Lazy J20 hype ...

breezytele

And conversely, with an eq pedal,you can play around with scooping  the mids on a tweed for a  sweet tone at home volume levels
( akin to  what happened with the loudness button on older hifi amps)

ruoma

Mad professor even has a pedal called the underdrive, to clean up dirty amps Tbh, when I roll the volume down on my pickups, the mid hump sort of goes away. 

scovell001

Had my J20 since April (playing with a ‘14 lp trad) - my observations are thus;

1) it needs to be off the floor for best results  - I have mine on a lightweight chair. It can also easily show up the quality of what’s plugged into it.

2) peacekeeper (on its own)  through it sounds so so 

3) my gunshot sounds pretty good (if a fraction dark)

4) Cruiser Deuce sounds excellent (as you’d expect) & I use this & the amp on a table top (reversed) for quiet practice (it destroys the thr10c it replaced for this

5) (here’s the big secret) Fat General sounds outstanding through it & has fixed/enhanced any minor issues I had 

6) it shows up my cables & im currently using a cordial cgk road 75 as my other cables take off the high end which I hadn’t noticed with my previous amps.

in summary it’s a very ‘complete’ amp. I can see some having issues as it’s like having your fingers hard wired to the speaker. It’s the most useable 5e3 so for me it wins over the other offerings.

Id still like to try a Bartel amp though....,

Wazmeister

scovell001 said:

Had my J20 since April (playing with a ‘14 lp trad) - my observations are thus;

1) it needs to be off the floor for best results  - I have mine on a lightweight chair. It can also easily show up the quality of what’s plugged into it.

2) peacekeeper (on its own)  through it sounds so so 

3) my gunshot sounds pretty good (if a fraction dark)

4) Cruiser Deuce sounds excellent (as you’d expect) & I use this & the amp on a table top (reversed) for quiet practice (it destroys the thr10c it replaced for this

5) (here’s the big secret) Fat General sounds outstanding through it & has fixed/enhanced any minor issues I had 

6) it shows up my cables & im currently using a cordial cgk road 75 as my other cables take off the high end which I hadn’t noticed with my previous amps.

in summary it’s a very ‘complete’ amp. I can see some having issues as it’s like having your fingers hard wired to the speaker. It’s the most useable 5e3 so for me it wins over the other offerings.

Id still like to try a Bartel amp though....,

Nice write up mate  

Lebarque

@scovell001 ; That's interesting re. The Fat General. I've never tried a compressor with my J20, believing that it has a lot of natural compression already.

robinbowes

Lebarque said:

@scovell001 ; That's interesting re. The Fat General. I've never tried a compressor with my J20, believing that it has a lot of natural compression already.

It will only have compression when distorting, ie. if you dime the inputs.

scovell001

I’m generally an edge of breakup, fingers only player  utilising the neck pup predominantly & I kinda like my amps to have a flat response when I plug a guitar in. I always thought that the J was a little too heavy on the bass (not dark just bass heavy) even with the cut engaged. I was using the peacekeeper for eq duties but it wasn’t quite right. I’m running the general in blend mode with all knobs at about 1pm. Things are  a lot more even & it just slices beautifully through a mix, with a wonderful sparkle & feel very much like a Fairchild or similar.I’m back to using the original 59 tribute pickups with a vintage wiring harness it’s a beautiful place to be. There’s been a lot of talk about speaker/tubes swaps with the j but I’d recommend checking a fat general into it, it’s a lot of fun. 

hotpickups

scovell001 said:

I’m generally an edge of breakup, fingers only player  utilising the neck pup predominantly & I kinda like my amps to have a flat response when I plug a guitar in. I always thought that the J was a little too heavy on the bass (not dark just bass heavy) even with the cut engaged. I was using the peacekeeper for eq duties but it wasn’t quite right. I’m running the general in blend mode with all knobs at about 1pm. Things are  a lot more even & it just slices beautifully through a mix, with a wonderful sparkle & feel very much like a Fairchild or similar.I’m back to using the original 59 tribute pickups with a vintage wiring harness it’s a beautiful place to be. There’s been a lot of talk about speaker/tubes swaps with the j but I’d recommend checking a fat general into it, it’s a lot of fun. 

