tube amp need new tubes after a few months of casual bedroom playing... he bought it brand new. Who knows, it could have been a store demo model and was sort of worn out by the time he got it.

He could have also gotten a lemon too.

He had a multi effects pedal plugged into it just using the clean channel and the overdrive from the multi effects unit the first few times I played it. He stopped using the multi effects pedal and started to just use the amp's tube crunch and that's when I noticed how bad it sounded.

It sounds pretty farty in this demo too.



I think the distortion is harsh and when dimed sounds rude and crude. Lots of odd order harmonics and none of the beautiful even order harmonics I normally associate with good tube amps. The guy was playing riffs that didn't highlight the amps fartiness. If he tried some palm muting, fast runs or just general non country/classic rock playing you would know what I am talking about.

The amp can't do metal and gets a zero in the brownsound department IMO.
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

never heard really any bad reviews, 2009 they came out. Tubes can go with in 10 sec really
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

ken361 said:
mid gain amp not metal
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Yeah, but it doesn't do mid gain that well either. You should be able to palm mute and not have it sound like a fart, which is not really possible with this amp.

misterwhizzy said:
That's really interesting. How did he get the amp two years before the company came into existence?
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It's been a looong 3 years apparently. I don't normally save the date when a friend of mine buys a new amp.
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

ken361 said:
Go play one at GC with a good guitar and find out
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The nearest Guitar Center is an hour away from me, I don't really do music stores unless I need some strings.

How about you make a recording when you get the amp? Then you can show me how great it sounds... I'm not driving down to Charlotte just to play an amp that I've already had firsthand experience with that sounded awful.

Do you think I have something against Jet City or Soldano? I don't.

I just have personal experience with the amp and it sounds like crap, I don't know how else to tell you that... the tubes were fine. Where do you get the idea that tubes can go bad in 10 seconds? Doesn't Jet City test these things and why would you buy an amp from a company that uses such inferior tubes in their product?

I've been playing tube amps for years and own a blackface Super Reverb and blackface Princeton Reverb after using Marshalls in the 80's and 90's.

I know what good tone is... believe it or not, I am trying to help you.

You'd get better tube sounds with a solid state tube emulator like the Tech 21 or even a Blackstar if you gotta have tubes.
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

you have some nice amps, so I guess your older then 19 huh:) yeah I had tubes go right after i fired the amp up. Will make a sound sample, theres some decent ones out there
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

ken361 said:
nice job on the VH panama, any plexi's over there?
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Thanx dood! Oh man, the Marshalls got sold to fund my digital recording studio that is now antiquated... one of the dumber moves I've made in my life.

I just moved into a duplex and can't even turn my Fenders past 3 without pissing off my neighbor, so I am just sort of enjoying digital emulation now at bedroom levels.

It's a damn shame. But I am having fun with USB recording.

I'll be sure to call my friend and tell him to get new tubes in there ASAP.

Looking forward to your tone report when you get it home.

"May your playing be strong and your tone fart free."
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

I did find the bass flubby when I first got mine. There are four things you can do to fix it, and I'll list them in order of difficulty.

1. Swap out the PI tube with a 12AU7. This increases the headroom and tightens the bass significantly. It also clarifies the string-to-string definition.
2. Use different speakers. I'm not a big fan of the Jet City combo speaker. I'm running with a Governor and a Wizard, and I think that combination is much, much better than the cheap speaker that comes with the combo. Mine's a head, by the way.
3. Add a choke. This is a relatively simple mod that cleans up the power supply a bit. It tightens up the bass a bit by cleaning up the power supply.
4. Add a depth control. This was by far the most difficult step to take, and it was the most apparent in the tone. There is a lot of powerful bass available in the power section that is damped with the default setup. This reduces the negative feedback in the power section and tightens things up. It's a mod to the amp, but it makes it much more awesome.
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

was going to get the EVH but didnt want to wait any longer so I bought the Mesa Mini Rec great warm punchy amp! but im been itching for classic marshally sounding lower gain to mess with. Rock/blues old school
 
Re: jet city 20 watt combo

I heard a vid stock speaker against the WGS vet 30,WGS sounded bigger and louder and better. Prb drop a tungsol v1, v2 Penta m or old stock and a LPS for PI see how that goes, JJ powers. Sure those mods are golden. I dont get much time to crank up, My GF just got into apartment so no more loud jamming anymore there!!! my folks how a little bit but i can still record at low volumes
 
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