Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight

[jorgemg1984]

To the OP,
Bottom line since I am a novice and rarely go outside of my bedroom, volume in an amp has always been an issue for me. Over the years I have gone from Silverface Fender Twins and Roland JC 120's to low wattage tube amps.

The Fender Jazzmaster ultralight amp offered too many excellent features at a great price I was willing to work around the volume issue. The clean headroom in the FJUL is what I was looking for.

As always Jorge's advice, suggestions and thoughts including modifications are extremely helpful to me and I'm sure to others. In those regards, once I find someone capable I will have the volume mod done.

As for tube amps I am down to a 64 Bandmaster head at 40 watts and looking to use yellowjackets with EL84 power tubes to cut the wattage.

Hi there Rich!

I agree the JMUL is an excellent amp. It would still be excellent without any mods - the mods only turned it even better!

I appreciate your comments but all the merit on that one goes to I_R. My electronics knowledge unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps) is very very limited. I have the ideas but I need someone else to tell me how to make them happen

The mod is pretty simple really. Anyone who can solder and read a schematic can do it.

[jorgemg1984]

Yes mine certainly is. With the volume at zero of course there is silent, with the volume past 1 it is already way too loud for home use. I simply have no room to wiggle the knob to something useful

Like Jorge said, IR responded to my PM so I will give the cap change a try

I am really glad he replied to you. I can assure the mod works exactly as advertised: you'll have the same volume on 10 but it will be much more progressive; you will stop hearing added highs at higher volumes.

Please keep us posted!

[fws6]

Well, I gave up already !!

I tried to open the head, but those allen head bolts seem to have been placed with a hammer and are impossible to take out. I have the correct US size wrench, but these bolts rather break than come out. I snapped two !!! F$#% !!!!

when I take off the sides (which in contrast come off easily) I can see that theres no way I can reach that cap without having to disassamble the whole thing.

Like Roger sais I dont want to mess with volume knob from the guitar to the amp as undoubtedly it changes tone - so I think I'm back to my initial plan to put a passive attenuator in between the head an the cab, see if that will help

[misterno]

Hi Jorgem !

Please, I need your help !

1.
My jazmaster ultralight amp head, has sudden volume loss after a while..(
What may cause this problem? how can I solve it?


2.
can I use a 16 Ohm speaker with this Amp?

Thank you !!!

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I agree it's different from what Fender puts out. But let's say:
.
.
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3) named it the Ultralight and promote is a "fender tone in a small box" instead of a "jazz amp"

4) maximum power at 4 ohms and not 2 ohms so it could be optimized with most cabs (4 and 8 ohms). Specifically stating it could be used at 4 and 8 ohms
.
.
.

3. Agreed. Naming anything *Jazz* is the kiss of death. Except for the Fender Jazz Bass, for some reason.

4. Of course you know, being SS, it can go into a 4ohm cab no problem, the wattage will just be lower. I suppose they could have advertized it as being 4 ohms and then had rumours you could run it down to 2.

EDIT: zombie, sorry.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I remember Raezor's Edge selling cabinets that had space to dock an AI Clarus, but they weren't such big sellers. It's curious that both Fender and Henriksen went after the tiny amp head market, and both ended up pulling their heads from the catalogs after a few years.

I guess jazz guys are just grab-and-go combo guys, but my longer term dream is to have some heads and cabs to mix and match. Right now Mambo and Quilter both have those compact heads, as so several bass amps set ups (TC, Phil Jones, etc...). Hmm... Evans had a head, too (checks) still listed. I guess there are still options.

[garryrenfro]

I have had a JMUL since shortly after they were introduced. If my memory serves me well, and it very well may not, it was Jan. 2006? I have used the amp a great deal and not had any problem. Being a Fender amp fan since the mid-60's, my opinion is prejudiced (however, Fender has marketed and still does market many amps I do not like), but I love the tone of both channels of this amp. It has a definite Fender voice. My playing will vary from clean to clean with a slight edge; and this amp can be set up perfectly to switch between the two without using pedals. I do not care for the digital effects, but the effect level does allow one to use just a whisper of them which can add a bit of air and dimension when wanted.
I have seen a lot of complaints about the price, but it seems to me to have been in line with similar products. I recently tried a Quilted Micro Pro head ($699.00) for 30 days. I think this is closer to the Fender in intent than an Acoustic Image or Henriksen, which may be very different (I have no experience with either of those). I did like the Quilter, and would not hesitate to recommend it, but after some extensive ABing, and a few gigs, determined it did not offer me any meaningful sounds I could not achieve with the JMUL, or other of my amps. And I much prefer the voice quality of the JMUL.
I also hope mine lasts forever, and would be willing pay a lot to have it repaired, if ever necessary.

[jorgemg1984]

Hi Jorgem !

Please, I need your help !

1.
My jazmaster ultralight amp head, has sudden volume loss after a while..(
What may cause this problem? how can I solve it?


2.
can I use a 16 Ohm speaker with this Amp?

Thank you !!!

Hi there. I was away from home for a few days, sorry for the delay.

Despite what might look like sometimes I am not an expert on these subjects... if you have volume loss take it to a good tech. You can use it with a 16 ohm cab BUT you will loose a lot of power.

Good luck!!

[jorgemg1984]

3. Agreed. Naming anything *Jazz* is the kiss of death. Except for the Fender Jazz Bass, for some reason.

4. Of course you know, being SS, it can go into a 4ohm cab no problem, the wattage will just be lower. I suppose they could have advertized it as being 4 ohms and then had rumours you could run it down to 2.

EDIT: zombie, sorry.

The thing is at 8 ohm (most speakers impedance these days) you will already have a noticeable volume loss because the maximum power is at 2 ohm... It could be a good thing if you want to use it with low power speakers though