Members Lemon Crush Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 How well does a Jazz Chorus (or other SS super-clean amps for that matter), handle a distortion pedal? Or do some take pedals better than others? I love the cleans of solid states, but I'm into funk and stuff so I love that super fuzzy distortion like on Funkadelic's Maggott Brain.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ke2 Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 From what I remember, the JC sounds fine with pedals. A buddy borrowed my Damage Control Solid Metal when the only amp in the rehearsal room was a JC 160. Sounded pretty mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MattACaster Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 My JC-120 hates dirt pedals. I've yet to find one that sounds good with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kidbs Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 My JC-120 hates dirt pedals. I've yet to find one that sounds good with it. Lies! I love my JC-120 with dirt pedals. If you don't use the chorus or subtle Vibrato it can sound way too dry, but with either of those engaged it will sound warm and full. I personally use a Tonebone Hot British and boost that with a Rat for certain things. I also use the tiniest bit of vibrato just to activate the stereo spread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ke2 Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 My JC-120 hates dirt pedals. I've yet to find one that sounds good with it. Try one with tubes. I liked it for the sound we were going for. It was SHARP when played alone, but in a band mix, it was surprisingly present without being an icepick. A buddy used an Ibanez Metal Charger into the 120 that used to reside in the studio we practiced in during the 80's, and he had decent tone. It might have been because he's one of the best guitar players in Norway at this point, though ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thegamestop Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 I use a rat pedal with mine, and it does very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kenny Powers Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 its awesome with pedals. When I moved out of state, I Couldnt bring my tremoverb combo, so I just had my JC-120 2x12, and some pedals for apartment playing. it was great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wyatt Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 I think the rather flat-EQ JC series likes OD's with a little bit of mids. If you want to use a fuzz or something, it'll be very harsh and square-wave into the amp itself, but if you place a bit of mild overdrive between the two, you can control how much you want to smooth out the fuzz. The flattish EQ also makes it a great modeller platform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Anomaly Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 I've done a couple of casino gigs with my pedals through their JC-120, sounded good to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cap'n'crunch Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 Not saying it sounds bad. Obviously, a lot of people seem to like the JC120 with dirt pedals. However for me, I thought it was slightly better than plugging a dirt pedal into a PA system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MattACaster Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 Try one with tubes. I liked it for the sound we were going for. It was SHARP when played alone, but in a band mix, it was surprisingly present without being an icepick. A buddy used an Ibanez Metal Charger into the 120 that used to reside in the studio we practiced in during the 80's, and he had decent tone. It might have been because he's one of the best guitar players in Norway at this point, though ... I've tried a Blackstar HT-Dual with it. Not good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MattACaster Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 Not saying it sounds bad. Obviously, a lot of people seem to like the JC120 with dirt pedals. However for me, I thought it was slightly better than plugging a dirt pedal into a PA system. This. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dizzle-rock Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 How well does a Jazz Chorus (or other SS super-clean amps for that matter), handle a distortion pedal? Or do some take pedals better than others? I love the cleans of solid states, but I'm into funk and stuff so I love that super fuzzy distortion like on Funkadelic's Maggott Brain.... it was a few years ago...but i remember using a BOSS SD-1 overdrive through one and it was awesome for a smooth lead tone...{censored}load of sustain and good bite..and with the chorus it sounded badass. however, with a 'super fuzz' type of distortion the chorus may 'compress' the fuzz too much for your liking...when i used a true distortion type pedal through it (not an overdrive) i remember turning the chorus off if i wanted a drier, 'tighter' distortion sound. imo... if you own the amp...i would haul it into a music store and try it out with the pedals you have in mind or haul your pedals to the amp to try before you buy. it's a great amp...just depends on what you are trying to do with it. Diz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members glenecho Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 My experience is that it needs a distortion pedal with a damn good eq so you can take out all the extra highs and bump the mids. That is, if you are interested in retaining the nice clean tone that a JC-120 has. It can be hard finding the right distortion pedal for a JC-120 in my experience. In fact, I never found one that I was totally happy with. I could never balance out the nasty sounding distortion with the nice sounding clean. Making a distortion pedal sound good through it always meant EQing a lot of the highs out of the JC which left the clean tone sounding poopy. I don't doubt that there is a distortion pedal out there that works with it though. Adrian Belew used to get a nice distortion sound out of his JC-120 but I have no idea what he used. I agree with the other poster that likened it to hooking up a dirt pedal into a PA. It really wasn't far from that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RupertB Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 Not saying it sounds bad. Obviously, a lot of people seem to like the JC120 with dirt pedals. However for me, I thought it was slightly better than plugging a dirt pedal into a PA system. +1 The JC120 is as high fidelity as a guitar amp gets. I gigged with one for 9 years, tried a bunch of different dirt boxes, ods, distortions, etc. Bottom line: If you're looking for warm, smooth, "edge of breakup", tube amp style OD, you're going to be frustrated. Over-the-top fuzz & overtly distorted tones with an edge = can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundgardener75 Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 I remember the rehearsal studio that I started from had this, and it loved the DOD pedals I had (Attacker and Grunge). Would love to own one someday for nostalgia's sake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pioneerprogress Posted July 12, 2011 Members Share Posted July 12, 2011 I always had great success with my Peavey Supreme XL w/ dirt pedals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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