Johnson Amplification J-Station

Have yet to get into the 'deep editing', but so far so good on the simple tweak a patch and save it deal. I do have a manual, but have yet to dig into it.

I've had a few modelers over the years and mostly used them for late night headphone wheedle stuff. The Behringer V-Amp worked well for my needs also as I mostly like cleaner tones and on the edge blues type stuff.

The J-Station has simply blown me away for it's blackface cleans, Voxish chime, tweedish cruch and plexi tones. These are what I mostly use and programing variations of them has proved quite easy and tonally rewarding.

Bought it used for cheap, so if it goes bye-bye, I'll do my best to procure another.

I've been playing for 42 years and playing live since 1980. I'm an old fart now, but still have a love affiar with all things guitar. I play a wide variety of music, but blues is where my soul lies.

Right now, in addition to the headphone deal, I have been using the J-Station into a Yamaha DS60-112.....kind of the forerunner of the Tech 21 Power Engine. Single 12 Celestion in a cab with a 60 watt power amp built in.

This combo is portable, lightweight, LOUD and best of all, oh so toneful! Again, I like to use the cleaner blackface models along with the Vox, tweed and plexi tones. I run an older black box Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal before the J-Station, and that provides all the dirt I need.

I am blown away at how good this cheap little set up sounds.....and how amp like it is in how it responds to touch and the guitars volume control. It's inspiring and makes me want to play longer.

This piece of equipment is like anything else once you learn how to operate it it's easy and learning how to use it for me was easy. The problem is that someone will say it's easy and the next might say it hard!

This is why I'm leaving this review. I have tried most of the other modelers and all of the major ones. Nothing compares to the J-Station I know because I have 3 and been a user since 2002. My main sounds are the Rectified and Tweed for dirty and clean tones. For giging I use the J-Station with the J-8 Controller run into an 80's Carvin X-100 head and two cabinets. I use no gain on my amp I get all of my gain from the Rectified patch and the warmth of tubes from my amp. The sound is AMAZING I'm always getting positive complimants on my tone. When I am at home I run a J-Station into a Johnson (not the same company) Loredo T25-R. The Loredo is a little 25 watt (realy 15 watt, but that is another story) tube amp you can buy for a couple of hundred bucks on Ebay. My sound is consistant and you can't say that with your favorite vintage tube amp!

I keep a J-Station with me always because it's consistant with the sound. You will get a better tone the way I use it than with any highbred amp (Line 6 Bogner for example). Highbreds either get so called tube tone from the pre or post and none realy do a great job. I'm getting my tube tone from the pre and post. I'm not having to noodle around with mods or trying different tube combinations for that perfect overdriven sound. I don't have to worry about degredating tubes that mess with my tone. I can run my J-Station into any tube amp and get a consistant tone because I'm not having to get my overdrive from tubes just the warmth.

I have been a user since 2002 and I have 3 units and two J-8 controllers. I have never had a J-Station fail on me but I have worn out controllers and that is because I play constantly and moving parts wear out. I have gone through a bunch of J-Stations because I have given away and sold some.

I have never needed them So I cant give a true review on them!

Everyone has their opinion on what they like and I love the J-Station! I am 48 and have been playing since I was 13 so I kinda know a little bit just in the fact that I have been around for awhile! I have turned alot of so called tube fanatics into excepting the ideal of what I do with this piece of equipment.

You can argue about all kinds of if's and's and but's, but you can't argue that for a relitively small amount of money you can have a GREAT tone!!!

You can buy a J-Station on Ebay for around $50. So a youngster with roughly $300 can buy a J-Station and a used inexpensive tube amp off of Ebay and sound great.

The J-Station, even in 2009, is still the best amp simulator available. It simply blows away the POD in all it's versions and is the best kept secret in guitar gear. Ease of use is it's only con. If you use the J-Edit software, it's an easy time programming it. But editing on the two digit LED with the manual can be frustrating. But it's a small price to pay to unlock the goodness within...

The next best thing to putting a SM57 in front of a nice amp in a nice room. If you can't record that way, use the J-Station. The clean sounds are brilliant and the Fender Bandmaster model is unreal. All the effects are usable and then some. Has an onboard tuner to boot.

I've owned mine for 4 years and it's never failed me. Just an awesome piece of gear and at $50 and under on eBay I'm thinking of getting another for backup. I might never need it though...a brick sh*thouse.

Never have used customer support and Digitech has pretty muched ended all remnants of the Johnson brand online. There is still a page with pdf's for manuals, etc... but any real customer support doesn't exist.

The best amp modeler available and at nearly 7 or 8 years old that to me is amazing! The technology obviously peaked a long time ago. Some say GuitarRig is better but I've heard it, POD, VOX ToneLab...them all. The J-Station just has something that raises it above those units. Better sounds to be sure but I think it has it's on vibe that classic pieces of gear all have. At under a hundred dollars new (if you can find one...the word is finally getting out about how good these things are), you have to get a J-Station if you record guitars.

i believe that J-station is the most close t real amps simulator. i didn't need any manual t use it, cause i buy it from second hand but the guy give me a piece of advice. i beleve that for editing preamps, and the options of : Reverb, delay, compr, gate, and other effects like chorus, flanger.... is really, really difficult, but if you use th pc-program life is better, at least for me after the long useage of line6 simulators as guitar pro, but i didn't try it yet cause need an audio card with midi in/out, but still it going t be really easy. but because when you wanna jam with your friends you cant have the pc with you it's losing my 10 points

Well if i could upload a sound materia you will totally understand how incredible is, well after using line6 products like guitar pro and they say line6 is the ultimate new generetion guitar and amp simulator i could say that they can simulate the 50% of an amp, Johnson J-Station can make io to at least 80%, and their amps johnson Crunch-Solo-Clean are ... you know years far, its a 2000 product but still rulezzz every other simulators, i use it with a Yamaha Rgx-520DZ guitar and plug it to preaps 2.1, for listen its real sound and its amazing!!

Well if this J-Station dies i barried with a priest in a glass coffin, and i mean it. With other merch' i was feeling empty but with this staff th hole has licked!!!!1 i totally would use it in a gig without a backup, cause if something happen live i was gonna leave the gig to find a place t cry ;p

well i haven't deal with the company 'cause im in greece and i could buy a new one with the same money.

well i play rock a bit of blues, thrash, neoclassicall and heavy metal.
i play 3,5 years, and i also have a Peavy Bandit 112, Line6 Guitar Pro.
i really gonna buy my guitar, its superb with dimarzio evo pickups, i'll totally gonna try t find a new Johnson J-Station, well the amp is really good, but i would buy preamps, cause with that multieffect any other amp is going to destroy anything.
i love its sound its amazing, reminds a compine sound of Vai,Satriani,Petrucci, the way i use it, its delay also is incredible, ihate its inability to change preamp, and the options of : Reverb, delay, compr, gate, and other effects like chorus, flanger,
my favorite feature is the edited sound
"72, with drive 9,trebble 10, midle 2, bass 6, level 5, delay 3, reverb 7, copmr /on, gate /off".
No i wouldn't compare it, cause for me its the ultimate prefection of sound.
the only thing i'd like it to have is a more modern style, its look is really 2000 and we are 2009 and i dont really care about it...
well it help is like a a father teaching his son ride a bike, its like taking me from my hand and guide me !!!! im so lucky t have one

very good sounds right out of the box.
Easy to edit, Records very nicely.
It will clip very easily, needs to have bass turned down

Killer clean sounds, awesome distortions.
When I run it live, I take the cab emulator off and run it thru the effects loop of my Rivera chubster 40 and my Fender HRD.
Sounds killer live with this setup.
I run it all the time without the cab emulator on.
I use it to record everything from vocals to synths and my roland drum machine.
Very good all around effects and amp sim.

I have been using it for years without a backup.
However, I have taken the power transformer in the power cord apart to change the fuse to keep it running.
It is very durable after having been dropped numerous times.
It is solid and reliable for being as old as it is!

