Product: Johnson JA-25R Laredo Combo
Price Paid: USD 255
Submitted
03/13/2009
at
11:03pm
by
Matt
Features
:
8
Just got this amp a few days ago. I am reviewing this as a harp player. I use a Shure Green bullet mic. I get a killer tone out of my Fender Champion 600 Reissue (with a Boss 7 band EQ to help a little) but needed an amp with reverb and more power for playing live. The Fender has one knob...Volume and that's it!
Since I was on a budget, I had to find a Fender-ish sounding amp and man, this is it! 25 watts? I don't think so. Its a bit louder than my Fender 600, but not that much. Has a gain knob. Love it. 3 band EQ, gotta have it. And reverb...yup. It's in there.
Sound Quality
:
8
This amp distorts much too early for my liking. I replaced the first 12AX7 with a 12AU7, but you have to raise the gain to 10 to get heavy distortion. So I changed it to a 12AT7. Bingo. Now I can get all ranges of distortion with the best being about 8 1/2. The Bass and mid knobs don't make a drastic change in tone. Just a subtle one from 0 to 10. The treble, however does... but you have to adjust it lower as you raise the volume.
The reverb is very deep. Nice sound, but a little too hollow for my tastes. I like a bright plate reverb, but hey, it sounds better than a cheapy spring reverb you get in many amps.
Some people whine about the cheapy speaker, but that's the majic here for the harp. I tried a high dollar Eminence and lost the tone. It just got all muddy.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
N/A. Just got it.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
8
I have to say that this little amp fits the bill for me. I can get a reasonable volume out of it. It also has a great tone for me. It's not like a Fender blues Jr. Sounds way better to me, but my style is different than Little Walter.
When live, I'll mic it with a Shure SM57. The Fender Champion has a little better "honk" and it has this strange distortion tone that I can't describe unless you have ever heard Darrell Mansfield play. The Johnson misses that mark but when playing full tilt in a club with a band, nobody will hear the nueances that I love.
When I plug a guitar into it, i'm not thrilled at all where the Fender Champion 600 sounds like a dream.
