Johnson Amplification J-Station

Compared to a Pod, this unit really shines.
Sounds are richer, and warmer,and more tube like.
The Pod CAN do a Heavier distortion, but not a more tube like distortion.
Editing the J-station is easy once you locate the deep editing parameters and get away from the Big front knobs.
Manual is decent.

Unit works well driving an amp or in the effects chain.
Very quiet unit....
One of the best ways to use this unit is to plug it into a Marshall Cab from the Headpone jack...THe sound is louder and warmer then using the normal outputs...When you adjust the Preamp gain and the Volume, there is plenty of Volume for Tracking live in your home studio, and the sounds are very good.
Also,using the Headphone output into powered studio monitors is effective.

I have spent many hours using this unit, and have had "0" problems.
The unit is well build and useful.
Trustworthy for gigs.

Have never contacted Johnson//Didgitec

Great for gigs, Home studio, or JUST Jamming.
Good sounds, dependable, well built, not hard to Tweek, and covers many tones that the Pod or the V-amp offer but a little better.
Great addition for anyone that records at home.

Vers 2.0 J-Station. Needs the J-edit software to get the best out of it, as deep editing is not really possible from the front panel. Once the software is installed, it really is a breeze to edit and the vast
array of parameters become available. The presets, like most manufacturers, just has too much of everything to show the unit off in shops and needs tweaked, then it really shines. Basic adjustments can be made from the front panel. The manual was pretty good, but very flimsy and the addendum for Ver2 was on a loose sheet of paper
that could easily get lost. It would be far better if it was bound
with some covers.

Where to start? After adjusting with J-Edit, it just sings. The Blackface Fender is one of the best I've heard. The Rectifier is just fantastic. The Marshall JCM800 is right on the button. It has none
of the tiresome boomy bass that inflicts the POD and its models are far better. The small Tweed is just great for blues and J-Edit lets you mix and match amp and speaker. When used live, you must switch off the cabinet models or the lead tones become muddy - easily done with the switch. The Bass amps are an absolute godsend if you're recording and sound spot on with my Mexi Jazz bass. Poorest sounds are the two acoustics, they don't sound like either an Ovation or a
J200, but they have some usefulness as an alternative clean tone.
All in all, it's hard to fault sonically. Only fly in the ointment is a slight tracking delay in the pitch shifter.

Solid. Built like a tank

Never dealt with them as it's never broke down, but their website is very good for resources.

AT this price point, there really isn't anything that comes close. It has everything you need. Full 24 bit processing both external and internal with SPDIF making it ideal for recording. WIth the cabinets switched off and plugged into a valve amp, it sounds really great live. The Genesis 3 is its replacement. Having tried one, I don't see where all the research has gone. The amp sims are no better and the Rectifier model actually sounds poorer on the Genesis3. The only improvement I could find was that the pitch shifter tracks better but,
as I don't use one anyway, its not relavent to me.

It's easier to get elaborate patches out of this than it is to program a FM synth :)
Seriously- you have to get into edit mode and fiddle around with the manual in front of you to get serious, but if you can do synths you can do this. I guess you could just not bother if that seemed difficult. For me it was necessary- I replaced ALL the presets with my own patches. Amp/cab combinations, dry, with the shortest possible single slapback digital echo on the 'delay' and a big verb on the 'reverb', and then set both of them to 0 by default. That way if I want to add 'nu-metal' edge or verb I can just turn the knob and it's right there.

