peavey jsx

[foltermaschine]

which do you think is better peavey jsx over the peavey 6505 plus, mark IV, or dual rectifier. i am looking into buying a good lead amp that is just as brutal and menacing in rhythm as lead it is hard to find a heavy *** metal amp that does killer lead, brutal heavy harmonic squealing thick tone.

 

[Platypus]

which do you think is better peavey jsx over the peavey 6505 plus, mark IV, or dual rectifier. i am looking into buying a good lead amp that is just as brutal and menacing in rhythm as lead it is hard to find a heavy *** metal amp that does killer lead, brutal heavy harmonic squealing thick tone.

My experience with the JSX is that it's somewhat similar to the XXX in the extremely chuggy low end crunch. It sounds somewhat similar to the 6505, but it's more versatile than the 6505, which seems to do one thing really well.

The mesas sound different than either of those.. the DR is classicly more of a rhythm amp in my opinion but you can get some great leads out of it if you tweak. I posted some clips in the rigs/tones thread of my DR leads. The MKIV has some great lead tones from what I've heard from clips on this board but I've not used it enough to comment on it personally.

 

[Russ]

My guitar tech (also guitar shop owner) swears by the JSX and TR. He was liking the XXX but says the JSX leaves it in a wake. I just had a discussion with him the other day on amps. He toured for years and has choice of equipment. He said that he would choose the TR over the Mark IV also. He chooses amps based on sheer brutality because of the music he plays although he has some serious tone machines too for when he feels like playing those mojo machines of yore when Marshalls were the kings. I left my days of playing Peavey years ago about the time of the original 5150 and haven't looked back. I just don't dig the soulless gain machine that they have become. Layered in effects it becomes a different animal. He told me that the JSX is not in this line fo thinking though and I should try one. I might. I tried the DR and found for Rhythm it accels. It doesn't have the clean tight gain the Mark IV has if that makes any sense. The MarkIV is what I got comparing the DR and MarkIV. I wanted the Mesa sound and found the MarkIV to sound much more like a Mesa than the DR. However you cannot get the Dr looseness in the bottom end with the Mark IV nor quite the preamp gain either. The DR is pretty versatile but doesn't have the eq. That stupid little 5 band eq makes a world of difference if you don't have an eq in your loop. The eq nearly half sold me on the Mark IV. The tight bottom end was crucial to me as was the control versatility. You don't get set voicing changes in the Mark IV but you can tailor the channels to your liking unlike the DR that you get a few set choices to choose from.

You are right though about having a hard time finding an amp that does both punishing rhythm and absolutely scorching leads. It is almost like you have to choose what you would rather play and deal with what you get on the other channel for the rest. This quest is almost as bad as trying to find the amp that gets pristine Fender clean and the most powerful super gainy knock buildings down distortion you've heard in your life. I chose the Mark IV settling for relatively clean cleans on R1 and still pretty heavy distortion on the lead. But like I said it is a tight distortion so your pick attack is important on your chugging. I see it as this... Mark IV is good for thrash metal, speed metal, most older metal, the rest of the world's music that requires less gain. DR is good for newer metal, older metal, some of the rest of the world's music. If you need articulation get the Mark IV. If you don't mind mushing a little then the DR will do it. The DR will get a little deeper though. I am assuming that you are playing some form of metal from your choices of amps to compare.