Johnson JT50

[azraelswings]

Hey all,

I've had my JT50 for quite a while, but have honestly never explored all the amp models it can emulate. These are the amps within as described by the owner's manual:

Blues Combo -a driving distorted combo tone
Black Face -based on a ‘65 Fender Twin Reverb
Tweed -based on a ‘57 Fender Tweed Deluxe
Boutique -based on a Matchless DC30
Hot Rod Combo -based on a Mesa Boogie Mark II C
Johnson Clean -a clean combo setting
Johnson Dirty -a nice crunchy combo
Johnson Gain -a smooth singing lead tone
Rectified -based on a Mesa Dual Rectifier
Brit Modern -based on a Marshall JCM900
Brit Master -based on a Marshall Master Volume
Brit Class A -based on a Vox AC30 (clean gain)

Can anyone give a few tracks for some of these so I can get an idea of the quintessential tones they produce? I'm not a gear guy at all, and just tyring to get an idea what sort of tones the originals amps produced.

 

[CoolCat]

the Johnson, great built product...but it didn't get the "shelf" space and Line 6 with particle board cabinets won.

Johnson using hardened Canadian wood and 3/4 MDF...a great amp. Retaield up to $1200 for a short while. i had the extra cab and foot pedal, about a $1800 rig.

nice piece. but again they lost the marketing war, the cheaper stuff with more effects won out in the Modelling Wars. As I recall....

As far as sounds...my brother has mine (wedding present...but he got divorced so do I get it back? hmm?)

not to be a dick, but "sound" is the Marshal..
There's no Fender STrat "sound" is there? I mean Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix and Clapton never sounded the same...yet all use STrats....

What I liked about modellers is you got what used to cost $1000 in effects thrown in,
and no batterys and wal warts to fight with on stage, and the programability of call-up... the electronic buzzing of seperate pedals eliminated....

and you didn't have to have a Twin Reverb on full blast to get distortion!

Johnson was some well built stuff, impressive the materials they used.

I was surprised to see them go under...sometimes it seems the cheap crap makes the most money.

 

[loveofjazz]

Johnson

An acquaintance runs a studio near where I live, and stays quite busy. He's got a decent reputation, and is rather adept at his trade.

A lot of the guitar tracks he records are direct recorded with the J-Station. I know that's sacrilege to some on here, but the stuff sounds pretty good. He swears by it. He even admitted that when some guys mic a cabinet or combo, they'll run a separate line through the J-Station and end up using the direct track mixed with the mic'ed track, or maybe even the J-Station track itself.

 

[ocnor]

Johnson was some well built stuff, impressive the materials they used.I was surprised to see them go under...sometimes it seems the cheap crap makes the most money.

The reason they went under is because a large percentage of those amps just stopped working without any warning. When they did work the sound was very brittle and harsh. The cabinets were well built but the electronics totally blew.

 

[CoolCat]

The reason they went under is because a large percentage of those amps just stopped working without any warning. When they did work the sound was very brittle and harsh. The cabinets were well built but the electronics totally blew.

I disagree on the brittle and harsh. Compared to the Crate and Line6 the JM60 was much better tone, shitzbah! imo.
The quality was way above them (and the sticker price was waaaayy above them).

If your comparing to a MesaBoogie...er...ok, maybe some "wonk"..


Reading the Johnson forum,, its mostly about repair issues? Not "hey this is great!" interesting.. never heard that angle before.
you sound like you sold them or something?

I just bought one years ago, a J8, and a spare cab. It was some high dollar stuff at the time. I gave it away as a present.

Its still working great and as the other poster said, my brother loves the sound of the DI to his DAW... I heard some tunes, not bad. He wants something bigger and I said I'll take the JM60 back, beautiful little cabinet...er.. in relate to my 1982 Peavy SS Studio combo.


Modelers...to be or not to be........ continued