Johnson Vintage 60 R 112 Combo

Last follow up. Sorry to do my review over time, but it was unavoidable.

To anyone interested in this amp, AND TO THE MANUFACTURERS AS WELL:
I initially made a statement about the amp breaking up when playing hard. Well, this is not the amp "breaking up" in the usual meaning of the phrase. This is not pleasant overdrive created by high output pickups or anything external to the amp. This amp has problems and needs to be repaired. This is how I received this amp. The people who make the amp aren't even interested in talking to me. The amp indeed has a flaw, and it might be in the design, meaning that all the amps of this make and model could be flawed this way. So, I highly recommend trying this amp before buying. It's too bad, it's a good sounding amp, and it has some good features. I will be selling mine and getting some other small 1X12 combo for the purposes this amp was intended for.

This is a follow up to my review of this amp. I have contacted the manufacturer of this amp. Although they were pleasant, they instructed me to contact the company I purchased the amp through.
This seems a bit odd to me, as typically I have dealt the maufacturer of a product when there is a problem. At least this has been true of companies like Duncan, DiMarzio, Rocktron, Roland and Peavey to mention a few. Perhaps this is standard procedure now days, but I was disappointed. Needless to say, there isn't an authorized service center for this relatively unknown brand of amp. As well, the amp did NOT come with any warranty paperwork, and it was purchased new, out of the box.

This is a 1X12 solid state combo with reverb, effects loop, channel switching and has a headphone amp to boot.

All in all, I was surprised that the clean channel sounded as good as it does. The distorted channel is completely useless. It is harsh and full of what I call 'high end splatter'. One thing does truoble me though. This amp seems to need a compressor in front of it, as it responds with a weird crackling distortion when youhit the strings hard. Fortunately I am only using this amp in my teaching studio. I had thought of using it for rehearsals, but I'm not sure about that as you obviously can't lean into the strings without the aforementioned problem. Perhaps the humbuckers in my Music Man guitar are too hot, but I'm not certain this is the issue. I'd rate the clean sound higher if it weren't for this problem.

I haven't had this piece long enough to comment on this aspect.

Again, I haven't had the amp long enough for this to be applicable.
BUT, I WILL be contacting the people who make this amp about the crackling distortion issue. After I have done this, I will give an update.

I've been playing for 24 years, most of those professionally. I bought this as a cheap portable amp for teaching, and possibly for rehearsals as it isn't terribly heavy. If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy another, only if I couldn't find something that I like better for the purposes I purchased this amp for (teaching at home and door-to door)The only reason I chose this amp was because of the price really.
I could see a small Fender or other tube amp, or heck even a cool solid state such as the Dean Markley DR and RM series, but I couldn't find one for a price I felt reasonable. And of course this came with a warranty, and that was a plus in my opinion. I just wish it had more headroom. That damned crackiling distortion really disappoints me. But I do have to give it credit for having a respectable clean sound. If I were to suggest one thing to the company that manufactures this amp, I'd say: forget the distortion folks. even a kid who has only played a few months could tell you it is as awful as anything I've heard. I bet that when the enginners designed that they were merely content with the fact that it distorted. There is distortion, and then there is distortion. This sounds like the distortion I heard when I plugged my first guitar into my moms stereo when I was twelve.