Can any Roland JC-22 users suggest some dirt

[MilwMark]

The JC22 is HORRIBLE with dirt pedals. Like, atrocious. Buzzy, small, kazoo sound regardless of the pedal, IME.

I don't get it. I absolutely ADORE the Jazz Chorus. The JC40 and JC77 are my desert island amps in my bands. I own 3 JC40s for cripes sakes. And I won't use anything else. I love an overdriven base sound, and then to go cleaner or dirtier with my guitar volume. The JC40/77 excel at that.

I tried multiple JC22 units hoping for a home solution. Nope. They just hate dirt pedals. I always found it weird that Roland left the Distortion off the JC22. Because its actually a loud amp. So why leave onboard Distortion off the one clearly most aimed at home use? Hmm . . .

 

[8bit]

I tried multiple JC22 units hoping for a home solution. Nope. They just hate dirt pedals. I always found it weird that Roland left the Distortion off the JC22. Because its actually a loud amp. So why leave onboard Distortion off the one clearly most aimed at home use? Hmm . . .

Yeah good point. Almost like they knew this things just don't take dirt well...

FTR, I have a JC22 and love it. But if I were wanting an all-around "does it all" amp the JC22 would definitely not be it. It's a clean only amp for me. If I want dirt I'm plugging into my tubes. Of course this is all subjective, ymmv, and all that.

 

[schenkadere]

I own a couple of old Roland amps (DAC-15D and an orange Cube 40); they both have (had) aluminum dust cap speakers, in 8 and 10 inches.
I think that this kind of speaker sounds very good clean, but It gets nasty, in a bad way, with dirt. And this both with pedals and amp drive.
I swapped the speakers in both amp, but I rarely play clean.
With the original speakers I had luck only with a big muff, set very dark. Avoid bright pedals.

This sounds like you nailed it on the head. These speakers are like 6.5". Definitely doesn't seem to like mids.
I'm going to find something that sounds nice adding a touch of grit and leave it at that.

 

[11 Gauge]

The JC22 is HORRIBLE with dirt pedals. Like, atrocious. Buzzy, small, kazoo sound regardless of the pedal, IME.

I don't get it. I absolutely ADORE the Jazz Chorus. The JC40 and JC77 are my desert island amps in my bands. I own 3 JC40s for cripes sakes. And I won't use anything else. I love an overdriven base sound, and then to go cleaner or dirtier with my guitar volume. The JC40/77 excel at that.

I tried multiple JC22 units hoping for a home solution. Nope. They just hate dirt pedals. I always found it weird that Roland left the Distortion off the JC22. Because its actually a loud amp. So why leave onboard Distortion off the one clearly most aimed at home use? Hmm . . .

I bet the JC22 probably has circuitry that is unique to it alone, with nothing carried over from the bigger models.

If that's the case, I could imagine it really being optimized to only sound good clean. There has to be stuff implemented to roll off treble once you introduce any kind of harmonic clipping.

I wouldn't be surprised if the JC22 has a very minimal preamp circuit.

It also seems like maybe the 6.5" speakers used in it are probably more like what you'd find used in studio monitors or something, and are probably as un-guitar amp-like as they come (e.g. don't really roll off anything above 3.5KHz or so, like the typical guitar speaker does).

The more I think about it, I bet the JC22 might have more in common with a keyboard amp than a guitar amp.

 

[schenkadere]

I bet the JC22 probably has circuitry that is unique to it alone, with nothing carried over from the bigger models.

If that's the case, I could imagine it really being optimized to only sound good clean. There has to be stuff implemented to roll off treble once you introduce any kind of harmonic clipping.

I wouldn't be surprised if the JC22 has a very minimal preamp circuit.

It also seems like maybe the 6.5" speakers used in it are probably more like what you'd find used in studio monitors or something, and are probably as un-guitar amp-like as they come (e.g. don't really roll off anything above 3.5KHz or so, like the typical guitar speaker does).

The more I think about it, I bet the JC22 might have more in common with a keyboard amp than a guitar amp.

I think you are correct on all points. That being said, I love this amp and it delivered exactly what I was looking for. It's a super sweet sounding amp.

 

[MilwMark]

I think you are correct on all points. That being said, I love this amp and it delivered exactly what I was looking for. It's a super sweet sounding amp.

If you’re after cleans it is sweet indeed.

 

[allesz]

And there is nothing bad about It.
I am still on the fence with the cube 40: with the oem speaker the clean sounds are beautifull and loud, it should be a pretty efficient speaker... And so I wonder if I should put it back; I have some dirty options, but I miss this clean sound and sometimes I need it.

 

[11 Gauge]

I think you are correct on all points. That being said, I love this amp and it delivered exactly what I was looking for. It's a super sweet sounding amp.

