Time for a new (small but giggable) amp.

Trying for a 20-40 watt amp under $350, preferably Marshall-y. Prefer combos but I've been considering a Jet City head and a used Panama cab I found, coming in at just over $500. Any other good options appreciated!

Have you looked at the Marhsall DSL40C? Guitar World and Music Radar both had nice things to say about it, and on Reverb they can be had for <$350.

I have, and that's another possible opton. Was hoping to find a 2x12 but the DSL is certainly the fallback for reliable amplification.

the marshall jcm2000 line are the least reliable amps the company has amde since the JTM30 and 60. I wouldn't pay more than $250 for one. I would go used ebcause its pre-disastered then.

In cheap PCB marshally amps I much prefer the Jet City amps. Everything's a little sturdier on them. The Jet city amps also sound shockingly good.

If your amp must say marshall on it, look at the new Origin amp. I tried one recently and its not too bad. Not as good as marshall makes out, but like a nice, pale imitation plexi with modern features. Not sure about reliability, ever been inside one and they're too new to be turning up broken.

Cool, yeah. i was thinking about that Music Man but I listened to a few demos and wasn't exactly sure that it was what I was looking for. The Jet City sounds super good for a modern-ish gain sound while still retaining Marshally characteristics. i'm no name snob, and I am not a huge fan of the Origin on first listen, but I'd love to go play one just to try out.

Any idea how the JCAC22 handles pedals?

the JCA 20 and 22 are more or less a JCM800 preamp and a SLO100 (AKA dual rec, mesa flat out stole soldano's design part for part) preamp respectively.

The only MAJOR difference on the 20 I cna find is that it lacks the low gain onput that skips V1, therefore there is no high ehadroom option on the preamp so you're ot going to be able to put high gain pedals into ti for the siamese dream tones without modifying it. I think there are some voicing tweaks, some tweaks to the vltage divider values betweens tages and also a different bias point for V1b, the major clipping stage of the circuit making it more 'soldano-ey'.

THe JCA22 just slaps the SLO100 pre onto the same pwoer amp as the original 20. Actually its the hotrod series preamp, ebcause it doesn't have clean mode, just crunch and overdrive. The Crunch mode is a JCM800 more or less. That's where soldano started with his design abck in the alte 80s, the mghty 2204 and 2203. The high gain channel switches V1b out of teh circuit via opto-isolators and switches in 2 ore stages, an extra hifi-ish gain stage driving a really cold biased clipper stage that will brekup in clorious assymetric distortion with hardly nay input signal. Where the 800 design igneniously triples the size of the cathode resistor to induce early distortion, soldano quadruples marhsall's value for that resistor and then hits it with a little more gain from 2, rahter than 1 stage of gain, although soldano hevily attenuates them so nothing is giving up TOO MUCH dirt where it'll get into blocking distortion at high knob settings. The soldano design is pretty much just a juiced up marshall master preamp. If you like the 800 sound then you will like the soldano sound because t just takes what you like alreadya dn takes it to the enxt logical extreme. Soldano's design has been copied by every high gain amp since. He didn't exactly break new ground but he sure figured out how far you could go with the marshall concept. That said, the soldano design takes all of the jcm800 flaws viz-a-viz dirt boxes and magnifies them. The 800 high gain input will tolerate low gain dirt boxes and even does quite well with stuff like the tubescreamer, it cna take a rat at low settigns and if you're okay with goofy, splatty sounds you can do some fuzz too... the soldano's going to peform similarly on the lower gain 800ish channel but Mike Soldano really was trying to design an amp for 80s shredsters that would not ened external dirt to get those hotrod marhsall tones. Therefore the front end really doesn't wanna see pedals. You can get away with modualtion in the overdrive mode, but event hat soudns a bit ebtter in the fx loop, the front end is heavily gained up and bandpass fitlered. If I ahd an elaborate epdalbaord I would probably not be too into the high gain soldano channel. That said it soudns utterly brilliant. its one of the ebst amster volume distortion sounds you'll ever hear. It soudns good at low gain settings, it soudns good turned up to comical high gain settigns. Its fantastic.

yeah, I probably wouldn't be using the high-gain channel, though it's good to have. My thought is just to run a light-medium overdrive into an amp with some light Marshall crunch. The JCAC22 is a good amp for that 'cuz it's cheap, loud, and fits the sound.

