I figure, if any board I'm a member of would care, it's you guys. :lol:

A sevenstring.org buddy of mine in the Boston area owns a JSX half stack, so we got together the other week to check out each other's gear and jam a bit. I brought my Rect-o-verb combo, and he fired up his JSX.

Basically, I was impressed. It sounds for lack of a better word more or less what a high gain Marshall-style amp should, with the nice warm EL34 style midrange but without the overly harsh fizziness you find in most all-tube Marshalls these days.

I didn't really screw with the settings, so I can't talk much about how it responds and whatnot, but a few observations-

-holy fuck does it have a lot of gain. :lol: Keep in mind I was playing through a Rectifier with a TS9 out front as an added boost. I wasn't exactly jacking up the gain on either (Recto was at 6, TS9 was at 0-3, depending on the guitar I was using at the time), but to be fair the JSX was also at 5 on the Ultra channel and had a slight boost out front as well. The amount of preamp gain this thing could produce was comical. I'd hate to hear it full up - if I was dialing it in on my own I'd probably need to drop it down to 2-3, much like the XXX I played a month or two back.
-the Crunch channel, while I only played it briefly, rules. I can see why so many people dig this sound.
-evidently, the Jackson Custom Shop forum crowd has been theorizing there were some production issues with some of these, and some of them have been coming out of the shop overly mid-dy. This one wasn't - it was a very naturally-voiced lead tone.
-it also did heavy rhythm surprisingly well, when my buuddy grabbed an all-maple GMW/Charvel 6 and threw it into drop-D. You could totally do Alice In Chains/Staind/Godsmack/modern hard rock with this rig, which I wasn't really expecting.

Overall, I liked it more than the XXX, but it still wasn't really "me." Way more gain than I'd ever need, and the fact the clean channel is virtually impossible to make break up is actually kind of a turnoff for me. However, it did handle the full range of a seven cleanly, which was nice, and most importantly it passed my primary test - it was an amp that was just FUN to play through. :D

I'm not dropping the Rectifier anytime soon, but I can see why this amp's so popular here. :D

But the most important issue is...

Did you get a nice Satch tone? :P

Yeah, the guy pulled up a FX patch he set up for "Flying in a Blue Dream," and it was pretty appropriate. It does "new" Satch better than "old" satch, which is too bad because I prefer his older 6100 tone, but whatever.

Which album was the cutoff between "old" and "new" Satch tone?

Well, he's varied a lot over his career, of course... But for me, Joe's tone really took a dive for a worse right about "Strange Beautiful Music." He started working with JSX prototypes and relying on the Palmer, and while the Palmer worked great on the electronica of "Engines of Creation" it really didn't fit the more vintage-y stuff her was trying to do.

FWIW, I think some of Joe's best tones are on Crystal Planet and The Extremist, with an honorable mention to the studio Time Machine disc. Though, his live tone the last time I saw him ruled. \m/

Joes got a new pedal that makes the gain on the Jsx sound like a fender jazz amp...lol...ill post it very soon. So where would you rate the JSX on a scale of 1 - 10....ive given it an 11...i cant find anything that sound so good especially with the js-1200 combination. What Axe did you use...and did you have Delay?

Joes older tones can be dialed in on the crunch channel and low gain but high reponse makes it sound like it has more gain....the gain is of high quality and sensitivity i think due to the preamp setup of tubes....im not really a gear head and dont know that much but the JSX has taugh me a few things besides a good control to compare other amps to...the combo amp sounds much better though i dont have the jsx speaks or cab...im using a Peavey XXL cab and i still get killer tones out of it

On a scale of 1-10? Maybe a 7.5 or so, which is saying a lot because I'm a picky S.O.B. :lol: For comparison's sake, I'd put the XXX at a 5, and my current rig at an 8.5-9. I still haven't found 10, but I'll let you know when I do.

I was playing a number of guitars, actually - my UV7PWH, a GMW/Charvel custom quilted maple 6 (which was one of the cooler guitars I've ever plaed, and a killer Carvin mahogany 7 with Bareknuckle pickups. There was some sort of a multi-FX in the loop and I did play it with a patch with delay that my friend'd dialed up for the "Flying in a Blue Dream" sound. Also, he had a custom clean boost out front a friend of his had made him specifically for use with a 7, and a THD 16-ohm Hot Plate in line set around -8db, IIRC.

