The JSX is pretty bad ass,………

[JSutter]

One of my favorites for sure. I've been doing a bunch of research on Peavey amps lately. The jsx has a couple revisions and the XXX II has a couple differences of its own.

If you hate the active tone controls, the valvekings have almost the exact same preamp with a more typical FMV passive tone control. It's a bit funny how many amps have a similar DNA yet prices are all over the map.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

JSX combo about 300 miles from me, i ruled it out cuz i don't wanna spend 3 hrs in my car.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

HaHa, my bad man. The gist of what was done was mainly to tighten up the low end, and make the amp a bit more open/less compressed. it has a very focused attack now. The presence and resonance controls have a greater affect on the amp really allowing for extra tone shaping. My JSX will also run 6550 tubes now. The sound to me is modded Marshall meets boosted Rectifier. it has these Snarling mids, but with a Modern Feel and attack, Punchy and in your face.

That sound pretty bad ass. Did the mid frequencies shift?
While I like it in a mix, the mid focus on a lot of Peavey amps sat in a place I didn't like overall. For me, the JSX sat right on that line

 

[MYLILSS]

That sound pretty bad ass. Did the mid frequencies shift?
While I like it in a mix, the mid focus on a lot of Peavey amps sat in a place I didn't like overall. For me, the JSX sat right on that line

On mine, the Mid focus shifted a little. The cocked wah sound is gone. To my ears the mids have a more upper mid thing going on after the mods, that is definitely more musical for sure. The EQ controls in general have far more effect than they did, allowing for unlimited tone shaping

 

[JackBootedThug]

One of my favorites for sure. I've been doing a bunch of research on Peavey amps lately. The jsx has a couple revisions and the XXX II has a couple differences of its own.

If you hate the active tone controls, the valvekings have almost the exact same preamp with a more typical FMV passive tone control. It's a bit funny how many amps have a similar DNA yet prices are all over the map.

I read somewhere that the vk’s are basically 800’s…. Way closer than the Windsors were….

 

[Devin]

I read somewhere that the vk’s are basically 800’s…. Way closer than the Windsors were….

I was always under the impression that the VK was a cheaper asian-made version of the Prowler

The VK 1x12 combo and Prowler share basically the exact same panel layout so I guess it would make sense

 

[JSutter]

Yes the vk is a prowler with passive eq. The bravo is the older sibling with el84s and its a stripped down triumph pag/ultra.

The vk and winsor share the offset phase inverter aka texture circuit.

 

[heath]

The peavey rockmaster/ultra lineage of amps really are a great tone with a fairly low price point. I've had my old rockmaster preamp for over twenty years. It is insanely picky about power amps but with the right one, it sounds great. For the $35 I paid for it in 2005, I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of it.

The JSX might be one of the best amps I have ever heard for someone who plays primarily lead guitar. Voiced for that singing lead tone. You don't see nearly as many JSX in the wild anymore. The JSX and XXX are super similar schematic wise. Very small component level changes for the most part. For the most part if I remember correctly the gain pot in the crunch channel and a plate resistor on the lead channel were the biggest changes, with few other adjustments here and there.

 

[JSutter]

In the Ultra family, the gain pots are 50k for ch2 and 1M for ch3. Early amps have a gain switch, 2nd stage cathode bypass cap, it also bypasses the noise reduction diodes. The xxx/3120 has 1M gain pots for both gain channels. Peavey experimented with coupling cap size feeding the gain channels and also added a treble peaker after the 2nd gain stage. The jsx got resistors around the active eq to limit the pots range, mostly ch2. The negative feedback has varied as well.

 

[napalmdeath]

The JSX is in my top 5 favorite amps. I've owned 3 or 4, always loved it.

 

[alund]

Here is a question about the JSX if someone has owned both the head and the combo …. Has anyone with the head hear the honkiness? Or is it something inherent with the combo? Or visa versa ? Or both. Could speaker type affect this tone. ? I own the head (now twice) and I don’t hear it as a bothersome tone. But I also don’t do high gain music more 70-80s so maybe I’m wanting to hear a bit of mid as that’s what I hear in my head.