And now for a contentious Lazy J thread..

Nerine

Am I the only person on this board that think they're just alright?

Like, I've played through one several times with some pedals and whatnot at a rehearsal room I used to go to, but I can't say it completely blew me away or anything...
Kinda reminded me of my old JTM 45 how it took pedals. But, other than that, I was kinda left a little cold.. I wouldn't ever rush out to go buy one, unless I had ££cashola££ to literally burn away.
I've never been keen on Fender amps in general though, so I guess it figures. Plus, clean sounds, for me, are the dullest things on the face of the planet. With the exception of maybe, acoustic.

Does anyone else not buy into the whole Lazy J love in?

Wazmeister

@Nerine - an interesting view, which make sense as you find clean sounds 'dull', which is fine. For me personally, a really good clean sound is the mainstay of my sound. And the ideal, is a clean sound 'just' breaking up... Which is surprisingly hard to get...

The Lazy J offers this in abundance.

Also, you have to tune into what makes the amp work. When I first plugged it in, I was a bit disappointed. The cleans were pleasant, nice enough - but not like £2000. Then i began to understand the relationship between the two voumes, tone AND the VAC. This is where the magic is. So much so, I've been playing it without pedals !

I may even order a new one... I love it that much.

But it all depends on YOUR musical taste, and the sounds in YOUR head.

Teetonetal

@Nerine, sounds like square peg, round hole to me. The whole point of Fender style amps (with a few exceptions) are the clean / break up sounds, if you are coming from a position of already finding cleans dull, then it's simply an amp that's not going to for much for you.

Would love to try one of these along with a rambler, but will steer well clear until the day I have that kind of money for gear again...

@Wazmeister, why would you want two? Even in a stereo rig, I kind of always figured that it's better to have different amps?

Wazmeister

@Teetonetal, it's a great question !

I reckon that you could have two differing settings that would sound awesome...

I'm also thinking that, as @Gassage has said, an extension cab would be a great idea.

Mind you, I've yet to run the Lazy J and Rambler in stereo, and that might just be the perfect combination.

@Nerine, you'd hate these two - both very Fender sounding !!

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q493/Warren3333/Lazy J20/Lazy J 1.jpg

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q493/Warren3333/Lazy J20/Lazy J 2.jpg

Gassage

Lazy J's are all about the richness of the tone, sag and compression. Best used with the lightest of drives/boosts.

Re stereo, one advantage of the extn cab is the extra load allows you to push the break up harder.

And, trem and verb- world class.

nickb_boy

I came across an interesting post a few months back on Instagram from Rift amps who are a UK amp builder. They had a J20 in their workshop and I asked their thoughts. The response was:

"It's a good amp but doesn't do '5E3' very well, which is surprising. It's very, very focused, thick and mid-rangey, nowhere near as open sounding as I'd been led to believe. Didn't think much of the reverb and trem."

Interestingly they then had another one in a few days ago:

"Today I had another Lazy J20 in the workshop for a new input socket. This one sounded much, much better than the other one that was in a few weeks back. It was running 6L6s with a GZ34 and put out about 18w. It was the stock model without reverb, tremolo, and power scaling."

I seem to remember @Gassage not being impressed with his first J20 purchase but then bowled over when the next one came along.

Surely there can't be that much variation in such a high end amp of the same model, or are there a few different mods of the same circuit that get tweaked to suit the original purchaser?

dindude

Have only heard one once at a Gearfest meet-up - sounded very nice but wasn't blown away, but it did have a hissy valve that sounded like it was on its way out so I don't think it was at its best.

 

Gassage

I stand by my comments, and I guess, like Big Muffs, sometimes there's varience

Wazmeister

nickb_boy said:

I came across an interesting post a few months back on Instagram from Rift amps who are a UK amp builder. They had a J20 in their workshop and I asked their thoughts. The response was:

"It's a good amp but doesn't do '5E3' very well, which is surprising. It's very, very focused, thick and mid-rangey, nowhere near as open sounding as I'd been led to believe. Didn't think much of the reverb and trem."

Interestingly they then had another one in a few days ago:

"Today I had another Lazy J20 in the workshop for a new input socket. This one sounded much, much better than the other one that was in a few weeks back. It was running 6L6s with a GZ34 and put out about 18w. It was the stock model without reverb, tremolo, and power scaling."

I seem to remember @Gassage not being impressed with his first J20 purchase but then bowled over when the next one came along.

Surely there can't be that much variation in such a high end amp of the same model, or are there a few different mods of the same circuit that get tweaked to suit the original purchaser?

And here is the problem; imho, this amp is NOT fundamentally a 5E3 sounding amp - it is so much more than that. The Rift comments are interesting, and lacking understanding to be fair, as the standard set up is WITH 6L6s with a GZ34 and put out about 18w as Nick quoted.

But to be honest, there is no conspiracy going on here... just try one, and if you like it cool.. if not, choose another.

