amp modeller....?

  • Thread starter Thread starter WEBCYAN
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WEBCYAN

WEBCYAN

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well....my first electric guitar i bought was one of those squier strats. Today I took it into a music shop and told the guy there that I wanted to test it out on different amps. I told him I was recording some stuff and needed somthing besides my crappy 10 watt practice amp.
I started looking around and realized that I could only afford a solid state amp...and not only that, but they were EXPENSIVE!

Anyway, this particular guy who worked there happened to hear some of the stuff I was playing on the amps to test them. After talking with him he said that his 3 favorite bands were Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, and A Perfect Circle. :) same as me.

So....he kind of wanted to help me out since we both were into the same stuff. He went in the back of the store and came out with a "Johnson J-Station Guitar Amp Modeller". I had never used one before. He pluged it inbetween my strat and my practice amp...and....wow! BIG difference. He then noticed that the strat obviously had SC Pick ups so he showed me another guitar. A Yamaha ERG121. He said when it first was shipped to the store they all thought it would sound like crap. They plugged it in though and now this guy is in love with the guitar. Its inexpensive, but it sounds awesome. I ended up selling my strat to them and buying the yamaha. the PU consist of 2 HB and 1 SC.

Anyway......I was wondering if any of you out there have ever used or own a J-Station? He thinks its better than a POD.

Heres the deal...it retails for $450....BUT, since this guy is really into what Im doing(he even wants to play bass on my cd) he offered to sell it to me for $120!
pretty good deal.
I was just wondering what all of your experience with this is. It sounded pretty good hooked to the amp....but if I were to just DI everything into my soundcard will it still sound as good..or better?

Now all I have to get is a vocal compressor, a bass, and monitors....and Im ready to freakin record! :)
 
Heh, the average selling price for the jstation is $150. So, he might have saved you a few bucks, but don't do him any special favors or anything :)

I think that the jstation or POD would be perfect for you. Honestly. You'll have a much better experience in the time being. No mic'ing, decent enough sound, and you can record well into the weee hours of the morning without disturbing anybody. I'm not sure why I didn't think of mentioning this in your other thread about amps. Get it. Take the JStation over the POD too, since it's about 100-150 cheaper and has 3 bass amp models which'll come in handy if you ever get that bass.

BTW, Tool is now your favorite band? Holy smokes you change your mind damn fast! :)

Slackmaster 2000
 
dont do him any "favors"....
crap.

anyway, does it sound as good DI'd as micing an amp with an sm57?

the price on that page says $450.....is that not true?

I never said tool is my favorite band.
I said: "After talking with him he said that his 3 favorite bands were Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, and A Perfect Circle. same as me."

APC, Smashing Pumpkins, AND Tool.

but mainly APC. of course.... :)
 
And I can still drag up a post from one month ago in which you said that tool "hasn't produced one good album". Haha! :) Glad you changed your mind though, seriously.

Anyway, that $450 must be MSRP or something. Do a search at musicians friend or at zzounds or at any online retailer. The price will be $149. It's even $149 locally in bumfuck montana here. It's really quite a value considering the POD still sells for $300 or so.

The thing is MADE for DI, that's its whole purpose. Yeah you can use it as a front end to your amp, but DI is really where it'll shine.

As far as what you're able to do right now, yes, it will probably sound as good as what you're doing with an SM57 and an amp. In fact it will sound a lot better, especially if your alternative is a 10W solid state practice amp :) I'm serious, I have a POD and I think the sounds on it are totally usable and I can remember being completely blown away when I first got it. These new devices are far more advanced than anything that's ever existed. You can lay down tracks and they'll sound good enough to fool 99% of the people who listen. In fact, I'm willing to bet that you'll be fooled. Your chances of laying a track that sounds somewhat professional with a JStation are a HELL of a lot better than trying to get a professional sounding track out of a practice amp in your dorm room.

Ask the guy if you can return it if you don't like it. Take it home and run the damn thing into your soundcard. You will not take it back, I promise. In fact, this is such a perfect match for you right now that I'm really kicking myself for not mentioning it days ago in your preamp thread.

If you're going to get a decent amp at the music store, you're going to spend at LEAST $400. Something more around $600 is probably more reasonable though. Then what do you have? With the rate at which your musical preference is changing, one day you might be into a generic marshall sound, the next day you might be into a more fender sound. Uh oh, you better get a couple more amps. And then factor in the cost of pedals, and real pedals not those stupid all-in-one boxes that sound like 1987. Then maybe the SM57 isn't working in every case, so you need to figure in the cost of some more microphones and definately some decent preamps. Then your dorm room sounds like shit, so you'll need to do some room treatments or record at some other location. And then you get your bass guitar, but oh gee you don't have a bass amp...better go spend another several hundred dollars. And then your RA is knocking at your door because you're shaking the whole floor with some wicked tool riffs.

OR, you get a jstation. You plug it in to your soundcard. You can record with headphones on. It sounds great compared to everything you've ever recorded. It's got both bass and guitar models, and even a few for acoustic. And best of all, you still have some money left over for monitors.