I have changed the fuse out of the power supply a few times.
This requires basic soldering skills.
The unit has been flawless so far

I play, metal, jazz, electronica, blues, pop and experimental.
For an old 12 bit processor, it is very versatile with a great glossy sound.
It will clip easy on recordings if you dont turn the bass down.
You can find them on EBAY now for 50 bucks.
These things sound killer and are indestructable!!

Controls very straightforward and amplike. Set & Save........

I have 2 units, 1 in studio & 1 used live. I own a couple of amps but
rarely use them. This unit sounds great all by itself. So what if the
sounds aren't perfect sims as long as they are usable. IMO they are.

I've had both units for years with no trouble. I use the j-8 controller with my live setup and a Rolls midibuddy with my studio unit. They always work. Can't do better than that.

never needed them

For a 1st generation modeler to still sound great after all these years my hat goes off to the designer. People compliment my tone
all the time and ask "where's your amp?" Nothing Line 6 has out
to date can touch this thing. Too bad Digitech didn't realize what
they had. Those of us who use them know, though.

There are two sorts of editing:

Top level editing: easy as can be. Most sounds you can get here. Just pick a factory-preset-sound you like, rotate the knobs till you like it more, press "store" twice and voila: you got it!

Deep level editing: a little more difficult since you need to read the manual. Here you can specify your sound even more. For example if you got a midi footcontrol (like the Johnson J-8), you can define what parameter should be controlled by the expression pedal: volume, gain, effect-level or whatever. Of course, in this case the Wah is still accessible.

Generally I`m totally into vintage- and boutique- stuff:

I normaly play a Roland Jazz-Chorus, Korg DT-10, Crybaby, Fulltone Fulldrive2, Voodoo Lab Tremolo and Hughes&Kettner Replex. Other pedals in use are: Marshall Shredmaster, Marshall Gu'nor 2, Marshall ED-1, Marshall SV-1, EH Little Big Muff, Hughes&Kettner Tube Factor and Hughes&Kettner Rotosphere.

Guitars in use are: Gibson Blueshawk (my favourite), Aria Pro2 Fl20 Stratocaster, Epiphone Les Paul, Rickenbacker copy and an acoustic guitar.

To shorten this: the J-Station can`t beat the real thing (like hardly any digital modeling unit can), but it is damn close.

PRO's:
It`s very versatile and expecially most amp-modelings are very good. Not too noisy. And it also features some good Bass amplifier models! Great solo-leadsounds and sweet clean-sounds. I especialy like the Fender Blackface and the Fuzz (with low gain). Although I haven`t played a Mesa Boogie Rectifier before, the model sounds very convincing to me. I think, metalheads might love this.

The additional footcontroller J-8 gives you full control for your performance: effect (on/off), reverb (on/off), tuner (on/off), bank up & down, three presets per bank, expression pedal.

I couldn`t rate this 10, because there are also a few CON's:
-the pitch-effect has a little latency and sounds too synthetic
-I`m used to good rotary speaker sounds (since I also use the Rotosphere and the built-in Leslie of my Nord Electro2); in this unit it`s more like another tremolo-sound; nevertheless it`s nice that it can mimic the slow-down and speed-up effect when it`s controlled by the expression pedal
-the 2 acoustic models are not very convincing

Currently I'm singer and trombonist in my band; that`s why I don't need it for gigging, right now. But I sure could imagine me using it again, as I did before.

Never had any problems. I would gig without backup.

Even though the production stopped, there is still a webpage for the J-Station providing the manual, sound presets and more information.

I play Reggae, Ska and Dancehall live and it's a great match. I think it could fit any kind of music.

It's definitly worth the money. Unfortunitly the production stopped - but you still can buy them on Ebay. And if you are very lucky, you might find the fitting midi footcontrol Johnson J-8.

Just thought id add my penny s worth........
at some point i will add a proper breakdown on each model cos i think it may be useful as there isnt much info on this unit.....

easy to get sounds out of it....forget the presets really as they are mostly over done....just go to the individual models....

Well ive used loads of stuff over the years and i must say im surprised by this....despite the glowing reviews i was sceptical because all pre-amps, practice headphone recording type units that ive tried sort of sound the same.....a bit bland , sort of like the amps but not quite......but i can honestly say this is the best ive heard. Now you will never make a recording amp emulator sound like the real deal cos thats just impossible......but imo thats a different thing all together. Valve amps are great for gigging and rehersals, but even the best valve amp sounds crap at low volume. Thats why we want this type of unit. I was using COSM which compared to this is a pile of ****. This old unit sound 100x better and is the only unit ive heard that does a really good fender blackface and ive got this amp for gigging and honestly this sim. is damn near as close to perfect as you will ever get.
For clean/ breaking up type sounds (ac30 is also good) this thing shines. Ive only used this through a multi track but i expect it would sound the bollocks through a valve amp which would warm it up even more.
Imho better than the POD and better than VAMS, and COSM, and fenders new digital thing (got one of those as well) the only one comparable seems to be VOX s one but ive not had much experience of that.

For home use sure.

no idea

Been playing 20 years and wanted something I could record with. Ive got a roland multi track with built in COSM -which i was never happy with. I also wanted an emulator that would give me a fender clean sound through a practice amp-maybe like the recent BOSS fender pedals-but better (tried them both and thought they sounded crap) Well i havnt tried through an amp yet-family life and all that, but as a direct recording tool this thing sounds great. The fender is fantastic. Nice acoustic type sounds as well. This thing is amazing really. It may not have like a billion sounds and all the bells and whistles but for basic good amp sounds that sound not as digital as a POD and quite close to the real amps (especially the fender twin) this thing is great.
For what I paid for it its an absolute bargain.

With the Editor software, it's a breeze.. Without? Pretty much a pain in the ***

Here we are many years later.. And this Amp Sim is STILL one of the best sounding units to be had.. Much more organic sounding than the Pod XT Pro which I happen to be comparing it to tonight. That realization is what led me to write this review.

The unit I purchased is an American made J Station.. I would guess it's at LEAST 8 years old.. Probably 10+ yrs old.. Still works great..

Non existant.. Thank you Digitech you freakin *******..

Price of woodage ratio is off the scale folks..

I've done this guitar thing for 35+ yrs.. I'm still a Metalhead.. Won't apologize for that either.. These units are simply very organic sounding.. I've owned everything available on the market for the last 10 yrs as far as Amp Sims for studio use goes.. I own everything from a Peavey Rockmaster 4 tube preamp to a Podxt Pro to Guitar Rig 3 and Amplitube 2 to a Voodu valve.. I have a decent sized 20 space rack cab full of gear....... At the point in time of this review, The J Station,all 16 bits of it,, is the one I fire up most often... And those incompetent morons over at Digitech inhaled Johnson to do what?? Just inhale a Johnson I guess.. They sure as hell haven't improved on it in the 10 yrs since.. Digitech sux

If this had ever been released as a rack unit, I'd be set for a long long time..

I give the J-Station a 7 because, although th top mounted controls are easy to use, they don't give you a ton of editing capability, and the deep edit mode is kind of annoying. I've had this unit for several years, and never spent much time with it, and just recently got acquainted with it, and finally got a manually. The manual changes everything.

The sound quality is great, for what it is, an amp modeler. Johnson really did their homework. The Millenium amps (when they were around) were fantastic. This has a lot of the same sounds, just not as in depth. The J-Station does not sound good straight of the box, you've got to read the manual and tweak somethings. Luckily, Johnson had guitarists in mind and loaded this thing with knobs, and only a few buttons.

I've never had any problems, but its only been in my room, or in my closet. It seems sturdy enough, I'm not sure I'd leave it lying on the rehearsal room floor, but on a pedal board, or on top of an amp, should last a while. So long as the drummer does spill beer on it.

never needed it.

Overall, the J-Station is a fantastic buy, the last one I saw on E-bay was going for $90. I like to play rock, blues and funky kind of stuff, and the J-station really has something for everyone. Its really great for extra-strange spacey ambient sounds, I've pulled several synth like tones from it. I haven't had much luck with using it in conjunction with other pedals, the noise gets really out of hand really fast. It is digital, so if you can run it through something analog either before or after (preferably after, a good tube compressor, or something of the sort would probably do it wonders) or even just running it through your board and doing a little EQing and reverb makes a big difference.

