Peavey JSX

[hippietim]

I just picked one up used from GC. So far, so blah.

It's got EL34's and I tried it with an Avatar V30 cab and a JCM 900 1960 with 75watt Celestions. It sounded better with the JCM 900. I tried a JEM and a PRS SC245. Both guitars sound great with my Bogner Duende.

So far this amp is incredibly mediocre. The clean is not sterile but warm isn't the word I'd use either. The crunch and ultra are a bit piercing. It is much more prone to feedback (not the good kind) than other amps I've had in recent days. I could see this amp getting lost in the mix pretty easily except for whatever frequency is piercing.

I've got some 6L6's to try in it - that seems to be the general wisdom for this amp.

I've had a number of really nice amps at the house in the last year or so and this is not as good as any of them:

• Suhr/CAA OD-100 SE/SH - best clean tone in a head ever
• Splawn modded Marshall 1987x - brilliant but not very flexible
• Splawn Quickrod - we didn't bond but it's way better than this JSX
• Randall RM100 with a variety of modules
• Bogner Ecstacy Classic (not mine) - not my favorite but still beats this JSX
• Bogner Duende - great for smaller setups - not enough headroom for a lot of stuff
• Diezel VH4 (also not mine) - yeah, I know it costs 4 times more but it sounds 4 times better
• Carvin Legacy - this was a dark amp but had no piercing artifacts - I'm very curious about the Legacy II
• A number of rack configurations - too many to list
• There's a couple I'm forgetting here...

So if the 6L6's don't make the magic happen it will be going back to GC.

[quiksilver]

Very interesting comments. Thank you for posting this.

[kmanick]

Hey Tim, look at the preamp tubes it's got as well as the power tubes.
These initially shipped with Electro harmonix 12AX7's and those are the brightest, screechiest preamp tubes out there.
I have a Tungsol re-issue in V1 and JJ's the rest of the way.
That helps alot right there.
So here we go.

Well for Number one don't EQ it like a passive amp.
Take all your EQ settings and put them on 7.
Put the Master vol at 5 the Channel Volume at 4 and the
gain on 6 (this is all Ultra channel BTW). Keep the Fat switch off and go from there, adding and subtracting from whichever EQ to shape your tone.
these controls are very sensitive and they are all interactive so make tiny adjustments.
I used to EQ mine like a passive amp and I almost got rid of it.
EQ'ed in this manner (with KT-77's in there) mine sounds thunderous thru V30's. It sounds like a smooth 5150. Also patch the loop and keep it on (for some reason the amp sounds thicker this way)
Give this a try before you just send it back. (plus this amp has a very distinct voicing).
It either works for you or it doesn't, I also noticed that every guitar I have makes this amp sound completely different, so try mixing up the guitars as well.
The crunch channel is voiced much thicker than the ultra so
don't be shy with the EQ controls bring em up, they all work together.

Now having said all of that I'm seriously gassing for a Mark IV and a Splawn Nitro, So I don't want you to think I'm JSX fan boy.

Plus I think some of the earlier ones had some different circuitry in them because people complained about a cocked "wah" they couldn't get rid of.
Mine doesn't have it. If yours does , bring it back , there's nothing you can do to get rid of it.
good luck
Nick

[madryan]

I tried everything humanly possible to get my JSX to work for me but ended up selling it. I just couldn't get past that "hishy" quality that the amp has on the dirty channels. The only way I could get it to work for me was to run my Fulltone OCD with the gain set low on the JSX to boost the crunch/ultra channels.

I did throw some nice NOS 12AT7's in it which helped some, but IMO it's just got a nasty piercing fuzzy top end that you can't eq out.

[kmanick]

I must of gotten really lucky with mine , because mine doesn't have that fuzzy top end on it either.
I generally run the gain on my ultra channel at around 4 and use a clean boost in front of it (or a compressor if I'm in fusion mode) and it sounds great.
Now keep in mind I also am a home player only at this point.
I may bring my rig to a jam session and absolutely hate the way it sounds in a live setting.
But for at home at moderate to some what loud volumes mine sounds really good.

[jgcable]

I have yet to hear a good sounding JSX live. They sound pretty good at home though.

[skorb]

this is why I love this place.

glad I chose the V3 over the JSX.

[bibz]

Fuck yeah, just tried kmanicks recommendations and they're on the ball entirely!! A very much smoothed out 5150, remiscent to my sis's bf's modded 5150II, but more everything in a way.

It makes alot of sense, lemme rant on my findings of this amp of late.

First off, the tubes in these things suck stock. The tubes themselves might be ok, but not here. I'm running Tungsol v1, JJ longplate v2, c9 v3 and pentalabs in v4. Svetlana 6l6's. The poweramp section is very bright, but not when you slam it properly, and these guys have alot of nice tone, more 'tubey' then the jj 6l6's I tried (and will try again soon).

The preamp is supposedly; V1 input, V2 gain on ultra/crunch channels, V3 loop/active eq, V4 pi. And it def seems like it! Using that had an educated guess at what tubes I wanted were and after rolling a few extras its bang on. When you engage the loop you get more tube tone. When you increase the eq, you get more tube tone (just found this out!) That particular tubes tone at that! I've been getting best tone with gain around 6-7. This might be more gain then you want, but it 'sounds' nicest there. Channel volume can change alot aswell, not just how hard you hit the power section, or how much balance the pre/power tone has, but in output aswell (I'm thinking v3 comes to play here too).

Another important make or break section is the presence/resonance controls. These can make or break the entire amp! Resonance over eq'd bass makes it much more thumpy and chugcapable. Its lower and more dynamic, but needs eq'd bass to feed it aswell. Presence you might run too to ditch the fizz, but it makes everything alot more boring if you do, so don't zero it out completely.

