Johnson JA-004

the features have been described before. basic run of the mill pocket mini amp

sounds good either clean or distorted

this is where it goes downhill. I bought two of them and they both broke down within two weeks of me buying them.

nope, haven't dealt with them

I have been playing for 3 years and this is the second crappiest mini guitar amp I have played. ( the other would be the Dean Markley amp). Since I now have a danelectro honeytone, which is a far more reliable amp the either the Johnson or Dean Markley put together, I will not buy another one again.

1/4" input jack, volume, tone, drive, on-off, status LED, 1/4" headphone jack, 9V 200mA adapter jack. Gray plastic case with black fabric grill cloth, 4 Watts, 3" speaker. Made in China.
No belt clip, so I went to Tandy Leather and got a 7/8" belt clip for around $1.50. Trimmed the extra large lip off the clip, drilled a second hole, removed JA-004 back, drilled two holes, and mounted with two #632 machine screws & nuts. -2 points for the hassle as it should have this feature as on the "D" HoneyTone.

The Drive (gain) contol actually works fairly well and you can play with various Volume/Drive settimgs to get mild to wild overdrive sounds. Leaving the Drive at "0" will only product a gritty clean tone depending on your attack. The Tone control is a passive filter much like on your guitar. It will brighten or add mud depending on your setting. Not much bass response but for a small battery powered mini amp it sounds pretty good.

Only recently purchased so overall reliability is untested. Unit seems to be fairly solid. Had to clean a scratchy Volume pot out of the box. The battery took a dive after about 45 minutes so get a 9V adapter for longer playing and keep a spare when you must use it on battery power.

Have not needed to contact Johnson. However, I voided the warranty adding the belt clip.

Overall, this is a pretty good little mini amp. Keep in mind it is a practice amp. Much better sound and volume than the "F" Mini Deluxe which has only 1 Watt & 2" speaker. Better gain control than the "D" HoneyTone. It smokes the "M" MA-2, "DM" GT1200, and the other on/off, all or none, OD models.

Very basic SS mini amp. The reason I got it was I wanted a battery powered amp with adjustable drive. Also has controls for vol, tone, on/off, headphone out and external power. The internal 3" speaker is cheezy but does do but you can't expect much. I added a speaker out jack that diables the internal speaker. Presently making a small ported cabinet for better sound. I owned an orginal Pignose and thoughI liked it you could only get one type of sound, it ate batteries, and was under powered. I wanted portability and experimentation.

Usable tones from clean to smooth to overdriven. I stuffed some pillow fluff inside it and put packing tape over the rear slots. Now you hear just the speaker not the vibrating plastic box. Also, with the rear slots covered it is more focused. I use a Route 101 Strat clone with S/H/S pickups. It's rated at 5 watts and gets quite loud both clean and overdriven.

Seems reliable enough. Battery life is excellent.

I don't know which "Johnson" company makes this thing. I doubt if I'll ever bother with service.

Been playing off and on for many years. Currently play a Route 101 Strat clone in S/H/S configuration. Main amp is a Behringer GM110 and a zoom 505II pedal. Drums is my main instruent.

The Johnson JA-001 is a mini-amp, but is very versatile and useful. It can run on either a 9V DC (at least 200mA) power supply (AC adapter/transformer), or a 9V battery, which is especially handy when you just want to make some sounds without power nearby. Controls are power switch, overdrive (knob, which is nice), tone, and volume. There is a standard guitar input, as well as the same style plug output, which you can use an adapter with if you want to plug it into a miniplug-style device such as a run-of-the-mill computer or speakers. The speaker itself is only a 3", 8 ohm 4W RMS speaker, but it can still handle quite a bit of power.. and even then, you can plug it into better speakers. The sound quality is awesome with better speakers, and is pretty good for practice if you just use the built-in speaker. This model is known under two model numbers, the JA-004 or the Mini Deluxe MD-20. I got mine for about $45 including shipping, so they're pretty cheap. If anything, if bought only for the sound processing, it's very good. :)

I'm using it with a Peavey Predator 6-string electric, standard pickups (which Peavey uses). I don't have much style, I like to mess around with a lot of different sounds, so it's pretty good for that, with its knob-controlled overdrive. With my guitar, it can have some background noise, but it's not very noticeable when playing. The clean channel doesn't distort if the speakers plugged into it can handle it, but it can if it's very loud while using the built in speaker. The distortion knob ranges from none (clean) to incredibly brutal distortion, where you simply touch the string and it begins screaming. The highest setting can be fun to play around with. :)

Very dependable, and Johnson amps are known to be good no matter what kind you have. I think I could depend on it with no backup. It's never broken down, and there is no regular servicing needed anyhow.

I've never dealt with the company or had it repaired, since I've never had to. There is no warranty on the unit.

I've been playing very little, only a couple months now. I just own the amp, a Gig Lines cable, and a used (but almost new condition) Peavey Predator maple neck guitar. I love the quality of the sound that its processors put out, and I love the price (only $45!). The speaker isn't very powerful, but that's okay since I have other speakers to use, and you can't expect a lot from this type of speaker anyway. I chose this one for its name (Johnson) and for its price. I wish it had reverb and two inputs as well, but that's all right, since I don't especially need those features. For those just starting guitar, or those who just need something to give them overdrive, in a very small enclosure, this is a solid choice.