I bet thorpys team medic will sort all that out. Definately on my wish list  

kluson

Jesse is a really nice guy making a living. it's a bit like Klon, Jesse didn't start all the hype it just grew around the amp. Fair to say the J20 is a great amp cranked up, not really a home amp. it's really at home on a stage or in a studio, with the volume up, the amp really breathes. If you want one for use at home it will be a struggle to get the sound. It is a fussy amp in terms of overdrive, avoid anything with a mid drive, like a tube screamer it sounds really bad , but something where you can take the mid out can be usable. Jesse's own overdrives work really well.

Jesse also does some really great amp repair work.

Majorscale

kluson said:

avoid anything with a mid drive, like a tube screamer it sounds really bad 

I gigged my J20 with a tubescreamer style drive (T-rex Moller) this weekend and got some great tones from this setup... the dep bass player told me afterwards that he loved the tone of "that little amp".  Tone & taste are subjective of course, but I've never had issues with any drives and the J20 (except muffs), it's blackface amps that I struggle to pair drives to. 

Axeal

My J20 sounds phenomenal at home at very low volumes, medium volumes, high volumes and blistering volumes, on the floor, on a chair....it suits a multitude of pedals, and is by far the best all round amp I have ever had. It costs a lot, because the demand for it exists and its a quality bit of kit. The demand wouldn't be there if it wasn't any good....the fact is, it just is.

mattdavis

I’ve got to agree re it’s versatility. I suspect people have different definitions of home volume. It’s hard to do whisper quiet as nothing seems to happen until about 2.5 on the volumes, but I can play at home with family in next room watching the TV and get some lovely tones. Letting it loose with the band is also wonderful and it always cuts through the band mix. 
Re the compression thing - I don’t know anything at all about the physics, but it feels like it compresses very quickly even before it gets overtly driven. That’s what I love about the amp - it always feel very chewy but is very sensitive to playing style/guitar volume so that you can dial that back as necessary. I’d always thought a compressor would be unnecessary as a result of this but maybe I should try one..

tone1

Has anyone tried The Lazyj 10?

mattdavis

tone1 said:

Has anyone tried The Lazyj 10?

No - but just turn the VAC on on the 20 :-) *ducks*

Lebarque

mattdavis said:

tone1 said:

Has anyone tried The Lazyj 10?

No - but just turn the VAC on on the 20 :-) *ducks*

And pop 6v6's in it

tone1

Do the 6v6’s make a lot of difference?

ruoma

tone1 said:

Has anyone tried The Lazyj 10?

I tried one at jesse’s place earlier this year and kept thinking about it the following weeks. There was just something about the perfect volume it had. The 20 sounds it’s best with the vac turned off, but seeing as I usually gig with the vac just under half, the 10 without vac would be perfect on paper. The reverb would also breath more without vac. Tonally, I remember really liking the top end a lot. It was somewhat softer and less spiky than the 20 can be. That really stuck with me...

I imagine a day with a J10 and a bartel 12watt 

crunchman

tone1 said:

Do the 6v6’s make a lot of difference?

I tried 6V6s in mine, and concluded that it sounds better with 6L6/5881 types.  Using the bigger valves with the VAC sounds better to my ears.

If you do try it with 6V6s, remember you need to swap the rectifier as well.  The voltage from a GZ34 is higher than the stock 5E3 with a 5Y3 rectifier.  To use the 6V6s you want to put in a 5Y3.

dean111music

A good A/B test would be 20 with Vac v 10 without? what would the results be?

breezytele

There’s no hype to Lazy J... all began through word of mouth.
All the famous guitarists who play them paid for them...
No free endorsement deals 

Journalist reviews have all been great. At least two reviewers have gone on to buy the amp they’ve reviewed.
Plus Jesse is a great guy, and he will always look after customers 

ps I also found I preferred the J20 with 6L6s