ANNOUNCING THE NEW CABINET
The ISO12, by contrast, offers a few things that the AxeTrak just can’t deliver. First of all, it features a full 12 inch speaker, by Eminence, no less. The speaker is custom-made by Eminence for Jet City, and it handles 100 watts RMS. The ability to have a full-sized speaker means there’s more area for the microphone to sense, and therefore more tonal variation to be achieved by moving the mic to different positions or angles.

And then there’s the mic: there isn’t one. The ISO12 instead gives you a gooseneck mic stand and an internally-attached XLR cable, so you can use your own mic — or, if you’re particularly adventurous, various different microphones. You can achieve a good degree of movement inside the cabinet, and whether you like your mic placed right up against the speaker, or back a few inches for a little more sonic depth, or at an angle to achieve unusual phase-cancelled sounds and what have you, the ISO12 will accommodate you.

The ISO12 cabinet is made of void-free plywood, and the only inputs and outputs are a 16 ohm 1/4″ amp input and an XLR microphone output. Part of the front of the cabinet unlatches and opens outwards so you can access the mic (and see the cool soundproof padding), and there are a couple of rubber handles on the side. The whole unit is super-simple.

I’M AN ISO-E-O, E-O
I plugged my Marshall DSL50 into the ISO12, and attached my Shure SM57 mic. The first thing I noticed was that the length of the gooseneck is such that you have pretty much no choice but to rest the mic directly against the speaker itself if you want to set the mic front-on. If you’re going for an off-axis sound you have a little extra room to play with, but it’s still pretty close. If Jet City’s reading this, I’d love to see a future update or perhaps an aftermarket kit that allows you to set the mic a little bit further back for a little bit of ambience. Having said that, the ISO12 sounds great. The speaker displays that characteristic Eminence crunch that I’m so fond of in their V12, a speaker I’ve been using for about 15 years now. The ISO12 sounds nice and crisp on clean and lightly overdriven tones, and it positively kicks ass on high gain stuff. The ISO12 is also free of the ‘boxy’ sound that plagues the AxeTrak and which I’m used to having to remove with EQ. It just sounds great straight out of the box. When you seal the cabinet up and crank the amp it’s still quite loud, but probably not loud enough to piss off your neighbours. Ultimately it’s a much more life-like sound than my beat up old AxeTrak.

TONE WITHOUT THE ANGRY NEIGHBOURS
The ISO12 is a no-brainer for those wanting to record a roaring tube amp without getting evicted, or who just want tighter control over their live sound. You could quite easily plug in your favourite mic, take the ISO12 and an amp head to a gig, and never be at the mercy of an unsympathetic sound guy again. Jet City has really got it right by providing a high-quality full-size speaker and leaving the micing up to the artist.

By Peter Hodgson

Price: RRP $749.99
Distributor: Intermusic Distribution
Phone: (03) 9765 6565
Website: www.imd.com.au

MINIMALISM IS THE NEW EXCESS
The JCA20H is a single-channel amp with no crazy tone switches, power damping or any other such gadgetry. It simply packs an all-tube signal path into a 20-watt head designed to rock. The power amp features a pair of EL84 tubes partnered with a trio of 12AX7s in the preamp (the rectifier is solid state). Controls include gain, bass, middle and treble in the preamp section, and volume and presence in the master section. That’s it – not even a reverb. This really is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get amp. Around the back you’ll find three speaker jacks: one 16 ohm and two 8 ohm. The chassis is 16-gauge cold-rolled steel, and Jet City uses audio-grade metal film resistors and high-quality copper for all internal connections. A lot of thought was put into the choice of transformer, which had to be low in cost while providing boutique tone. Some players will be miffed at the lack of an effects loop, but the inclusion of a loop would be a betrayal of the amp’s central philosophy. If you really need reverb or delay after the JCA20H, add it at the mixing desk.

I tested the JCA20H with its matching JCA12S cabinet, which includes a single 12-inch Jet City Custom Eminence driver.

ROAR!
The JCA20H’s preamp section is based on the crunch channel of the SLO-100, and it’s capable of a surprisingly wide range of gain. At its lowest levels the amp has a clear, chiming clarity, especially with single coils. There’s a refreshing absence of midrange mush in this configuration, and the treble remains clear and smooth, rather than jagged and piercing. This is a great platform for pedals, both analogue and digital, and I found it the ideal base from which to launch an uber distortion assault via a maxed-out Z.Vex Fuzz Factory. At the other end of the spectrum, cranking the amp’s gain control all the way up led to a thick, midrange-skewed, super-warm distortion with great modern rock potential and more than enough gain for most lead players. But the real magic happens with the gain control set at about 1 o’clock. It’s here that the clarity of the clean tone and the warmth of the maxed gain tone meet up in a perfectly voiced overdrive that works great for blues, hard rock and even some metal applications. Hit it with the extra output of EMGs and you’ll find classic-era Metallica tones. Drive it with low-output humbuckers and you’re in Led Zeppelin territory. Spank it with a Strat and you’ll get a Malmsteen-esque articulation. It’s also at this magic setting that an overdrive or clean boost pedal works all sorts of magical voodoo, driving the 12AX7s to produce a smooth, harmonically rich overdrive that’s perfect for shred-style lead tones (and which can be easily backed off to a rich, jangly clean sound when you turn the pedal off and roll the guitar’s volume knob down).

