City in store

Jet City amps are now available at Sound Alchemy- great-sounding amps that won't break the bank, do check them out.

Selling: Jet CIty GS High Gain Boost

I have the above pedal for sale- a high gain boost unit. If you are looking for a clean boost, well, this isn't one. Clean signals are observed only at the lower gain settings. Past the half-way mark, the gain pumps in some overdrive into your signals but it's not to be confused with a bona fide overdrive type of drive. It's still within its boost function & not an overdrive unit to draw primary overdrive from. 

• Selling: JET CITY GS High-Gain Boost (box included)
• Condition: 9/10
• Self-collect: CCK MRT station
• No reservations/ trades
• Confirmation/ further queries: dark1349@hotmail.com
• Price: $65 (final)

Boost kick

 I'm still refining my distortion (when I'm utilizing pedals) via the booster route, I'm trying to keep the distortion voicing in tact while giving it some catalyst to sound meaner. I got the Jet City Hi-Gain Boost a few days ago from Davis GMC (List: $95) & the label clearly stated the pedal's intent. As a stand alone pedal, the HGB should not be depended on for a refined distortion sound, it's he wrong one for such an application. It should be stacked with one of your main overdrive/distortion units or your amp's dirty channel for that matter. The HGB isn't one to give polite responses as implied by it's label, some of us would find the gain kick a little too sizzling for slight refinements.

With my BOSS Power Stack, the pedal did better as a pre-distortion boost. Once I changed the order, for the HGB to appear post-distortion, the Power Stack's voicing was drowned by the HGB. Through my Laney Iron Heart, the HGB does well as a pre-preamp function (ie: guitar-pedal-amp) AND through the FX loop. The FX loop option was of course more rewarding, letting the HGB add to the distortion fray post-preamp.

How is this pedal different from any other booster unit out there? It adds to gain in addition to merely a volume boost which doesn't make it a better pedal but a different option depending on your intentions.

Goodbye: Jet City Pico Valve

I've said goodbye to my Pico Valve (sold to Jo @ NoobAxe) not because it's a lousy amp, in fact, it's one of the best when no-frills tube tone is concerned. I need a small head with an FX loop feature which the Picovalve does not possess. That's about it. New amp in the works? Not in the mean time.

Jet City Amp: Pico Valve

My new amp is Jet City's Pico Valve. This is actually a licensed product by THD hence the logo you see here. Andy Marshall refers to THD's founding owner, Andrew Marshall, absolutely no relations to Marshall amps.

It cracks me up to see the controls going up to a maximum of '9' only, he he...So if you have any other amps going up to 10, chances are, you can beat the Pico Valve in view of this limitation- is this the case? Mua ha ha ha...

Let me give you a run-down on tone:

Clean

A wonderful warm clean heard from this one, very contemporary sounding, nothing Fender-ish. However, there's very little headroom on offer (in both 2W/ 5W models) even with the pre-amp gain backed down to its lower levels. The master control just takes over all the time.

Default gain

The drive on offer is not of the heavy metal calibre. It provides that dirt to make 'em blues rockers happy. If you are the Dumble dreamer who has no obligations to shred, this will satiate you in the mean time.

Pedals

The Pico Valve, my dear friends, is a great pedal feeder not in clean mode- that's what I heard after days of testing. For some ear candy, I cranked the gain way up & fed my pedals through. I've used many TS-type pedals along the way & the conclusion here is that they are all not strong enough in overpowering the default preamp gain, you'll hear more of what the PV is all about with added saturation. For any significant difference to be heard, your pedals need to be of the distortion type & not too mild mannered, an example here would be the Danelectro Coolcat distortion. 

Being an intense distortion fan, I duly plugged in some metal-grade distortion units into the PV & was glad to hear the pedals more than the amp, the latter provides some much needed boost & saturation without getting in the way- I simply love this chemistry. My firm favourite is the (BOSS) Power Stack-PV pairing, it makes the overall tone rather huge-sounding with lots of definition in tact. This option works for a simple reason- the Power Stack is not bent on making the tone excessively piercing or typically heavy metal; it just intensifies the tone with lots of amp characteristics, akin to cascading an intense type distortion into a mild drive booster unit.

Here's a rear view- the PV only has the variable resistance on offer, no FX loop feature here. Despite its diminutive nature, the PV is hefty. 

Jet City Amp: JCA100H

Jet City amps offer us, tube enthusiasts, a chance to own some creamy tones at affordable prices. In fact, I can't recall any JCA models going for more than $750; the flagship JCA 100H (100W) model shown here is $650... The alluring price tags aside, what can you expect from Jet City amps? Please look elsewhere if you are thinking of the super intense Soldano SLO 100 even if there is a Soldano label there on the control panel. It's a different tonal palette, this one- think British, think lots of EL power tube push but strangely, the JCA 100H has no ELs in there. In fact, it's a quartet of 6L6s. This amp will benefit us players who love digging deep across our fretboards while enjoying some power tube cream; speed is optional. In terms of intensity, the JCA 100H would require some pedal re-inforcements of you are treading the metal territory. So there you have it, some serious tube tones for the taking at very reasonable prices.

PS: Thanks to Burn & Davis GMC for giving me the chance to try the JC amps- all the amps, in fact :-)