Jaded Faith Jet City

[drewiv]

The long awaited Jaded Faith Jet City. Sadly, I did not get a chance to play it last night. I?m still in the midst of unpacking, but this will get played Saturday when I plan on setting up the Man Cave/Gear Room.

Modifications:
1) Mercury Iron.
2) External test points bias adjust. Amp will accept: 6L6, EL34/6CA7/KT66, 6V6, 5881 and 6550/KT88.
3) Tuning of both channels and cap upgrades.
4) Both channels have three-way Bright switches.
5) The Crunch channel has a switch that provides a cleaner setting.
6) The EQ was tuned and a variable Slope feature was added.
7) Adjustable Negative Feedback option on the rear of the amp; this knob allows fine tuning of the power amp.





https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=917865154894566

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=917867678227647

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=917873394893742

 

[Spencer4hire]

Looks sweet. I bet it will sound awesome! Rob does great work.

 

[lintycreep]

Very cool. Would love to her some more clips... if and when you have time. Completely understand the new house situation tho. Congrats!!!

 

[Oregon]

Yeah Drew - clips when you are able. Pretty interesting upgrades here!

 

[webrthomson]

Nice - love the fact the MM iron is the same colour as the power switch - very coordinated :twisted:

 

[Mattfig]

Would love clips!

 

[JKD]

This is bad-***, look forward to hearing it!

 

[Jacksauce]

Classy... Would like to hear comparisons to an RM with an equivalent SLO module

 

[trimix]

I just switched from using an RM4 into a Mesa Simul-class 395 stereo power amp to running the RM4 into the loop of a Jet City 50. The loop is before the tone stack and the first time I tried it with the RM4 I thought it sucked. I used the Jet City and RM4 rigs separately for the next year. I recently tried a DigiTech iStomp in the Jet City's loop and found the amp's tone greatly improved. On a lark, I tried the RM4 before the iStomp feeding the Jet City loop and it just buried the Mesa power amp's tone.
I don't fuss with pedals and buffers much, had no idea it could make that dramatic a difference with an amp. I now consider the Jet City without the buffer in the loop to be basically broken. I've had a Voxless for awhile and never really got it to jive with the rest of my modules running through the Mesa. Now it just kills for touch-sensitive grit. I'm calling Rob tomorrow about getting my old base mod Top Boost turned into something new, this Voxless is just nailing it.

 

[thanster2000]

Looks very cool.

 

[thanster2000]

Post up some clips please

 

[Jaded Faith]

Here are some clips done while bench testing. Playing is courtesy of Tim Marks and it's captured on a Zoom Q2HD. He's using a Gibson Les Paul through a Avatar 2x12 with Celestion Creamback H's:

Clean: http://youtu.be/qvSnzlbWydk
Crunch: http://youtu.be/7HHbUSCA-EE
High Gain: http://youtu.be/PW7xKe54ITc

 

[deansredhalo]

This is amazing! I have taken an affinity to the JC stuff lately...and this mod sounds absolutely killer.

 

[guitarcomet]

That looks great, but...I have to ask...
Isn't that like putting a Corvette engine, racing tires and a premium sound system into a Vega?
I guess you've completely gutted it and reworked things a bit.
I know nothing about electronics, I also have no experience with Jet City amps.
I had a Soldano Hot Rod 100+ and I've played through a Soldano/Caswell X99 and a Lucky 13 (all great stuff).
But I though JC amps were cheap imports of Soldanos basic designs.
Am I wrong?
Why wouldn't you rework a higher quality amp?
Is it more fun, more challenging, more rewarding, cheaper?
Just trying to get perspective....
Not looking for a fight.

 

[buriedorburned]

Having owned a Hot Rod 50 before, I can honestly say that JCA's are amazing tone for their price. It won't give you that Soldano magic, but it gets you 85% of the way there, and that their price, it's all win.
I've owned 3 JCA's and have never been disappointed. They not exactly Soldano, but are close enough for budget conscious musicians who want great rock tones in that HR fashion.

 

[Jaded Faith]

That looks great, but...I have to ask...
Isn't that like putting a Corvette engine, racing tires and a premium sound system into a Vega?
I guess you've completely gutted it and reworked things a bit.
I know nothing about electronics, I also have no experience with Jet City amps.
I had a Soldano Hot Rod 100+ and I've played through a Soldano/Caswell X99 and a Lucky 13 (all great stuff).
But I though JC amps were cheap imports of Soldanos basic designs.
Am I wrong?
Why wouldn't you rework a higher quality amp?
Is it more fun, more challenging, more rewarding, cheaper?
Just trying to get perspective....
Not looking for a fight.

This is a perfectly valid question. The answer is a simple one. The Jet City is very close to a far more expensive amp like the SLO or a Hot Rod. The bones are very good under the hood. The PCB is excellent and very well done. The chassis is well laid out. All of the beginnings of a great amp are there.

Design choices like economy transformers, cheaper tubes, caps, pots, etc are what keep the cost down to reach a price point. If we are looking to do a massive overhaul with several custom design goals, it often makes sense to do it on a cheaper amp rather than the "Corvette" so to speak. You end up with a custom solution on par with a $3000+ amp for far less out of pocket overall.

For example, this job ran around $1600 for the amp, parts and labor. Doing similar work on an SLO would have easily run upwards of $4-5000 depending on the cost of the SLO provided. The end results are just as good as both my personal Hot Rod and several SLO's I service in the shop regularly.