iceman0124

Since my marshall crapped out, I've been on the hunt for an affordable solution for the extended downtime (tech cant get to it for quite some time) after several dead ends i scored a JSX mini colossal the other day and I've never had so much fun with an amp before. The speaker isnt all that inspiring, mot 8" and lower ones arent, but when I plugged my marshalls celestion heritage g12 in....I was floored by this little box. You cant make this thing sound bad...even when over laiden with effects it retains its clarity and response.

I've played around with a few different preamp tubes, and each one gives you a new amp. The stock 12AX7 (ECC83) sounds great, but there is very little clean headroom, a switch to a 12AT7 (ECC81) gives quite a bit more headroom and takes away a little of the harshness, with the AX7 setting the tone above 5 was getting ito very raspy territory, the AT7 6.5-7 is when it starts getting brittle. I scored an ancient Sylvania 12AU7 also, it drops the overall volume by about half, but in exchange you get an incredibly warm open tone thats extremly clean, with more than double low end response, with a standard strat you can run wide open and stay clean with a moderate pick attack, smoothe clear ringing bell tones that will be very useful for recordings. I love this amp, at $500 its kinda steep, but I got a barely used on for $300 and its totally worth it, its leaps and bound above the royal 8. The 5 watts through the JTM 60's speaker can easily keep up with a drummer and another guitarist, it also cuts through amazingly, played it this afternoon and could be heard over the drums and another guitarist running through a 120 watt bugera with a 4x12, before he got there I set up and put the mini behind the marshall, with the power cord snaked out in front and was wailing away, at first he was all, "hey you got it fixed!! It sounds amazing!".....then noticed no lights and the fact that it was unplugged and looked totally lost....it was quite humorous, Think this will be my main amp for a while, bottom line...its small..simple...and sounds beautiful, and with 12AX7 or AT7 ists incredibly loud, the AT is going to be my mainstay as I can get a good clean tone at volume over the AX wich distorts much quicker, the AU sounds great noodling around, but as stated before, takes a big hit in overall volume. You guys should definatly check these out if you havent before.

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PaoloJM

I completely agree with you on the 12AU7. I put one in V1 of my Vox AC50 and, although there is a significant volume drop over a 12AX7, man the smooth, warm clean tones right through the volume (low to high) settings more than make up for it. It even makes overdrive pedals, with the pedal gain control set high, sound smooth, warm and very tasty.
I also throw one into my Harley Benton GA5 when looking for creamy clean tones at bedroom volume. Sweet.

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