Looks like Jet City Amps are back with a vengence!
- Thread starter Ascension
- Start date
misterwhizzy
Well-known member
I don't see any amps.
You have to click on the price tags. They opted to have the logo as opposed to the amp for the icon. The new website is definitely not well built. The new amp offerings are nothing special really. More or less Marshall copies with the standard mods that have been done since the '80s. What is impressive is the price point. Their most expensive amp in stock form is still $599. Of course, by the time you add in all the mods, you will be close to the $900 mark... Which I think goes to show that they have found a new way to make a buck.
The PCB already has all the provisions for the switches and mods. For them, it is a matter of pulling a few dollars more in parts and spending an extra 30min. to install it all. That extra 30min. and few extra bucks in parts are worth almost more money to them than the amp is in stock form. It's all about the upsells. $99 for a transformer upgrade... They are saying that their upgraded transformer is worth $99 more than their stock option. That is 1/6th the price of the amp in standard form. How cheap must the original transformer be?
I hope it isn't the beginning of the end for them, I do feel they build a quality product that is available at a very affordable price. Unfortunately, they have started down the path of being a cheap kit-building company where they build a copy of an amp and " offer " limited, or custom runs of options that drive up the cost of the amp, reducing the value position. More or less they will start making more money off of the mods and options than the amp itself will make them. If they push too much on that business model, I think they may end up in trouble. There are already many forums and sites that have all of these mods well documented, it won't be long before the amp in stock form will be worth more than the mods themselves, when you realize you can do the mods yourself for pennies on the dollar.
Empty Pockets
BadHairDayologist
They're doing what Hovercraft was doing back in like 2013 except without all the weird problems and hand-written labels. I might order a purple one, I've wanted a Soldano in my stable for a while and I'm tired of waiting for a purple Hot Rod 50.
dystrust
Well-known member
I have a 22H, and it's decently close to a Soldano Hot Rod in stock form though it's a bit brighter sounding, and the taper on the gain pot is A LOT more aggressive. I recently had mine modded to add a depth knob and the clean/crunch & bright switches and it's much closer now. Changing the stock 1M volume and gain pots to 500K makes a HUGE difference.
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Ascension
Well-known member
The Custom 2X is $499 base price and is not a limited run. Its the LTD that is limited it starts at $599.
The Custom 2X standard build with front channel switch option and the loop is $587 like I would order one.
https://jetcitycustom.com/custom-2-x/
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Jet City has an interesting history. The name, only Mike Soldano and Douglas White know? It was White and Soldano who initiated the small business. In part, I feel it was Soldano's way of getting his amp design into more hands and making a couple of bucks before he ultimately retired? He resigned from Jet City after only a few years while he started doing a higher dollar collaboration with Diamond amps, but also to deal with Soldano amplifications suddenly high turnover ( people quitting ). This was around 2015 or so. I think it was also when Mike realized he had gotten all he could from doing side ventures. Soldano announced retirement in 2018 and in 2019 he sold Soldano Amplification to a larger distributor. It was also around this time that Soldano amps were redesigned to be more production line friendly ( machine loaded and wave soldered PCB construction ) for obvious reasons.
Douglas White isn't much of an amp designer per se but has a long history working for companies for sales and distribution. He talked with Mike and another gentleman named Dan Gallegher about launching a small amp company that was modeled around high demand amps at a budget cost. A race to the bottom if you will. Honestly, who wouldn't want to be a part of that? Soldano worked a bit with Andy Marshall ( of THD Amp fame ) and with approval, the initial Jet City amp line was created. White has done well over the years more or less taking Jet City on his own and getting rights to use Cornford and recently Marshall amp designs. At one point Jet City was selling better in Europe than it was in the U.S. Jet City is now based in Idaho and only has two employee's ( at least according to Linkedin )!
I don't think it is so much a warehouse to empty, but that the business model has been refined into the lowest common denominator. How can two people run and manage a worldwide company? Apparently by getting rights to use amp designs, selling them for dirt cheap, and offering options that create more profit than the amp alone does. I think the hardest part for JC is ensuring that custom orders are managed and handled well. The newer direct-to-client model is certainly a different approach for such a business model. It can either mean that it will be great for them, or it could spell the end for JC.
Douglas White isn't much of an amp designer per se but has a long history working for companies for sales and distribution. He talked with Mike and another gentleman named Dan Gallegher about launching a small amp company that was modeled around high demand amps at a budget cost. A race to the bottom if you will. Honestly, who wouldn't want to be a part of that? Soldano worked a bit with Andy Marshall ( of THD Amp fame ) and with approval, the initial Jet City amp line was created. White has done well over the years more or less taking Jet City on his own and getting rights to use Cornford and recently Marshall amp designs. At one point Jet City was selling better in Europe than it was in the U.S. Jet City is now based in Idaho and only has two employee's ( at least according to Linkedin )!
I don't think it is so much a warehouse to empty, but that the business model has been refined into the lowest common denominator. How can two people run and manage a worldwide company? Apparently by getting rights to use amp designs, selling them for dirt cheap, and offering options that create more profit than the amp alone does. I think the hardest part for JC is ensuring that custom orders are managed and handled well. The newer direct-to-client model is certainly a different approach for such a business model. It can either mean that it will be great for them, or it could spell the end for JC.
Thanks for this info- I didn't know any of it.
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Does that mean an enterprising guy might order the cheapest model and then buy his own parts to mod the amp to the fancier spec?
Empty Pockets
BadHairDayologist
That's literally what the Hovercraft amp company is. He just bought Jet City and Peavey heads and modded them to death.
quite literally, yes.
I have never heard of Seattle as " jet city " for anything other than Boeing's legacy ( my grandmother was one of the first women to work for Boeing as an operations manager ). Although I guess that makes sense to utilize it. I still don't have any understanding of what 333 meant for the Jet City logo?
What's perhaps more odd, is that Mike Soldano is from Canada. He immigrated to Seattle to have a USA shop, so why refer to Seattle? Everyone knows Soldano is located in Seattle by now, so what need is there to highlight another amp company from there? Jet City amps is now headquartered in Boise Idaho. Just questions I have. I never understood their branding logic, they could put Sir Ampsalot on the thing and if it also said designed by Soldano, it would sell. So the 333 and Jet City was always a wonder.
What's perhaps more odd, is that Mike Soldano is from Canada. He immigrated to Seattle to have a USA shop, so why refer to Seattle? Everyone knows Soldano is located in Seattle by now, so what need is there to highlight another amp company from there? Jet City amps is now headquartered in Boise Idaho. Just questions I have. I never understood their branding logic, they could put Sir Ampsalot on the thing and if it also said designed by Soldano, it would sell. So the 333 and Jet City was always a wonder.
