mars_hall Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 My fears came true last night. I have been playing the amp for 45 minutes or less at a time since I had it. Last night I was well into an hour when the I noticed a change in tone. It sounded like the reverb became a little quiet. So I turned the reverb all the way up. Nothing. Turned it off and on. Nothing. Turned the amp off and came back 20 minutes later and the reverb came back. So I have discovered when this amp is heated up, the reverb fails. I previously sent out some requests from real users on youtube (not the store front guys that are one and done users of amps). Of the five or six I sent messages to, a few responded with mixed results. Two people loved them and two people got rid of them. One of them went through three before he gave up. One person had the footswitch problem which may have been the problem with my amp last night. So off to Guitar Center I go and I'm placing an order for a Jet City Ampliciation JCA2112RC. I haven't found a bad review of this amp yet, so I'm going for it. If Soldano puts his name on it and his rep is 1/2 as good as I've heard, I shouldn't be disappointed. FWIW, All things being equal, if the amp faded after an hour and came back after cooling, you may have a cold solder joint (one of the pads not completely fused to the part at the point of contact) or a dendrite contaminant on the board that expands to leak current when the chassis is heated. Things not being equal, sounds like a tube. Direct a fan to the chassis (output tubes) and see if the behavior returns as quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted November 10, 2010 Author Share Posted November 10, 2010 Its too late. I shouldn't have to go through all that effort for an amp. I returned the amp to Guitar Center and ordered a Jet City. I tried out the little half stack they had. It sounded good, but it wasn't a combo. I'm hoping the amp will be here before next week. We'll see though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjsanders Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 Harmony Central was purchased by Musicians Friend a few years back. Sometime there after their product review data base mysteriously disappeared. I haven't logged on there in years (it was already on the way down hill be MF bought it) so I'm not sure if my old scathing reviews of products they sell are still there or not. There have been rumors of shill reviews over there for years, even before MF bought it. they're all still there, looks like, just real hard to find. and less readable. user interface used to be useful, but that's long gone... yeah, H-C can be legit (re User Reviews), just gotta develop critical reading skills. took me a while and i can still be fooled example: Juke Amps. all the reviews are genuine, i believe. MF doesn't sell these. read carefully anyway. 'nother example: Bugera Amps - here's a link to all amps. MF does sell these, so read more carefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steiner Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 <br />So off to Guitar Center I go and I'm placing an order for a Jet City Ampliciation JCA2112RC. I haven't found a bad review of this amp yet, so I'm going for it. If Soldano puts his name on it and his rep is 1/2 as good as I've heard, I shouldn't be disappointed.<br /><br /><br /><br /> I talked to Mike S. about these last summer. He traveled out to the facility that makes these to check out the working conditions. He spoke about confusing the manufacturers by specking better components than they wanted to use. They couldn't understand why he didn't want the lowest cost assembly possible. We should meet up DB and run the Jet City through the courses. Then, if we're lucky we can put it up against KBP810's 5E3 build and see what you think. The best part of guitardenter is the return policy. Sir Tully will be happy you exercised your options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 The name always makes me think of the bear from Jungle Book. The bear was Baloo. Are you thinking of Bagheera, the black panther maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted November 11, 2010 Author Share Posted November 11, 2010 <br /><br /><br /> I talked to Mike S. about these last summer. He traveled out to the facility that makes these to check out the working conditions. He spoke about confusing the manufacturers by specking better components than they wanted to use. They couldn't understand why he didn't want the lowest cost assembly possible. We should meet up DB and run the Jet City through the courses. Then, if we're lucky we can put it up against KBP810's 5E3 build and see what you think. The best part of guitardenter is the return policy. Sir Tully will be happy you exercised your options. I sure hope they listend to Mike about the amp componets. KBP looked Jet City Amp head today he his said its appears really well made it looks just like a soldano. So will see! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbp810 Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 I sure hope they listend to Mike about the amp componets. KBP looked Jet City Amp head today he his said its appears really well made it looks just like a soldano. So will see! The rear-view layout did sort of remind me of an astroverb (less the black and blue color scheme); looks like it had some hefty iron in it as well. Sure hope this one works out for ya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted November 12, 2010 Author Share Posted November 12, 2010 My amp is supposed to be here tomorrow. So we'll see how good it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjsanders Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 tried a Bugera 5watter at a little ampfest Sunday. prefer my Roland Cube 30 (size, watt, used cost). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted November 17, 2010 Author Share Posted November 17, 2010 I've had my Jet City JCA2112RC for a few days now. The amp sounds great, looks cool, and simple to use. I cannot find anyone who's complained about them. In fact, I can hardly find a used one anywhere. (I always look for used pieces as a sign of people not liking them. Since Jet City amps seem to be a great amp, I'm really curious about their new effect pedals. Not a lot of reviews let alone anywhere I can find one.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 they're all still there, looks like, just real hard to find. and less readable. user interface used to be useful, but that's long gone... yeah, H-C can be legit (re User Reviews), just gotta develop critical reading skills. took me a while and i can still be fooled example: Juke Amps. all the reviews are genuine, i believe. MF doesn't sell these. read carefully anyway. 'nother example: Bugera Amps - here's a link to all amps. MF does sell these, so read more carefully. FWIW... Ed Roman has been known to do reviews of his own guitars on HC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoslate Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Are you thinking of Bagheera, the black panther maybe? Thought the Panther was either Bobby or Huey...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted November 24, 2010 Author Share Posted November 24, 2010 I've had my JCA for a few weeks now, I've been playing it longer and longer every night. Still sounds awesome and I just love how it responds to touch and attack. Fantastic amp, I'm glad I have it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philipgustavson Posted November 27, 2010 Share Posted November 27, 2010 Most of the amps at guitar center, even the new tube Marshalls, have too many parts and circuit boards built in China. They will break. It is not a lifetime instrument. Plastic jacks, board wired jacks, etc...Tone can be ok though. I work at a music school where we run about a dozen solid state Vox modeling amps. they break all the time, but the tone is actually ok. I have to hear them 6-9 hours at a time and the tone doesn't bother me. Beware of a vast majority of new amplifiers! Get a nice old amp and an amp tech if you seek tone without dropping $1500... If I only had $400-500 I would try and get an old Music Man or Silverface Fender or something like that. If my music school had done this, we would have saved about $2000 in repairs last year alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philipgustavson Posted November 27, 2010 Share Posted November 27, 2010 Most of the amps at guitar center, even the new tube Marshalls, have too many parts and circuit boards built in China. They will break. It is not a lifetime instrument. Plastic jacks, board wired jacks, etc...Tone can be ok though. I work at a music school where we run about a dozen solid state Vox modeling amps. they break all the time, but the tone is actually ok. I have to hear them 6-9 hours at a time and the tone doesn't bother me. Beware of a vast majority of new amplifiers! Get a nice old amp and an amp tech if you seek tone without dropping $1500... If I only had $400-500 I would try and get an old Music Man or Silverface Fender or something like that. If my music school had done this, we would have saved about $2000 in repairs last year alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DetroitBlues Posted November 27, 2010 Author Share Posted November 27, 2010 I do have a 20 watt handwired Fender clone on the way. I might end up using that and ditching the JCA if it sounds good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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