Jet City JCA50H

Does anybody have any information about this amp head. Look well built and reviews sound pretty damn good. But I was wondering what tones you could get from it? I usually play completely clean, or if I do add gain it is usually around half way or below on most amps. Would those tones be achievable with this head? Any help and advice would be much appreciated as I am thinking about buying this amp but am unable to five it a test run as no music stores in my area stock it.

I can tell you all about it. Jet City is Soldano's budget brand, made in china. This model is based on Mike S's Hot Rod 50+ model. The differences are in the transformers and circuit board construction. The transformers, choke and PCB are of inferior quality to that of a Soldano. I am sure some of the odds and sods parts like pots and caps are too, but that won't affect tone like transformers. The other difference is in the construction. In a real Soldano the jacks, pots and tube sockets are NOT board mounted and attach to the PCB via flying leads (like in early PCB Marshall amps like a vertical inputs JCM800) while the Jet City has board-mounted jacks, pots and tube sockets. This will not affect tone, however it is a reliability hazard, particularly the tube sockets. Tubes get hot and PCB traces (and cheaper PCB board themselves) don't like heat. The further you can get the tube sockets from that PCB the more air space there is for the tube heat to dissipate which prevents traces melting and the board warping during extended use. Board mounted jacks and pots are notoriously difficult to replace if they fail and any stress put on these components (and these are components that move a lot) can crack thinner PCBs damaging the traces that connect them to the rest of the circuit, which is bad. Tonally I will say that the only downgrades from a real Soldano are in the transformers and choke, but we are talking about diminishing returns here. The Hot Rod series of real Soldanos have lower quality transformers than the SLO100, but they do not sound lower quality, just a little less hifi, which I happen to prefer. My experience with the jet city stuff is that compared to a Soldano Hot Rod series amp it sounds even less hifi in that it has a little less treble and bass and that the treble that's there is a little grittier and harsher both clean and distorted and the bass has the murky quality that affordable, current production fender tube amps exhibit versus the well defined, punchy lows of a real Soldano or vintage blackface fender.

All in all the Jet City amps are a good value for a musician who plays hard rock in clubs once or twice a month, but they are NOT road amps unless you can afford at least one spare. The gain on the gain channel is WAY over the top for guys like you and I who think less is more, but when dialed back it can provide some convincing late 70s marshall tones, also, the clean channel has great 60s/70s crunch in the upper gain reaches as well as providing some great rock 'n roll cleans in the first few numbers on the dial. If you must switch channels I suggest running both gains somewhere between 2 and 4 for best results OR you can use the amp as it was intended and run the 1st channel as a semi-dirty sound and gun the gain channel up high enough for singing leads.

I suggest a nice closed-back cab to deliver this amp's authority loaded with 25 watt greenback type speakers (I like the WGS green beret and Emi private jack over celestion's current version) for a midrangey vintage growl or a mix of Vintage 30 and G12H30 bass cone speakers (I really like the WGS veteran30 and reaper55hz versions, bang for buck and better tones) for something with more authority and a little modern 'zing' and 'thump' with enough retro attitude to satisfy even a purist like me...those 65 watt celestions with the H domes they recently reissued would probably mate well with this amp (the vintage ones in my 80s JCM800 combo really worked well with this sort of sound) or you could try out some of those new creambacks.

A better budget soldano is the now discontinued Yamaha T series (the T50 and T100 if you want a head). Mike designed these for Yamaha and they are a lot like a SLO100 with independent controls for each channel. Thy have very good output tranformers and are even rack mountable. The only downside is that Yamaha omitted the choke and on an amp this size that is probably a mistake, however, there is a simple mod schematic available from Soldano to add a choke into your T50 or T100 and thus improve its sound and response to actual Soldano standards. A T50 can be had for $600 or less on the used market. Pre-modified ones can cost a little more depending on the day. They are extremely well made and I have never encountered a broken one.

Good luck.

Thanks mate! A lot of helpful information there. When you say that it wouldn't be able to handle extended use, around how long are we talking?

It depends. To be safe I would put her into standby to cool off every 2 hours or run a fan and I would NEVER let an amp with this type construction idle in play mode. If you are not going to play for more than 10 minutes, put the amp in standby to reduce the internal temp, do not merely mute your guitar. If there is voltage on the plates at all they are producing extra heat. Remember that heat damage to copper traces is cumulative as is board-warpage. If the heat damages components but the amp is still running you DO NOT start with a clean slate next time you play the amp nonstop for 4 hours. while Jet City amps are affordable they are by no means cheap, so you will want to baby yours if you buy one since it is not designed to be a road warrior.

As a tech I have to advise anyone playing long sets or doing long rehearsals to stay away from amps with board-mounted tube sockets. This is not exclusively a problem in the cheap seats, starting with the JCM2000 series Marshall began board-mounting their tube sockets. I woulda thought that the high quality Marshall PCB material and thicker-than-average traces would hold up, but I was in a band with a guy who owned a 2000 and it went down due to heat-related board issues all the time until the problems became detrimental and he got a real amp. That band shared a rehearsal space with a guy who had a JCM2000 endorsement. His TSL's were constantly dying due to heat-related issues too, but Marshall just sent him new ones. While he had to pay for his 1st one, Marshall went above and beyond the warranty for this guy (who shall remain nameless) because they didn't want him complaining in the press. Conversely I have owned and toured with various older model PCB Marshall tube amps with off-board tube sockets and not a single one ever went down for ANY reason other than a dead power tube. Oh yeah! that's the other thing. If one of your tubes shorts and arcs before the fuse can blow then it will melt the whole board. If the sockets are off-board but near it this is a possibility, but board-mounted sockets are sure to take the whole amp out if a tube arcs. Be sure to use high-quality, well matched power tubes and have them biased correctly in any fixed bias amp, but particularly one built on a PCB.

