NAD: Jet City Amelia

GilmourD

GilmourD

Burritotoneologist
28827543_10101720740364648_1588073928489987108_o.jpg



Just picked this up straight from Jet City AmpFactory on Reverb. Doug was awesome to deal with and it arrived on Saturday in north Jersey after paying on Thursday.


This amp is a beast. The cleans are CLEAN even with the hotter humbuckers in my Wolfgang in the picture above. The dirty channel without the additional OD isn't SUPER dirty, but definitely in the classic JCM800 range. If you set it right it's AC/DC for days. The switchable OD control (which I'm also buying a kit to make it footswitchable) makes it a metal monster. However the amp is set, though, the clarity is incredible and the dynamic range is nuts in the sense that if I picked really light it cleaned up tremendously.


It's also got two master volumes that are footswitchable, so I can set a volume boost for solos and whatnot.


This thing is making me consider building a stripped down pedalboard compared to my NASA Mission Control board since it covers all my dirt and boost options and sounds insane doing so. LOL
 
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Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

I was looking at those last summer. Nice score!

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

Awesome amp. I loved my Jet City. Beautiful guitar too!
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

I hadn't seen your NAD post on this before now. Congrats. I thought you bought the one on Reverb that had the Low Gear Mod AND the OD Footswitch Mod. But I see you say there is a kit, which is cool for a bunch of people. Some of us non technical peeps like me need factory mods for that stuff unfortunately. I'm glad to hear how much you like the tones.

On the OD channel, how much gain would you say there is if the channel gain is maxed, but you're NOT using the additional OD? Also, can you set the additional OD to different levels (is it on a dial 1-10) or is it an ON/OFF only scenario? If it's an on/off thing, if you turn the channel gain all the way down and engage the OD do you get less distortion then if the dirty channel gain is maxed and then you kick in the OD?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to get a better idea of how the additional gain works and how interactive it is. Oh, can you also give a reference sound for the dirty channel max distortion on its own and the max distortion sound with the dirty channel gain dimed and the OD on?

It sounds like your saying it has good clarity even with tons of gain, which is great. Do you still get that rich somewhat chewy Marshall type EL34 sound that most EL34 users chase? I wouldn't like it if the OD was too SLO or Dual Rectifer (or other 6L6) high gain tone. If it does normal JCM 800 to hot rodded JCM 800 to super hot rodded JCM 800 it would have more gain than I likely ever need. I'm trying to decide if it will do those tones well enough for me to shelve my Splawn Quick Rod gas. I know their different amps and the Splawn is a boutique MONSTER, but if this gets 85% of the tones I want, it would justify spending over a grand less on the Amelia.

Looking forward to your additional comments and congrats again.
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

Jeff_H said:
I hadn't seen your NAD post on this before now. Congrats. I thought you bought the one on Reverb that had the Low Gear Mod AND the OD Footswitch Mod. But I see you say there is a kit, which is cool for a bunch of people. Some of us non technical peeps like me need factory mods for that stuff unfortunately. I'm glad to hear how much you like the tones.
Click to expand...
Got myself a regular stock-circuit Amelia since I like gain. :)
Jeff_H said:
On the OD channel, how much gain would you say there is if the channel gain is maxed, but you're NOT using the additional OD? Also, can you set the additional OD to different levels (is it on a dial 1-10) or is it an ON/OFF only scenario? If it's an on/off thing, if you turn the channel gain all the way down and engage the OD do you get less distortion then if the dirty channel gain is maxed and then you kick in the OD?
Click to expand...
I'd say that the OD without the added gain switched on is JCM800 2204-type levels. It's got a serious crunch but it's not high gain. It's great for a lot of the '80s-influenced rock stuff my band does. The additional OD has adjustable gain. It's esseintially a TS type circuit in front of the OD channel. If you put the channel gain real low and run the additional OD maxed out it's kinda like a TS into a clean amp.
Jeff_H said:
Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to get a better idea of how the additional gain works and how interactive it is. Oh, can you also give a reference sound for the dirty channel max distortion on its own and the max distortion sound with the dirty channel gain dimed and the OD on?
Click to expand...
No problemo. Ask away!


The non-OD dirty channel is JCM800 2204 levels of gain. Not high gain but crunchy. Think early Judas Priest. With the OD on and maxed you can get REALLY FREAKIN' HEAVY. You'd have zero problems competing with a 5150 with all the gain maxed out.
Jeff_H said:
It sounds like your saying it has good clarity even with tons of gain, which is great. Do you still get that rich somewhat chewy Marshall type EL34 sound that most EL34 users chase? I wouldn't like it if the OD was too SLO or Dual Rectifer (or other 6L6) high gain tone. If it does normal JCM 800 to hot rodded JCM 800 to super hot rodded JCM 800 it would have more gain than I likely ever need. I'm trying to decide if it will do those tones well enough for me to shelve my Splawn Quick Rod gas. I know their different amps and the Splawn is a boutique MONSTER, but if this gets 85% of the tones I want, it would justify spending over a grand less on the Amelia.