Fairly easy to edit using the onboard controls, you don't have to hold down a bunch of buttons to change patches unless you want to do deep editing. I dock it two points, one because I can't seem to get the J Edit software to work, and another because depending on your presets, the knobs might not actually reflect their true position. Behringer's lighted control dials on its V-Amp, although cheap, make it easy to see exactly what settings are on.

I've played Line 6, Behringer, and others, and they all get decent distorted sounds, but this one can get amazing clean sounds. It's relatively pedal-friendly, though it really overreacts to gain on my OD pedals, so I have to roll them back. I use it with a bass amp and direct into PA and it sounds good both ways. I don't use much for effects from the unit since my pedalboard gives me those.

The casing is pretty durable. I would use it without a backup.

Johnson Amplification went belly up and was bought out by digitech, so I thought that customer support would be nonexistent. When I bought the unit, the mid tone pot was broken. I emailed Digitech's tech support and they gave me a number to call. After being on hold and transferred a few times, I finally got the right department and they sent me a new pot for FREE! It would have only cost me a few bucks, but it's a nice surprise. I'll definitely look at Digitech next time I need a multi fx unit.

I use this unit for a few church services that a normal guitar amp would be too loud. It works great. If it were stolen I'd buy it again. On ebay, these things go for around $100 and are well worth it.

Very easy for on the fly changes.Harder for deep edit but not that bad. Super easy when conected to your computer.

OK , I`ve had this unit for 5 years now.I`ve compared it to POD`s Yamaha DG stomp(I really wanted to like this unit but the sound just was`nt there)All kinds of Digitec stuff ,Sans amp stuff,Korg , Vamp, you name it .Nothing sounds as good. I really wanted to love the DG stomp because it was so well built but I just could`nt get into it at all.There are so many great sounds in this box if you have the patience to tweak it.No it doesnt sound as good as a old tube amp but neither does the old tube amp turned down to one at one oclock in the morning

Droped at least five times still works great.It`s made of metal not plastic.

The company no longer exists but there web site is still there.

I play jazz, blues,old school rock,Hip hop with my DJ son.I`ve played for 37 years have owned Gibson,Fender, Hamer, Martin,Ibanez,Supro,Ampeg old twins and bandmasters old 60`s ampegs,Traynors,Semour Duncans.I have a large collection of tubes and am constantly tweaking my amps for better sound.All that aside i`ve gotten more use and had more fun with this hunk o junk than any equipment I`ve ever owned.

Without connecting it through midi cabels deep editing this unit is a pain. However with the windows sofware its GREAT!

It takes quite awhile to realy figure out the potential this unit has, But once you have tried it all you can get some great tones!

I'll be honest, i got one of these off ebay because they where endorsed by Yngwie. He usualy only endorses the best of the best. Well he was right! The J-Station unlike alot of other pedals out there has a more analog sound to it than a raspy digital sound.

I can almost nail yngwie's tone with this! But i do recomend getting a pre amp with a tube in it if you realy want to bring it to life!

Well, Ive had it turned on for over 2 years now without turning it off and its still working!

Never dealt with Johnson, Id just buy a new one on ebay if it breaks

I defenatly recomend this for people who dont like the Pod, or if you want to record stuff on your computer!

Wonderfully easy to use. The only beef I have with ease of use is the stock patches aren't balanced as to level all that well, and if you have a user patch with lots of gain and a very low level (to balance with clean patches) a bump can send it very loud very fast.

Excellent. The models don't sound exactly like what they claim (especially the rectifier) but other than that, it's awesome. The rectifier has more bite, and it doesn't get muddy like a lot of real Dual recs out there. So, I guess it's better. The chorus is a real nice effect, especially on clean patches, but it can't get almost a vibrato like some chorus pedals can.

I don't know what happened, but the master volume pot broke, and when I opened it to fix it, it ended up being a weird digital pot soldered into the board. When I put it back together, it worked fine.

Also, the casing is metal, and it's been dropped, kicked, stepped on, dragged around by cables, water spilt on it, and been in car trunks with cabs on top of it, and it's never failed me at a gig yet.

Never needed it.

I play metal, and this thing has some absolutely stellar sounds. Some problems:

Pitch shift (for playing in intervals with yourself) has some latency.
No key lock mode to avoid bumping switches live.
Headphone out sucks - just use a speaker output, and you get enough signal.
Tuner is slightly inaccurate.

This thing sounds a thousand times better when used through a good PA or an amp. I try not to record direct with this thing, it sounds a little fake. Awesome for live use.

I used when it first came out.IF FOR ANT REASON YOUR JSTATION DOES NOT SOUND GOOD YOU SUCK READ THE MANUAL. I have giged with it for years all types of music Rock To Blues. Head banger. and to read the other review of some whiner say. sounds fack becuse he did not take the time to learn how to use it.should go to Line 6 and use one of there tinny ass crap boxs.the J station can make a crappy amp sound good and a good amp sound seewt and most the time I can and have just pluged in to the PA.you can get the soft ware on line free and up grade it too.

the sound is Just right.learn to use it,very good effects. tweeked right most people over do it a little is a lot.I am so sorry the are not made any more.

Never failed me.dont need no back up.I have three never need but one,I guess some day it ware out I use it every day 5 years now 6 days a week 2 hours a day or more.

I guess I played 25 or so years,I use Yamaha guitar US strats gibson lp.and other amps John jm 50 .Johnson Marquis jm68 bolth with J 8 foot job. Johnson Millenium 150.with the j12. Measa Boogie.S.O.B..pig nose 40 tube. peavey delta blues always with J station and a Daddy o. PA Yamaha 800 watt,or Carvin 4000watt. Yamaha 18s and carvin 12s and 15s
YES I WOULD BUY IT AGAIN.
What I like is never fails. sounds good . what I hate is that thay dont make them any more, that SUCKS. I cant make Line 6 crap sound big and warm and real with out hum.. Ya LINE 6 You suck Dont beleave the bull shit adds of all those great bands using that crap go see for your self.You pay me a lot of cash I would endorse there shit too. I am not getting payed hear.I wasted months trying to get a line6 xtlive to sound any where close. wast of time and money. any questions I left my email.I been ther done that.Hate mail welcome too.you cant defend line 6.there other guitar amp modelers thare good too I just hate line 6. My ears dont lie.

Make sure you have the J-Edit software and the 2.0 firmware (freely available here: http://www.johnson-amp.com/jstation.htm). If you don't have a manual, you can download that, too, from the same location. There's also a bunch of patches and a forum there.

Assuming you have either the manual or the J-Edit software, this thing is a breeze. ALL parameters are available through the unit only but the software running on a computer sure makes it easy.

I use it with a small PA amp and two 4x12 guitar cabinets. It's punchy and easy to control.

I've had one for many years. I just recently added a second and I'm experimenting with running them in parallel. I love the sounds I've coaxed from it. I use it both for recording and live (despite what's been posted here, the casing is metal...it's got really thick paint which gives it a plastic appearance but it's solid metal with plastic knobs). The more I've dug into it, the more I've found it can do (I've got them programmed to "pan" between the two via an old ART X-15...one turns up as the other turns down).

It could be my setup but it's always seemed that it was a bit bass-heavy. But that's easy to compensate for, should you also find it bass-heavy, by just rolling it off.

I also was surprised and thrilled to find that I could replicate my favorite bass guitar sound. I used to play through a seventies Ampeg V4B with an SVT cabinet and it was an inspiring sound. It's in the J if you tweak it.

Also, the bass amp and cabinet models are worth trying for clean guitar sounds.

I've had my first for about five years now. Never a problem. Never a glitch. I didn't buy the second J for a backup. I bought it because I have faith, based on years of experience with it, in the quality.

It took some patience to deal with them five years ago. I'd be surprised if you got any response at all, now.

But there were very helpful updates. And the final firmware added several new amp and cabinet models plus a bypass.

I use it for a huge variety of sounds and music. When I got the first one, I compared it to a Pod over a weekend. I preferred the ultra-distortion and ultra-clean sounds of the J. The bass models cinched it for me. I've since tried a V-Amp and Genesis and still prefer the J.

