Lonestar vs. Roland JC-120

[ellem52]

You might as well be asking

Has anyone A/B'd a Gibson Les Paul and an D'Angelico New Yorker?

Yes they're both Amps but they have NOTHING to do with each other.

The JC-120 is a phenomenal amp and so is the Lonestar but for completely different applications.

You could play Jazz through a Lonestar and then play some Zep. You could TRY that with the JC-120 but it won't be quite right. The JC-120 does clean really, really well - OD/Distortion not so much. Sure you could chain up a few stop boxes and get to a distorted sound but probably not a very good one

Obviously, here on a Board about Mesas some of us will be biased. I've used both amps and I would push my JC-120 off a cliff to get to my Lonestar.

 

[EleventhHour2139]

You might as well be asking

Has anyone A/B'd a Gibson Les Paul and an D'Angelico New Yorker?

Yes they're both Amps but they have NOTHING to do with each other.

The JC-120 is a phenomenal amp and so is the Lonestar but for completely different applications.

I believe he said:

...i'm thinking of getting a jazz box and am getting tired of worrying about tubes as well.

Using both for Jazz, and under his constraints, I could definitely see how they could in fact be considered competitors, and I'm curious to see what people have to say as well. :wink:

 

[djw]

The JC120 has been the de facto king of SS amps for a long time, one of the few acceptable solid state amps under anything approaching pro situations that I'm aware of. For a decent clean tone, you probably won't get all that much better -- without the glass -- than this. It's still a pretty big, heavy amp.

I've never spent much time with one myself, but I've seen a lot of them in action up close over the years -- for rock and funk mostly, and ironically not a lot of jazz. If you don't mind sacrificing pure tube-driven OD for stompbox-based distortion, and stick to the squeaky cleans, you'll be alright. Not much for subtlety and touch-sensitivity, though.

I will say that I have been amazed more than once at players who can get a great sound out of some pretty lame gear, and I'd never call the JC120 "lame".

 

[moguelator]

IMHO the Jazz chorus is one of the best clean amps I've heard in my life. The chorus is so sweet! The greatest part of this amp is that it stays in good shape alot of time (I've seen people using JC120 that has more than 20 years and still sound incredible)

However distortion of course is a complete different story.

 

[cb101]

I've owned the 120 and currently own Yamaha's answer to the 120 a G100-212 (circa 1983). It sounds very good clean and takes pedals well. That being said, I also own the Lonestar and in my opinion there is no comparason. My Lonestar can do what the 120 can do except better and it also adds a fuller dimention and depth to it's cleans. Then punch it to channel 2 and there's your natural OD and crunch.

 

[edward]

I've owned the 120 and currently own Yamaha's answer to the 120 a G100-212 (circa 1983). It sounds very good clean and takes pedals well. That being said, I also own the Lonestar and in my opinion there is no comparason. My Lonestar can do what the 120 can do except better and it also adds a fuller dimention and depth to it's cleans. Then punch it to channel 2 and there's your natural OD and crunch.

A Friend of mine had a JC120 ...hands-down a great amp, no excuses, big clean tone. Another friend of mine had a Yamaha G100-112 ...I liked it so much I went out and got a G100-212. Owned it for several years and liked it a bunch, especially the parametric EQ. It was the last SS amp I owned before falling to the dark side of tubes. Personally, I prefer the Yam, but I could gig with either w/o a second thought. Both of these enjoyed stellar street cred, which is evidenced by the fact that if you find them used today, they are likely in great shape and decent sum despite the years.

Edward

 

[CoG]

I owned a JC-77 (smaller 2x10 version) and have played lots of JC-120s. Great loud, clean amps and very useful if you have a bunch of fx and are going for a heavily effected, processed tone that's still controllable. Also amazing for controlled feedback.

However, if you're you're not gonna put a bunch of stomp boxes in front you had better plug in a really nice-sounding guitar.

But yeah, not the same thing as a LS at all, apples and oranges.

 

[Setzer]

The JC is indeed a fine amp as expressed by other members and by quite a few veteran recording artistes too.

Personally years ago I loved the cleans on the JC but over the years as my playing improved (20 odd years now) I have found that as I got better I found the JC got worse to my ears and would always have a tube amp over one now.

My main amp nowadays is a DC-5 as its a great all round amp,great great od and the cleans are absolutely superb for jazzy type stuff there is just no way I would have a JC over it,no chance.

Maybe as your technique improves then the shortcomings of a tranny amp (even one as good as a JC) are more pronounced.

If your gonna use any dirt at all the JC is pretty much a no go,its just not good for any kind of od tone in my opinion.

Thats just my personal view though but it would be interesting to see what other players with a good few years playing under their belt think of my "theory"

 

[edward]

The JC is indeed a fine amp as expressed by other members and by quite a few veteran recording artistes too.

Personally years ago I loved the cleans on the JC but over the years as my playing improved (20 odd years now) I have found that as I got better I found the JC got worse to my ears and would always have a tube amp over one now.

My main amp nowadays is a DC-5 as its a great all round amp,great great od and the cleans are absolutely superb for jazzy type stuff there is just no way I would have a JC over it,no chance.

Maybe as your technique improves then the shortcomings of a tranny amp (even one as good as a JC) are more pronounced.

If your gonna use any dirt at all the JC is pretty much a no go,its just not good for any kind of od tone in my opinion.

Thats just my personal view though but it would be interesting to see what other players with a good few years playing under their belt think of my "theory"

Well for me, your theory is right on. I moved on from SS over a decade ago and never looked back. The cleans of the two I mentioned were very good, but not "boogie good" ...so really "good" but not "great" ...which BTW took me some time to realize as I ventured into a diff tube amps before "arriving" at my DC5. At that point, I realized what ALL the fuss was about. An amp with true touch dynamics. An amp that responded to volume control changes from the guitar. An amp that would vary its voice with my pick attack, and not merely get louder or softer. And for any OD, that gen SS was just yuk, IMHO. Yup, I had finally arrived

Now all that said, I don't think I would have "found" all that mesa goodness had I been a younger player. Which really consisted of a variety of stomp boxes and ODs de jour. Can you say "compressed and processed" ...it was my "young guy" tone, replete with gobs of reverb and delay ...heck, throw in some chorus while we're at it. But as I actually started to play better (and dare I say with more soul), I really grew to appreciate "Tone" from fingers, dynamics/technique, and amps. Then came simplicity, "purity" if you will. Guitar-to-amp is how I roll, and that has served me well now for these many years, with just very minimal f/x for accent.

No snob here. I "could" play SS, of course. And they really have gotten better these days. But "could" play is still a far cry from "wanting" to play a SS amp. All IMHO of course.

Edward

 

[fabien]

after dealing with tubes, picks and strings, i'm about to hang myself after playing guitar for 15 yrs or force myself to pickup keyboard...

If you really think about switching to keyboards the JC120 could serve both guitar and keys very well though you'll get a tone that dates to the late '70 early '80, not exactly modern!

Back then jazz guitarists (Joe Pass and George Benson among others) used Polytone amps a lot, smaller and lighter but I always found it too dark and somewhat muffeld.

LabSeries (SS amp made by Gibson then) if you can find one sound great and fat clean and can growl too.

But then Mark Whitfield used to use Boogie Mark I or II and had a heavenly jazz tone.

Cheers
Fabien