EDIT: Joyo Jackman is a new-ish tube amp. 20 watt clone of the JCM, YouTube demos sound okay if a little harsh, but that can be remedied. If the dirt sounds liek shit (and it might) then I've got pedals to get me most of the way.

in chinese amps stick to brands known for quality control... so orange, jet city... ummm, not marhsall these days LOL

JCM harshness... it cuts a mix, trust me... other thing is sodano's voicing is a smidge different if Ir ecall. On top of that i think the jet city amps come in 2 voicings for the single channel JCA20 (the one I would get if you're not planning to use the high gain channel of the 22), there's a regular and a 'vintage' that's warmer... anyway, when i first went marshall many many years ago Iw as like, "HOLY BRIGHT AND HARSH" and eventually I came to the realization that from where the audience is standing a lot of amps are really dull at median settings... the hallmark of a good brit amp is a lead voicing that can cut your brother in half. Eventually you get used to it...

honestly speaker selection will have more impact then the amount of bass attenuation built into any given circuit. Put a brit voiced amp into V30s and its going to be a monster of razorblade mids.… put 'em into bass cone H30s or like JBLs or Fanes or something? toned down considerably

these are Joyo's first amps so I would be going off their rep as a pedal company. and in further inspection, I found a JCA20H for cheaper that looks pretty sick

I would stick with the JCA20H, you'll thank me... although I cna't find a good schematic.

Yeah I think that's m plan. it would run through a Peavy cab I found with "Blue Marvel" speakers. Know anything?

people love or hate the blue marvel speaker... it a cult thing. If I recall, the marvel is their EV voiced speaker and the sheffield is their ccelestion voiced speaker. Apparently the marvel is the better of the 2 because no one likes the sheffield. I think if you want a speaker that's less agressive the marvel will be it. I've always been a firm believer that if you want cheap spaker you should go for neutral sounding ones LOL

If you want I think I have a recent G12M greenback sitting aorund I cna sell you for a good price. Its an 8 ohm. Being a 25 watt it'll just barely handle your amp on tis own though as long as you're not planning on playing at 10 it should be fine. I'd sell it for peanuts. Say 40 bucks plus actual shipping which is usually another 20 in the conus. Just e careful not to blow it out. These chiense ones aren't as tough as the UK ones. I blew the other one of these I ahd aorund out LOL

I have a 50 watt 80s fane somewhere too and that was designed to go with a laney 800ish type amp, but I'm not sure where I put it and I'm not sure if its 100% working right. I mighta bent the frame taking it out of a cab a while ago, unsure. Y'know what... I would literally give you that speaker for 50 bucks shipped, buyer beware. Its probably fine and in case tis not I could insure it for the full value and fedex would have to give you the 50 bcusk back if it has a rub or something and we would both break even LOL

I'll keep it in mind. :P It all comes down to what I decide to buy. We'll see

I'm tellin' ya though, don't listen to music radar and GW... the DSL? those amps BREAK and they're a nightmare to repair. Aso, the way the drive channel is done in thsoe things is like the jubilee and 900 series and that's not to everyone's liking. That diode clipped tube OD is a very specific sound, very 80s. I don't like it that much. Not even when friedman does it. YMMV.

Basically the clean/crunch channels on a DSL and jet city will be similar but the high gain channels produce their distortion in pretty different ways.

I tried it. I didn't hate the high gain, and it didn't seem terrible. Everyone I know seems to love it, so that's weird, but I think the Jet City is my bet.

I don't think tis terrible, its just notmy taste in gain channels. YMMV dude.... but yeah people love the 2000s for soem reason. I prefer them to a channel switching 900 (and even to a stock split channel 800), but man is the 900 series more reliable.

I love this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68vqBBsqTi-2VX0SvecxbsI5yOdb-wfL

that's his marshall repairs playlist. Notice that every generation of marhsall amps the service gets harder to do and the problems seem to multiply? beware the DSL

the 2203 and 2204? easy to service... workhorses.... the split channel? not so good... the 900? needs some reliability upgrades but is easy to troubleshoot and service... the 2000s? they JUST KEEP COMING BACK TO THE GUYS SHOP

Yeah they don't seem too reliable and that's unfortunate. Jet City it is then :P

marshall does better with bog simple amps... hoenstly, they should abandon the channel switching amrket to emsa and all the other crazy ehavy amp companies and just focus on making plexis and jcm800s.

I wouldn't even use a channel-switch on a Marshall, tbh.

then don't get a dsl '-)