Strat copy with Lindy Fralins, SG copy w Gibson P90s, strat copy with single old Gibson humbuckers (yeah, all the guitars are crap and all the pickups are fancy vintage stuff)
I use this for the SPDIF digital output and am monitoring over big studio mains, not with an amp. I'm very happy with it. The sounds I like best (all custom patches) are Plexi into a greenback cab, Dual Recto into a Fender Bassman 4-10s cab (don't laugh, it's nuts!), the Matchless DC-30 into Vox AC30 speakers, Hiwatt into Fanes- as you can see, my idea of fun is playing with combinations of amp and cab, and it's very rewarding. I will use something like the Fane cab as a sort of EQ- snarly nasal un-bright rock and roll bark. I don't care for any of the post-Plexi Marshalls, especially the JCM900. I like the Matchless DC30 better than the Vox AC30 model- one neat trick is to set it up with all the knobs cranked and then roll off the bass control to about 3:00 which brings in this astonishing midbass punch- other amp models don't even respond in anything like the same way.
I did one mod which helped the sound out a lot- the input stage is resistors and a 10uf cheap electrolytic capacitor. I bypassed this with a .1 uf polypropylene film capacitor from input jack to a place in the circuit, and the sound became substantially less plastic. (please don't email about this mod unless you figure on paying me muchos dineros to do it thus voiding your warranty ;) )

Haven't had a problem, don't treat it roughly. No opinion.

Moot point as I modded mine: no opinion.

I like this. Originally got it on the strength of an amateur musician who'd put up mp3s using it- there was a groove and sense of movement that came through his guitar parts, and though it was a bit veiled and dull I saw the potential. Sure enough, it's a very nice little unit at a great (close-out) price, and there's that film cap mod which gets rid of the veiledness (I'm basically bypassing straight from the input jack to the first transistor, skipping the resistors and such. Under some circumstances this produced an electronic squeal, but in normal use it didn't. Seems like the master headphone volume was able to bleed through when you hot-rod it that way, so I just keep it low.

The eq presets are straight forward however, the deep editing requires the use of the manual to guide you through each function in order to see which on screen number corresponds to a certain effect. Nevertheless the features are versatile enough to get a certain sound.

I read all the glowing reviews about the J station in Harmony central so I eventually tested it out at the local guitar shop to see if it lived up to the hype. I was impressed enough with its rectifier model that I was to persuaded to buy it. Initially this unit sounded great with my guitar and amp as it gave a thick & full tone. its effects features such as the chorus and reverb colored the sound to the each amp model well.In spite of all these good features my final assesment on the J-station is that it provides good but, not great amp model sounds and although it comes close to certain amp tones, it did not provide enough definition to each note I played through my guitar. aside from the blackface and the the clean amp models, all the rest of the amp models are muddy and undefined and that made the music sound like it was coming from the background rather then foreground. I think this is a good pedal for beginners but, those that are looking for a pro quality sound should look elsewhere.

I basically traded this in and paid the extra to get a POD 2.3 because its sound is more defined which is what i'm looking for since I wan't all my notes to be heard and not muddied up.

Easy to get great sounds, but the showroom presets in ANY processor are made to blow away the customer, and are always too wet, over driven, overeffected in general.

The Edit software is incredible, had trouble with the firmware ups at first, but that was an os problem, not theirs. It finally worked. Big pic of outboard rack effects without having to deal with one, was done with those in the 90's.. LOL... the local deep level editing is real tiresome thoiugh, but thats because of limited button features with so much to control, actually a plus in a strange way.

Manual is very very descriptive, without missing a notch.

- Electric guitars, metal and jazzy bluesy settings are what I use it for. This unit is totally discreet noise-wise. The factory settings for wah and p-shift are incredibly stupid, non-usable. Get into the software and tweak, then they rule, big time. Dunno why they set those that way.

Works great, I work at a music store and have had contact with them various times personally, AND at work. Great co.

very

Listen carefully, I have played them all. The V amp has great effects, bad sims. You have to take out the chip to upgrade.

The pod is good ONLY for metalheads ONLY. The amp sims are meager to good at best.

Its a shame these things are selling for as cheap as they are now, because they are worth their weight in gold at the pod price. The J station is the BEST you will find for overall amp sim for recording period. It runs the whole spectrum really well, and if you think it dont, you either are a talking head, repeating what others have said, or a punk rocker..... hehe

easy to use?? yes, very easy. not a COMPLETE cakewalk because when you enter "deep edit" mode you might need to consult the easy-peasy manual to remember which NUMBER corresponds to which PARAMETER.

i've owned a POD for two or three years. i've upgrade the POD to both 2.0 AND 2.3 status. the POD is a sturdier piece of kit (being made of metal).
the J-station (however) just ABSOLUTELY DESTROYS IT when comes to "realism" of sound. the J is MUCH more "alive". NO CONTEST. ALSO,..compression AND reverb AND delay are ALL ACTIVE and INDEPENDENT of whatever "modulation/pitch" effect you select. did i mention that delay,reverb and compression are ALL independent of the other effects??
THIS ALONE KILLS THE POD 2.3 AND KICKS ITS LIFELESS BODY WITH A POINTY-TOE'D BOOT. for the money i paid ($80) this is incredible.

