Lazy J20 hype ...

IvisonGuitars

I think this is a lot to do with the seemingly regular appearance for sale, people get swept up in the hype, expecting this do all, multi-genre spanning turd polisher and are then somewhat disappointed when it turns out to be just a VERY impressive take on the tweed circuit.

richh

I ordered one in July last year, and it is due to be delivered later today.  Cue the drum roll...

I know what to expect, as I've briefly played one before.  What I haven't done though is play it with different guitars, I've only tried one with a regular strat, so am looking forward to hearing it with P90 and humbucker guitars!

I suspect that Neil may be spot on though - good as they are, they are a high quality tweed circuit, and if that is what you like you'll be happy.  If you want something different, then there are lots of other solutions out there, with channel switching, modelling, built-in effects and so on. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to plugging in tonight!

Modulus_Amps

@ruoma said:

Easy, 6V6, Lazy J, 6L6... 

ha ha , nope not one right actually.... though that kind of gives it away, first one is the Lazy J, second with the kit amp with 6L6's and third kit amp with 6V6.

I have just modded a Weinbrock Gringo (deluxe with 6L6's) with a 1/2 power switch, a Master volume with blocking cure and negative feedback option, it is now a more versatile amp, still the same sort of sounds though, but much better suited to home playing.

I can't imagine there will be many that just have the LazyJ, you would need some additional variation, even if its just an EQ pedal to get some different clean tones

impmann

Going back to something that was mentioned earlier...

There was a dismissive comment about the HiWatt being a tagboard build.

If you look closely at the rats nest Carr, I can see some tag board there - also in the Matchless. Its just the components are strung between two pieces rather than neatly from eyelet to eyelet.

Erm, or am I missing something?

I don't have an opinion on Lazy J, as I've never played through one... I didn't like the Carrs I played through though.

4114Effects

impmann said:

Going back to something that was mentioned earlier...

There was a dismissive comment about the HiWatt being a tagboard build.

If you look closely at the rats nest Carr, I can see some tag board there - also in the Matchless. Its just the components are strung between two pieces rather than neatly from eyelet to eyelet.

Erm, or am I missing something?

I don't have an opinion on Lazy J, as I've never played through one... I didn't like the Carrs I played through though.

I don't think it was intended to be dismissive, just to correct someone who called it point-to-point. 

It is a tricky one, as PTP will nearly always have some tag-strip to anchor components to. Bit of a grey-area to what purists would constitute as true PTP I reckon. 

robinbowes

4114Effects said:

impmann said:

Going back to something that was mentioned earlier...

There was a dismissive comment about the HiWatt being a tagboard build.

If you look closely at the rats nest Carr, I can see some tag board there - also in the Matchless. Its just the components are strung between two pieces rather than neatly from eyelet to eyelet.

Erm, or am I missing something?

I don't have an opinion on Lazy J, as I've never played through one... I didn't like the Carrs I played through though.

I don't think it was intended to be dismissive, just to correct someone who called it point-to-point. 

It is a tricky one, as PTP will nearly always have some tag-strip to anchor components to. Bit of a grey-area to what purists would constitute as true PTP I reckon. 

Yeah, that was me. It wasn't dismissive at all.

R.

impmann

robinbowes said:

4114Effects said:

impmann said:

Going back to something that was mentioned earlier...

There was a dismissive comment about the HiWatt being a tagboard build.

If you look closely at the rats nest Carr, I can see some tag board there - also in the Matchless. Its just the components are strung between two pieces rather than neatly from eyelet to eyelet.

Erm, or am I missing something?

I don't have an opinion on Lazy J, as I've never played through one... I didn't like the Carrs I played through though.

I don't think it was intended to be dismissive, just to correct someone who called it point-to-point. 

It is a tricky one, as PTP will nearly always have some tag-strip to anchor components to. Bit of a grey-area to what purists would constitute as true PTP I reckon. 

Yeah, that was me. It wasn't dismissive at all.

R.

Sorry chap - I read more into it than was there. :-)

Chris_J

richh said:

I ordered one in July last year, and it is due to be delivered later today.  Cue the drum roll...

I know what to expect, as I've briefly played one before.  What I haven't done though is play it with different guitars, I've only tried one with a regular strat, so am looking forward to hearing it with P90 and humbucker guitars!

I suspect that Neil may be spot on though - good as they are, they are a high quality tweed circuit, and if that is what you like you'll be happy.  If you want something different, then there are lots of other solutions out there, with channel switching, modelling, built-in effects and so on. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to plugging in tonight!

Look forward to your update later tonight  

I mostly play through blackface Princeton, but, I'm currently having urges for tweed deluxe or similar. 

garfy

richh said:

I ordered one in July last year, and it is due to be delivered later today.  Cue the drum roll...

