Jade Shadow 501

The features are fairly above average, theres 9 control knobs and 2 channels, the control knobs are your: Level, Shape and Gain; for the overdrive channel, then you've got your: Bass, Gain, Mid, Treb, Pres, and Master Vol. which cover both ur clean and overdrive. I dont really hear that much of a difference when the Pres is altered although when its cranked it seems ever so slightly tin'ish. Also there is a bass boost style button which delivers an annoyingly high amount of bass.

I play mainly grunge/rock styles and it suits the amp fairly well provided you stay within the amps boundaries (more info in Sounds). I've tried playing over drums with it but it just doesn't get over them but its loud enough to annoy your neighbours with when practicing at home.

Its got 2 guitar inputs, a high, and lo (-6dB). Also it has 5 other plugs for CD input, footswitch pedal, Extention speaker, line out and a headphone output.

I use a Cort Strat. SP3: Special Series (I know, I know...). The amp has got a some pretty nice sounds such as a really killer fuzzed out overdrive when the level, shape and gain are all cranked and also the shape can be backed off a bit for a cool (QOTSA'ish)style rock tone.

HOWEVER........
Once the volume is increased over about the 6 (half way) the shape of the overdrive becomes lost and begins to sound pretty bad (not awesome), and once its upto the 10/12 it sounds like a sack of shit with about double bass plugged into it. Overall the overdrive channel is good on low, and if you used the extension speaker it should be alright I guess.

The clean channel however is good, and goes alot louder than the overdrive channel, also you can turn the gain up on it for some pretty cool vintage style overdrive.

I've had this amp for about 6/7 months and so far no dramatic troubles its worked everytime. The only problem is one of the panels on the top of the amp sometimes begins to vibrate against the control panel when the reverb climaxes and the volume is over half way and it can get loud enough to the point where it begins to drown out the reverb. But this has only occured 3/4 times and isnt an often occurance. Overall very sturdy.

I've never had to use the customer support so I cant really state much. However the Jade Australia website has been underconstruction for almost 3 years!!!! The amps all have a 3 year warranty.

I've been playing Guitar for about 3 years, My last amp was a small Laney: Hardcore Max 20watt practice amp which was pretty awesome but too small to really jam. The amp is pretty good overall, its pretty loud for its small price, very well built, the on board controls are pretty good. The major downfall is when it losses shape when the volume is over half way.

I'm not sure if I'd buy another, If the 'losing shape' problem was solved then I'd most likley purchase another but a larger model so it would be able to play gigs. Because I like that its Australian and that its not greatly expensive.

I think this was made recently. I play a large range of guitar styles from acoustic fingerpicking through to bluesy, raunchy lead guitar. Since I have very little money to spend on gear, I need to use this amp for everything. I often run my Aria Les Paul through an Akai Shred-o-matic, and that gets a nicer sound out of the amp, even when I don't actually distort the signal (the reason for this is that the Shred-o-matic has real tube distortion, and that gives a rounder signal to the Jade). I wish it wasn't a guitar and bass amp, because the bass is too high, and to get what I think sounds like a "flat" amount of bass, I have to push the level down. It has channel switching to a distortion channel which is kind of nice if you don't have any better options. It's a cool sound, but I wouldn't use it over my Akai pedal. I use this amp at all sorts of smallish gigs. Practise, outdoor playing, halls, pubs etc. I am looking for an extension cab for it (hey, if the Beatles can play the Shea on AC-30s, I can play some local gigs on a 50).

It has decent in/out features; headphone, line out, extension speaker, aux in. I haven't really used them, though. Has two guitar inputes, the passive one is at -6dB.

It is a solid-state amp (go figure).

I play it with two main guitars: an Aria Les Paul with the twin humbuckers, for all my electric playing. I can get the nice, rich Les Paul sound (of course it's nothing like a real Gibson-Marshall combination) and can thin it out a bit, too (of course I can't coax out the clarity of a Strat). So: versatile, but not stunning in any one area.

I usually crank the bass down a bit, and have to be more careful when playing my Cort electro-acoustic through it. I need warmth and cleanness, and have to avoid harsh, brittle, "cheap" sounds. This can be achieved, but when I need to switch quickly between electric and acoustic (like between songs), then it's tough.

The clean channel stays fairly clean at high volumes (albeit, it's a bit jarring), and is thus able to be played fairly loud in a big enclosure with, say, another loud guitarist, a bassist, a singer and a drummer.

I always use it on gigs without a backup because I don't have a backup. Hard times! I have had to depend on it, and have not been let down.

I have treated it fairly well, and it has returned the favour. No hitches. 'Nuff said.

I've been playing seriously for about 3 or 4 years (depending on what you consider serious) and I own a Les Paul copy, a Cort acoustic, a Valencia mandolin and some other bits and pieces. If the Jade was lost, I would probably try something else. Not because I'm disappointed, but because I'm not of the opinion that this is the best amp I can get (after all, who am I to judge amps? This is my first remotely serious amp purchase.)

Year - 2000-2001
Versatility - Gets a nice accoustic sound but is a little bassy w/o pedal or extended equaliser.
Channels - Low/Mid/High/Pres/Gain control overdrive and clean channels. The overdrive is waaaaaay to distorted though.

Epiphone G-400 Stock Pickups (not for long though) Boss ME6 multi fx board and an Ibanez SM7 Distortion Pedal. A couple of leads as well...
It works for the stuff i play generally, Tool, Yngwie Malmsteen, RAtM any good.
Variety in the amp is not that extended
Clean gets a distorted above 60-70% when i run my guitar straight through the amp but with compression can smash it up to 100
Amp distortion i wouldn't bother with, it's really shit. FX distortion is good though.

Uh... i wouldn't use this little amp for a gig, it's just my practice amp... The amps pretty new so it hasn't broken yet.

3 Year warranty but i haven't dealt with the company. prolly wouldn't bother either, i'd just go to where i bought it and they'd do it for me... good to have friends init?

I've been playing 2 years. I play on an Epiphone G-400 w/stock p/ups blah blah blah told you before. I have an ashton stack and would use that at gigs, this is a good practice amp as it's not too big, can take it to my friends place and shite. I don't particularly like the bassyness of it but can be fixed with a good pedal and some fiddling with the equaliser knobs. also if you put an extention amp on it for more treble it sounds quite good.