NAD - Solid state hotness

Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

jeremy said:
i just amazes me how that amp can sound magical clean and like it broken when you try and use the distortion
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That's the first thing I thought when I finally the chance to use a JC120. I swear, with the way COSM modeling has gone the last decade, you'd think they had it in for themselves. Sheesh.
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

Makes you wonder why they didn't remove the distortion channel to save on manufacturing costs and keep the price slightly lower. They did though improve the Distortion channel on the recent JC-40 anniversary edition.
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

Here is a question if anyone can help me with I would appreciate greatly. The output of the amp is 60 watts x 2 @ 8 ohms per side. I have to use a stereo cab or two cabs with the amp. Is there a way for me to combine the two sides to run it into an 8-ohm mono cab? Or if I just run one side at 8 ohms and 60 watts into a cab, do I run a risk of screwing up the amp?
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

So silly question maybe, but is Boss' Chorus pedal even remotely close to what's on the JC-120?
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

Isn't the magic of the 120 chorus the stereo effect with two separate speakers? I' haven't played one since ~1987 in college.
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

SlyFoxx said:
Isn't the magic of the 120 chorus the stereo effect with two separate speakers? I' haven't played one since ~1987 in college.
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It is but live I am not going to find or want to deal with a sound guy that can double mic my amp and pan it in the house system. It would be cool and nice but live you have so many gremlins running around why add more. In the studio, it will be a must. Live I want the simplest setup possible.
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

mi_canuck said:
So silly question maybe, but is Boss' Chorus pedal even remotely close to what's on the JC-120?
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Yes, it is very close. Here is the kicker that will blow minds. I won't even use the chorus. I use a MoogerFooger for my chorus. I bought the amp for the pure balls it has and the fact it is one of the best platforms for effects I have ever used. Truth be told I never touched the chorus, distortion or reverb on my old JC 120 live. All of my effects came from racks or stomps.
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

Securb said:



Roland Major? Even my crazy butt doesn't need/want that.

roland_jazz_chorus_jc-200.png
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Greatest movie of all time....or am i the only o e to have seen it?

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

Who cares how the amp's distortion sounds when you can run any pedal that you want through the clean channel and it will sound fantastic?

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Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

First, AWESOME Score!!! I should have figured, but it never even dawned on me that this was avail as a head. Only ever seen the 2x12 combos. Played one in a hock shop once, awesome sounding chorus.
I never thought to get one cuz of the lack of gain, but yeah, pedal platform indeed!!
It must take pedals well if Kirk used one... Espec a wah pedal..... Sorry.. Had to say it...
They prolly never improve the dist circuit due to the clean chorus being its bread and butter.. But yeah, as mentioned, you would think they would build a Boss circuit into it, or drop the gain all together.. It never even dawned on me that they had a gain circuit as all Ive ever heard about them is that they are the shiz for cleans
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

mi_canuck said:
So silly question maybe, but is Boss' Chorus pedal even remotely close to what's on the JC-120?
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The CE1 is the same circuit. Even the prestigous CE2 doesn't sound the same (not as good, either IMO)

Listen on some decent cans.

 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

I was going through some old stuff today and found this picture of my original JC 120 setup. That is a Chandler Tube driver and Delta Labs delay on top.

Scan_Pic0003.jpg
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

Securb said:
I have been flapping my gums for 2 years saying I was going to buy another JC 120 and I finally pulled the trigger. I played one in my old metal band and had it sitting on top of a 4x12 cab. This time around I am going with the JC 120 head and I will run it through my Marshall cab in stereo. I just won the auction the head should be here Friday.

s-l1600.jpg
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nice boots cowboy
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

Securb said:
Here is a question if anyone can help me with I would appreciate greatly. The output of the amp is 60 watts x 2 @ 8 ohms per side. I have to use a stereo cab or two cabs with the amp. Is there a way for me to combine the two sides to run it into an 8-ohm mono cab? Or if I just run one side at 8 ohms and 60 watts into a cab, do I run a risk of screwing up the amp?
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No idea if you can bridge the outputs but it's never a good idea to run an amp [ any amp ] without a load on the outputs. IE: a speaker, an attenuator, a transducer.
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

Thought I would give you guys an update. There is a big difference between my 20-year-old ear and my listening to this amp today. I could still not use this amp for metal without an offboard gain. However, the distortion in the amp is not useless. I have been getting some great classic rock tones with this amp from subtle 60's break up to a very respectable Malcolm Young like overdrive.

Where the distortion is lacking is the bite and sustain. You don't get those singing leads we all strive for. I am sure that could be accomplished with a boost or a green box with some slight gain. Once again back to an offboard pedal. For rock rhythms, standalone the amp is a beast.

As I put in another thread, I put the OEM Marshall stereo jacks on the back of the MX212 and replaced the Celestion Seventy 80s with Eminence Wheelhouse 150 speakers. The amp sounds amazing.

C61Gg8TUwAAMOY3.jpg:large


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Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

I know 80s King Crimson used JC-120s and used pedals for the distortion. They seemed to sound wonderful with them. I always thought the distortion on those was pretty bad, but I haven't heard it in 20 years or so.
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

i wouldnt be surprised if the amp distortion sounds better though the marshall than the speakers that are in the combo which might explain why there is less suck from the head distortion
 
Re: NAD - Solid state hotness

JeffB said:
The CE1 is the same circuit. Even the prestigous CE2 doesn't sound the same (not as good, either IMO)

Listen on some decent cans.

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I've got a CE-2 and I can tell you that:

1) It has an internal trim pot that REALLY changes the behaviour of the pedal. I'm not sure what it does, but it can add some weird noise, distort, or make it unusable as well as improving on things.
2) My M13 has a CE-1 emulation and it kills my CE-2, though I've never tried a CE-1 for real.
3) The CE-2 still kills any other Chorus pedal I've tried.
 
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