Pico Valve - Jet City - Andy Marshall - 5 good watts in a toaster chasis

[studio1087]

I've been looking for a lower powered tube head. Something that I can turn up without shaking all the dishes on the other side of the house.

I've heard about the Pico.

It has a 6L6 power tube that you can swap with any octal based power tube. Kind of cool.

Pregain - bass - middle - treble - master - bright switch - standby switch - 5 watts vs. 2 watts switch and the big blue power switch. Works with 4 or 8 or 16 ohm cabs (has three outputs) and the toaster chasis is built like a tank with a metal handle sticking off one side.



View from the top....



Andy!



It has a nice round sound. It's warm and bright and round and the coolest thing is that if I set low/moderate crunch and play gently it stays clean and if I dig in the crunch jumps out to an amazing degree. It's a responsive amp. The gain is pretty creamy and smooth when you crank the pregain. It's not fizzy....it's really smooth.

I had a 5 watt Epi Valve Junior a few years ago that wouldn't hold a match to this thing.

This shows the size of it......



One of the coolest things.......$199 minty used. It had the books and the plastic labels on it. I checked ebay on my iphone before buying it. $199 to $230 used is pretty common. They cost $299 new.

Pretty cool. It also makes a nice night light.



This will be a good one.

[celeste]

Careful with the "It has a 6L6 power tube that you can swap with any octal based power tube". While that is a very common octal pin out, there are octal power tubes that do not use the same pin out. Also the 6?6 family of tubes connects the suppressor grid to the cathode internally and does not use pin 1. The EL34 connects the suppressor grid to pin one. If the tube socket is wired so pin one is connected to the cathode or grounded, then you can use EL34's, but if it is wired like Fender often did, and uses pin one as a tie point, you can not use EL34's. I would hate to hear you broke your cool new toy.

I have been wondering about Jet City's 333 logo. Does that mean they are only half evil?

[studio1087]

I'm not changing the tube. I like 6L6's.

I'm just repeating the info that I heard at the shop and read online.

I do appreciate the insight. I wouldn't have known all those details.

333 ? Man I don't know.

Could be the office address.

1087 is my old street address where I practiced in a dumpy unfinished basement.

It's all I'm a name.

I do like the amp.

(-:

Thanks for the good info.

[bunny 7]

Cool amp, John. I'm kinda waiting for the deal you found to snag one.

The 333 is at the bottom of their homepage. Funny about the address it is 3333. Maybe it would've made the logo too big.

http://www.jetcityamplification.com/

off topic: I think we have a mutual acquaintance in gearmanndude, I'm always kidding Eric about your raspberry luther drive. He just made me 2 in green.
Enjoy the amp, Paul.

[Wyzsard]

Congrats. JC's are nice amps.

Here is the manual
http://www.jetcityamplification.com/...lve-manual.pdf

[studio1087]

Originally Posted by bunny 7

Cool amp, John. I'm kinda waiting for the deal you found to snag one.

The 333 is at the bottom of their homepage. Funny about the address it is 3333. Maybe it would've made the logo too big.

http://www.jetcityamplification.com/

off topic: I think we have a mutual acquaintance in gearmanndude, I'm always kidding Eric about your raspberry luther drive. He just made me 2 in green.
Enjoy the amp, Paul.

There's a buy it now on ebay right now for about $170 with $35 shipping. I think it was the best deal on ebay when I searched ebay before buying mine.

I sent a couple emails to Eric when I wanted one of the pink breast cancer pedals. I had just lost my father to cancer. Eric actually sent a really polite email saying some kind words about my dad passing and he offered the raspberry Luther. He was out of the pink ones. It was very nice that he was so polite. Seems like a very nice person.

I've never been to the store where Eric works. I work in packaging engineering and I used to fly to Louisville about 6 times per year to sign off on machines at Lantech on Bluegrass Parkway. Louisville is a nice town. I went to FQMS once and took a Larrivee home. That was my big score in Louisville.

I went to the Derby about 6 years ago. I laughed so hard when I saw a pretty girl wearing a "Talk Derby To Me" shirt. Louisville is very cool. Lots of history.

John

[sammy123]

I have this amp and like it a lot. I am running a KT88 in it. I think it might have increased the headroom just a hair. But I have not done a serious comparison. I also swapped in a 12at7 as well. I have the matching 12" cabinet. Hello Music had the combo deal for $269. Pretty good in my opinion.

With humbuckers and the tubes I am using, it stays clean until about 3.5 on the gain with the master cranked. I really like the sounds I can get out of this thing.

[studio1087]

Clean at 3.5 with humbuckers?....using a KT88???

I would like to try that. I can break up the amp a lot with a Tele and the pregain at 3.

What KT88 are you using?

Tube Depot has KT88's priced from $25 to over $400.

JJ's for $44 - Linky

JJ's for $37 - Linky

What are you using?

Where did you buy them?

Thanks very much.

[Jim Dep]

Originally Posted by celeste

I have been wondering about Jet City's 333 logo. Does that mean they are only half evil?

Great post, good stuff to know. BTW, after what you are suggesting with the 333 logo, I sure the heck won't own two of them together!

[sammy123]

Originally Posted by studio1087

Clean at 3.5 with humbuckers?....using a KT88???

I would like to try that. I can break up the amp a lot with a Tele and the pregain at 3.

What KT88 are you using?

Tube Depot has KT88's priced from $25 to over $400.

JJ's for $44 - Linky

JJ's for $37 - Linky

What are you using?

Where did you buy them?

Thanks very much.

I have a new JJ KT88 in there. I think the key though is the 12at7 tubes. I think I have two in there. So that cuts the gain quite a bit...and the volume a little. I also noticed it is cleaner with the matching cab than it is with my Peavey Classic 4x10 cabinet.