(fot the record,...i have not tried the POD XT. it's specs look VERY impressive).

AGAIN,..this is NOT a as sturdy a unit as a POD. it is plastic. HOWEVER,...how often would you actually put your gear into a position where it MIGHT fall 3-4 feet to a concrete floor?? not too likely.

the J is no longer made,..yet the website still exists and is full of enthusiastic users. 'nuff said.

i have analog rackmounts and lots of pedals. i wanted something that was very portable (and a little different) that could offer me "most" of what my racks and pedals can. the J does this. my POD 2.3 could not. i can get lovely clean tones from the J. i can get nastiness as well. the POD (which i intially liked) now sounds very "processed" and "distant" by comparision. i prefer the J. AGAIN,...i have not tried the POD XT. perhaps IT is the ultimate. i don't know. UNTIL THEN, there is the J.

p.s. i have "heard" (and it is only rumour) that the "Made In The USA" J Stations sound better than the ones made overseas. i cannot verify this. mine is a USA model and i am quite happy. myh POD is heading to eBay.

I've never used the knobs on the front of my J-Station, the PC software is simply brilliant so the unit itself is on a shelf over there.. and I have no need to go near it. Editing is a breeze.

OK, this is the critical area, I've ownd a J-Station for a couple of years, I use it for home recording, and have always been very happy with it, I get complimented on my clean recorded guitar tones from recording snobs who'd never dream of using an amp-sim, so having fooled the self proclaimed "experts" I'm happy. recently my J-Station got wet (don't ask), and it died.. I went into town to get another one, they were out of stock everywhere, so I bit the bullet and spent 3x the cash on a PodXT.. --mis-take-- the Pod is junk compared to the J-Station, it sounds processed, it has the worst compression I've ever heard, and the least convincing distortions, so, I did what any sane person would do.. Bought a new J-Station on eBay, and sold the Pod. Now I'm going to buy a spare J-Station just incase I have an accident with this one, I have a feeling the J-Station is one of those "classic" products that over time will gain a reputation in inverse proportion to its availability, buy one now while you can.. Oh, and my live rig is a 1969 Marshall 100 watt Super lead into 2 4x12 cabinets, I know what that sounds like & the J-Station comes pretty damn close to replication it's recorded sound.

Erm.. don't get it wet! Mine died following a rain related mishap, but I bought another.. other than that no problems at all.

The forums on the Johnson website are a godsend.

For home recording this is the best Amp-simulator you can get, don't fall for Line6's brilliant marketing, get a J-Station while you can, hook it up to your PC and find your sound, it *is* in there. I wouldn't use any Amp-Sim live, you can beat a hot amp pushing a straining speaker, but for recording this thing is pure genius.

Very simple to use right out of the box. Presets are fun at first, but tweaking the amps, cabs and effects are much more interesting for finding "your" sound. It's a no brainer.

I'm playing a strat and recording direct to computer. I mainly stick to 5 amp models, rectified, j-solo, black face, tweed, blues. I use only one of the cabinet models, the johnson model, it sounds great with all previously mentioned amp models. I use a little compression, a little noise gate, very little delay, the spring reverb which is excellent, and I tweak the pitch/detune which gives it a great "tube sound". First I select pitch/detune, then I turn the effect speed knob to twelve oclock, press the edit button, dont hold it down, then turn the effects speed knob to the left to about 11.5 just slightly until you hear it go out of phase. Press the edit button again to turn it off, then turn effects speed knob to about 8 oclock. Awesome tube sound with black face and rectified. It turns this unit into a complete beast. It's like going from a 2x12 combo to a full raging stack. Rock on. No need to buy a stack after you hear this. This effect setting with black face and spring reverb will give you a better fender sound than the real thing, this same setup using rectifier will bring out the Metallica fan in you.

