Roland JC-22 vs DV Mark Little Jazz/Jazz 12

[diode]

As purely an at-home player, I’ve had both of these and got rid of them pretty quickly. They both have a standing hissing sound that really annoyed me. I don’t see why a solid state amp needs to have a noise floor higher than a tube amp.

I should add that if you look around on this forum you will see that not all of the LJ units have this hiss — only certain production runs seem to have it. Mine was purchased new in November 2021.

I would probably go with the LJ if I had to pick one. The line out on the JC didn’t mute the speakers which makes it pretty impractical for home use. The headphone out muted the speakers but sounded bad.

The LJ has bad reverb but a better overall sound and feature set.

[rpjazzguitar]

As purely an at-home player, I’ve had both of these and got rid of them pretty quickly. They both have a standing hissing sound that really annoyed me. I don’t see why a solid state amp needs to have a noise floor higher than a tube amp like my Princeton Reverb (which is silent).

I would probably go with the LJ if I had to pick one. The line out on the JC didn’t mute the speakers which makes it pretty impractical for home use. The headphone out muted the speakers but sounded bad.

The LJ has bad reverb but a better overall sound and feature set.

I think the LJ reverb sounds okay if you don't turn it up very high. It gives me enough decent sounding reverb.

If you rotate the reverb control higher (maybe past 10 o'clock or so) the sound gets strange, for want of a better way to describe it. My son likes it. I don't.

I add reverb with an ME80 in front of the LJ and leave the LJ's reverb control about 9 o'clock. You can hear that on my clip on the Doxy thread in the Improvisation part of this forum.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

If you rotate the reverb control higher (maybe past 10 o'clock or so) the sound gets strange, for want of a better way to describe it. My son likes it. I don't.

I discovered that turning the reverb knob all the way up on the DVMs gives a chorus-like phase / delay sound that’s a great effect on the right tunes. It’s actually a pretty cool sound for fusion solos a la Bitches’ Brew and even a slightly funked up All Blues. And it’s perfect for Sleepwalk, which I love to play as a medium tempo straight jazz tune.

[rpjazzguitar]

Trip Report.

Last night I played a quartet gig in a wine bar. Think store front with a bar on one side, tables on the other, and band in the window area on one side of the front door. High ceilings and the room goes back maybe 60 feet?

We're guitar, kb, electric bass and a tiny drum kit. Took us a while to figure out how to squeeze into the space alloted.

Kb amp was under the kb, which the pianist thought sounded a little muffled, not just where he was sitting, but also in the audience when another kb player sat in.

I brought a JC55 and the Little Jazz. I was hoping, but not really expecting, that the LJ would be loud enough to cover the room and that I could use the JC55 only for a vocal mic to sing a couple of tunes and interact with the audience. I was concerned that the vocals wouldn't sound good through the JC55. And, when I had to leave the JC55 on the floor and put the LJ on top of it, my concern was increased.

I have no idea where the bassist put his amp. He brought something tiny and wedged it someplace.

The good news is that no soundmen came to the gig, looked at this setup and had apoplexy.

Further good news is that the LJ covered the club easily and sounded fine. Surprising good news is that the JC55 did a fully reasonable job for the vocals. We had some musicians we knew in the audience tell us that the sound was fine. Bar owner liked the volume. We are now the regular band on the second Friday of every month.

[mickmac]

Everybody hears thing different. Ihave an early LJ. Ihave recorded and giged this amp in small and medium size rooms many times . Never had a noise complaint . I like the reverb ..so what.The Little Jazz has more warmth than I expected . Again just my personal perspective.I have a Roland Cube 40 that also works well Two Quillter Avaitors For large rooms. Many years of working with various Fender amps.I love the work of many guitar giants of the 1940s and 50s 6os etc.With a few exceptions I didn,t like their tone at all . mickmac

[sgosnell]

I seldom use the reverb in my LJ, because I'm not much into surf music. If I can easily tell that the reverb is on, it's too much. At the 9 o'clock position, it's too much for me. I think the problem that people seem to have with it is because the reverb is so strong. Put it at 12 o'clock and it's more reverb than you get with most amps or pedals, and it goes up from there. The obvious solution is to turn it down. At levels I can abide, it's fine. But everyone has a different, and valid, opinion about reverb, just like with everything else. If you can't live without reverb, and you hate the DV Mark reverb, well, there are other amps available, as well as lots and lots of pedals. It's your money, use it how you want.

[rpjazzguitar]

A year later ...

I've been using the LJ for almost everything I do.

But, lately, I've gotten concerned that I'm not getting enough clean volume for some of the settings.The problem is only evident on chords which can sound a little harsher, with less definition of the individual notes than I'd like.

So, I've taken the JC55 to a few things. It's louder. It can be a little icy, but that can be tamed with EQ. Chords are, maybe, clearer. I say maybe because my impressions of things vary. Room geometry, setup, other band members, sun spots etc.

Friday, I played a trio gig with two guitars and voice. The other player was using an Eastman 335 type playing with fingers and I was using my Comins 335 type (fingers or pick). He had a Quilter of some kind and I had the LJ. I preferred his sound. Brighter, more present. So it's giving me a GAS attack. No idea what direction it will take yet.