What about the Bugera 1960 Infinium?

not a clue as to quality, its a behringer product made in their plant in China, its probably knocked off of the venerable marshall plexi superlead but bult on PCB. Never seen one in person.... I used to tour with a vintage superlead, it is loud as FUCK.... even in 300 seat venues I needed an attenuator sometimes to get my sound. 4 input marshalls can sound fantastic, but apart from volume issues the circuit is finicky about speakers, tubes and line voltage. This style of amp is for serious enthusiasts. They are a bear to set as the amp is not really designed to distort heavily. You need to coax them with the right settings for the room. JCM800 style amps are way more user friendly.

Save your beans a bit longer and invest in something used that's not made in china. Also try to keep it under 50 watts as you will probably never even use all 50!

I highly recommend Ceriatone's hand-wired import clones. Their marshall style circuits are great bang for buck.

I am also quite taken by the Marshall 2000 TSL60 Head, which I have found a couple of second hand ones for sale online. Thoughts?

They are maintenance nightmares, the worst of the JCM2000 series. They will be similar in reliability to the Jet City but with the premium price tag of a UK-made brand name amplifier. The DSL is more reliable as is the big TSL100, but they all go down periodically and sit in the shop for weeks. They don't sound particularly good to my ear either, but YMMV. I would buy a jet city before I would invest in a JCM2000, the JCA50H is better voiced at least.

Try a channel switching Orange if you must have multiple channels, they are very well ventilated for the amount of tubes in them, feature off-board tube sockets, have a classic rock/metal sound and are built like tanks these days. Old ones were unreliable, but any built in the 21st century are serious road warriors.

I am loathe to say it because I am not a mesa guy, but certain mesas might fit your needs too. The dual caliber amps of the 90s can be had used for reasonable money and are very reliable. They give you a blackface fender clean channel and a rectifier-ish gain channel (and the recs are really drawn from the Soldano SLO100 electronically) and the series was available in 3 or 4 wattages so one is bound to meet your needs. They have way less features than a rectifier series head so you won't spend months trying to mine the tone out of them. If you can find one for a good price, the mesa electradyne heads are really nice 2 channel amps with just enough features to get a good sound without getting bogged down flipping switches and twiddling knobs.

I don't have a read on what your needs actually are, nor am I clear on what sound you want. The simpler the amp and the better the construction the better I like it. Less circuitry equals better tone much of the time and it also is less that can break. Simple amps are cheaper to build sturdily too. If you don't have a bunch of relays, voicing caps, switches and pointless knobs on an amp then you have time to wire leads to the tube sockets instead of gluing them to the PCB. All those features are a gimmick. While a few may be truly useful, they are not essential to make good music on the electric guitar.

Coincidently I have actually been looking some Marshall JCM2000 DSL's on Ebay and I must say that they look great, and I'm sure they sound great too. I know I have asked a lot and I hope I am nit burdening you, but what tones could you get from one?

The DSL can sound quite good in classic gain mode for british cleans, edge of break-up and classic rock crunch, its no JCM800, but it gets in the ballpark. In modern mode it sounds similar to a JCM900SLX (the only really decent sounding 900 model)... BUT it is still a maintenance whore though. In marshall master volume amps I am a die-hard JCM800 single-channel 50 watt fan and for Marshall channel switchers I think the SilverJubilee is their finest offering. Its hard to get your hands on a Silver Jubilee and the RIs and slash amps are expensive, however Ceriatone builds a great, affordable clone that is 99% hand-assembled on vintage style turret boards (which are easy to service and modify as well as being very heat/shock resistant unlike most PCBs)

Just to be clear I have owned 2 different superlead plexis (one an early issue 80s RI, one vintage), a 50 watt JCM800, a dual channel JCM800, a JCM900SLX and have dealt with, rented or borrowed Metal Face 4 and 2 input models (including a rare 50 watt 4 input master volume combo that had a really unique sound, very Pat Benatar!), vintage, clone and RI 18 waters, JCM2000s of EVERY type and original and RI JTM45s. I really know my marshall tone. Cabs and speakers are key with Marshalls of any type. You need the right speakers and cab dimensions for your application.... jCM2000s excel through vintage 30s for instance, but earlier master volume amps really work well with G12M65s or those celestion modern lead speakers from the 80s and 90s depending if you are doing rock or metal.... anyway, I have owned a lot of Marshall.

I am loathe to admit this since rack systems are so hair-metal, but Marshall's JMP1 midi preamp from the 90s is LITERALLY their best sounding channel switching solution and I am often tempted to buy one when I see one for sale... but they are a smidge pricey and you still need a great, marshally power amp to get the classic early-80s Marshall sounds....