Looking forward to your additional comments and congrats again.
Click to expand...
Oh, the clarity is insane on this thing. Even when it's fat and chewy there's still note separation. It does the Van Halen thing nicely without being maxed out. I was playing everything from clean and jangly to nailing AC/DC tones to Van Halen to just outright br00tal death metal type stuff.


I'm going to do a demo video for this once I get some stuff sorted.
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

the gain channel is a little confusing to me since i havent tried one before. is the overdrive switchable or just another gain control on the dirty channel? switchable master volumes right? i like that
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

Jeremy, the OD is switchable, on/off and levels from 0-10 if I understand correctly. GilmourD said it's sort of like a TS circuit adding gain to the OD channel, and the OD channel is very 2204ish on its own..

Having 2 channels with independent EQ and all of the other features for $500 is pretty sweet, especially if it sounds as good as stated.

GilmourD, thank you for the in depth answers. I'm really considering this as an affordable alternative to my Splawn gas.
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

speed2dirt said:
Who designed this amp? That can't be a Mike Soldano design with EL34s.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's a Martin Kidd (Cornford, Victory) design loosely (and from what I understand, loosely is a good word) based on the Cornford MK50 II.

jeremy said:
the gain channel is a little confusing to me since i havent tried one before. is the overdrive switchable or just another gain control on the dirty channel? switchable master volumes right? i like that
Click to expand...

Jeff_H said:
Jeremy, the OD is switchable, on/off and levels from 0-10 if I understand correctly. GilmourD said it's sort of like a TS circuit adding gain to the OD channel, and the OD channel is very 2204ish on its own..

Having 2 channels with independent EQ and all of the other features for $500 is pretty sweet, especially if it sounds as good as stated.

GilmourD, thank you for the in depth answers. I'm really considering this as an affordable alternative to my Splawn gas.
Click to expand...
Pretty much what Jeff said, although (interestingly) the knobs are labeled 0-9. I'm very likely going to order the kit to make the OD boost footswitchable from Epic-Tone.com to make it a true three-channel setup. I've been talking with Bryce from Epic and I should be able to handle the kit just fine.

I'm going to be doing a demo video of the amp. As good as the videos from HP42 and Agufish are I feel like neither of them really showed EVERYTHING that this thing can do.

Plus I want to crank the snot out of it and get my daughter Amelia moshing to my amplifier Amelia. LOL
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

nice! sounds mike making the od footswitchable would be the way to go. clean, dirty, dirtier and mv1 or mv2 sound like everything id want!
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

jeremy said:
nice! sounds mike making the od footswitchable would be the way to go. clean, dirty, dirtier and mv1 or mv2 sound like everything id want!
Click to expand...
Pretty much what I was thinking. It's super versatile and super toneful. :)
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

Jet City's are great! Congrats on the new amp. Would you say it sounds Marshall'ish?
I want that cab lol, they don't make 'em anymore in that style.
Really curious who Jet City will collaborate with next, they are building up a nice list: JHS, Soldano, Cornford/Victory, ... ?
Maybe a KT66 or KT88 amp! :P
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

Nightburst said:
Jet City's are great! Congrats on the new amp. Would you say it sounds Marshall'ish?
I want that cab lol, they don't make 'em anymore in that style.
Really curious who Jet City will collaborate with next, they are building up a nice list: JHS, Soldano, Cornford/Victory, ... ?
Maybe a KT66 or KT88 amp! :P
Click to expand...
It's got British heritage, but it's loosely (really loosely) based on a Cornford MK50 II.

This cab also has the older 70W Eminence drivers in it rather than the newer 100W version.

They did do the JCA45 which could run KT66s.
 
Re: NAD: Jet City Amelia

Nightburst said:
Jet City's are great! Congrats on the new amp. Would you say it sounds Marshall'ish?
I want that cab lol, they don't make 'em anymore in that style.
Really curious who Jet City will collaborate with next, they are building up a nice list: JHS, Soldano, Cornford/Victory, ... ?
Maybe a KT66 or KT88 amp! :P
Click to expand...

You could probably run KT66s in the JCA50 or 100; they work great in Soldanos and I've seen a few dealers selling them in that config.
 
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