The tuner is not terribly accurate but I only use the tuner button to mute it.

Not only would I replace them if lost or stolen but I'm planning to buy a third and, maybe fourth, to dedicate to bass guitar.

I've already reviewed this a couple of years back. Just reading to see what folks are saying now since newer modeller stuff's out.

Also I want to say to
P-Dawg

You can turn the amp selection off. And the cab selection. Not easy with out the manual or the software. Try and get the software. I'd email it to you but I'm not sure where the installation disk is off hand. There's still a website for this thing though. You might be able to download it or find someone who's got the disk still.

By the way. I don't think Johnson have gon out of business. They were taken over. Only a small company I thinks. To be honest never heard of them til reading about this little box of tricks. I think Not 100% sure, that they were bought out by Digitech.

easy to get a great sound, I have been playing for 30 yrs and recording wise it nails almost the perfect lead tone.

Is a bit noisy but if you play with the noise gate it works good.

The sound out of this thing is one of the best amp sims around, I've tried them all, some of my best tones came from this thing, it gives as good almost as a matchless hot box thru a cab simulator, not quite the dynamics though. I still cant get totaly controlable feedback like I can with a real amp but damn, the sustain and "big balls at low volume" kick ass, for DI recording you cant do much better, mix it with some real class a tube amps and "wow"

never failed yet

I play mainly rock, some jazz and rockabilly etc..

The effects are decent but not easy to use on the fly, I've tried the pod,zoom,roland,line6 and this thing has some unique sounds the others dont.

When recording I use it direct then split the signal into a real amp with a mike and pan them about 3/4 L to R and the slight delay on the miked amp adds a Billy Gibbons fatness, I have 22 guitars and they all sound good thru this thing, sometimes its a little thin but overall Its one of the best amp sims I have ever heared, I've even done live things thru a PA and it sounded like a real amp.

very simple to use. you don't need the computer just your ears and fingers. deep edit lets you tweak to any sound you desire.

i use a Dana scoop with "hot" pickups and a Fender strat with Evans Eliminators,into the J then to a BBE 482 stereo into a Rivera TBR3.The tone is great. People who dog it just have no sense of equipment setups.No way a 50 or 100 watt head sounds better. You just can't get the volume up enuff to move the speakers less you play a stadium.Preamps are roughly all the same.Tone comes from your power amp PERIOD. the effects are all fine and for gigging it sounds like a much more expensive rig. I control everything with an fcb1010. I like it. The rectified sound is brutal. i have the Marshall "brown " down.etc.for $100 you can't beat it

never had a problem. Get a higher rated power supply(1.5) and it won't get so hot

outta business but who isn't(ADA,Badcat,Tophat) all thats left is crap or break the bank equipment shame

love it.

You need the manual for deep editing. Difficult to remember the codes when editing on-the-fly. I didn't get the software with it, so I guess I am doing it the hard way. Does not have a bypass switch.

I use strats and aa LP through variuos SS and tube amps. I suppose it could make a crappy amp sound better, but it colors the tone too much. It has a very plasticky sound, no matter which model is selected. Too many presets have distortion and delay. Chorus is very bad, rotary speaker is best modulation I found. Very noisy. Noise gate works well, and so does compressor. Very editable comperssor, perhaps this boxes' best feature. Pitch shifter is very scalable also, you can edit every semi-tone up to one octive up or down, I found this very useful. Preset #72 is the best of the factory presets. Almost all of the presets are way too loud with too much gain.

A plastic Box? You are nuts if you gig with a plastic box. I would never in a hundred million years gig with anything plastic.

They went out of business along time ago, and for a good reason.

I play all styles, rock, blues, yada, yada, yada. This thing is way too hard to use without a computer. It sounds rubbery and plasticky and digital, which it is. It can only do one thing: modify the tone stack of the input signal, which may have sounded good 5 years ago, but technology has far surpassed this box. I suppose in it's day it was a wonder. Now, it is a garage-sale item. It does sound good with headphones, and is meant for recording, so right now it is a toy for me. I only use the two presets, pitch shifter and rotary speaker effects. You can't turn off the amp model, and all my amps sound beter than this box.

I couldn't figure out how to turn the speaker simulator off the manual is hard to understand on this topic, so I can't use it on my half stack what a bummer, other then that it easy to use for the calling up the factory presets,editing is fairly easy just tweak a few knobs and store,with plenty room to store your fav.patch's it comes with free software that has cakewalk that's pretty easy to use.

it has some good clean sounds. but the marshall,boogie,amp sims. are real harsh sounding even tweaking the tone buttons I couldn't get rid of the harshness, but the noise gate works great, the bass sims.are great sound almost real, straight in to the mixing borad.the wha fx sucks. you can get some great Gilmore stuff out of this box which is cool if you like that type of sound the overall sounds alittle muddy for my taste.

so far so could. I haven't got to use in a live gig because I can't turn off the speaker sim.

they couldn't help explain to me how to turn that speaker sim. off just made it more confusing.

for the price go with a real pod this thing pretty much sucks for recording but the up side of this box it does have some great bass amp sims. and great cleane tones.

I edit most of my patches using J-Edit on window xp. J-Edit is really simple to use, I think the interface is cool because you can see all the panels and knobs just like a professional rack. I give this category only 6 because deep editing requires looking up all those CC parameters, which can be very inconvenient in a live setup situation.

My guitar is a Les Paul standard (stock humbuckers) and I play from blues, rock, to metal. J-station has a decent noise gate, so I never had any problems with noise.

I think the blackface, recto, JCM800, jclean are the best models.
blackface - nice warm round jazzy clean tone, sounds great for articulate arpeggios picking
jclean - add in some chorus and reverb, you get metallica cleans (master of puppets), tweak for a while and you can even get DT cleans (pull me under)
rectifier - nice compressed and tight aggressive tone, just like heard on CDs. I lower the gain to about 5.5, turn down the bass, add only a little reverb (bathroom), so it does not get muddy
JCM800 - nice model of classic rock amp, however the high gain sounds seems kind of weak, I think this was modeled for its lower gain sounds, which is fine because there is the rectifier model for high gain.

The compressor, delay, reverb are good quality effects. The wah is great (I have the J8 pedal), I even sold my dunlop 535q.

I wish the pitch shifter effect didn't have latency, other than that, I really don't have any complaints on the J-station.

I listen through headphones when practicing at home. I prefer the sound of line in directly into the PA board (global cabinet ON) when playing live.

Sure, I can depend on it. The J-station does heats up after hours of usage, but I don't think that will matter.

never dealt with them.

I've been playing for about 5 years. I like guitarists like Andy Timmons, Frank Gambale, Shawn Lane, SRV and bands like Dream Theater, Children of Bodom, Pain of Salvation, Evergrey, Pat Metheny Group ...
If it were stolen, I would probably take a look at podxt live, but for the price, I'd definitely buy J-station again.
J-station has helped me make music, I saved up so much time tweaking stomp boxes all the time, now I have more time to play. Once you find a cool sounding patch, you can save them, next time you don't have to waste time finding it again.
I wouldn't argue whether digital modeling is better than tubes or not, but for the price, convenience, and sound, I would say it definitely has a fantastic value.

Simple easy to use interface.You can get great sounds from the face of the unit without having to get into deep edit,but you always have that option.

If you mess with it you can get truly nice and quality sounds.I have used it a Boogie 50/50,tubeworks ,and vht and man it sound like a big$$$$$$$$$$$ rig. I use an ESP custom and an Alvarez Dana Scoop(I so like the active pickups) and thru a power amp(Tube only please as to this is where your sound really comes from.) a rocktron rx20 and two custom built 2x12 cabs with 1 having JBL g series and the other K series speakers and this rig is a beast. Kicks the crap outta amps that cost thousands.

move it around alot and no probs. The power supply gets hot though.Recommend using a 1.5 instead of the 1.3

Discontinued and a shame they might have gone on to build even better.