I know what to expect, as I've briefly played one before.  What I haven't done though is play it with different guitars, I've only tried one with a regular strat, so am looking forward to hearing it with P90 and humbucker guitars!

I suspect that Neil may be spot on though - good as they are, they are a high quality tweed circuit, and if that is what you like you'll be happy.  If you want something different, then there are lots of other solutions out there, with channel switching, modelling, built-in effects and so on. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to plugging in tonight!

Put a cushion under your chin, your gonna love it! 

Cabicular

what strikes me about this thread is that people who own or have owned them are generally very positive and people who haven't are looking at the specs and calling hype 
There are two sides to that, one calls 'purchase justification' the other cites lack of actual experience
I picked up one in a trade for a Two Rock, just out of curiosity and I have to say, in my opinion they do have a certain something. Whether it's the voicing or the quality of the speaker or lots of little things adding up I am very impressed at what is a very useable amp
I don't know if you could recreate it more cheaply out of parts but I haven't heard one that does yet

kjdowd

Cabicular said:

what strikes me about this thread is that people who own or have owned them are generally very positive and people who haven't are looking at the specs and calling hype 
There are two sides to that, one calls 'purchase justification' the other cites lack of actual experience
I picked up one in a trade for a Two Rock, just out of curiosity and I have to say, in my opinion they do have a certain something. Whether it's the voicing or the quality of the speaker or lots of little things adding up I am very impressed at what is a very useable amp
I don't know if you could recreate it more cheaply out of parts but I haven't heard one that does yet

Just on the hype thing. I ordered mine purely on the basis of hearing it demo'd in chandlers - hadn't read any reviews and wasn't even a member of this forum

You're right on the various biases tho, and I guess that applies to any piece of gear. 

shaunm

right but has anyone got to the bottom of this yet or can it be both? Loads of hype yet actually brilliant. 

hotpickups

There'll be no end to this. They'll be the haters and the lovers. It's just a personal thing and a leap of faith.

Lebarque

shaunm said:

right but has anyone got to the bottom of this yet or can it be both? Loads of hype yet actually brilliant. 

Of course it can be both. Most brilliant things are hyped because they are brilliant. 

shaunm

Lebarque said:

shaunm said:

right but has anyone got to the bottom of this yet or can it be both? Loads of hype yet actually brilliant. 

Of course it can be both. Most brilliant things are hyped because they are brilliant. 

And there we have it 

Wazmeister

Lebarque said:

shaunm said:

right but has anyone got to the bottom of this yet or can it be both? Loads of hype yet actually brilliant. 

Of course it can be both. Most brilliant things are hyped because they are brilliant. 

Bingo

richh

I got my new J20 yesterday, and to the extent I've played it yesterday and today, am loving it. I had played a used one a long time back, but there will be some differences. The one I played had a Tayden speaker, my one has a Celestion Blue, which is new and will hopefully improve as it is played in. I don't know what, if any, differences there are on the current ones to the older one I tried, probably minimal if any.

I've played it with many different guitars with single coil / P90 and humbuckers and it sound good on all to my ears, but of course very different in sound and in gain staging.

One thing that I'm not particularly keen on is the VAC, and again on the one I tried I wasn't particularly impressed.  First off, it doesn't seem to have much noticeable effect until you really scale it back, and at that point it doesn't to my ears retain the excitement of playing the amp of full whack.  But this may be a subjective thing - sometimes it is the sheer volume that helps and of course the speaker can't react the same way as if it is being pushed, that just isn't possible.

I haven't been able to really crank the amp unfortunately yet, wish I could!  Sounds plently load to me, but of course with a loud drummer it might not then seem so loud.  Hard to compare from a small room at home to a gig situation, but it certainly does have poke! Depending what pickups are used it seems to have more headroom than I'd expected.

I'm not going to attempt to give any balanced opinion at this point, but no regrets even given the huge price tag, it is the real deal!  But probably not an ideal pedal platform for a player who needs to cover all bases, but a damn great tone machine!

IvisonGuitars

Some of us got in early before the hype...the pre-hype models are fetching a fortune these days... 

@richh The VAC really comes into its own at gig levels. It's not that great for taming the amp down to 'bedroom' levels but does come into its own when the amp is cranked and you just need to dial it back a bit. You should see the benefits of it then

hotpickups

If you want to tame it get an l-pad made for it as I have recently. Answered all my needs. Only got home use though. I open her up st a gig thought

richh

@miserneil thanks for the VAC tip, that makes sense!

@hotpickups not sure what you mean by I-pad, is this some other kind of attenuator or something?

It sounds great even at relatively low levels, but it would be great to be able to get more cranked sounds at lower volume levels.