Jet City - JCA50H or Amelia

Haych

Think I've resigned myself to the fact that a Jet City amp may be in my future - they seem to have great reviews and have the no-nonsense factor that I like too.  And they're cheap to boot!

However, I noticed that they're now doing something called the Amelia but with very little detail on the web I wondered what the difference is between this and the JCA50H apart from the fact that it can take both EL34 and 6L6 flavour power tubes and seems to have a few more dials - separate channel EQ controls?

The Amelia also seems to be a good couple hundred quid more than the JCA50H too - is the difference in features worth the extra loot or should I shut up and buy the JCA50H?

olafgarten

The Amelia is the new one based on their Earheart concept which was hand made in the UK. This is the same amp but mass produced in a factory. It has seperate Channel EQ,  a slightly different tone and I think they fixed the FX Loop. 

Fortheloveofguitar

Having heard a comparison video between the two it doesn't sound exactly the same as i'd hoped but it's not far off 

ICBM

olafgarten said:

The Amelia is the new one based on their Earheart concept which was hand made in the UK. This is the same amp but mass produced in a factory.

Just out of curiosity, what's the difference between being mass produced in a factory and hand made in a factory?

Why is one better than the other? What if something is mass produced by hand in a factory? Or hand made using machines?

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/94678/i-thought-this-was-really-interesting-and-raised-an-eyebrow

I'm not trying to take the piss, I'm genuinely curious as to how you define the difference and why it matters.

earwighoney

ICBM said:

olafgarten said:

The Amelia is the new one based on their Earheart concept which was hand made in the UK. This is the same amp but mass produced in a factory.

Just out of curiosity, what's the difference between being mass produced in a factory and hand made in a factory?

Why is one better than the other? What if something is mass produced by hand in a factory? Or hand made using machines?

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/94678/i-thought-this-was-really-interesting-and-raised-an-eyebrow

I'm not trying to take the piss, I'm genuinely curious as to how you define the difference and why it matters.

I don't think @olafgarten was saying one is better than the other but there are differences. 

The original was P2P wired in UK and the new Amelia is PCB produced in China.  I'm not sure entirely sure but I think the original P2P version was a prototype and I think the production model was always intended to be PCB based to keep it affordable. 

digitalscream

Actual tones aside, it's pretty simple - if you want an amp with a "proper" clean channel or dual master volumes, go for the Amelia.

There's also the fact that the Amelia costs twice as much as the JCA50H.

Dopesick

Jet City have also restocked their amps on the UK website. Which is nice.

english_bob

olafgarten said:

The Amelia is the new one based on their Earheart concept which was hand made in the UK. This is the same amp but mass produced in a factory. It has seperate Channel EQ,  a slightly different tone and I think they fixed the FX Loop. 

The Earhart was in turn based on the Cornford MK50mkII. Martin Kidd, designer of the MK50mkII was involved with the Earhart, but apparently not with the Amelia. Some of the features of the MK50mkII are gone from the Amelia- no footswitchable boost or effects loops (MK50mkII had two, switchable on the footswitch, Amelia has one, not switchable)

Features-wise, the Amelia has two entirely independent sets of controls for the two channels, switchable master volumes and an extra boost stage on the OD channel (not footswitchable) whereas the JCA50H has separate gain and volume controls for the two channels but shared EQ and an effects loop design that some folks have struggled with.

The Amelia has only just launched in the US and isn't available in Europe yet. Apparently next month. That's why you won't see much in the way of reviews or demos yet.

Whether the extra features of the Amelia are useful to you is really something you'd have to answer for yourself. Depends how you use the amp, and what you use it for surely?

digitalscream

@english_bob - also worth considering that one of the guys on the JCA20H group on Facebook is working on a mod to make the boost footswitchable. With the dual master volumes, it almost becomes a three-channel amp at that point.

FelineGuitars

All the demo clips sound so boxy as did the JCA20combo I owned - is this down to the speaker cab itself or something inherent with the amp?

english_bob

digitalscream said:

@english_bob - also worth considering that one of the guys on the JCA20H group on Facebook is working on a mod to make the boost footswitchable. With the dual master volumes, it almost becomes a three-channel amp at that point.

Absolutely. Assuming a mod is possible, repeatable and economical it widens the gap even more between what you could do with the Amelia compared to the JCA50H.

For a player who uses those sorts of features on an amp, anyway. There's people who'd think the split channels on the JCA50H were overkill.

digitalscream

FelineGuitars said:

All the demo clips sound so boxy as did the JCA20combo I owned - is this down to the speaker cab itself or something inherent with the amp?

I've not seen the demos, but my JCA22H and JCA50H don't sound boxy at all. That would suggest to me that it's the cab (or the mic position, perhaps?), given that the JCA22H is essentially the JCA20xx plus another channel.

ThePrettyDamned

FelineGuitars said:

All the demo clips sound so boxy as did the JCA20combo I owned - is this down to the speaker cab itself or something inherent with the amp?

I tried a jca20h in a cash converters into a 1x12 Laney cab (which wasn't great) and although the hh speaker was a little dull, it was not a boxy sound - and that was a cheaper, lower quality cab. It wasn't a tiny baby cab though. 

PolarityMan

My JCA50H certainly doesnt sound boxy, in fact on some days I prefer the distorted tone to my JVM...only weakness is that the clean channel isnt clean enough for me....still it a monster of an amp for not many pennies and although I bought it as an emergency solution for a big gig theres no way im going to move it on.

professorben

The ones I tried at @digitalscream sounded awesome. 

not_the_dj

Any news on the Amelia  being released in the UK yet, and prices?

@digitalscream ;

Fortheloveofguitar

not_the_dj said:

Any news on the Amelia  being released in the UK yet, and prices?

@digitalscream ;

March and £480

not_the_dj

E-mail back from the UK Jet City guys,

They will be coming with our next shipment, and the planning for that production shipment has started, but is is still at least 3 months away, I would have said.

Price wise, it depends on the value of the the pound at the time, as well as how the cost of shipment works out. So any price would be too much of a guess I’m afraid.

Sorry to not be more helpful, but things are not solid yet.