NAD, JCA50H

Johtosotku

Johtosotku

New member
After a long period of hearing advice, reading reviews, listening to sound clips and testing some amps out I decided on my new amp: a brand new Jet City Amplification 50 watt head. For 300€ with three year warranty and 30 days return policy I figured out, why not try it out. Turns out the amp is surprisingly good.

The amp came on tuesday. I managed to play it a little at home for some minutes at varying volume levels, not full on though. The crunch channel was nice, surprisingly pleasant cleans, by no means as good as a good Fender or a good Vox but better than on many channel switchers. The crunch itself was nice hard rock territory. The overdrive channel was very nice, thick and clear with healthy mids. At low volumes the amp acted a bit weird; the sound was a bit muffled but the highs were still too fizzy. I ended up putting the mids higher and almost totally taking treble off. It sounded good. I managed to play with the volumes at about half way up for some time and it was very nice. The speaker was an Eminence Cannabis Rex in a open back 1*12.

Yesterday I managed to take the amp to the rehearsal place. It was pretty much permanently on the overdrive channel through band practice. I found out that the amp quite significantly opened up when the volume was past 6. It was very loud but ok at that point through a 4*!2 with V30s. Compared to home I could put some more treble and presence up. In the end the controls were about 12/15/10 o'clock with the presence at 12 o'clock. I left the controls at that and concentrated on playing.

The sound was very nice for straight forward rock/metal playing. Plenty of gain but not too compressed or mushy. Chords rang out with each string nicely separate. The sound cut through well in a band situation and blended in with the rest. I didn't do a lot of lead playing but I was maybe even a bit more impressed with lead tones. It was smooth, fluid and clear.

All around I'm very pleased with the amp so far. It fits the band I'm playing in very well. I'll have to try it out sometime on my own so I can find out how versatile it really is. It clearly is an amp for playing loud, I wouldn't recommend it for a bedroom or smaller gigs where high volume isn't an option.

For the price and warranty it's a real steal. I'd gladly pay double.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

Congrats! I miss my Jet City dearly.

Lats, the JCA50H, 100H and 100HDM all have 5881s stock. You can use 6L6s/6L6GCs in them no problem but not EL34s.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

I read about a lot of people who assume these amps are toys because they don't cost an arm and a leg. I pity those fools.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

6L6s in mine. I considered trying a boost in front but it's tight to me as it is and I'd like to avoid the extra compression.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

try a clean boost at least. it makes glorious sounds when boosted. a light overdrive on the clean channel also really livens it up.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

Think about doing the depth mod. Easy and super cheap. The trick is to not turn the gain up too much. It will get too boomy and mush up. I keep mine half way and use my Ts. Amazing.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

Really cool. Congratulations. Are you going to have it modded? I have heard some really good sounding mods for the JCA stuff. I was playing the 20w head a couple of weeks ago and it gave me GAS for a Soldano.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

On the 20 watter, the depth mod is a must. I would imagine the fifty has tight enough and big enough bass with the 6L6s, but I'm not sure. Either way, the depth mod is simple enough and powerful enough that I would do it in a heartbeat.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

I haven't thought about modding yet. I have heard about the depth mod but I'm not sure if I need it. If the depth mod is about extra bass, I'm fine as it is.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

nah, the depth mod is about controlling the woof of the low frequencies. It's more about controlling the thump from the cabinet rather than the amount of bass added to the signal in the preamp using the tone stack.

for example with the bass knob almost all the way up and the depth knob almost all the way down, you get a surgically tight meaty thump that tracks a lot better than turning the bass up and not having the depth knob.

It's actually a really useful mod if you gig a lot and sometimes have to use cabinets that are not your own, or you can use it to fine-tune the low end for the specific room you're playing in.
 
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Re: NAD, JCA50H

Ok, thanks. I'll have a look at it. I'll first also have a look how far the amp goes as it is and how it sounds with a boost in front.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

CTN said:
nah, the depth mod is
about controlling the woof of the low frequencies. It's more about
controlling the thump from the cabinet rather than the amount of bass
added to the signal in the preamp using the tone stack.

for example with the bass knob almost all the way up and the depth knob
almost all the way down, you get a surgically tight meaty thump that
tracks a lot better than turning the bass up and not having the depth
knob.

It's actually a really useful mod if you gig a lot and sometimes have to
use cabinets that are not your own, or you can use it to fine-tune the
low end for the specific room you're playing in.
Click to expand...

This. 100%

totally useful when your playing a room you're not familiar with.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

CTN described the depth mod perfectly. It's about controlling the bass and thickness and focus of your sound.
 
Re: NAD, JCA50H

Congrats!! Enjoy!! I had the 22 watter for awhile and really loved the tone. I did return it and got a Tweaker instead as the JC had a great tone, but was more limited than the tweaker. Id love to try one of thier bigger ones tho
 
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