Jackson Reference 50

Early 80's
Extremely versatile - Funk, Rock, Metal, Jazz
2 Channels: clean and lead

I have it loaded with 4 12ax7 and two KT77; sounds great in this amp.

It gets a 9 because the tone controls aren't wide enough to really change the character much.

I play through this with humbuckers usually and it sounds Awesome. Great note definition, the bass doesn't fart, the highs arent shrill. It can really cut through the mix.

Kind of a marshall/soldano feel to the lead channel. Does that Judas Priest or Scorpions metal perfectly with gain and volume at about halfway. Metallica type is definitely nailed with the gain up around 8-9 and the volume anywhere above 4. This amp cuts through the mix much better than anything I have had before.

The clean channel is excellent. I wouldn't call it fender cleans, but that's not a knock, its just different. The bass response is warm but doesn't get muddy at all. The highs are very chimey but not shrill. Its not a dry clean like the Peavey JSX I had, its dripping with tone. Typical for a tube amp though, it won't sound great until you start kicking in the volume a bit.

I don't know about reliability for it. Its built like a tank except for one huge exception; all the pots and switches are all plastic. Seems like a prototype or something. It is 20+ years old and still kicking though so it must not be too bad

None. They are completely unavailable. I wish I could even get a schematic.

Playing for about 5 years. I have a vintage fender music master bass amp, hot rod deluxe, and others. I have an Ibanez JS1200, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson Flying V. I have lots of pedals but I don't use any of them with this. I tried an EHX holier grail reverb with the clean channel but I didn't think it was a good match so I don't use any effects with this. The guitars all sound great with this especially the les paul (seymour duncan pups). It seriously has balls with that guitar.
If it were lost or stolen I'd be S.O.L. because you can't just go find one of these anywhere. Its a gem that has pretty much fallen through the cracks. I would not trade this amp for a Splawn or Voodoo amps, I think this is better. If you find one of these and its still in decent shape you should check it out.

I don't know the year. Two channels, clean and lead. The clean is really nice with a lot of depth/wetness. The lead easily goes from cunch to metal. Has effects loop. I think it looks kinda funny with the stainless stell grill, but i took the grill off anyway.
Its exactly what I want for features:
- Fender like cleans
- Marshall like lead

I run this amp with two JJ KT77's in the power section biased a bit on the cold side cuz the clean sounded dry when biased hot. I use Les Paul, Flying V, and an Ibanez JS1200 that does the coil split thing to give it a single coil feel. I think that all sound good with this amp but I particularly like the LP.

The amp does everything from funk to punk. I don't hear a lot of country tone in it. Power amp saturation (ala Led Zeppelin), brutal gain (ala Motley Crue, Metallica), and even funky clean (Steeley Dan, Nile Rodgers) are all well within reach, but with a bit of uniqueness to it.

It will get noisy if you crank the gain and volume, but nothing overwhelming. I took a chance buying something like this without a lot of information about it, but it is now one of my favorite amps.

Reliability is definately not a strong suit of this. Plastic pots and switches, the chasis is kinda akward in the cabinet. I don't know if the solder breaks down over time, but it looks pretty bad in there right now. But it is 20+ years old and still kickin so it must not be too bad. The pcb inside says its made by a Steve Mauriello and it has 'chunky amps 120' in there so it almost seems like a prototype or something. I think it might be kinda related to the apogee.

Its gone man. I can't even find a schematic for it. I really wish I could find some more information about it. If anyone out there has any info please email me jbopko@gmail.com.

Its a great amp with no name recognition. I would not trade it for a jcm800 and a princeton combined. If it were stolen or lost I'd have to track it down because you just can't really find these anymore. If you see one, I would definately check it out. All that said I do get the prototype feel from it, so maybe there is some wide variation from model to model.

Two channels - clean and lead. EQ on each. Lead channel has drive and master knobs. No reverb. Has effects loop but I have not used it.
These amps were made in 80's, the late 80's I think. 12AX7 pre amp tubes and two EL34 power amp tubes.

