Question for those familiar with Roland Jazz Chorus evolution

[mexicanyella]

I have never played through an actual Jazz Chorus amp, but I like using the Jazz Chorus model in the amp modelers I have tried. These have all featured bass/middle/treble/presence controls, and this four-band tone shaping has been a big factor in achieving a sound I like: I like to run the mids and treble pretty hot and dial
Back the presence to control shrillness.

From reading articles about this line of amps I have encountered no mention of how some JC models seem to have bass/middle/treble, while others have bass/middle/treble/hi treble. It seems like the ones I’ve seen with the hi treble control were JC-77s, and were from the mid 80s into somewhere in the 90s. I’m not sure if the correlation is to the model or the years of manufacture, or both.

Does anyone know which models and/or years this feature was included on?

 

[Maguchi]

Mine's a 1989 and I bought it new. It gots the High-Treble knob. The footswitch made for the JC-77 was a 2 button footswitch that switched the Reverb and Chorus in and out, but I got a 3 button footswitch made for the JC-120 that switches Distortion in and out as well as Reverb and Chorus. The current models the JC-120, JC-40 and JC-22 only got treble, middle and bass knobs. That's all I know about it.

 

[mexicanyella]

Mine's a 1989 and I bought it new. It gots the High-Treble knob. The footswitch made for the JC-77 was a 2 button footswitch that switched the Reverb and Chorus in and out, but I got a 3 button footswitch made for the JC-120 that switches Distortion in and out as well as Reverb and Chorus. The current models the JC-120, JC-40 and JC-22 only got treble, middle and bass knobs. That's all I know about it.

View attachment 1258392View attachment 1258393

Thanks for the post, appreciate the info. That is a clean-looking 1989 example, wow! I hope to cross paths with one of these someday soon so I can try a real one, instead of a modeled one.

 

[Guerilla Electro]

I would take a look at those vintage Roland cube60-chorus ( click on second picture to zoom in ) : Made in U.K !!?? I also saw the non chorus models are made in the U.S.A ! There's also Keyboard models that are very similar.

This whole series Cube 20 ,40 ,60 , 60 chorus are great amps , very lightweight , incredible number of inputs/outputs ( dedicated reverb and chorus outputs ... ) The electronics are very similar to the JCs( some even have the same speakers ) .
Then , from1984 to 1988 they made the Super Cube 40 :

same deal , just less outputs in the back , those are also made inthe U.S.A !

You also see some that are made in Japan ( especially the 1978-to 1982 orange ones seem to be only M.I.J ), there's also a Cube 100 in orange version .
it's a complete mystery for me : why are some made in the U.K. , some are made in the U.S.A and some made in Japan ?

From what I can see the cab is the big difference to explain the weight difference VS the JC , as these use a really light material , VS the JCs very thick and heavy Plywood .

 

[Maguchi]

The JC-77 weighs a hair under 42 lbs. Not bad for a 80 watt amp (two 40 watt power amps in stereo).

BTW, the older Roland Cubes are very good amps too but somewhat diffrent than the Jazz Choruses.

 

[mexicanyella]

I would take a look at those vintage Roland cube60-chorus ( click on second picture to zoom in ) : Made in U.K !!?? I also saw the non chorus models are made in the U.S.A ! There's also Keyboard models that are very similar.

This whole series Cube 20 ,40 ,60 , 60 chorus are great amps , very lightweight , incredible number of inputs/outputs ( dedicated reverb and chorus outputs ... ) The electronics are very similar to the JCs( some even have the same speakers ) .
Then , from1984 to 1988 they made the Super Cube 40 :

same deal , just less outputs in the back , those are also made inthe U.S.A !

You also see some that are made in Japan ( especially the 1978-to 1982 orange ones seem to be only M.I.J ), there's also a Cube 100 in orange version .
it's a complete mystery for me : why are some made in the U.K. , some are made in the U.S.A and some made in Japan ?

From what I can see the cab is the big difference to explain the weight difference VS the JC , as these use a really light material , VS the JCs very thick and heavy Plywood .

I played through one of those silver ones one time at a store, and it seemed well-made and as I recall had a pretty warm clean sound. It didn’t sound like a tube amp but it seemed like it did its own useful thing.

 

[srblue5]

I would take a look at those vintage Roland cube60-chorus ( click on second picture to zoom in ) : Made in U.K !!?? I also saw the non chorus models are made in the U.S.A ! There's also Keyboard models that are very similar.

This whole series Cube 20 ,40 ,60 , 60 chorus are great amps , very lightweight , incredible number of inputs/outputs ( dedicated reverb and chorus outputs ... ) The electronics are very similar to the JCs( some even have the same speakers ) .
Then , from1984 to 1988 they made the Super Cube 40 :

same deal , just less outputs in the back , those are also made inthe U.S.A !

You also see some that are made in Japan ( especially the 1978-to 1982 orange ones seem to be only M.I.J ), there's also a Cube 100 in orange version .
it's a complete mystery for me : why are some made in the U.K. , some are made in the U.S.A and some made in Japan ?

From what I can see the cab is the big difference to explain the weight difference VS the JC , as these use a really light material , VS the JCs very thick and heavy Plywood .

I believe jazz guitarist Ed Bickert used to play through an orange Roland Cube.

One of the best sounds I ever got was through a borrowed Roland Cube at a jam space.