My biggest problem with the amp was it just had too much gain. Even with the boost off, it was absurdly distorted for an amp with the drive on 5. I had the same problem with the XXX, where I couldn't get a tone I was happy with if I set the gain anywhere over 2.5-3 because it'd become completly oversaturated and you'd lose all dynamic control over the guitar. Unlike the XXX, the JSX seemed to be a little more "articulate" where you could hear a little more of the sound of the guitar through the gain - stuff like the way the string snaps against the fretboard, etc, that I really dig about a good touch-sensitive amp, etc. The XXX sounded overly... Idunno. Like everything sort of got airbrushed over about the sound of the guitar, and this tone came out of the speakers in its' place. It was kind of artificial, somehow - fun to play, but it didn't have the transparency I was hoping for. It was especially striking right after playing through the triple rectifier right next to it, which is an oft-derrided amp but if you don't set it like a moron, well, if you want clarity this is the amp to beat. The JSX didn't really strike me this way (the artificialness of the XXX), which was good news. However, it still wasn't perfect.

That said, I'd be very curious to hear a JSX with a lower-gain set of preamp tubes, so you didn't hit full-out saturation until quite a bit higher in the volume knob's range. I'd be curious. I DID like the frequencies the amp seemed to be voiced to fill - it was Marshally, but a little "rounder" than most (ok, all) marshalls I've played.


As an aside, Axe, you'd absolutely hate my new rig, lol. I LOVE how it sounds, and the few clips I've cut with it so far have me happier than I've ever been with my lead tone, but the fact remains it's something that's totally tailored to my playing style, and if you're 120% happy with the JSX (and having seen that photo of where you set the gain on yours, after having played one myself), then you'd HATE my setup. :lol:

well i feel i can make any amp sound its best with tweeking...the thing is i like to keep my variables at a minimum...to many gadgets and it will really kill the naturals amps tone which may be what you would want anyway. All i have ias my ear to rely on....my jsx sat for over a year because i wasnt happy with the tone and super gain....i never used the ultra channel until my recording of FIABD....the crunch channel is the one i tuned the amp in with...then change to the ultra and just minor adjustments...my major issue with it is the treble knob....4 is the maximum setting or i get the tinny remarks...lol...but having this amp has made me a little more aware of tone and the slight adjustment needed to align the Axe into its path ;)

:lol: Nice.

Actually, the thing that'd kill it for me, come to think of it, is the active EQ. I HATE active EQ, because it just seems to have way too much of an impact on the tone. You pretty much have to run everything at or near 5 to not have it sound artificially sculpted... That's my one problem with my Tech21 Trademark 30. I basically just leave the EQ set straight up at 5 across the board, because anything else sounds unnatural. :/

I have that problem with the bass knob on my Rectifier - literally, I run it below two about 95% of the time. :lol: On modern mode, any more than that and it gets woofy.

well alot has to do with the speakers your using and the room its in. On a hollow stage you may have an issue with bass.. i have my bass up more than the other 2 and the resonance helps. But also ive realized that the differenced between the numbers and the half marks on the setting are a big difference even though over the years i grabbed that know and gave it a solid turn.....its the slight subtle tuning that will get you what you want. I always prefer simple knobs on an amp over a 500 channel eq...lol...all the gear ive bought over the years emphasize simplicity and classic ease of setting the amps eq and fx. The more i seem to add...the more tone ill lose....but now when im having a relationship with the tone of the amp(lol)i will add a pedal or 2 for fun but too much covers up your "Hand Tone" so my new thing is use the amps tone and try to use less of other fx than can lose what youve paid for in a high quality tube amp.

as you guy all mentioned, I love the amber channel, however at the moment, I'm using the ultra channel for my heavy rhythm stuff, and I love the amber channel for my leads, especially when i lower the volume on my guitar.

also as mentioned, it's really hard to take control of the amp... I'm not really sure what I want in an amp, however it's always something between flying and Gary Moore's sustain on Parisian Walkaways and Sad but true :)

always searching. :)