Real nice much better than the P iece O f D ung. That thing is a sterile complicated piece of crap with absolutly NO tone

It could'nt be any easier. A monkey could figure out how to use this thing. You dont even have to read the manual if you dont want to. Editing is pretty much common sense too

When I used this thing I used a early 80's jackson vee with duncan jb pickups. I used to run it into a mesa boogie 50\50 power amp and then into a marshall 412. I bought the j-station because I have owned a mesa single rec. marshall jcm 2000 50 watt and a whole bunch of other stuff that I thought sounded like shit. I finnaly just ran the j station into my 50-50 as some sort of joking experiment. I never thought it would sound good but it sounded amazing. Everyone at my rehersal space said that they thought my guitar tone was the best they ever heard. Oh yeah, i guess I should tell you what I play... mostly metal. You can get a good high gain sound outta this thing on either the rectified or johnson lead setting.., but take it with a grain of salt as far as all this modeling stuff is concerned. A model does not sound like the real thing. Ask yourself what a model is... it is a copy or mock up of the actual thing ,so take it for what it is. Nothing sounds like a marshall jcm 800 except a jcm 800, dont kid yourself. I'm sure there is a bogner or some other high dollar amp out there that would run circles around my set up but only a trained ear could tell. In other words most of the people who listen to your music wont know the differance.., and the differance will cost you about three grand more. lets get down to the brass tax, nothing you will get for 150 bucks will touch this thing and if you run it into a tube power amp it will sound better than about 90% of the stuff out there.

Never had a problem, probably never will. This thing has taken about as much abuse as anything I have ever owned and still works as good as it did when it was new

Never dealt with them

i give this thing a 10, I've owned a pod pro rackmount unit and the j-station sounds better. Dont be fooled by the high advertising budget of line 6. their stuff sounds grainy and very digital, totally fake in my opinion. I have'nt tried the vox tonelab so I dont know how the j station compares but it is the best I have heard yet. Besides if the tonelab does sound better it still costs way more. You just cant beat this thing for the price. The effects are all excellent too. I especially like the delay, very clean sounding

The stock patches are ok, but this thing screams when you edit the parameters! Without running it into a PC, it can be a bit tedious in "Deep Editing" mode, AND it definitely helps to have the J8 foot pedal. The manual is clear enough and workable, and the latest firmware is 2.0.

I'm running a Godin SD > J-Station (w/J8 foot pedal) > Boss EQ > Peavey Bandit 65; turning off the "cab" sims through the FX loop worked wonders! Not really noisy at all, just the standard single coil hum when switched to them. The effects simply blow me away on how good they are. I can nail anything from EVH, Soundgarden, Creed, Megadeth, Metallica, AIC, STP, SRV, Zep, etc. I really like the chorus as everything really sparkles and sends me away. I don't use the auto-wah much, so can't comment on that.

I have had this for over a year now, and the only problems I had with it is from my own stupidity. Duh - cab sims "on" through the amp sucked the life out of it. I don't gig yet, so I'm clueless on how effective it would be in that setting.

Never dealt with them.

I play hard rock, metal, and blues, and this modeler has hit everything I've aimed at so far. I've only been playing guitar for a year now, but I've played classical piano 35 years, and drummed for a couple of bands, so I know enough to know what I like and what sounds good to me.

If this were stolen, I'd search the ends of the earth for another, and pay the local Guido to hunt down the sorry son of a..... that stole it.

I must have checked out everything before buying the J-Station, and all of them couldn't compare: POD, V-Amp, RP's, Zoom, etc.

Does it help me make music? LOL, it gives me the will to live and play guitar!

Real easy!

I give this a nine because it is simply the best amp modeler there is for getting a few distinct sounds! No other amp modeler I've heard can nail the rectifier sound like this one. I've tried with the POD and the BOSS GS-10 and thier high gain sounds are practically worthless! I've got a lot of amps including the Marshall jmp-1, Roctron voodoo valve, Groove tubes trio, MP-1 and more, but none of theme gives the rectified sound like the J-Station. I recorded a cd
with the J-Station going direct and it is a big thick, warm sound. If you want to hear it, just go to my website(unclelight.com) and check out the audio samples. This also gets some great clean sounds too! For 150 bucks this thing is a friggin miracle! If you get a chance to pick one up -DO IT!! You won't regret it! And it's got some good bass sounds too!

No problems so far!

I don't think they make these any more so I can't say!

I give it a nine because for what it is it really sounds great! There may be better modelers out there (Vox tonelab) but for the price these go for nothin can touch em!

Well,i have to say this thing isnt the easiest to change sounds on the fly,the deep level editing mode isnt good because the only way to edit effects is if you have the manual with you(or if you memorize all those numbers,LOL!!!!)When editing amps and cabinets its easy enough..

I use a Jackson dr-3 with EMG 81/60 and i plug the J (Version made in USA)into a PA and the sound is great!Cuts through the mix,defined ,cleans are good,crunch is also very good,lead is good,effects are great,i even like the JCM 800 simulation! Our rehersal space is next to another band whose guitarist has a Mesa Triaxis,G-Major,2-90 and 4x12 Vintage 30s,and i have to say that the J gets you 90% of the sound of a real High tech high priced all tube rack.And i doubt that a 10% sound difference justifies the 1000 %price difference.Bassicaly if your a guitarist with a budget,and have axcess to a PA ,IMHO you should buy a J station and a Midi footcontroler and thats it..And besides ,99% of the people at a concert couldn tell a difference between a J station amp simulation and the real thing !!And the J is much better than a Pod(at least the ones i have played)!!

Had it for 1 year now,and i have had no problems it woorks like a charm.I would use it without a backup(or buy one if you thinks its that big a deal.(although they are more expensive here in europe you can still get them cheap)

Well everything i needed i got from the J sation forum,as for customer support i dont know because i havent dealt with them(and they dont even exist anymore-Too bad ,i think that the J could have been a monster Emulation machine )

I try to play everything from Tool to Messhugah to Satriani and that is why i like this unit,you can get alot of good sounds out of it and the effects are really good(except the envelope filter,its kinda harsh).Dont plug it into a tube power amp and guitar speakers,try a keyboard amp or a PA,thats where the unit shines.

This depends. With a computer handy, you can access all parameters the box offers very easily, and it's a real joy to program. Unfortunately, without a computer, some parameters are a royal pain to tweak. The compressor is particularly annoying to me, as you can only turn it off or on without going into Deep Edit Mode.

The clean/overdriven tones are fantastic, but they're too transparent to hide the sins of my guitar. The high-gain models sound dead on to me, but I prefer Line6's inaccuracies on the Mesa Boogie sound and I'm not a fan of the real thing (forgive my heresy). Cranking some of the clean models achieves some gloriously nasty filth you could only get from a real amp right before it explodes. The bass models are wonderful after some serious tweaking, with superb punch and snappy, crisp highs.

As for artist tones, I've come across Linkin Park, the Cranberries, KoRn (unfortunately), Our Lady Peace, and Orgy guitar sounds. I've also found Rage Against the Machine, KoRn (unfortunately), Primus, eels, and Green Day bass sounds. I don't listen to much music made before 1990 so I can't pinpoint artists, but I've obtained some convincing bluesy guitar sounds, and some fun slap-pop funk bass tone.

I use a crappy Kramer Focus guitar and a sw33t Ibanez BTB-505 bass. I go Instrument->J-Station->Computer/Fender Frontman 25B amp. I've eked great tones out of my Focus even though it's a horrible instrument (it's the best axe under $200, IMO, but that isn't saying much), and some AMAZING tones out of the Ibanez. I've never tried it with better guitars, but from my experience with the upgrade from a crap bass to good bass (I used to use a Kramer), I think you'll find your amp/guitar tone will come out intact. I've not had good luck with FX loops, and I recommend using it before the instrument input of your amp.

As a side note, the little Fender is the best-sounding amp I've found, period, for both guitar AND bass. I don't know if I got lucky and got a fluke unit, but even though doesn't get loud, and has no distortion or FX built in, it just sounds GOOD. Even the boutique amps can't beat it for pure clean tone.

As a desktop DI box, it's PLENTY sturdy. Don't play football with it, or wash it in Bud and it should be just fine. The jacks are solid and have held up to a fair bit of abuse. The knobs are plastic but have held up to some rough treatment with surprising equanimity. It's not as solid as, say, Boss stompboxes, but it comes pretty close.

