JP-2C User

sherpa_man

any about?

professorben

Think they are all buying Waza amps as we speak. 

Tin

This is my first post, but I have been reading the forum for a while...

So at the risk of introducing myself as  a potential Waza amp buyer (!), my JP2C arrived about a fortnight ago.

Anything in particular you want to know about it?

sherpa_man

im between this and a mark v, i cant find a jp2c, are they worth the extra money?

DLM

@RaymondLin has a mate who's just got one...

RaymondLin

Actually he had to sent it back due to a dodgy master volume knob. He is in the process of getting a replacement so he literally only had it an evening and had to box it up again 

Tin

I had been thinking of getting the Mark V when the JP2C was announced. I had been playing a Mark V 25 (which is fantastic!) and liked the idea of an additional channel / bigger power section etc...

Whether it is worth the extra money probably depends on whether you want the variety of multiple pre-amp voicings on the V, or the dedicated voicings on the JP2C.

I spent some time running the Mark V 25 preamp into the JP2C effects return to compare the preamp channels.

The JP2C channel 1 sounds very similar to the Mark V clean - BUT while the Mark V breaks up on higher signal / gain, the JP2C stays crystal clean. It can probably get close the Mark V fat mode by boosting the bass a little.

The JP2C channel 2 is closest to the Mark V crunch and Mark V 2C+ modes. To my ears it has a little less top end than the Mark V 2C+ mode, and it feels like it 'reacts' better. They are in the same ballpark, but I much prefer the JP2C.

The JP2C channel 3 is like channel 2 but with more gain. It lives somewhere between the Mark V 2C+ and IV modes. Again for this channel,  I prefer the JP2C (just).

As far as I can tell, the other Mark V modes don't really have an equivalent on the JP2C. The JP2C does super clean, and crunch / high gain - the Mark V has more options in the middle ground.

I can't directly compare the power amp in the JP2C to the V, but the JP2C has a lot of girth and power in the bottom end. It has a lot more authority than the V 25 - which you would expect I guess!

The midi switching is flexible and has been easy to set up . Also having 2 graphic EQs has been more useful than I had initially expected. One difference between the V and JP2C is that in the V the GEQ is before the effects send, and in the JP2C it is after the effects return.

On the downside the import prices are crazy.

I actually pre-orded the JP2C when it was announced and a few weeks later, all the Mesa UK prices went up by 15% or so. The initial price was already at the limit of what I was willing to look at (and to be honest a little beyond). Given the current price, I would probably be looking at a second-hand V rather than a new JP2C. Having said that I would pick a new JP2C over a new Mark V.

sherpa_man

I can pick a used mark v up for £1500, so it would be half the price of a jp2c

nick79

I've been drooling over the jp2c but to be honest at that price it would be madness for me to shell out for one. Also been looking at the MKv 25, which would be doable (at a push) but i'm not sure it would have enough clean headroom for me. 

sherpa_man

3k is alot to splash out i agree, im looking for something smaller than my Friedman but can do a clean, crunch and heavy 

RaymondLin

professorben

nick79 said:

I've been drooling over the jp2c but to be honest at that price it would be madness for me to shell out for one. Also been looking at the MKv 25, which would be doable (at a push) but i'm not sure it would have enough clean headroom for me. 

You might want to look at the thread '15w not loud enough' a bit further down, loads of great advice there from guys either running smaller amps or larger ones depending on the requirements.

nick79

Yeah cheers mate, i've had a read through of that. Without trying to derail this thread too much, i'm using a 50w Mesa combo at the mo and i really like the balls and headroom of it (6l6 valves), when i joined my current band i had a 15w Laney Ironheart, which just didnt have the clean headroom (Not surprising really...) and just didn't sound very big compared to a 40-50w combo. 

thomasross20

@RaymondLin is that yours? Regardless, that is totally awesome. 

£2950 in the UK - ridiculous!!

HOWEVER... am I right now in saying CH1 = clean. CH2 = crunch (not super saturated distortion). CH3 = lead. 

Big improvement over the V:25 IMO, if so.... where you could only do clean + solo or crunch + solo. 
Now you can actually do clean or crunch or solo - if I saw one used, I'd probably try it out. 

60W min power, though?

webrthomson

I cannot commenting the JP-2C as I’ve not played one yet but I’ve owned a Mark V (along with Marks I / IIC / IIC+ / III red stripe / IVB, yes I love boogies) for a number of years now.

I think the Mark V is an amazing amp it’s genuinely the first amp that I played that I loved so much I swore I would not sell it! The first channel has lots of lovely cleans from shimmery to chunky blues up to a bit of grit – I don’t really like my clean breaking up so I’ve not fully explored that area! Channel Three is amazing it’s got it all from classic rock to full on metal, tighter that a recto even with the Extreme setting on but still cutting and brutal.

So now we come to, for me anyway, the issue – channel two – it’s great for heavy blues / rock and there are some proper classic rock sounds in there but like all three channel boogies channel two does not really do metal. So I get that many of the people that use this amp want Clean / Rock (or blues) / Lead setup but I want Clean / metal rhythm / metal lead rather than /Clean / don’t use / metal rhythm + some form of boost for lead.

I think they missed a trick by not adding the IIC+ mode to the second channel, but that’s just me!

It does explain why I keep ending up back with a Diezel amps as the rhythm channel on all the Diezel amp I’ve used are almost as mad as the lead ones.

Hope some of that helps – the Mark V is a great amp I would not right it off but if you want metal on channel two it aint really there (same as a Mark IV too).

Tin

The JP-2C runs at either 60W or 100W.

You can certainly setup channel 2 as crunch and channel 3 as lead, but actually the difference between the two channels is minimal. They are exactly the same circuit but channel 3 has a slightly higher internal Volume setting. On the original Mark II, Volume was a standard user-adjustable control - on newer models including the Mark V and the JP-2C it has an internally preset value.

The end result is that channel 3 has a hair more intensity to it, but either channel can do crunch or lead.

The same is largely true of the Mark V 25 modes too -  Crunch, IIC+ or IV can function as either crunch or lead. While it doesn't have the convenience of two dedicated channels for crunch and lead (assuming channel 1 is clean), I think you could easily work around it.

A slight boost on the way in (or just rolling back the volume on the guitar for crunch) does much the same as changing the gain on the channel and adds / removes saturation. An EQ in the loop could substitute for the 2nd GEQ found on the JP2C - it could even add a little overall boost to simulate upping the channel master.

The V 25 is a great amp - a 3rd channel would be a nice to have but not a deal breaker in my opinion. Have you tried one?

RaymondLin

thomasross20 said:

@RaymondLin is that yours? Regardless, that is totally awesome. 

£2950 in the UK - ridiculous!!

HOWEVER... am I right now in saying CH1 = clean. CH2 = crunch (not super saturated distortion). CH3 = lead. 

Big improvement over the V:25 IMO, if so.... where you could only do clean + solo or crunch + solo. 
Now you can actually do clean or crunch or solo - if I saw one used, I'd probably try it out. 

60W min power, though?

HA! no, it belongs to my friend who lives in Bristol.

sherpa_man

im thinking about buying a usa one and a step down converter

sherpa_man

Picked mine up yesterday, cool amp. Anybody want to share there settings?