I do not recall having a lot of hiss with my JC amps, except coming from SC guitars. Those guitar enjoyed noise, regardless of amp. The JC is its own thing and it has a forward sounding tone. This can be good or bad. I have three different JC amps, and have used them in different situations. I think of them as a good pedal platform type if thing. I have not used for a long time. Been using a Henriksen Jazz 110 and a tweed deluxe tone. If you want an amp that will run stereo or wet/dry in one amp, then I think a jc40 can not be beat with out spending boutique amp prices. If you want to have a clean pedal platform amp, JC is also cool. For non focused pedal playing, and home, I would look for the sound you want and see what fits the bill best. As I said The JC has its own sound.