J-station amplification

[cstockdale]

Okay, first off, I have a real tube amp, which actually kicks serious ass for recording, but it is a very low wattage sucker, 10W at best. No good for jamming with real drums!

Also, I have (on loan) a Vox Cambridge 30 amp.

I also have a Peavey Ecoustic 112 amp.

My longer-term plans are to get me either a nice Fender or Vox all-tube beast that will handle all my live/jamming needs. But I simply cannot afford that purchase for a long time.

In the meantime, I am trying to find a way to successfully amplify my J-station to use in jamming/live situations for the times where the tone in that is what I want. I have run it into the FX loop of my Ecoustic amp, which pushes 100W, which is plenty loud enough, but as Peavey support techs have told me, I am going to kill the speaker in this amp using it with the J-station, especially with high-gain sounds, because it isn't designed for it (it is, after all, an acoustic amp).

What would you do to amplify this thing? I have tried it straight into a PA in a club, but if the soundman isn't cooperative, you can really suffer if there isn't enough guitar in the monitors, plus you can't get feedback this way.

I was thinking of getting a simple power amp, designed to push anywhere from 80-200W per channel, and hooking up to a decent 2*10, or 2*12 cabinet, or a pair of cabinets to get real stereo.

Question 1:
Will this work?

2)If it doesn't, what else is needed?

3)If it does, how much of a bearing does the brand-name on the power amp have on this? Any recommendations for a decent, budget power amp?

 

[Outlaws]

From what I understand, an "acoustic amp" is not much more than a PA system in a box. So puting a JStation into it should be no problem. But don't take my word alone.........

 

[Lt. Bob]

Doesn't seem like it should hurt the speaker unless it's a piece of shit. It's true that distorted sound has a lot of energy but a decent speaker should be ok.
But the way you've described would work also. Yes....different amps sound different so try before you buy.

 

[JR#97]

Check out the Tech21 Power Engine. It's designed to do exaclty what you need. http://www.tech21nyc.com/PE60.html

I can relate to your situation. But in those instances, I just wheel out my Roland JC120. Plenty of wattage and it's a great platform for modellers as well as my acoustics. Hell, I even ran vocals throught it once.

 

[cstockdale]

I have a feeling that the reason that Peavey tech support told me it would kill the speaker in the long run had more to do with liability ..

"don't hook up something not made by us into an acoustic amp...".

The speaker is a pretty good one, so I have been using it with some success. But I am more interested in eventually being able to stereo-amp the J, as a pair of cabinets is something I am sure I will get other uses out of down the line: then all I have to get is a big tube amp head instead of a big huge tube combo.

 

[cstockdale]

with that Roland JC120, how do you connect the J?

Do you go through the fx loop (ie plugged into the preamp on the JC120), or do you just go into the FX "in" and bypass the preamp on the JC120?

Essentially, my Ecoustic amp is pretty similar to that, although it is optimized for acoustic guitar, but that is why I thought it would work decently with the J, because it would colour it the least as it is just a good clean amp that gets real loud (100W) without distorting.

 

[JR#97]

with that Roland JC120, how do you connect the J?

Do you go through the fx loop (ie plugged into the preamp on the JC120), or do you just go into the FX "in" and bypass the preamp on the JC120?

My JC120 is the older (better) one that doesn't have the fx loop.
I don't use a J, but I do use sansamp/tech21 stuff. I just go straight into the channel 2 lo input. That way I get the eq, volume, and reverb of the amp. I have put a stereo guitar pre-amp that had fx in it straight into the Rolands inputs on the back. That way I got true stereo and the roland's power amp without the roland pre-amp. Then adjusted levels at the pre-amp. That worked great.

Your Peavey should work fine. For live, it would mainly be for your ears, right? Either send a feed to the board or mic the amp?

 

[Major Tom]

Lt. Bob's succint reply is right on the money:

Doesn't seem like it should hurt the speaker unless it's a piece of shit. It's true that distorted sound has a lot of energy but a decent speaker should be ok.

The Peavey guy must not feel like that amp is quite up to its specs...probably more concerned about the tweeter (I assume it has one), which wouldn't be all that expensive to replace if you blow it, or possibly the power amp, too. Make sure the amp is well ventilated.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Yeah....I just looked at the amps specs and it's a coaxial speaker so I can see that the tweeter might be vulnerable.

 

[cstockdale]

Now I am a little confused.Tweeter? what tweeter? As far as I know there is a 12 inch blue marvel speaker in there, or can there be a tweeter in the same speaker? There is a newer Ecoustic 112 FX, I have just the Ecoustic 112...no FX.

This speaker is the same as the speaker in the Classic 30, which most definitely holds its weight under high gain.

I am just curious, because I don't really know how to read these spec sheets , what did you see that makes you think the speaker/tweeter would be vulnerable?

 

[Lt. Bob]

Don't mean to confuse you....after looking closerit says it has the blue marvel but it describes it as being coaxial. Must be a misprint. If it's the blue marvel that's in the classic then there should be absolutely no problem in running it like you described.