For cleans....tubes man tubes! Running a set of tubes from a 74 fender supersix reverb it sounded so freaking sweet! 6l6's make them sound waaay nicer obviously, and nicer/warmer 12ax7's or 12at7's would help alot too. With orig rca's I got the best modern clean sound I've heard. Also drop the volume on the clean channel alot. Mines currently on about 1.1 if that, and using an inbetween distortion/jazz pickup selection its so twangy and comfy! It's easy to pound this section too hard spesh with high output pickups. It seems to love medium output humbuckers. Even with the distortion, if I get a setting thats perfect then swap to a dimebucker or x2n guitar and its start all over again. Which leads me too....

Low input! The ultra channel has craaaazy amounts of gain, so low input for that and the clean channel makes alot of sense. Crunch sounds best to me on the high gain input. When both inputs are used they default to low gain (-6db) so you can put a footswitch in the low gain and have the two settings available there too.

This amp has alot in it, and alot you can do with it. It might take a little work, but when I nail this thing it sounds like heaven. You also have to like playing it to get the best out of it. I find when I'm not into playing...it sounds like it. Breath life on the fretboard and it amplifies it!

ps I run a ts10 in the front, and two boss microrack delays in the loop.

[hippietim]

Hey Tim, look at the preamp tubes it's got as well as the power tubes.
These initially shipped with Electro harmonix 12AX7's and those are the brightest, screechiest preamp tubes out there.
I have a Tungsol re-issue in V1 and JJ's the rest of the way.
That helps alot right there.

I have some Tungsol reissue 12AX7's and some GE reissue 6L6's - I wil try those.

Well for Number one don't EQ it like a passive amp.
Take all your EQ settings and put them on 7.
Put the Master vol at 5 the Channel Volume at 4 and the
gain on 6 (this is all Ultra channel BTW). Keep the Fat switch off and go from there, adding and subtracting from whichever EQ to shape your tone.
these controls are very sensitive and they are all interactive so make tiny adjustments.
I used to EQ mine like a passive amp and I almost got rid of it.
EQ'ed in this manner (with KT-77's in there) mine sounds thunderous thru V30's. It sounds like a smooth 5150. Also patch the loop and keep it on (for some reason the amp sounds thicker this way)
Give this a try before you just send it back. (plus this amp has a very distinct voicing).
It either works for you or it doesn't, I also noticed that every guitar I have makes this amp sound completely different, so try mixing up the guitars as well.
The crunch channel is voiced much thicker than the ultra so
don't be shy with the EQ controls bring em up, they all work together.

Yikes. This is my exact beef with the Ecstacy - you have to fiddle fuck around with the controls forever to dial in something good. I had a Rivera TBR-1SL that was the same way. I switch guitars all the time - if this thing is going to be a pain in the ass like this with every guitar change it will be availble again at GC. I really need to plug a Strat and a Tele in it.

[hippietim]

I have yet to hear a good sounding JSX live. They sound pretty good at home though.

That is not surprising (or encouraging).

[hippietim]

I'll give you guys my general approach to testing amps.

I grab a few guitars that I know sound good in a variety of amps and settings. Then I get warmed up a bit. You don't want to decide an amp sucks because your playing is not where you want it to be. If I find myself choking I'll walk away and try later - even if it might be the feel of the amp that's wrong - better to try later and be wrong than turn away a good rig.

I set all tone controls to 12 o'clock and don't touch them. I mess with presence/depth controls somewhat - I tend to favor having those below 12 o'clock because I view them as controls to compensate for wierd rooms and odd situations. The reason I center the tone controls is because this is typically what the amp designer was shooting for as the fundamental tone - if the amp doesn't sound good to me here, it's not likely to improve much for me because clearly the amp designer and I have different tastes. I have yet to find an amplifier that I was happy with that didn't sound good to me at 12 o'clock.

From there I walk through the channels pretty thoroughly playing things that I know will emphasize certain things in an amp - I vary gain/volume settings on the amp quite a bit. I know what I like so this really doesn't take that long - 10 minutes a channel or so per guitar. If it takes more than that, then the amp will be hard to dial in as situations, guitars, songs, cabs, etc. change - that's too much headache.

I also vary my guitar volume quite a bit - this can tell you a lot very quickly. A lot of modern amps have fundamentally thin clean channels - don't be fooled by low end, that doesn't mean thick - backing off your guitar volume will reveal the thin, sissy boy cleans. When you back off your guitar volume on a dirty channel look for how quiet the amp gets - if it doesn't get quieter then you are relying on too much preamp distortion and your tone is probably buzzing/fizzing and it's not going to be very touch responsive either.

[hippietim]

BTW, I've found this same approach to testing amps work with the modeling stuff as well.

[shreddermon]

Like with pickups, tone is subjective. I'm still digging my JSX a lot. I've got my ultra channel doing a semi-scooped mid tone, crunch doing a partially-compressed classic rock tone, and clean going for a chimey Fendery vibe. And I run a GT-8 through the loop for effects.

I really like that this amp is versatile enough to do all that - and more - at a pretty reasonable price. That doesn't mean that there aren't better and/or more versatile amps out there. Just that there aren't a lot of others that do it with this much bang for your buck.

[slash-ed]

That's a useful approach to amp testing, hippietim. Thanks for sharing that.

[yard dawg]

I have yet to hear a good sounding JSX live. They sound pretty good at home though.

Yea me either.. JoE Satriani live sounds terrible.

The thing about tone is its subjective. Some people love certain amps and some hate them.