Jet City as a Power Amp?

monquixote

I've looked at a few valve power amps and no one seems to do them for less that about £500 and mostly in the £800-1200 range. 

It did occur to me that I could just get a Jet City and plug into the FX return and also have a widdly amp to play as a bonus.

Any reason why this shouldn't work?

I'm assuming that just because they have filthy preamps the power amp should still deliver clean power without issue?

olafgarten

This should work fine, just make sure the other amp you get has an FX loop.

ICBM

Which power? There's a difference in the FX loop position which will affect how they work.

The 20W ones will work as a conventional power amp, and you will have no controls operating other than Presence, because the loop comes after everything else including the master volume. 

The 50 and 100W ones will be a bit different because the FX loop comes earlier in the circuit… the EQ and master volume controls will still work as well. That would also mean that the channel switch would allow you to preset two different master volume levels.

digitalscream

What he ^ said.

If you want to try my 50W (so you've got EQ, two masters and presence) and don't mind a bit of a drive to get it, you're welcome to borrow mine for a while. It's not like I'm going to be using it in the near future

kjdowd

ICBM;1059619" said:

Which power? There's a difference in the FX loop position which will affect how they work.

The 20W ones will work as a conventional power amp, and you will have no controls operating other than Presence, because the loop comes after everything else including the master volume. 

The 50 and 100W ones will be a bit different because the FX loop comes earlier in the circuit… the EQ and master volume controls will still work as well. That would also mean that the channel switch would allow you to preset two different master volume levels.

Seems to be the same on my Egnater tweaker, although on that there isn't even a presence control. Does this mean that if I plug - for example - my helix into the fx return I've basically got the amp going flat out and all the volume control on the helix?

digitalscream

kjdowd said:

ICBM;1059619" said:

Which power? There's a difference in the FX loop position which will affect how they work.

The 20W ones will work as a conventional power amp, and you will have no controls operating other than Presence, because the loop comes after everything else including the master volume. 

The 50 and 100W ones will be a bit different because the FX loop comes earlier in the circuit… the EQ and master volume controls will still work as well. That would also mean that the channel switch would allow you to preset two different master volume levels.

Seems to be the same on my Egnater tweaker, although on that there isn't even a presence control. Does this mean that if I plug - for example - my helix into the fx return I've basically got the amp going flat out and all the volume control on the helix?

Yes.

monquixote

digitalscream said:

What he ^ said.

If you want to try my 50W (so you've got EQ, two masters and presence) and don't mind a bit of a drive to get it, you're welcome to borrow mine for a while. It's not like I'm going to be using it in the near future

Ooo I might take you up on that.

Running my Amplifire into my amp sounds really bad so I'd be a bit wary about EQ after the loop, but it would be awesome to try it.

ecc83

If running two amps make sure they share the same power outlet so as to minimize the chance of a hum loop.

You could still suffer one however so be prepared to make up a special jack lead with the screen diss'ed one end. If doing the latter, make the lead as short as possible to reduce the possible pickup of RFI and, LABEL IT!

Dave.

thecolourbox

I used to do this at home with my old Hot Rod Deluxe and the Blackstar HT5, using the preamp models on the Zoom G3 for some variety. On the HRD it helped with the usual complaint of hair trigger volume too.

Though it wasn't as cheap as a Jet City for the same purpose.

drwiddly

My back up/small gig rig is an Axe FX Ultra, Digitech GSP1101 & a Rocktron Velocity 120 in. 4u rack and I run the two preamps (which are linked so I can switch between them) into the return of a Wharfedale TCT35 combo. The Velocity is a back up power amp. The combo is a 1x12, 35w valve amp and I've swapped the speaker for a CL80. The rig sounds stellar and huge for it's size.

monquixote

How do you find the rocktron compares to the wharfdale?

drwiddly

I've had the Rocktron for years and it's in that rack because it's 1u and fairly light. It's not as punchy as the Wharfedale power section but for an SS amp it's pretty good. I use it a lot for rehearsals through one of the studio's 4x12 cabs and it's plenty loud enough and does the job. Good little amp if you can find one.

John_A

I use a JCA22H as a power amp with an AMT preamp and it works great and sounds really good

monquixote

John_A said:

I use a JCA22H as a power amp with an AMT preamp and it works great and sounds really good

How much clean headroom can you get?

John_A

^. Loads, certainly more then you can get out of the crunch channel. Play in a 2 guitar rock band and it's more than loud enough

digitalscream

Yep - the JCA22H's power section doesn't start to break up until about 5.5 - 6 on the volume control (using it as a normal amp), which is waaaaaay louder than I ever needed in either of the bands I used it for. Oddly, up to about 5 on the volume, the JCA22H is louder than the JCA50H at the same setting (obviously, the JCA50H goes on to be significantly louder before breakup).

I tried cranking everything on a JCA22H once. It was actually painfully loud, even standing behind the closed-back 2x12".

monquixote

Just got my JCA22H and holey moses that things got some bonkers gain.

You can theoretically get clean sounds out of it, but they suck. The drive is super fun though.

Tried plugging the guitar straight into the FX loop and it produced quite a nice jazzy clean so I'm hoping that it will work well as a power amp.

digitalscream

monquixote said:

Just got my JCA22H and holey moses that things got some bonkers gain.

You can theoretically get clean sounds out of it, but they suck. The drive is super fun though.

Tried plugging the guitar straight into the FX loop and it produced quite a nice jazzy clean so I'm hoping that it will work well as a power amp.

For a clean tone, try putting the crunch channel gain on 7 and then rolling the guitar's volume off (preferably using the neck pickup). Warmest, most lush clean tone I've ever had.

timmysoft

monquixote;1063735" said:

Just got my JCA22H and holey moses that things got some bonkers gain.You can theoretically get clean sounds out of it, but they suck. The drive is super fun though.

Tried plugging the guitar straight into the FX loop and it produced quite a nice jazzy clean so I'm hoping that it will work well as a power amp.

Glad you like it! They really are killer amps and that gain channel is a huge sounding beast!

monquixote

timmysoft;1063760" said:

[quote="monquixote;1063735"]Just got my JCA22H and holey moses that things got some bonkers gain.You can theoretically get clean sounds out of it, but they suck. The drive is super fun though.

Tried plugging the guitar straight into the FX loop and it produced quite a nice jazzy clean so I'm hoping that it will work well as a power amp.

Glad you like it! They really are killer amps and that gain channel is a huge sounding beast! [/quote]

It's great fun.

It makes me glad I eventually managed to find you

monquixote

digitalscream;1063749" said:

monquixote said:

Just got my JCA22H and holey moses that things got some bonkers gain.You can theoretically get clean sounds out of it, but they suck. The drive is super fun though.

Tried plugging the guitar straight into the FX loop and it produced quite a nice jazzy clean so I'm hoping that it will work well as a power amp.












For a clean tone, try putting the crunch channel gain on 7 and then rolling the guitar's volume off (preferably using the neck pickup). Warmest, most lush clean tone I've ever had.

I'll give that a try.

What eq settings do you use?