My idea of customer support is a thousand pages of FAQ's, technical support documents, and PDF's on the company website. On this score, it's a smidge better than the average music gear company. I reserve better scores for the time when I find a site as thorough as computer hardware sites. I haven't tried the e-mail/phone support.

I play experimental industrial stuff (think "The Downward Spiral") and Postal Service/Ladytron pop-techno. This box works well for both. I've been playing guitar and bass for about five years, but my G.A.S. is so bad my ear for tone is equivalent to ten years of experience. :)

As a single-solution multi-FX box, I have yet to find anything better. Sansamp has better models, TC has better FX, and you can't beat boutique tube amps with a few grand of boutique stompboxes, but they just aren't as convenient, and not NEARLY as cheap. For the price, and for the function, I don't think it will ever be matched. Thus, I give it a 10 overall.

I'm sort of going to do a product comparison between the J Station and my old modeler, the Behringer V Amp 2. If the J Station loses points, it's because it's not as good as the V amp. Likewise, if it gets a high score, it's because it beats out the V Amp.

The J Station has the following inputs and outputs: 1 guitar in, 1 TRS footswitch jack, MIDI ins/outs, L and R outputs, S/PDIF out, and headphone out. Compared to the V amp, it has a digital out, but lacks an aux in. It all depends on what you want to use a modeler for, but for desktop and computer recording, the S/PDIF out is a nice feature since you don't have to mess with digital to analog conversions.

Controls are pretty intuitive as far as selecting an amp model, effects, and eq points. I haven't gotten into the "deep editing" mode yet, but you can do quite a bit with the surface controls. Deep editing seems a little tricky to access without a computer interface, so it loses a point here. Also, the V Amp's lighted dials are the best thing since sliced bread. Not as expensive as the rotary dials of a Cyber Twin, but they still let you know what your presets are doing at a glance. Behringer's deep editing seemed to be a bit easier to get to as well, but you couldn't do as much in it. On the editing patches front, the V Amp is a bit easier.


Both the V Amp 2 and the J Station sound acceptable straight out of the box, and both sound better after a little tweaking. They're equal here.

One final area where the J Station edges out over the V Amp is a power switch.

I have a pretty decent pedalboard of fx I run into the J station and use it as an amp modeler. Running direct, no pedals, the J Station sounds great. It really sounds like you are plugged into an amp, and the amp is breathing like a regular amp and speaker. I don't know how, but this beats out every other modeler I've tried (Behringer, Korg, Pod, Digitech). Distortions and effects can be added later, but a good clean sound can't be faked. This thing delivers on the clean sound, and the distortions are good too.

Most of the effects are pretty usable, but I use my own fx anyway. The one thing this unit does well is its auto wah. It actually oscillates more like a synth wah than any other unit I've tried. It probably won't outdo an EH microsynth, but for a buit in effect, it sounds awesome, and responds differently to each amp model. One of the acoustic sims sounds ok, the other sounds bad.

To answer the question, "Do these amps sound like the ones they're supposed to model?" I can only say that most of the settings sound good and usable.

One other feature that is cool is that it has 3 bass amp models. It won't substitute a full bass amp or modeling system, but for the project studio musician, it has enough to be usable, and it has a bass compressor too, available with deep editing. I don't think you'll find a better sounding modeler around.

It feels pretty hefty and sturdy. It's mostly metal, so it feels more reliable than the V amp. The only downside is some of the knobs feel a bit wobbly. Well, it's not as sturdy as a boss pedal, but for a desktop workstation, it feels reliable. I'd sit it on my amp and gig without a backup.

They got closed down by digitech, so I wouldn't put much stock in customer support.

Someone else said this unit will become the TS808 of modelers. I have to agree. The clean sounds, most difficult to emulate, sound great through this thing, and the distortion sounds good too.

You can only find these things on ebay or used on HC classifieds now. They run between $80 and $120, and I would have to say they're worth it. I'd look for a second on off of ebay if this were stolen.

UPDATE to my earlier review:

after several months of experimentation, I've learned that this unit is unacceptable for use with acoustic guitars. No matter what the configuration (modeled/presets or as a "direct" preamp) or whether I mic the guitar as opposed to a soundhole pickup, I cannot get the nuances particular to a steel string acoustic guitar through this unit. I haven't yet experimented with a vocals through it, but I'm guessing the same.

I still love the J-Station for it's features/value. Configured properly, it's very well suited to single coil pickups on electric guitar, but if you plan on recording acoustic guitar (or vocals), be prepared to also invest in a dedicated mic preamp

Pretty easy to use. Out of the box, you don't need to know much because it's like an amp. Just turn the knobs. Some of the deep functions are more difficult to program without the J-edit software.

This is probably the closest unit you will find to the real thing, amp wise. Too bad Digitech bought them and then discontinued it. It has been said that the J-Station will become the TS808 of the modeling world.

This is about as good as it gets with present technology. Blackface and Tweed are almost dead on to the real thing. All the rest are really good. Effects are excellent, which is where many modelers really are lacking.

I don't use this with an amp, just for recording, but it does sound pretty good if you turn off cabinet modeling and run it into your effects return and use the J-Station as your pre-amp instead of your amps internal pre-amp. You then use the J-Station for all controls. It in effect makes your amp into a power amp, just like a PA. Which brings us to another point. It works great with cabinet models on and run direct into a PA.

It has worked great for a couple of years now. The things are going for quite a bit used on eBay. They were selling new for 89.00 right before they were discontinued and now I've seen them going for up to $155.00 on eBay.

Have not had to use them, but they do have a forum. The unit has been discontinued.

This is as good as it gets. Great sound, perfect for recording. The only thing I wish I could do is stack effects on top of each other.

I would desperately look for another one if it broke, and when they were selling cheap on eBay, I should have picked up a spare.

I've used a Digitech RP100, the Genesis 3, and a Vamp2.. It is much better, and I've been told it sounds a lot better than the POD products.

I received this information from the person who recommended the J-Station to me. He works for a movie studio and if you watch Stargate SG-1, the Outer Limits, or have seen the Mandy Moore film, Saved, you have heard him playing... through the J-Station. Also other numerous films and TV shows.

Very easy to get a good sound. Pick an amp, pick a cab are run with it. The J-Edit software makes this very easy. Deep editing off the front panel is a bit more trying. I wish this had the Genesis 3 user interface. Editing patches was easy. I upgraded to the latest and last patch upgrade.

I use it with a Fender Strat. The Gate works well. Effects are great. I love the Sound Stage reverb. I can get most any sound I want. The SOLDANO amp is pretty much in there with the JCrunch and JSolo. It depends what CAB you use. I really like the cab sims on this unit. The 4x12 really all have there own sound and I don't have to fight with EQ settings and CAB Tune like with the Genesis 3 and GNX products to get a good sound. The 4x12 cabs are well defined. I want bright select Boutique, I want dark select Greenback, I want a mix of the two select Johnson 4x12 etc. IMO this is the best amp modeler made to date period! If you want the sound of a real amp to the point that you can almost "hear the plywood" of the cabinet then this is it. I think it has a very "tube like" sound also.

I wish the SPDIF would mute when shutting the unit on and off. I get a loud POP sound.

I played a Genesis 3 and a POD XT and like the J the best.

I would use it live but would always have a backup. I wish thay made a rack unit of this. I may make my own.

Well they are out of biz right now. I wish Digitech would bring it back. (Note: Harman Music owns both) Email them and ask them to. They are getting sick of me bugging them I'm sure. I always get quick resonses from Digitech! I consider thier customer support outstanding.

I play 80's style rock. Dokken, Van Halen, Iron Maiden style. But also some soft stuff and am delving into some nu-metal kinda stuff slowly but surely.

Go to the J-Station sound forum and the Digitech Genesis 3 Sound Community to here real people making real music with the J-Station. and BRING BACK THE J!

Very easy to get a good sound out of this unit. It is much easier to dial in your sounds while hooked up to a PC, but it isn't absolutely necessary. The guys that whine about "dragging a pc to their gig" are being stupid. You can always dial your sounds in at home, and then once you get to a gig you can easily tweak eq, gain, levels, and all of the most critical parameters from the front of the unit.

