CeriaTone JTM45 212 Combo

I had mine completely assembled, tubes, speakers and all, this year (2009). mine has the sozo capacitor upgrade, external biasing and a set of celestion G12H30's in it. there very close to greenbacks and much cheaper.

this is a stright out rock amp. very basic, presence, bass, mids, treble and volume. theres the different channel inputs for the bright or normal modes, would definately not call this an amp with more than one channel though. who the hell needs it! these controls are enough to coax that AC/DC, The Living End tone i want out of it. for my purposes (aussie rock tone) this amp is simply amazing. an effects loop may be nice, but hey if you want it you can have it, there made to order. also, its freaking loud to get the tone i want, so some form of attenuation may come in handy.

cant give it a 10 for features, but hey, who needs all them features with tone like this...

i use a gretsch G5120 electromatic hollowbody with the gretschbuckers in it with this amp and... wow. pure rock bliss. with the volume about 4 or so, bridge pickup selected and a nice heavy pick attack you get that bit of grit but can still hear every note cleanly. if you like that malcom young or chris cheney sound, this is it. end of story.

good luck getting variety out of this amp, its pretty much a one trick pony, but what a trick. switch to the neck pickup and this thing has a really sweet tone to it. i have no idea what to compare it to, but all i can say is... sweet. keep cranking the master volume and the gain goes with it, going into some nice punchy distorted territory. doesnt get too brutal, but a really nice sound none the less.

i would definately use this at a gig without backup, it is verrrrrryyyy well constructed. saying this, i havent had it THAT long so i dont think i can have my say here yet.

now THIS is why i wrote the review. nik is amazingly helpful. i had about 50 emails back and forth deciding on what was best for me, replied in a day every time and was always polite and friendly. knew what he was on about too. if you are maybe after one of these, drop him an email, he will gladly reply to ANYTHING. top bloke.

I have been playing for about 3-4 years now and let me tell you this is an upgrade from the old peavey valveking *hides face in shame*. i would get another of these in a snap, it is simply the holy grail of tone, exactly what i was after. its sexy too, i forgot to mention. gold grille cloth, nice black tolex, plexi gold faceplate and logo, white piping... mmm... vvveeerrryyy sexy. i played others in much higher priceranges (AC30, Marshall JTM45 head, Marshall JCM800 head, Marshall Bluesbreaker) and i decided that the JTM was the greatest thing i had ever heard. then i caught wind of this, read some reviews, talked to nik and how could i say no!!

10/10, what an amp!