I hear ya. I've got a Quilter 101 Mini (v1, non-reverb), and really just love it on the Surf voice only. I had maybe some lukewarm results with pedals and stuff, but in all honesty, just using it clean on the Surf voice, with a speaker optimized for huge cleans with no breakup whatsoever (in this case a Celestion BN12-300S), it was startling how close I could get it to sound like a Twin Reverb.

 

[schenkadere]

I played around for hours with it last night with some different dirt pedals and I was able to coax some decent low-med dirt tones. The wound strings seem to get overly wooly when heading towards med gain. There definitely a sweet spot.

I tried my Golden Cello(odd choice I know, lol) and that is not friendly at all. It's my only "fuzz" and I was curious.

The SD-1 was the winner from my meager collection. I don't intend the amp for dirt, but it's nice to have the option and that works well enough for now. This could easily turn into a rabbit hole of dirt experimentation which will likely yield the same result, lol.

I was thinking the Power Stack ST-2 would be a good choice and would love to try that at lower gain, but I sadly sold mine off ages ago.

 

[11 Gauge]

You know, if it is indeed more like a keyboard amp, that makes me wonder if an actual amp sim pedal, like a Tech 21 Blonde or similar, might actually work well with it.

I'd actually intentionally look at something like a Tech 21 product that allows you to engage or bypass speaker/cabinet emulation, since you never know which way will actually sound better.

If it does sound good with cab sim on, you might want to consider a pedal that allows you to load IR stuff.

 

[schenkadere]

You know, if it is indeed more like a keyboard amp, that makes me wonder if an actual amp sim pedal, like a Tech 21 Blonde or similar, might actually work well with it.

I'd actually intentionally look at something like a Tech 21 product that allows you to engage or bypass speaker/cabinet emulation, since you never know which way will actually sound better.

If it does sound good with cab sim on, you might want to consider a pedal that allows you to load IR stuff.

I have cab sim on my Valeton Dapper (maybe it's not a good sim) and that sounds like doody, lol. The amp is amazing at what is intended for, so, I'm not going to put any money towards it for another never ending quest.

 

[Captain Ahab]

I love this as a clean amp, and that is why I have it, but it just doesn't seem to take dirt very well. It may be the speaker size limitation, but even at bedroom levels, it feels very artificial or congested regardless of tone settings.

I'm hoping someone may have had some success and can offer any suggestions. Thanks!

I had a JC 22 & wish now I didn't sell it. I did because I couldn't push any dirt through it.
If it's your only amp keep it for what it is but I suggest buying a tube amp. There are a lot of great amps in the 5-15 watt range under $500.
I recently bought a Marshall DSL 5CR for a practice amp for $375 & it's awesome!

 

[schenkadere]

I had a JC 22 & wish now I didn't sell it. I did because I couldn't push any dirt through it.
If it's your only amp keep it for what it is but I suggest buying a tube amp. There are a lot of great amps in the 5-15 watt range under $500.
I recently bought a Marshall DSL 5CR for a practice amp for $375 & it's awesome!

I have a tube amp. I did find a gain staging solution for the JC-22.

 

[dukewellington]

Also, don’t forget running a modeler. The Boss GT-1000 has output settings for JC amps that compensate for the amp’s voice and allow you to more realistically emulate other amps.
I run mine into a QSC CP8, but if I felt the need to have a “real amp” a JC is a perfect candidate.

I would be tempted to try simulation or modeling.

I found that most analog dirt pedals sounded terrible when I put them into the front end of my Roland, when I owned one. At the time I had a DOD250, a TS9 (the worst), a Blues Driver, and an Boss Super Overdrive. The Blues Driver got the closest to acceptable, but wasn’t the sound I was looking for. Everything sounded artificial. They were slightly improved when run through the effects loop, switched to parallel.

The amplifier had a beautiful and natural sounding tone while played clean. I had heard that a JC makes a great pedal platform, like a blank canvas upon which to paint whatever sound I wanted. So my brain took the only thing it knew in the same vein, my ‘71 Twin, also renowned as a clean machine pedal platform, and went to town. But after playing the Jazz Chorus and starting to feel discouraged and confused, I came to understand that the whole idea behind the Roland was for it to function more like a stereo system than a tube amplifier (which it is not)…. Yet, that is how my brain was approaching the signal chain — like it was one of my tube amps. Maybe I’m way off base, there, but I really do believe that a key advantage to a Jazz Chorus is for it to function as a get-louder-box that plays nice with the host of Roland-designed products.

Maybe ‘designing’ a desired dirty tone with a modeler or amp simulator and then simply amplifying this signal with the Roland would make the Jazz Chorus sound happy? I’m curious to see what you find.