Jet City JCA22h, anyone use one for gigging?

[tweed]

I need to find another head/backup head for gigging. Was gravitating towards the evh mini but not sure I wanna drop that kind of coin right now so I'm looking at the Jet City again.

Anyone have live experience with one of these heads?

 

[mjtripper]

I haven't used it live but it's loud as hell and a killer sounding head. There isn't really a clean channel though if that matters to you, about as clean as it gets is a little breakup.

 

[Blix]

What kind of music do you play?
If it involves a punchy drummer and hard rock I'd say forget about it, 20watts just doesn't cut it.
Now the 5150 III 50 watts is something entirely else.

 

[tweed]

What kind of music do you play?
If it involves a punchy drummer and hard rock I'd say forget about it, 20watts just doesn't cut it.
Now the 5150 III 50 watts is something entirely else.

Gotcha. I have a Peavey XXX head as my backup right now, and it's a great workhorse amp, just think it's possibly time for something new.

edit: HOLY HELL.... Sweetwater has no interest for 18months on evh 50watt amps right now.

 

[Gino]

What kind of music do you play?
If it involves a punchy drummer and hard rock I'd say forget about it, 20watts just doesn't cut it.
Now the 5150 III 50 watts is something entirely else.

I don't know, man. I run my Egnater Rebel-20 at around 12-14W and it kept up with doing hard rock and a punchy drummer just fine. Never had to turn the volume up past 9:00. I know I'm not commenting on the JCA22h but...

 

[briango2000]

If you need a ton of clean headroom then that should be taken into consideration but volume wise for most gigs I rarely get to crank up even a 20, especially an indoor gig when using a 4x12. Unless you're playing an arena with a bad PA, even a 50 watt amp is only ~3db louder than a 20 watt amp. My drummer and bass player can play quite loud and 20 is plenty.

 

[Blix]

What kind of music do you play?
If it involves a punchy drummer and hard rock I'd say forget about it, 20watts just doesn't cut it.
Now the 5150 III 50 watts is something entirely else.

I don't know, man. I run my Egnater Rebel-20 at around 12-14W and it kept up with doing hard rock and a punchy drummer just fine. Never had to turn the volume up past 9:00. I know I'm not commenting on the JCA22h but...

IMO, low watt amps just don't have the headroom to deliver enough punch(for me), they just fart out in the low end when I try to get them up to gig volume.

Now your Rebel 20 seems to be quite unique having both 2x6V6 and 2xEL84, that might make it handle the low end quite different and adds to the headroom. Never tried one myself. But a 2xEL84 like the Jet City, now way.

While a 20 watter can be plenty loud, most have no authority in the low end. At all.

 

[Blix]

If you need a ton of clean headroom then that should be taken into consideration but volume wise for most gigs I rarely get to crank up even a 20, especially an indoor gig when using a 4x12. Unless you're playing an arena with a bad PA, even a 50 watt amp is only ~3db louder than a 20 watt amp. My drummer and bass player can play quite loud and 20 is plenty.

I doesn't have to be about clean headroom only. A 20 watt just doesn't have the headroom to reproduce low frequencies like a 50 watt. At the same volume.
Personally I could never gig with a 20 watt.

 

[briango2000]

Well I obviously never use them stock so I can fix some of those things, but yeah if you're playing in some lower tunings you need the power to push them. For hard rock or older metal though there is no problem.

 

[Blix]

Well I obviously never use them stock so I can fix some of those things, but yeah if you're playing in some lower tunings you need the power to push them. For hard rock or older metal though there is no problem.

If I could mod one to take a pair of 6L6 or EL34's, I might use one

 

[racerevlon]

I've played live with my JCA22H through a JCA24S and not only kept up with a Mesa IIC+/4x12 but also did all the leads. You can also get a viable clean sound if you keep the normal gain down and push the master. For Small/medium clubs the JCA22H and a 2x12 or 4x12 will get the job done. I was running my clean master around 8-9 and the overdrive master around 7-8.