This is my second J-Station. I bought when when they first came out about 5 years ago and I loved it. I used it for a ton of recording and got some amazing sounds. I bought a new guitar and suddenly didn't like the J-Station so much anymore. Instead of upgrading the pickups in the new guitar, I blamed the J-Station and sold it in search of something better. Since selling the first J-Station I have owned: Digitech GNX2, Digitech Genesis 3, Behringer V-Amp2 & V-Amp Pro, POD Pro, Rocktron Replitone MP preamp, Rocktron Chameleon, Sansamp GT2, Sansamp TM10, Boss GT-6........you get the idea. After all of those I finally broke down and bought another J-Station. I am very happy I did. The cleans are AMAZING in my book, and the distortions sound great for recording. I have run this unit to my power amp and speakers (Hafler G150 & 2 Fender 2x12 cabs) and gotten some good sounds, but this unit is best suited through a PA or for recording direct. If you do use cabinets just make sure you turn the speaker simulation off and adjust the eq. If you are not getting a good sound with this, then you better check your guitar and pickups. If you are running a crappy guitar with cheap pickups, nothing is going to sound good. I swear by the Dimarzio Tone Zone. This pickup is great for rock, metal, and lead guitar. I also have a Tone Zone S in my Strat and it sounds almost as good as the full size humbucker. The effects on this unit are outstanding as well. I love the delay, chorus, tremelo. This unit also has great bass amp models so you can record bass through it too. I am giving this a 10, not because it is the best thing in the world, but based on the sound you get for $100. This is the best bang for the buck going in direct recording gear. I also wanted to mention that I have tried running a Sansamp GT2 and a Korg Hyper Distortion pedal into this unit using the J Crunch channel and it sounded great. Back the gain down to 1 on the J-Crunch channel and use your distortion pedal into that model and you can get some great sounds.

Seems rock solid to me. I don't abuse my gear, but this seems well built and I have owned 2 of them.

Even though these are out of production they still maintain the Johnson website. You can upgrade the software on your J-Station as well as download patches directly to your unit. You can also download the manual for free.

I play rock & metal with lots of lead guitar and this unit is great. I don't think it is only suited to those styles though. The bass sounds are great, the acoustic sims are decent, and the various models sound great. I mainly use the Rectifier and Brit Stack for distortion sounds and the J Clean & Blackface models for clean stuff. The blackface model with some chorus and delay is breathtaking!! Just tweak the eq and experiment with the cabinet models to get the right sound. These are plentiful and cheap on ebay, so get one while they are still around. If you want to record direct to your PC, or if you want something that sounds great through headphones, I have not found anything better. I have know idea why the Line 6 POD put this unit out of production, because I think the J-Station is superior to the POD in every way. Maybe Line 6 just did a better job of advertising and marketing the POD?

Too few parameters are available from the front panel. The display has only 2 digits so it's really difficult to work with, you have to learn for example, that bank 26 is reverb on/off (or something like that) and the banks following that are all the different reverb parameters. It's really easy when you plug it into the computer and twiddle all the virtual knobs but that's never gonna be practical in a rehearsal/gigging situation. I hate programming sounds on this thing - it's so illogical. Plus, it took me ages to work out that the numbers with a dot between them are the parameters and the normal numbers are the values - it doesn't even mention this in the manual.

There are SOME excellent sounds in the J-Station. The Fender Blackface model is fantastic, and so is the Vox AC30, both of these will give you nice cleans and slightly dirty cranked amp sounds - very close to the reality of what these amps actually sound like. Aside from that however, most of the amps sound terrible. This is mainly due to the speaker simulations being way over the top - they're either very bright, or in most cases sound like you're using a wah wah pedal halfway a la Mick Ronson. The best reason for buying this would probably be for the bass amp sims, as the Trace Eliot and Ampeg models sound excellent in a mix, and how many bass players really need 16 different amps (as in the bass Pod)? The reverb, tremelo and rotary sounds are excellent and the compressor is nice too. In fact, the best sound I've ever got with the J-Station was by using it as an effects unit with no amp sim, in the effects loop of a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

It's solid as a rock, I chuck it in my rucksack all the time, there's no real parts so there's not much to go wrong.

I play all sorts - but I would describe my electric playing as pop rock/ alternative. This is a fun toy but not really a serious piece of kit. I use it for recording all the time - because I can't afford a Pod XT or a Vox Tonelab. I do get some good sounds with it but it takes ages to find them and usually requires some external EQ. The main thing that's missing for me is big transparent crunch, as all the amp/speaker models apart from the Blackface and Vox have ugly mid peaks, and those 2 models don't prouce much overdrive (like the real things). If you've got some nice overdrive pedals you could just use the 2 good amp models to run your sound through - this works great, and things are slightly improved by bypassing the speaker sim and running into an amp with a decent speaker. But I've got some big festival gigs and stuff so I'm gonna have to buy something better.

A friend was selling this unit, and I took it home for a weekend test drive. I have lots of equipment already but am always experimenting with new tones. My initial plan was to hook this unit up in one setup that already has a Pod. I would bypass the Pod to play with J-Station tones or vice versa.
Well, it didn't work out that way. J-Station had NO bypass. (Apparently this was an older model and did not have the special bypass amp-type mentioned by others.) I would have had to buy an A/B box. Yuck. No thank you.
Secondly, I simply detest units that can be fully controlled only if you use a computer. Yeah, I have a computer, in fact I am an IT Sec pro and have 4 home computers, but I prefer to keep my computers and my guitar gear separate. I play in a number of bands and with friends. What am I supposed to do if I need to adjust the tone in band practice (to better match to current band)? Take a computer with me? I have anough gear to carry already.

Below par. I can see that this an "entry-level" unit targeted at young and inexperienced guitarists and does not even attempt to produce a professional-level sound (which can hardly be expected in this price category anyway). While I admit that some of the models were impressive on their own, the sound was far too mushy and distant for any serious use (even band practice, let alone gigs/studio work).

Secondly, I must wonder how many (if any) of the people who praise the J-Station Rectifier model have actually *played* through a real Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier. As for me, I owned a Dual Rectifier combo for 5 years in the 1990s; I eventually "grew out of it" and sold it as my taste developed (and I had a better understanding of what kind of tone I was looking for). I would *never* mistake this model for a real Rectifier. People here say that it is better than the Pod model. Well, it may be "better" in the sense that it is more bassy and heavier than the Pod model (as well as more mushy and distant) which probably makes it "better" for beginner-level garage metal bands. But if you say that it is closer to a real Rectifier than a Pod is, you obviously have never owned a Mesa Boogie. The Pod is definitely closer to a real Mesa Boogie Dual Recto, albeit not by much. However, both modelers *completely* lack the bite, body, precision and tightness of a real Rectifier even if they catch some of its timbre. Yes, I can definitely tell whether somebody is playing through a Rectifier or a modeler. (Of course having actually owned a Dual Recto Combo helps.)
Bottom line is, I guess, if you want tube amp sound, buy a tube amp, not a modeler.

I did not buy it. The main reason was the lack of bypass, and secondly, my friend was asking for a price that was not very much lower than the list price.

I have been playing since 1985, and owned more gear than I can count. I favour Gibson guitars (SG and LP models), but also regularly play on custom-built "enhanced" Stratocasters.

I could recommend this unit to young guitarists who want a cheap modeler. The price isn't too bad, and the sound is so mushy that it sounds pretty much the same whether the player is a novice or an experienced one.

Not for the advanced guitarist.

I had one of these units a couple of years ago, and sold it to upgrade my live rig. I bought a Rocktron Replitone MP which I thought would be ideal for both live and direct recording use. Well guess what, just sold my rack of Rocktron gear and bought another J-Station. I still think this thing kills the POD and the other competition as far as ease of use and usuasable sounds. Hook it up to your computer and use the editor. It doesn't get any easier than that. The addition of a couple of bass amp sims is like icing on the cake. No other guitar modeller offers that.