Considering the style of music you're into, the rest of your gear, your current living situation, and your recording experience: the jstation is the best way for you to spend your money right now.

Ok, I'm not sure if I can say this any other way.... just do it.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Oh, if you want to hear an example of what a POD or Jstation can do in a very short amount of time, head over to my ugly website (hey, it's being redone as we speak haha) and check out the song MONDAY. Those guitar tracks took less than an hour start to finish. I'm especially happy with the way the little solo break at the end turned out. (all guitars were POD, except the bass which was compressor->sansamp->art tube MP)

http://www.slackmaster2000.com - MONDAY (not the other weekday songs, just MONDAY)

And I'm sure if you asked, you'd find a hundred other people with samples....in fact I bet 30-50% of the songs posted to the cave were done with a pod or jstation.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Yeah but hasnt any one wondered why the POD has held its value over the J station?? The POD i by now ways or any where near perfect but it is a good tool for home recording and live work!
 
The original MSRP was $449 or whatever, but many months ago they dropped the price to $150 to compete with the POD and the new Behringer rip-off lookalike that was about to hit the market...
 
im quite happy now then.

living in a dorm and having a roommate who blasts....rap :rolleyes: its rather difficult to record anything. So DIing is a BIG help. So now I have bas, guitar, and drums(drum machine...) coverd. all I have to do is record vocals at a studio.

When the guy there plugged it between my amp and guitar it sounded awesome. thats great if it sounds even better DIed.

Slackmaster....yeah...I used to not like tool. But I have changed.
I just bought Lateralus yesterday. Its DEFINETLY(sp?) not a singles album. Concept, listen to from start to finish, kind of thing is more like it. I like it alot. Its not really based on hooks but rather a mood or feeling. Although...some of the songs NEED to be cut short.
The Patient, Schism, Parabola, and lateralus are very good.
That last track is very creepy when listening to alone in the dark. That guy was disturbing. :) I listen to art bell all the time so Im used to hearing that kind of thing. I think 90% of it is just entertaining and blatantly fake....but the 10% that seems to be legit is rather interesting.
 
Yeah, the J-Station is definitely a better rig for recording because of J-Edit and the S/PDIF out. No question in my mind whatsoever.

As far as I can tell, the J-Station isn't even "marketed" at all anymore. I thought they were out of production, there's so little hype...but the upgrades keep coming. At $125-$150, they're a fantastic deal. That's half of what a POD costs, and the POD is less suitable for recording; you have to go to the POD Pro to get a S/PDIF out.

J-Station also does bass nicely. Actually, I think I may like it for bass even better than for guitar. There are some new bass amp & cab models in the last upgrade that are really nice.

I haven't really worked out my guitar distort sounds yet, but the cleaner sounds you can work up in J-Edit are fantastic.
 
The people that own Digitech also own Johnson. Digitech have now released the Genesis 3 as the replacement for the J-Station. I believe it's got some more features, although it doesn't have any Bass Amps (but costs twice the price). Basically the J-Station is no longer being maufactured - that's why the price is so low. I managed to buy a J-Station at that low price and I have to say I am very happy with it. It also has digital outputs which are a great asset for me (NO noise). At $125-$150 you can't go wrong.

Some people seem to prefer the tones on the Pod, while others prefer the J-Station, we could (and have) argue about it all day on this forum, but at the end of the day it's up to you and your ears.
 
as mentioned by others, the J-Station for $120 wasnt that great of a deal....with tax you probably paid $130 plus.....many places have it for $149 with free shipping no tax.......


i am really interested in what model Squier you sold him and how much did you have to throw in to get that ERG121.......
 
it was a squier fender strat. its lists for $230.
I sold it for $150 and the yamaha was $200. so..$50 extra/
 
Slack...your assesements and advice were so "right on", it makes me cry with happiness. You're a father, I bet;)
 
> I managed to buy a J-Station at that low price and I have to
> say I am very happy with it. It also has digital outputs which
> are a great asset for me (NO noise). At $125-$150 you can't go
> wrong.

That's my take completely. That's the price of some stupid pedal.
 
i use the j-station to record all my electric guitars.... it is very versitile
www.mp3.com/originalorganism
in case you wanna know how it sounds double tracked w/ drums vocals etc., all the non-acoustic guitar tones on all the songs are done w/ a j-station..... oh yea, all the bass guitar too!
 
Gidge said:
as mentioned by others, the J-Station for $120 wasnt that great of a deal....with tax you probably paid $130 plus.....many places have it for $149 with free shipping no tax.......


i am really interested in what model Squier you sold him and how much did you have to throw in to get that ERG121.......
Click to expand...

how is $130 and getting it *NOW* worse than $149 and waiting 2weeks for it to get there? Whatever logic you're using, its wrong. 130 and getting it NOW is better than 149 and waiting.

Mine (bought it last week) was 148 total, and i had it NOW. Instead of paying more and getting it later. :)

anyway, so far..i love my jstation.
 
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