Hell yeah. Had it for 2 years, no problems.

Never needed it. Went to Johnson website and upgraded with no problem.

Bad ass unit. Go from Stevie Ray to Metallica in a flash. PS I bought POD before this, and returned the POD within 2 days and got this instead. No comparison. Dont buy POD waste of money! I dont care how many poser rock stars use it. Don't get fooled by their marketing. These guys aren't musicians they're salesmen, and damb good ones at that.

The sounds out of the box are okay, but don't expect a miracle. I took me about a week or two to find my main distorted sound. Fairly easy to use with the basic editing stuff. However, the deep editing features are a bit difficult to access on the fly because there are simply so many parameters that you can tweak (ie, don't bet on being able to change something significant without the manual). The good news is, the manual is very helpful and explains things clearly. FYI, this is an older version (from 2001) that has not been upgraded (to my knowledge), because I lack a MIDI interface for my computer.

My setup:
Jackson Kelly > J-Station > Computer (NOT through the SPDIF)
or
Jackson Kelly > J-Station > Sovtek Mig 50 > Johnson or Marshall Cab

By my axe, you can probably tell I'm a heavy metal guy. Thus I purchased this unit primarily for getting a good, distorted sound and some nice effects.

My Favorite features:
1. The Rectifier model- I use this for my main distorted sound. You can get some pretty good metal sounds here and also some nice liquid gain lead sounds. Heck, you can even get kind of a Santana thing here (don't expect a miracle though, his sound is miraculous...)
2.The Delay
3.The noise gate (eliminates almost all the noise, this is a quiet unit).
4.The compressor
5.Most of the digital effects (the chorus, flanger, phaser, the rotary is ok, as is the tremolo)
6.Most of the other amp models...

Thing I didn?t like:
1.Pitch/Detune (sounds overbearing and phony)
2.Auto Wah (for the same reason)
3.Acoustic Sims (yep, phony sounding)
4.The Distorted Marshall Models (didn?t do the amps justice)

Like stated below, when you play through an amp, turn off the cabinet sim, otherwise you get way too much bass.

Seems reliable, has never died on me, but runs very hot.

Never delt with Johnson

This is a great unit, especially for the price. I've seen them on musicians friend for around $90 bucks, and for that money you proabably won't get anything more versitile. It's also great for people who like to record on their computers (esp lower end systems like I have).

pretty easy right out of the box - lots of preset patches. With J-Edit software installed on your computer and the J-Station connected via MIDI, it's totally simple to completely edit patches. The manual is excellent (and short, too). The guitar tuner isn't as easy as other ones I've used, but, with some effort, it works.

I'm recording direct to computer. A more than adequate selection of nice fat distortions and bell-tone cleans can be achieved. The noise gate works. The acoustic models aren't very satisfying to me...but that's what my acoustic is for. Effects are as good as any digital I've heard. You can emulate most artists sounds with this machine, but, like most other multi-effect/amp modelers, some super wierd effect combos can't be achieved because only delay, reverb plus one more selection out of the 7 other effects can be combined at one time. If you really feel you need an overproccessed sound, get a job and start saving up for stomp-boxes (each box will cost you about as much as a J-Station)

metal chassis, tight buttons/knobs, and screwed-on 1/4 inch metal jacks.

...they still have a decent website and informative moderators on their forums. Doubt I'll ever need support anyhow, since it's such a solid/simple unit

I bought it from some kid who, understandably, wanted use the included J-Edit software, but couldn't get his computer to recognize the J-Station (someone probably didn't re-install the MIDI drivers after a format). He had only used it twice...SCORE!!! The huge sound, "Tap-it" button, and foot pedal expandability are great, but J-Edit is my favorite feature. The graphic interface looks like, and IS, a full effects rack on my monitor.