It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
I am happy to report though that the Satriani JVM does not have this issue. It has a bunch of the popular modifications for the JVM, like adding a choke (tightens up the amp) and other things I'm not too sure of. The gain stages are much more usable than the regular JVM too. So if you're looking for a JVM and don't need onboard reverb, get one of those.
I've never used the Switchblade I'm afraid.
Ideally i'd like a clean with a bit of breakup, a plexi style crunch (I know, I know, a JVM won't sound like a 1959, but similar), a JCM800 crunch and lead channel.
I've got a TS808, DLS and OCD if i needed other levels of gain but I'd rather get it all from an amp.
I think perhaps my video here does a reasonable demonstration of some of the tones you can get:
I have owned 2 Switchblades one a 50 W combo and a 100W head and H & K 4 X 12.
First off they get a bad rep due to poorly soldered FSM-432 foot switches which was an issue with the actual crappy soldering and not the electronics and/or switches. They looked as though they were soldered by monkeys with ADHD and the newer MKII ones are sound as a pound.
The good news is the older foot switches are easily and permanently fixed.
The tones were great and if you Google Thomas Blug's Switchblade demos you get an idea if the tones suit your tastes or not.
Being able to save 128 patches/memory locations is great and the only thing you cannot save per patch is the overall master volume which is sensible as you only set each patch relative to each other and with boost etc for lead tones then use the master volume to set overall loudness for each gig/venue.
The FX loop on/off state and whether serial or parallel can be saved per patch too which is very useful if you use different FX with different tones.
The on board FX are decent enough with the delay and reverb being very good and again can be saved for each patch and as they are parallel FX they do not suck tone much at all (in fact I never noticed any but YMMV). So you get the raw tone in parallel with the FX.
If you use high to very high gain tones the I would recommend using a noise gate or noise suppressor either in front of the amp or better still in the FX loop set to serial operation.
In terms of reliability my old 50W combo has been great and I gigged it for a year or more and then sold it on (GAS fiend alert) to the other guitarist in the band who has gigged it 40 to 50 times a year for the last 5 years. So apart from a revalve every so often s'all good.
The head was reliable too and I expect it to last well too (now sold it on).
For sure though check out the Thomas Blug demos to get a feel for the amp and the FX are more than useable for most gigs with only a wah pedal and noise suppressor needed if you use/need them.
In my experience it handles FX and stomp boxes very well and if you use a mutli FX stick it in the FX loop and stomps are fine in front of the amp or in the loop as it has a switch to set the sensitivity of the FX loop.
One last handy thing if you do have a multi FX with a MIDI out you can relegate the supplied foot switch to a spare with one caveat that you will need to set a MIDI continuous controller to assign a tap tempo on your multi FX.
Hopefully the above is of use to you.
Thanks
For most the onboard FX will be just fine but my erstwhile bandmate uses a small stompies pedal board to add extra FX.
Like you found with the tuner you can leave them on and set the FX loop on for the patches that require extra FX.