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Roland Jazz Chorus 120 amplifier
There is a kind of a joke about that the JC-120 makes all guitars sound the same. When I was playing inexpensive guitars - Fender Squires and the like - this seemed to be true. The Roland acted like the Equalizer, evening up the sonic play ground. However I am now playing a Tom Anderson vintage Stratocaster which sounds really cool through the Roland amplifer with the chorus off - this is the only guitar that I can do this with! All other guitars that I have tried need to have the chorus to defeat the sterility. My Gibson Nighthawk sounds glorious with the middle pickup position - shining, sparkling, incredible with the chorus engaged!. The Roland speakers have real projection, unlike other amps such as the valvestate Marshalls which 20 feet away drop off radically. The Roland yields a rich dispersion sound field, allowing you to play at reasonable volumes and yet cut through the drums and bass. Yes this is one bright sounding amp, but I always play through the low input with the bright switch off. With treble at 3-5 the sound is bright without being harsh. The combination of the Anderson guitar through the JC-120 is guitar bliss. The inexpensive Fender Squires I used to own always sounded a bit shrill no matter what, but hey what did I expect? I like the reverb feature on the amplifier - not as much as a tube amp reverb, but still cool, rich and deep. Using a distortion/overdrive pedal solves the one area where the Roland does not do a good job. But nobody buys a JC-120 for metal or punk music; it is a refined sound, great for blues/jazz/spatial textures.
Reliability/Durability 5/5
Always works - very but very reliable
Traynor YCV40 Custom Valve Combo Amp
Sound Quality 5/5
I have to admit that I play the Roland jazz chorus 120 alongside the Traynor amp, this being accomplished via an A/B amplifier switching pedal. I can get gloss and realism together. I love the clean fender sounding clean channel, which works great with my fender American Stratocaster with Texas Special pickups. The 2x12 and the 4x10 speaker models have a completely different clean channel, one that I found had almost no high end response. The clean channel does not allow for harshness, unless you are playing a real shrill sounding guitar. For bluesy material I like it both for a small club setting, and also miked. This amp has quite a growl, and you never have to worry about some frenetic drummer. You can spike lightning in his ear any time time you want. Backing up on the volume pots creates less breakup and more of a Fender tone. Full out gives rein to the amps lively nature. I don't use the boosted distortion channel, but I like the normal distortion channel's response to my right hand playing volume. As I attack the notes, the amp responds in kind. Lots of variation playing around with the gain levels. Lots of roar when you want it.
Reliability/Durability 3/5
So far no complaints - terrific!
Cons
I rejected 5 or so of these amps for hums and whistle sounds, pinging, rattles in speakers.. Lucky for me the Long and McQuade store had many off them, so I could finally purchase the one without problems. Still this amp is quirky, no doubt, but in a lovable way, so there could be problems down the road.
Price/Value 5/5
General Comments
I have gone through many amplifiers in my life. I sold the Fender Cyber Twin for this one. Over time, the tone of the Cyber Twin seemed paper thin, though initially I liked it a lot. Also, the Cyber Twin has poor projection, whereas the Traynor amplifier projects clearly in your ear many feet away. I have owned other various fender amplifiers, a Marshall Valvestate, a Mesa Boogie .50 calibre. In particular I also not long ago owned a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10 combo amp and and comparing this or the 1x12 model to the Traynor was a no-brainer for me. I didn't then and don't now like the harsh tone set of the Fender Hot Rod series. To me they have an annoying mid range honk. There are some musicians who love them though, but I rate this Traynor amp way ahead in honest tube tone, and the distortion is much more realistic with the Traynor than the Fender. I have tried some of the boutique amps - Bogner, Bbuddah, but the Traynor for the price is a big winner and deserving of a great rating!
Amazon reviews
Beyerdynamic DT-990-Pro-250 Professional Acoustically Open Headphones for Monitoring and Studio Applications
Price: CDN$ 229.98
5 stars Amazing, blew the so-called 'gold standard head phones out of the water, Jan. 18 2017
There are many positive qualities I like about these headphones. I have had them for at least 5 years. The cable is strong, well-connected to the headphone. I like the curly cord, it doesn't cause cable stress. But this is the small stuff. The litmus test is what do they sound like? Well we all know sound is quite subjective. Some like rock music, some classical, some blues, etc. I recently had the opportunity to compare these phones to other manufacturer's phones which have excellent reviews. I went downtown to a high end audio store and compared these phones to the Sennheiser HD 600 and 650, the so called 'gold standard'. The DT 990 blew them away. But completely. More depth, more bottom end, more balance between lows, mids, highs. More transparency which is an important characteristic for me. I use the Dragonfly Black plugged into my computer's USB port and the sound is awesome! Amazing! I also use them with my Zoom R8 recorder and my Korg keyboard. The results are excellent. I also read about the so-called amazing Audioquest Nighthawk phones which were on clearance at the same Hi-Fi audio store, selling for $200 less. With so many glowing reviews I had to compare them with my DT 990's even though I knew I couldn't afford them. Well again the DT 990's blew them away. The Nighthawk headphones are so bottom end heavy it is just ridiculous. The mids, highs are almost completely obscured. BTW all of the testing was done listening to Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb using the store's Bryston headphone amp/DAC combination which retails for around $1800 CAD. There is no doubt that what I am hearing is quite different than what some so-called experts are hearing. I had to try a pair of $1800 headphones to hear some difference between the DT 990's and I still prefer the DT 990's as the $1800 pair were also bottom heavy and I see that ear fatigue would be a problem with those phones.
Cons
I have one small complaint which is unique to my head shape. I find the pressure a bit tight even after 5 years of use despite the comfy material that press against my ears. In fact after 20 minutes of listening I need to take the phones off as the pressure can get uncomfortably painful. I still can't give these headphones anything less than 5 stars. They are that good and cost about 1/3 of the Sennheiser's and $550 less than the Nighthawk phones. Incredible value, subjective opinion of course.
Planet Waves PW-GD-01 Guitar Dock
Price: CDN$ 23.54
1 star terrible design, poorly executed
Not well thought out product, the safety flippers are useless. I couldn't hold a matchstick in place, let alone a guitar. Planet Waves should have used hard plastic or something else that is STRONG with a vertical slip out and horizontal locking position to securely prevent guitar from falling out. Cheap screw clamp is used instead of a quality part. Not impressed. On a carpet, the device kind of works because the bottom of the guitar won't slip but on wood or tile it is very dangerous. AVOID if you treasure your guitar. My suggestions are to redo the design, use a better quality clamp. To say nothing of the fact that when the guitar slips on a hard surface the bottom of the guitar resting on the floor will get scratched and/or chipped. The company should have included some foam material for a guitar resting on floor. Very unsatisfied customer! I would never use it on stage. A disaster waiting to happen. A Kluge! (something held together with sealing wax and tape, created by a flunking engineering student at a 10th rate college). Conclusion: Get a real guitar stand that satisfies the two basic requirements of a guitar holder product that this guitar dock does NOT do: secure the guitar safely, and keep it off the floor thus avoiding scratches, dings, scuff marks.