I play everything from hard rock to borderline metal to rockabilly and clean acoustic type stuff. This can do all but the distortion is more hard marshall. Doesn't do the scooped new metal mesa tones.
I like this amp. It has the cleanest Clean channel I have ever heard. Very nice lead distortion channel - can sound like a marshall but much hotter and more pronounced tones throughout the spectrum. I usually use this around 2 or 3 for the drive gain. The guitar pickups play a huge part in this. I have played Gibson's, Jackson's and PRS through this amp and each sound very distinctive. Also made a huge difference when I adjusted the volume on my guitar. On a good guitar I could turn down the volume and it would clean up for a rockabilly sound, which we use on a couple of songs.
Tubes make a huige difference! I have tried Sovtek's and chinese tubes but they took of the highs and dynamics. I replaced with Groove tubes and huge difference! Speaker cabs also make a huge difference. I was playing this with a Jackson head and it had that 80's metal sound. I replaced cab with a new Mesa 3/4 back 1-12" cabinet and the bottom end just roared.

Reliable so far and I've had it for a couple of years. The knobs started to get dirty and made the clean channel cut out a little. I took it into my fave guitar tech and he fixed it but said the knob pots are plastic rather than metal. That was a little disturbing. Plastic parts bother me if they ever quit, but solid so far.
Other than that it does not stress the tubes and I've gotten a lot of life out of the tubes.

Reliable and sounds great (to me).

its a very straight forward amp. Two channels with low, mid and high setting knobs for each, the clean channel has a volume knob, while the lead channel has gain and volume. It has three different ohms settings, an effects loop, and a footswitch jack on the back. It really rocks the house when cranked up. I play a kinda hard-funk rock style and its perfect to use with a wha.

I play a fender strat through it and this thing makes it sound like a wet dream. All my previous amps tend to give my guitar a "dry" sound to it when its on the clean channel, but this thing makes my guitar glow. I play a kinda hard-funk rock style and its perfect to use with a wha. The distortion is deep and warm and sounds great at high levels- no buzzing! I wouldn't use the lead channel for metal, but its great for blues, punk, hard rock- almost anything!! FUNK!!!

I've only been playing it for about a month and I already blew a tube, but thats expected when you buy something used thats been sitting unplayed for over a year. It's built like a tank, very heavey for its size. ALWAYS HAVE EXTRA TUBES!!!!

none

I've been playing for about two years and it sounds like a dream. This is my first all tube amp and I plan on staying all tube for the rest of my musical career. I would sell my soul before I sold this amp

9 knobs, 2 channels, chan1:Clean vol, Treb, Mid, Bass. Chan2: Gain, Master, Treb, Mid, Low. Standby switch at front, power switch in back lower right corner.

I'm playing through an Ibanez RG 470L with EMG 81's/85's, and a Schecter V-7 Diamond series. I play just about everything, but I like to play extremes. Main influences are Strapping Young Lad/Devin Townsend, Dream THeater, Fear Factory, Rammstein, NIN, Chopin, Radiohead. This amp is great for sound and has great versatility. The heaviness and clarity of this head are what gets to me, I love it. The clean tones are crystal clear, no buzzing, even at high volumes.

Haven't dropped it yet!

N/A

2 channel all tube head, separate eq controls, FX loop, 4 12ax7 preamp, 2 EL34 power tubes. Standby & power switch, selectable 4/8/16 ohms output. Channels can be footswitched. No master volume, presence or reverb.

I get great rock tones from this amp, I am very pleased. I kinda took a risk buying it over the internet but in this case I got a gem(i've been burned before). This amp definitely has the Marshall tone going, I used to have a JCM900 SLX(which was way too harsh & noisy), the gain is a little less on the Jackson but the tone is alot fatter. Of course like any tube amp when you crank it up it gets sweeter. But unlike a Marshall JCM, the clean channel on this Jackson is very clean, clear, and chimey, even with the volume cranked. I'm impressed. There is no hum or noise, something I haven't gotten with most tube amps I've owned. When cranked you get that great feedback that everybody loves. The notes really seem to bloom with humbuckers or single coil pickups. I'm in love.

