Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120

I have been playing guitar for thirty years now. Currently I am not in a band I've prefered to work in recording studios because I overdub myself because I also play keyboards, drums and bass guitar. I write my own music. When I do play gigs I play solo.

Back in the early eighties I was seeking an amplifier. I knew what I was looking for
and was testing out amps in many music stores. Finally I came across an amp that was very versitile, the Jazz Chorus 120.
I bought it for something like 3 to 4 hundred dollars at the time. Since then the price has gone up considerably.

The JC120 has two channels and a variety of chorus and reverb sounds. It is excellent for gigs. It is medium sized which makes it good for gigs at large and small places. The chorus and reverb channel is excellent for vocals.The tone quality is "rich and full sounding".

There is virtually nothing I don't like about the JC, It's a great amp.

It is tough and durable. The speakers are a good size. It has removable wheels so it can be stacked up.

The JC120 it an all around great amplifier. After I had bought it, I had seen it in many music magazines being used by many serious professionals. It became very popular and it is still available now.
I would recommend it for all music both hard and mellow. It would be a good investment for any working guitarist or small gig vocalist.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this unit at Guitar Center for about $650 US

Great sound, great speakers, great chorus effect. Sparkling as any Fender Amp.

Some very cheap construction features. The input jacks (4 of them, two channels High and Low inputs) were plastic junk soldered to a circuit board with two resistors with a plug to the rest of the circuit. The plug idea is very good, but the plastic jacks fell apart after 2 months of careful use!

I replaced each with metal ones which I soldered to the board and they are fine now. The cost of the new jacks was 6 dollars and a little work.

Now I am extremely disappointed that Roland didnt have enough sense to put in metal jacks for 6 frigging dollars! I would have gladly paid 6 dollars more for the amp!

This kind of cheapened construction in an otherwise fine instrument is a real turn off.

What do I have to do, every time I buy one of their products, change the jacks? Lucky for me I am an electrical engineer and knew what the hell to do! For anyone else it would have been a hundred dollar repair bill.

I understand that I could have, under warranty sent the unit back and they probably would have repaired it - with the same plastic crap that broke in the first place.

Smarten up Roland! People shell out good money and you ruin an excellent instrument by saving a few cents on the part that takes the most wear on the thing.



See above comment on what I dont like about the unit. Otherwise it is fine.

Great instrument, with major stupid flaws that are quite preventable with common sense!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I purchased this amp in 1986 for $600 used. I think you can get a new one for a little more than that. My guitar teachers each had one, so I figured why not. I was familiar with them, they're loud, and they're versatile with extra gear.

The main thing I love, as does everyone else, is the clean sound. Imagine a stream with cold clear water.. that is how this amp sounds. Add the chorus and you're in clean heaven. Personally, I find the chorus effect a bit much sometimes and I wish there was way to "back off" on the amount of chorus signal. The spring 'verb is nice.

This amp is stupidly loud. 120 watts of very clean solid state. You can crank up to 10 without any break-up at all.. well, maybe the break-up of your inner ear.

This amp is awesome with my sansamp. I can get very convincing marshall, boogie, and fender tones. I also have a marshall 1/2 stack, so I'm not talking out of my butt here! I also have a mesa boogie v-twin which sounds great in front of the JC120.

My acoustics sound great as well and I've even used it for vocals in a pinch a few times. Keyboards sound good, too.



There isn't much I don't like about the JC120. The distortion is utterly useless, so I won't even count that as a feature. The amp is damn heavy, so keep that in mind if you gig a lot.

I wish it had channel switching capabilities, but alas... I've used an a/b switcher just fine with it.

The JC120 a tough SOB. Mine took a tumble down the stairs without any internal damage. Externally, it lost a few of the rivets on the front and there were scuffs. I've heard the newer ones aren't built as tough.. ie bracing for the speakers and corners.

The JC120 is a classic amp. You can't go wrong by owning one. And they can be versatile with amp modellers, fx, pre-amps, etc. Mine has been to war and back and it's still kicking ass. Even though I've added other amps to my arsenal, I'll never get rid of my JC120 because it can do anything I need it to.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

* Legendary “clean” amp with two separate 60 watt RMS power amps (to allow for true stereo chorus)

* Classic silver-cone speakers for vintage Roland Jazz Chorus sound

* Two input channels (Normal/Effect)

* Three-band EQ per channel

* One high and one low input per channel

* Reverb, distortion, adjustable vibrato and true stereo chorus

* Stereo effects loop


This is a clean solidstate amp with 2 channels, one of which you can add distortion to that's onboard.
* Footswitch jacks control chorus, reverb, distortion

UTILIZATION

Quite simple, all the controls are clearly labelled, and considering its a clean amp, there isn't much to tweak most of the time compared to distortion.

The chorus is one of the most amazing sounds I've ever heard. True stereo chorus within one amp is hard to come by and this amp has become legendary for that reason alone. The vibrato effect is also quite cool as well.

It's very easy to get a good sounding clean with this amp, even with all the EQ knobs at noon, it sounds great!

SOUNDS

The jazz chorus is known for great cleans. It has been around for at least 30 years for being known as such and has been used by almost everybody at one point in time. I of course, used it for strictly cleans for my good ol' numetal phase and metallica phase when I was totally into Wes Borland's clean sounds as well as Hetfield's live clean tones. I couldn't believe the sound I was hearing, it was an electric guitar with these very high quality woody sounding, almost acoustic-esque cleans.

It almost always dazzled me, the clean sound from this amp along with the very thick and shimmery chorus was always the clean sound I'd imagine a clean sound to be!

There is one thing that lacks of course, and that is the distortion. It is nearly impossible to get any good distortion sounds from the onboard distortion it purely there as an afterthought, to add a bit of clipping and slight dirt at most and almost never sounds good. You would need a distortion pedal, and even then you would need to find the RIGHT distortion pedal as the speakers in the jazz chorus are especially made for that awesome clean tone and not distortion. So most pedals plugged in would sound really harsh, sterile and super fizzy.

I have once plugged in my tube preamp morr-tone pedal through it and was somehow able to get a very usable sound. I was pleasantly surprised at the abilities of this pedal, the fact that I can plug it into such an amp and still get a very smooth and usable distortion is GREAT!

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, legendary for cleans and very nice chorus. Of course the chorus is adjustable on the amp but not for live purposes. But this amp is well known for a reason, that is providing great clean tones! Yes it is warm, but it is bright as well and has an almost acoustic-like character which some players may define as sterile and tinny. Though I find this amp to be quite usable, clean and bright and the acoustic quality is definitely a bonus!!

The JC120 is also VERY loud with more than enough headroom anybody will EVER need. You won't need to hook this up to another cab. Trust me.