Jazz Guitar Amp Survey 2025

[Dirk]

Some of you may remember we did a jazz guitar amp survey back in 2014.

The results are a bit outdated, so I’m running a new one.

If you have a minute, I’d love to know what amp (or modeler) you’re using these days.

You can take the survey here — it takes less than two minutes:
Jazz Guitar Amp Survey 2025

I'll post the results on the blog soon.

Thanks,
Dirk

[pauln]

The satisfaction and level of play selections do not function for me.
Both are presented differently than the other questions' selections.
For both the event detection of the cursor over selection is absent.

[Dirk]

The satisfaction and level of play selections do not function for me.
Both are presented differently than the other questions' selections.
For both the event detection of the cursor over selection is absent.

Weird, what device and browser are you on?

[pauln]

Dell PC Inspiron N 4020 (circa 2011)
Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
Opera Browser 95.0.4


Update.....
I tried using another machine (HP, Windows 10, Opera).
The little circles for selection were less faint than Win7.
I have succeeded in completing the survey, Thank you.

[Spook410]

Thanks for doing this Dirk. Think you'll find that, as a group, we're still a bunch of dinosaurs when it comes to amplification.

[John A.]

Some suggestions:

For "What type of amp do you prefer for jazz?" I suggest you add "no preferred technology" as a choice.
For "What kind of guitar do you mainly use for jazz?" make it multiple choice (lots of us don't "mainly" use one type or another)
Maybe distinguish between rigs used for live playing and recording. For instance, lots of people use some kind of amp for playing live with others but software modelers (plug-ins) for recording.

Also, what are the *'s for?

[pauln]

Usually the "*" indicates the parts of forms that are required for minimum completion.

[John A.]

Usually the "*" indicates the parts of forms that are required for minimum completion.

And usually the form says this. This one doesn't.

[omphalopsychos]

I feel like the survey should be segmented by use cases. I.e. I prefer my vibrolux over anything when I can bring it, but when portability is an issue, I use a solid state amp.

[bozobreak]

I couldn't select for these as well.
Opera, Win11

[Sleeko]

How do we see the results?

[Gitterbug]

How do we see the results?

JGO claims to have almost 94,000 members. Not all of them are active, or even alive, I'm afraid. I don't know how Dirk sees this, but I think that hundreds of replies are needed for results worth posting. The high number of choices also weighs in. As well, suggestions have been made to improve the structure of the questionnaire. One more: If someone uses a head-cab combination as the main rig, like many of my Toob/Metro customers do, the cab brand is of equal interest.

Edit: Just noticed that Raezer's Edge, Milkman and TC Electronic don't appear as amp choices. They're more common today than many listed brands.

[kris]

Nice!

[Dirk]

I couldn't select for these as well.
Opera, Win11

Dell PC Inspiron N 4020 (circa 2011)
Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
Opera Browser 95.0.4


Update.....
I tried using another machine (HP, Windows 10, Opera).
The little circles for selection were less faint than Win7.
I have succeeded in completing the survey, Thank you.

Opera seems to be a common denominator. I tested with Opera on Windows 10 and had no issues, not sure what's causing this.

[Dirk]

How do we see the results?

I'll post the results on the blog, just like I did in 2014.

[Dirk]

JGO claims to have almost 94,000 members. Not all of them are active, or even alive, I'm afraid. I don't know how Dirk sees this, but I think that hundreds of replies are needed for results worth posting.

So far, over 3,000 people took the survey. I'll leave it open a week longer, should get to 5,000.

One more: If someone uses a head-cab combination as the main rig, like many of my Toob/Metro customers do, the cab brand is of equal interest.

The question about cab brand should pop up if you choose head-cab combinantion (TOOB is listed among the options).

[garybaldy]

Thanks for doing this Dirk. Think you'll find that, as a group, we're still a bunch of dinosaurs when it comes to amplification.

I put Polytone but I could be the only one.

[pauln]

Opera seems to be a common denominator. I tested with Opera on Windows 10 and had no issues, not sure what's causing this.

The problem for me was strictly visual and probably self inflicted - the rest of the questions had their selection circles to their left, faintly visible but logical / predictable. The particular two questions had their selection circles below each label; same faintness as the others, but "invisible" unless you know where they were located.

But this is not a problem with the survey; it is probably not a problem with Opera (which has been a browser since 1995), but more certainly an artifact of personalizing display settings for the way Opera renders colors for some objects.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

The problem for me was strictly visual and probably self inflicted - the rest of the questions had their selection circles to their left, faintly visible but logical / predictable. The particular two questions had their selection circles below each label; same faintness as the others, but "invisible" unless you know where they were located.

I don’t know for sure that this is the issue here, but it’s a common problem with “responsive” web pages that are coded to change the layout on screens of different sizes. They detect the display size / resolution in styles that can be coded as small - medium- large, phone - tablet - monitor or whatever categorization the web designer prefers. The size range for each category is coded into the page, and detection of a display within that size range causes the page format for that size range to appear.

Images, text boxes, buttons, dialog boxes, controls etc are resized to fit each format. It’s very hard to make sure that every element, control, image etc on a complex page fits exactly in each format. If a line runs even one pixel over the width of the display, the element can be displaced to the next line above or below its intended location.

This can also occur when static pages are displayed on a screen that’s not quite big enough for the page it’s trying to display. Responsive web pages are one solution to this problem. But there have to be enough size categories to encompass all practical screen sizes and resolutions, if it’s to work flawlessly.

One solution for users is to change the text size in the browser. Making it one step smaller often creates enough room for the layout to display correctly. As for the low contrast problem, some browsers have a high contrast option. Opera does not IIRC, but there’s a high contrast add-in in the Opera add-in / extension store that might help. Many modern operating systems also have a high contrast display option.

[andreshum]

It’s a difficult decision to pick just one amp. I’m sure I’m not alone! It would be nice if multiple choices are allowed

[Bflat233]

Thank you for your efforts over the years, Dirk. Your guitar and amp surveys are the best data we have on the gear jazz guitar players use. I look forward to the new survey results.