SOLD!
It features a pair of EL84 tubes in the power amp, a quintet of 12AX7s in the preamp and a solid state rectifier. Controls are crunch and overdrive gain, bass, middle and treble, crunch and overdrive master volumes, and a global presence control. There’s no reverb circuit, however you can use an external effect in the loop. Jet City uses audio-grade metal film resistors and high-quality copper for all internal connections to maintain sonic integrity. The chassis is 16-gauge cold-rolled steel. Around the back you’ll find three speaker jacks: one 16 ohm and two 8 ohm.
TIME TO JET
I tested the JCA20H through a cab with 12” Celestion Vintage 30 speakers, although Jet City offers its own cabs too. Because the preamp section is based on the crunch channel of the Soldano SLO-100, there’s a huge range of gain available from bright sparkly cleans to highgain chunk, while maintaining the character and articulation of your pickups. Single coils have bell-like clarity in clean mode and a chewy edge when run through overdrive while humbuckers are suitably chunky, or scoopy, or smooth. The midrange is nice and clear, especially with high-output humbuckers where this can often be a problem, and the details and transients of low-output PAF-style ‘buckers are maintained too, which is great news for those who like to ride the guitar’s volume, tone and pickup controls for tonal variation. Of course, because this is a tube amp it sounds best when you crank it, so don’t be afraid to get some serious volume going. When you do you’ll find more than just excellent hard rock tones: there are some very Metallica-esque crunches lurking under the hood too along with Satriani-like lead tones, but this isn’t just a ‘classic metal/rock’ amp. With the dual channels you can dial one in for a warm rhythm crunch and the other for high-gain soloing or, depending on your playing style, the other way around: raunchy rhythm tone and a cleaner, more articulate lead voicing.
HOT IN THE CITY
The JCA22H is an extremely versatile and affordable amp which is for players who like to push their technique and celebrate the little details rather than cover them up in processing and mush. It’s a testament to the simplicity and integrity of the design that the amp responds so organically and interactively to the player, guitar and signal chain. The effects loop is bound to win over a few fans that might have been put off by the spartan nature of the JCA20H, while the switchable channels mean it’s a more versatile live amp as well.
For more details, head to ambertech.com.au.