What makes a good jazz amp?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Little Pigbacon
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Re: What makes a good jazz amp?

Supro's new line of valve amps!!! I played through several different models before buying my Titan & all of them would make great Jazz amplifiers!!! They're not exactly cheap but the build quality is impeccable (see photo) & pretty much all of them have TONS of clean headroom!!!

Playing through my Titan with my Custom 5/P.G.N. loaded L.P. I can get the volume knob all the way up to 8-9 before it begins to spit out any sort of break up! Perhaps a bit richer & more compressed the louder you get but they sound pretty much the same whether the volume knob is set at 1-2 or 7-8? With it cranked on 10 & with a guitar that's got hot-ish humbuckers you'll start getting a cool F51 kinda breakup from it...

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Tonality wise they have a lot in common with Fender valve amps IMHO, but as someone else already stated they have a much more complex & dynamic midrange. Plus the Reverb/Tremolo on most models is tube driven & some of the best I've ever heard! However unlike older Fender valve amps that also have tube driven Reverb/Tremolo units onboard, this function doesn't seem to make a bunch of pre-gain that muddy the waters inside the Supro's...

The biggest downfall of this amp is even though it's just a little 1X10 Combo it probably weighs about the same as two Hot Rod Deluxe's stacked on top of each other!!!! Oddly enough, it also sounds much bigger than a H.R.D. even though it's only got a little 10in hemp cone...
 
Re: What makes a good jazz amp?

Clean with as much headroom as possible so it doesn't get overdriven at all at any volume or input signal level.

Roland is a great solid state option, and not too expensive.

Otherwise, Carvin Legacy has a great warm clean sound with tons of headroom.
 
Re: What makes a good jazz amp?

The last thing I'm going to do is buy an amp before I (a) learn to play in at least a couple of styles, and (b) run that through my current amps to hear how they sound. I don't need to travel, and I don't care about heat or energy efficiency, so solid state has no appeal for me along those lines. I know this is way out of character for me, but I would rather try to get better tone by practicing or changing my technique than by buying an amp. I already want two more jazz guitars; that's bad enough.

Now this kind of common sense is not gonna be tolerated in this establishment !!!!! :D
 
Re: What makes a good jazz amp?

Supro's new line of valve amps!!! I played through several different models before buying my Titan & all of them would make great Jazz amplifiers!!! They're not exactly cheap but the build quality is impeccable (see photo) & pretty much all of them have TONS of clean headroom!!!

Playing through my Titan with my Custom 5/P.G.N. loaded L.P. I can get the volume knob all the way up to 8-9 before it begins to spit out any sort of break up! Perhaps a bit richer & more compressed the louder you get but they sound pretty much the same whether the volume knob is set at 1-2 or 7-8? With it cranked on 10 & with a guitar that's got hot-ish humbuckers you'll start getting a cool F51 kinda breakup from it...

View attachment 80305View attachment 80306

Tonality wise they have a lot in common with Fender valve amps IMHO, but as someone else already stated they have a much more complex & dynamic midrange. Plus the Reverb/Tremolo on most models is tube driven & some of the best I've ever heard! However unlike older Fender valve amps that also have tube driven Reverb/Tremolo units onboard, this function doesn't seem to make a bunch of pre-gain that muddy the waters inside the Supro's...

The biggest downfall of this amp is even though it's just a little 1X10 Combo it probably weighs about the same as two Hot Rod Deluxe's stacked on top of each other!!!! Oddly enough, it also sounds much bigger than a H.R.D. even though it's only got a little 10in hemp cone...

I played a Supro at NAMM with an Eastman archtop and I can't imagine getting a better jazz sound that that. Chean and warm, like 2 giant sticks of buttah.
 
Re: What makes a good jazz amp?

I am surprised no one mentioned the Ampeg VT-22 what a fantastic jazz amp.
 
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