phil_104
Cheesesteakologist
An impulse buy to be quite honest.
Woke up yesterday, decided I had had a **** week and I wanted to go and grab a toy. So I vaguely remembered playing one of these in the store a while back, and decided to pick one up. Didn't bother plugging it in ; I have this new thing where I grab pedals or gear and just work with it, to try and find the strong points in the object and work around it's flaws, rather than try and get just the right gear every time. Makes life interesting.
So I head to my dad's house before jam. He's my audio reference, and verbalizes his thoughts quite eloquently when it comes to what he hears. So I plug in with my Fender Strat, with an MXR Custom Badass Overdrive and a Fulltone Plimsoul. Then, I do the same with my ES339. Here are our observations, that I confirmed while jamming with the full band a few hours after. I usually gig with a Blues Jr, so my observations are all relative to this amp.
- The amp is very transparent. It displays very little colouring of the tone, and will almost come off as bland is not hit by some sort of effect (reverb or light delay at a minimum). This transparency however, is an asset for certain styles of music (jazz for example) with a good guitar producing good overtones.
- The amp is brutally honest. Play a crappy guitar into it, and it will sound crappy. This goes with the transparency. We plugged in a squier I had in the basement, and it wasn't pretty.
- The amp take pedals very well. The amp really comes to life with a bit of delay. Distortions and overdrives are pleasant. I like my wah throaty, and this amp delivers a nice deep rasp.
- The 15 inch driver produces a nice mellow high range, which is a good thing, since the amp tends to be extremely bright. There is a bright or dark switch, and I have found the bright side of things to be almost unusable. It produces a very clear, but very shrill sound. I suppose it could be useful to some, who would want to use a Jazzbox's single neck located pickup with extreme definition. Not for most though.
- Overdrives tend to be very raw and organic sounding. The amp doesn't saturate as quickly as my Blues Jr, and even with higher gain pedals, the vintage designed nature of the amp comes through.
Overall, a good one trick pony that can be augmented with a decent pedal setup. A good inexpensive amp for those looking for an honest, raw, vintage style rock sound with it's quirks. For those seeking anything from a White Stripes of Black Keys garage tone, to a Nirvana grunge vibe, or even a nice raw blues tone, or a bright surf tone... this could be for you. Just make sure you have the guitar to put behind it.
Woke up yesterday, decided I had had a **** week and I wanted to go and grab a toy. So I vaguely remembered playing one of these in the store a while back, and decided to pick one up. Didn't bother plugging it in ; I have this new thing where I grab pedals or gear and just work with it, to try and find the strong points in the object and work around it's flaws, rather than try and get just the right gear every time. Makes life interesting.
So I head to my dad's house before jam. He's my audio reference, and verbalizes his thoughts quite eloquently when it comes to what he hears. So I plug in with my Fender Strat, with an MXR Custom Badass Overdrive and a Fulltone Plimsoul. Then, I do the same with my ES339. Here are our observations, that I confirmed while jamming with the full band a few hours after. I usually gig with a Blues Jr, so my observations are all relative to this amp.
- The amp is very transparent. It displays very little colouring of the tone, and will almost come off as bland is not hit by some sort of effect (reverb or light delay at a minimum). This transparency however, is an asset for certain styles of music (jazz for example) with a good guitar producing good overtones.
- The amp is brutally honest. Play a crappy guitar into it, and it will sound crappy. This goes with the transparency. We plugged in a squier I had in the basement, and it wasn't pretty.
- The amp take pedals very well. The amp really comes to life with a bit of delay. Distortions and overdrives are pleasant. I like my wah throaty, and this amp delivers a nice deep rasp.
- The 15 inch driver produces a nice mellow high range, which is a good thing, since the amp tends to be extremely bright. There is a bright or dark switch, and I have found the bright side of things to be almost unusable. It produces a very clear, but very shrill sound. I suppose it could be useful to some, who would want to use a Jazzbox's single neck located pickup with extreme definition. Not for most though.
- Overdrives tend to be very raw and organic sounding. The amp doesn't saturate as quickly as my Blues Jr, and even with higher gain pedals, the vintage designed nature of the amp comes through.
Overall, a good one trick pony that can be augmented with a decent pedal setup. A good inexpensive amp for those looking for an honest, raw, vintage style rock sound with it's quirks. For those seeking anything from a White Stripes of Black Keys garage tone, to a Nirvana grunge vibe, or even a nice raw blues tone, or a bright surf tone... this could be for you. Just make sure you have the guitar to put behind it.