I think this is still the best amp sim out there. Haven't tried the Vox Tone Lab, but I've read alot of people complaining about RF noise and the ability to only use certain effects at once. The amp sims are great, and don't have that boomy bottom end that the POD and the Replitone seem to have when used direct. Amazing effects. I love the stereo imaging with the ping-pong delay. Dead quiet with the noise gate and a real usable compressor. Really getting into the clean and semi-clean amps. I recorded someting last week using the Vox sim and it was dead one. 24-bit digital and digital outs make for noiseless recording.

No problems with either unit I owned. Had a little trouble this time installing the editor program on my PC. May have something to do with the fact I'm running Windows XP. Eventually I cut and pasted it into the programs files, and it works fine.

Even though they no longer make Johnson products, the website is still up and I ordered a cord for my J8 footswitch from it.

My guitars are Line 6 Variax 500( in a custom built strat body), Carvin Bolt with Lace Sensor single coils and a Seymour Duncan Holdsworth pickup on the bridge, Johnson electric-acoustic, Ibanex Roadstar bass, Fender Fretless Jazz bass and a custom body housing a Roland GK midi pickup. Recording is done using a Roland VS1680, Cakewalk Guitar Studio and Steinberg Cubase.
This thing is just ideal for me. I record jazz, fusion and world music. I'm also involved in recording a CD for a progressive-alternative band. My J-Station is all I need to get the sounds I want for any of these projects. I'm looking forward to using it as a pre-amp and running it through my ADA power amp and Avatar 2-12 cabs loaded with Eminence Vintage 30s. The J8 footswitch will eliminate all of my midi pedals and effects and will let me control different parameters live with the built-in expression pedal.

Easy to use but do the editing with a computer or keep the manually really handy!

I really like the tones. I also have a Beringer V-Amp2 but like the Johnson's tones better

Gotta go low here, my power supply crapped out & turns out a generic radio shack won't work even with proper amperage & voltage. Replacement power supply cost $50 which was a drag since the whole box was only $100. Also, mine won't hold the presets except factory presets. They could probably fix it if I mailed it back but who's got time.

they emailed me back and forth about preset but it boiled down to "send it in and we'll look at it"

As soon as I bought it for $150, they dropped the price to $100, go figure. It's been discontinued since Johnson is owned by Digitech or something and they didn't want the competition.

This unit is intuitive after an hour or so. The effects and settings are arranged pretty well. Creating a godd patch can take a while, but that is due to many options. After a week or so, you stop seeking perfection and you still have good sounds. I could not change settings on mine, but after the software was reloaded at the factory, it was easy.

The sound quality is good. I use a G&L Legacy, ASAT, 70s Gibson SG, and Charvel Model 1(w/JB humbucker and JB Jr.). I did not use this unit with my amp. I bought it to play at church and gigs where I would plug it into the PA. I plugged it into my Marshall head once, but it sounded like the amp was in a box.
The unit is not noisy due to the very good noise suppressor. The presets are over effected, you know the drill. Take out the effects, and the amp models and cabinet models sound good. The cabinet modes are to me, better than a red box pro. There are too few subtle differences between the different 4x12 cabinets, though. Maybe my ears are too fine tuned. My big gripe is with some of the amp models. Marshall JCM900? When was that considered a classic? Where is the Soldano model from the Johnson amp line? That was a good model. Where is any Marshall Super Lead? There are 7 or 8 higher gain models that sound very similar. Also, the gain sounds the same on almost all the models. The JCM900 does sound very different than any other model because it is the only model with sufficient mid-range body. Oddly the best models are the Johnson models and the generic fuzz model. The fuzz model reminds me of the fuzztone the Edge is famous for. Excellent!! The Johnson amp models are the clearest and most usable. Same for the cabinet models.
The effects section is stellar. The effects are subtle and quite uasable. I know 2 studio players that use the DI bypass of this unit and use the effects section for their rig. The chorus is especially beautiful, but subtle. Think TC Electronics, not Boss CE1. The delays are good. The reverbs are ok.
One important note: do no expect to plug your favorite overdrive or distortion pedal into this unit and get a usable sound. Mine sounded terrible with my Fulltone Distortin Pro plugged in.

My unit was faulty when it arrived. It just crapped out every 5 minutes. Sent it to the factory. They reloaded the software and it worked fine afterward. I have to grade it down because of the first one.

The customer support people at Johnson Amplification were helpful and fast. I sent my unit in and recieved it fixed within 2 weeks. Goo professional operation.

This is a real bargain. Modeling technology has moved past this unit, but it has some good sounds when you find its strengths. It is $50-$200 cheaper than its rivals. It does sound better than all Pods until the XT. It blows the Behringer out of the water and is still cheaper. Digitech Genetix sounds much better. The gains are more realistic and have different characteristics on each model.
You can tell from my gear I require good tone. I have recently sold my J-Station after 2 years of ownership. It does not deliver the tone quality I need, but it is a fine little system. it is good as a headphones amp or beginners with a PA. It was useful in the church band. It is a bargain and well worth the money.
If it were lost or stolen, I would have replaced it, if it had been an essential piece of gear for me. It will not get in the way of making music. For the hobbyist and beginner, this is a Holy Grail. For the semi-professional, you cannot replace tubes and good gear.

The front panel has all the important buttons/knobs so you dont need to go through menus. Its very easy to get very close to any sound you are looking for quickly. I think this is the perfect balance of featuers and complexity. When the guitar is in the mix, the ability to hyper-edit is not so important.

I have a Peavey XXX amp which I have recorded well with SM57 and Condenser mic, sounds great for rythym, but getting "that" lead tone can be maddening. Once you've tried recording with a mic, you appreciate how easy the J-station makes everything. The lead tones sound compressed, good, like they do after FX have been added. This works for 95% of the stuff anyone will do. No loud recording voulme, no difficulty monitoring, adding FX after tracking. Whatyouheariswhatyouget!

I wouldnt record a guitar masterpiece with it, but it works well enough for 95% of the recording situations a pro would be in. Time is money.

This would get a ten but after using it for several months, you realize that all the distortion models are tonally very similar. You can get lotsa differnt sounds but they all have that "J" sound. Need to use differnt guitars to get differnt identities.

The SPIDF output and J-Edit software have exhibited some flaky behavior that is usually fixed by unplugging and plugging back in. Crackling through the SPIDF sometimes. But only when tweaking with J-edit. I think its a software error, not hardware.

This is the guitar best buy of the decade. I think it still compares well to the POD XT Pro demos ive heard. (Here 5 years later and they still sound phony) Its all about recording and HEH 90% of the time I dont even fire up the amp anymore. Its not a tube amp, lacks the complexity and character, and has less identity, but it is a grreat tool and makes a very complex thing (recording guitar) easy.

Very easy to use in a basic mode, J-Edit makes it even easier, but I don't use it much. I can get to about 99% of what I want right from the unit.

It sounds great to me. I use it for recording and just basic playing with. I don?t use it much into an amp, but it seems to work best if you turn off cabinet modeling and run it straight to the effects return and plug your guitar right into the J-Station. Basically just using your amp as a power amp.

It does not seem to introduce any extra noise, and I use it via Analog outputs to my computer sound card instead of the S/Pdif output.

I really can?t compare it with any other unit. I was going to buy a Pod and put it up for discussion on one of the forums, and it came back the J-Station had a much more realistic sound to it. One of the guys that talked me into the J-Station works for a major motion picture studio in LA. He uses it exclusively on all the films he works on. I figured if it?s good enough for him, it?s good enough for me.

No problems yet. My movie studio friend drags his to sessions all the time and it keeps working.

N/A No contact yet.

This thing can do most anything. I really like the Tweed mode, and the JCM800. Very smooth. The Johnson lead mode is really hot and when you play harmonics, it screams like crazy. It has bass models also. I can just plug the bass in and don't need a second unit.

If it were lost or stolen, I?d buy another one. In fact, I considering buying a second unit so if anything happens to it I won?t be with out it.

From what my studio musician friends tell me, this is the most realistic sounding modeler you can get at any price. I love it also, but I?m not an expert like my friends are.

I just wish you could get a stand for it like you can with the POD.

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.