I’M SOLD(ANO!)
Some players are going to be really bummed out by the lack of reverb or effects loop. Those players might prefer the JCA22H, JCA50H, JCA100H, each of which feature two channels and an effects loop. But I have a feeling that the players who would get the most out of the JCA20H don’t really need those things. They need a minimally-featured amp that provides maximum tone and fidelity without the bells and whistles that might get in the way of achieving their sonic goals. When you really need to just plug in and roar – with Soldano-approved tones, no less – the JCA20H is utterly unbeatable in its price range.

By Peter Hodgson

Price: RRP $699
Distributor: Intermusic Distribution
Phone: (03) 9765 6565
Website: www.imd.com.au

Overdrive

First out of the blocks is the Overdrive pedal which had Primal Fear’s guitarist Alex Beyrodt on the design team. Whether this is an impressive credit or not is a matter of personal opinion. You could play guitar your whole life and still know next to nothing about designing a pedal, aside from the fact that it should be smaller than an amp, but bigger than a plectrum. Nonetheless this is an impressive little toy covering all your classic blues crunch sounds. One of the stand out features for me was the Tone control. Generally Tone knobs are a set and forget feature, sounding good at only one setting, but the Jet City Overdrive Tone control proved extremely versatile, giving bright upfront sounds, mellow fusion sounds, and everything in between. There’s also a brightness switch to clear up any muddy signals.

Hi-Gain Boost

The first thing of note about the Hi-Gain Boost pedal is that it is definitely not a boost pedal, it is a distortion pedal. Your typical boost pedal just beefs up the signal, adding distortion only at extreme settings. This guy creates some seriously crunchy distortion sounds at moderate settings, but it does the job giving that kick, and extra sustain you need when soloing.

Distortion

The Jet City Distortion pedal is the black sheep of the quadruplets, it steers clear of the bluesy crunch, and offers a heavy rock style of distortion. The controls are simple, as they are throughout this range of pedals, with a knob for Gain, Tone, and Volume. I didn’t enjoy this pedal at moderate settings, but with the gain cranked, it sung, and although it was a smooth style of distortion, it retained a lot of punch.

Afterburner

Last but not least we have the Afterburner Dual-Stage Overdrive pedal. More and more manufacturers are offering these dual gain stage pedals, and I love that, finally guitarists are getting what they so desire. The first gain stage is almost identical to the Overdrive pedal above, and on top of that, there’s a knob and footswitch for an extra boost. Another great pedal for bluesy rock, but with one qualm… The Boost control needs more gain, if the overdrive section is cranked, the boost switch does next to nothing, even at extreme settings. It feels to me like there may not be enough voltage to feed both gain circuits. Otherwise its a great sounding unit.

Finding quality distortion is a lifelong quest for many of our riff-wielding brethren, and Jet City are offering some serious contenders here. I cant wait to try the rest of the range!

By Terry Hart

Price: RRP $90 (Shockwave Distortion),  $120 (Guitar Slinger Overdrive, Hi Gain Boost), $140 (Afterburner Dual Stage Overdrive)
Distributor: Intermusic Distribution
Phone: (03) 9765 6565
Website: www.imd.com.au

Jet City Amplification is the new project of one Mike Soldano, whose namesake line of amplifiers set the high-gain standard in the 1990s and became one of the charter members of the HYPERLINK “http://www.gear-vault.com/paul-reed-smith-sweet-16-amp/“boutique guitar amp business as we know it today.

The Jet City JCA20H 20 watt tube amp head and JCA2112RC 20 watt combo deliver pure tube tone from a single-channel amplifier with absolutely no gimmick features to dilute the all-tube signal path. Elegance of design both inside and out deliver unflinching reliability in guitar amps good-looking enough to make a girlfriend jealous. With full EQ control and separate Preamp and Master Volumes, Jet City 20 watters can deliver spanky cleans through crunchy overdrive.

Jet City Amplification delivers the utmost in tone, while being affordable enough for musicians slugging out a living on the small stage.