I know @Gassage is a fountain pf wisdom and knowledge, and he is humbly joined by Weller, Gilmour, etc etc etc

Not many Rift amps there maybees...

IvisonGuitars

I love how new Lazy J owners will defend them to the hilt, I was the same, must be something Jesse puts in that tweed coating...! :-)

richh

Played one, a J20 with a Strat plugged straight in.  I really did love it, but unlike the OP, the clean / edge of drive Fenderish sound is my ideal base tone.  I have no idea how much variance there is one to another, but would assume these would all be very high quality, so probably any significant variance would be the valves.

If it is not your thing, that may be a blessing, as they are not cheap!  I was sorely tempted, but found it hard to justify the purchase for my needs, and to be honest prefer something a bit more versatile.  But it was one of the best amps I've every played IMO, that's for sure.

Moe_Zambeek

miserneil;718363" said:

I love how new Lazy J owners will defend them to the hilt, I was the same, must be something Jesse puts in that tweed coating...! :-)

The 'was' implies you may have changed your position

I suspect any amp maker who does customisation of their product is at risk of this - if owner A wanted a thick, midrange focussed rock amp....the next owner is expecting tweed deluxe goodness and is disappointed. Mind you, I always thought tweed deluxes *were* thick midrange focussed amps....

RiftAmps

I remember many years ago (OK maybe 5 or 6) when Jesse first launched the J20. At the time he told me that it was his interpretation of an old 5E3 that he once had back in the States, along with his own changes to boot. We spoke for a good hour about the amp and have done many times since. I had a particularly in-depth conversation with him back in February this year about the 5E3 pre-amp section and specifically how it shapes the mid range. He also had some novel ideas about improving the PI. Having heard the words from the horses mouth, how is that 'lacking understanding' @wazmeister ?

It is without doubt that since the first ones were built, he's refined and improved his design (as all amp designers do) and maybe this is why there's some difference between the amps that I've had in my workshop? Maybe there's another reason. Either way, the one that I said was 'very, very focus, thick and mid-rangey' was indeed almost unplayable. It sounded like it was being played in the next room through a really thick wall. The one that was in last week was far superior, in fact I really liked it.

I fully applause what Jesse does and you can't fault his client base, so good for him

crunchman

dindude said:

Have only heard one once at a Gearfest meet-up - sounded very nice but wasn't blown away, but it did have a hissy valve that sounded like it was on its way out so I don't think it was at its best.

 

That was mine.  You didn't hear it at it's best.  It was the first preamp valve if my memory is correct.  It was about the only time that I took it out without taking spare valves with me.

dindude

crunchman said:

dindude said:

Have only heard one once at a Gearfest meet-up - sounded very nice but wasn't blown away, but it did have a hissy valve that sounded like it was on its way out so I don't think it was at its best.

 

That was mine.  You didn't hear it at it's best.  It was the first preamp valve if my memory is correct.  It was about the only time that I took it out without taking spare valves with me.

Thought as much - all the more reason for another Gearfest then!

randomhandclaps

The Lazy J deserves to be held on a pedestal as it is completely unlike any other amp ever made. Nothing can get close to it because it is soaked in space dust and uses components smuggled out of Jerusalem by the Virgin Mary. It is to the amp world what the Sun Face is to the pedal world.

Wazmeister

Well guys, I'm not in the business of typical forum style slanging matches, and don't intend to start now !

If you've played a good one, great. Maybe I'm lucky landing on one that works... must've had the 'space dust'...

As I said, if you like it cool, if not, there are a huge range of amps out there for you to try.

crunchman

One thing to bear in mind is what @nickb_boy alluded to.  It's definitely better with 6L6s and a GZ34.  To be honest, some 6L6 types sound better than others as well.  To my ears it seems to like the Sovtek 5881 better than a couple of others I've tried in it.

randomhandclaps

To be fair you were the only person who went down the slanging match route by suggesting that Gassage (whose will admit himself has no experience of amp innards) would be more of an authority on what makes a LJ tick than @RiftAmps, a guy who not only knows amps but has also worked on and tried more than one LJ. It was you who said ge demonstrated a lack of understanding - which a little bit of knowledge or a quick internet search would reveal he was spot on from a technical perspective.

Bizarrely his opinion echoed that of Gassage whom before becoming firm friends with Jesse (which is contextually important) said that of the two he tried one was good and one was bad.

Like any piece of equipment if it works for you then that's grand.

Wazmeister

@randomhandclaps - a disappointing response, but duly noted...

Skipped

It is difficult to judge an amp when an audition at a music retailer is impossible or rarely possible.

For example: I think it is perfectly possible that the Gartone Bluesmaster is the greatest 5E3 style amp being produced anywhere in the world at this moment. Who knows?

From my personal point of view/preference, when making a judgement on something I have actually tried,  I always ask myself if the clean sound alone is awesome enough for me to climb over barbed wire to get to it.....