Roland Solid-State Combo Guitar Amps

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 bought my JC-120 used in a second hand store for 500$ CDN. The amp still had it's original cover and was in terrific shape. I called Roland US to get info from the serial number and found it was made in 1984 in Japan, before they changed it. Anyone will tell you what a great clean sound it has, but I say it is also one of the loudest/cleanest amps out there still today. The distortion, of course, but I use the Boss Metal Zone, problem solved! One of the most solid amps built! It's a tank! A bit heavy too though... I would not hesitate to replace this amp with another if it ever fell off a building or something (the only way I believe you can kill one of these). This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

1 channel solid-sate amp 2 inputs, hi and lo On the rear: line out, 3 switch possibilities (distortion, reverb, chorus) Controls: distortion (on/off at first and then comes the distortion), volume, equalization (treble, mid, bass), reverb, 3 chorus settings (depth, rate and a 3-way auto/off/manual switch). UTILIZATION Extremely easy to use and dial in. Very easy to transport and good size/power ratio. SOUNDS Hyper versatile The distortion is not that great, but it has its charm, so if you need distorted sounds, you'll need external effects. The chorus is great, typical Roland. The reverb is nothing special, in my view. The clean sounds are well-defined and can go from pristine to really round and even twangy if you push the mids. I used it a couple of times to amplify an acoustic-electric and it was a very nice surprise... OVERALL OPINION I've been using it for over 15 years. The pros: Super reliable, awesome clean sounds, great size/power relation, typical Roland chorus, switches. The cons: The distortion isn't that good, lousy line out.

This is a pretty classic amplifier. It's been around since the mid-70s and has been a staple of the music industry ever since. It's a solid-state amp, and was one of the first solid-state amps to really make a name for itself. It's also notable for its chorus effect, which was unique in amplifiers at the time. It has 60 watts of power and 2 channels. There are controls for EQ in both channels, and the second channel has chorus, vibrato, and reverb and distortion controls. There are four 1/4" inputs (two for each channel, high and low) and there is also an effects loop in the back. UTILIZATION Getting a good sound out of this is great if you like your tones super clean. There are many people who really like that quality in an amplifier, and don't really want a lot of bluesy grit out of their amplifier. I personally tend to prefer a bluesier sound when playing with my band, but there are a few sessions I've played that I've used this instead, as it's ultra-smooth and great for jazz as well as lighter rock and stuff. Using the chorus and reverb (which is a nice spring reverb, by the way) is really easy as well as convenient, though you must use the second channel for these. I haven't read a manual but I don't really need it either. SOUNDS I've used this amp with my Strat, my Tele, and a Les Paul, and I like the Strat and Tele the best, mainly because they do clean tones much better, and that's where this amp shines. I can also plug in a lot of different pedals and get next to no noise from them, which is nice with a single-coil guitar like a Strat. Therefore the versatility of this amp is really extraordinary. I will say that I prefer the sound of tube amps in general, as they have a lot more character, but they are limited in their applications, making this a more practical amp for somebody looking to play a lot of different stuff. With the high and low channel inputs, this also can handle some crazy signals, so players with tons of effects would do well to try it out. OVERALL OPINION I like the practicality and certain effects on this amp the best. I don't like the super-polished wussy-sounding clean tone, but I'll admit that sometimes such a sound is necessary and even superior to that of a tube amp. Overall, while I have a few beefs with this thing, I'll admit it's pretty great. It's certainly the best solid-state amp I've played in quite some time. It's a little expensive but I've certainly seen worse amps for more money.