No idea since it's fairly new. I opened it up and everything looks original, my model was made in 84'. Very sturdy looking build, chassis is heavy gauge, components are solid. It's kinda hard to reach the power switch, they should've put that up front with the standby switch.

Non existent. Jackson stopped making amps after a couple of years.

This amp is everything I wanted. I like to play a variety of tones, from clean fingerpicking to hardcore hard rock. I get it all with this baby. I've tried tons of amps over the last couple of years and frankly in concept they look nice and even sound nice at low volumes, but where it counts is when you crank it up in a live setting, they have to cut through and sing(not squeal or fizz out). This amp has balls. I guess I really shouldn't leave a good review(since I want to buy another for backup), maybe this is all best kept a secret, but what the hell. I have to tell somebody about it.

2 channel: clean & lead.Seperate eqs.Effects loop.

Very much a marshall vibe here.Like somewhere between a jcm 800 & 900.(perhaps a tad more gain)This amp is good for ACDC,Old Priest & other hard rock stuff.Not for Death Metal unless you run a pedal into the clean channel.
Fender like cleans by the way.

Looks like a tank to me.

Non exhistant.

I wish it as more a Metal Amp ,but for what it is it`s great.Sounds as good as any marshall 800 or 900.If your after a good hard rock amp buy it.

I've had this amp for a few months now and I want to add that the pickups on your guitar can make or break an amp...
I was playing through a 1984 Hamer Vector KK, I got a great sound too. I recently outfitted my old strat body with an 80's Guild humbucker from a Gx7 or somethingrather and now it sounds better than any marshall or soldano I've ever played through. You never know what you have until you've exhausted all options...

50 watt tube amp. two channels, mid, low, and mid for both channels. both also have separate volume. gain selector for unclean channel is only difference. effects loop on rear. comes with 2 EL34 tubes and 4 preamp tubes. 4, 8, and 16 ohm selector switch on rear. has two speaker inputs. just the right features to make this a badass amp without putting useless shit that only midi professionals would use. The best thing about this amp is that it looks like a piece of art, very beautiful. it's deep like the peavey 5150, maybe a little more deeper and it's about the same height. it's not as wide though, maybe several inches less wide. nice rounded edges. the edge protectors aren't hard plastic like other amps. these are sort of a hard yet soft material, sort of a hard rubber. they're very strong though. the metal grill is wide steel mesh, it's very futuristic.
if you can get your hands on one you should jump on it.

i got this amp in the mail earlier today. i've used a few different humbuckers. all are high-output. i play punk and hard rock. this amp can play metal easy. sounds like a soldano/mesa/marshall hybrid. i gave up my peavey 5150 and my marshall Jcm900 SL-X for this bitch. they can't compete. the 5150 has sort of a generic gain and the marshalls are too crunchy. this amp has the marshall crunch with a sharp fuzz like a soldano added. it's really a great combination. i've been playing it for hours today. the knobs on this thing are awesome, not too touchy at all. i put the low and high knobs on 10 and turn up the mid to 3 and holy shit look out. this amp is very well made. it's not loud at all. NO noise. on either channel. the clean channel can get real crisp if you want but you can get a wide range of tones. it's anything but muddy like the 5150 clean channel. the footswitch i got with it has no writing at all on it, making me thing it's an aftermarket generic one, but it's metal and works great.

i would definately gig without a back up, and plan to very very soon. when i look at this thing i'm reminded of my old peavey 5150, i could tell when i took it apart that it's a fucking tank, JUST like the 5150. this amp just sounds waaaaay better. but i can't tell you how dependable it is since i've only owned it for a little while. i plan on getting an anvil case to carry it around, this amp it's too attractive to risk getting scratches on. i want to stick my tubes into this amp.

this amp was designed by Lee Jackson, was built by Laney, and was marketed through the Jackson name. i don't think they're in business anymore.

i've been playing for 5 years. both channels are fucking amazing. definately a professional sounding amp. i plan to record with this. easily compared to soldano and marshall, the clean channel is just like a high-end fender. if i could find another one i'd buy it just so i could have a backup. this amp will never get stolen, i'll see to that. i hate nothing about this amp, it's sonically and visually stunning.