JCA20H RRP $799.99

JCA2112RC RRP $999.99

“dirt with plenty of tight bottom end and tough mids”

For a long while boutique amps have often been the unattainable dream for the majority of guitarists. Whilst not intentionally omitting the perhaps less affluent of owners, boutique makers have created amps with price tags that just have been out of reach or not justifiable for some. Numerous factors have forced the landscape to change over the last few years with several high-end makers now offering budget or sister lines to complement their higher price tagged big brothers. With streamlined features and components and refined production methods creating lower overheads the end result has been a lower price for the consumer — bonus!

With all good things come haters however and many people instantly associate these cheaper amps with lower quality. Well let’s see if we can silence the doubters.

Coming from the design shed of the famed Mike Soldano (yep, Mr Soldano the man behind the SLO100 and other seriously famed tone machines) we have Jet City Amplifiers — all tube, featuring simple controls, cool cosmetics, and sensible pricing…doesn’t sound too bad to me so far.

Suffre Jet City

Launched in 2009 Jet City had an almost instant hit on their hands with the release of the JCA20H single channel 20 watt head. This seemed to please the newly invigorated small wattage amp lovers and appease those looking for something grand at slightly lesser volumes. Well the success this baby must’ve really put the writing on the wall for the new JC100H two channel 100 watt head.

A two channel head the JC100H’s front panel consists of — normal and overdrive levels (as part of the preamp section), bass, middle and treble controls (making up your eq section), ‘master’ normal and overdrive channel level knobs and a presence dial to top it off. Soldano fans will notice the similarities in layout to the famous SLO100 head (not a bad thing) and indeed Jet City go on to mention ’ The Overdrive channel is the circuit that made Soldano famous. It’s been modelled and imitated, but this is the real-effing-high-gain-deal!’ Sounds like a winner to me.
We built this City.…

Adding to the aforementioned SLO esque control layout Jet City have gone the no frills look for this first line of amps with minimalist colouring and detailing. The American style logo is simple and effective with a mate even commenting that it reminded him of a motor oil or racing brand. Solid blue and black tolex and classic black with white dot dials = a simple, rock attitude in my books.

Plugging in, the JC100H was pretty quiet on the clean channel, even when cranked with the eq section responding nicely to all sorts of pushing and pulling. Nice headroom makes sure you could push this sucker pretty hard and then drive it further with pedals if so inclined or just balance the masters and level controls. Now we come to what I spose everyone wants to know about…the drive channel. Whilst I’ve never played an SLO100, I’ve heard quite a few (both in the flesh and on recordings) and seen a few clones in my time. Well, the Jet City really seems to recreate that dirt with plenty of tight bottom end and tough mids. Broken, slightly driven tones bark nicely and react to both your guitar volume pot and the channel and master volume controls with the presence dial adding that extra sharp edge if you need.

Sold!

Alright, just to recap for those that didn’t really take it in. Mike Soldano’s amps have been a staple in the session/touring world for years. With their amps firmly placed in the hands of pros/studios/collectors alike yet still remaining out of reach for many, the Jet City brand looks likely to bring some of the Soldano prowess to the masses (and without the hefty price tag). As Jet City says ‘We are on a mission to offer some great gear to guitarists at really fair prices.’ Music to my ears.

The multi tap transformer is a winner (allowing easy switching between 100v/120v/220v/240v for international voltages) and with these tones for this price Jet City have placed themselves in a good market for the almost anyone (and not just those that can’t afford their bigger brother).

Mike Soldano couldn’t have put it better when he says “Our keep-it-simple approach to tube amp design speaks for itself, these new Jet City amps offer my classic Soldano tones at a killer price – I’m proud to put my name right on the front”.

Price: RRP $1699.99

Distributor: Intermusic IMD

Phone: (03) 9765 6565

Website www.imd.com.au

By Nick Brown

Jet City Amplification is the new project of one Mike Soldano, whose namesake line of amplifiers set the high-gain standard in the 1990s and became one of the charter members of the boutique guitar amp business as we know it today.

The Jet City JCA20H 20 watt tube amp head and JCA2112RC 20 watt combo deliver pure tube tone from a single-channel amplifier with absolutely no gimmick features to dilute the all-tube signal path. Elegance of design both inside and out deliver unflinching reliability in guitar amps good-looking enough to make a girlfriend jealous. With full EQ control and separate Preamp and Master Volumes, Jet City 20 watters can deliver spanky cleans through crunchy overdrive.

Jet City Amplification delivers the utmost in tone, while being affordable enough for musicians slugging out a living on the small stage.

JCA20H RRP $799.99

JCA2112RC RRP $999.99

For further information contact Intermusic Distribution. info@imd.com.au  Ph: 03 9765 6565