Now that the JP2C has been out a while...

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fatbagg

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How is everyone liking it? I have been a boogie player for about 12 years, had a genuine 2c+, Mark III, Mark iv’s, and a Mark V. I always come back to the IV. I LOVED my 2c+, but for a guy who isn’t rich, I needed more switchable sounds to gig with. I am in love with the IV!

About a year ago I went and played a JP2C, and was blown away, it was so reminiscent of my 2c+, but with the versatility I needed. I’m ready to buy now, but it has been so long I was wondering how everyone is liking them now that the honeymoon is over. I can’t find many clips of anything other than metal with it (which is cool, but now how I use them). I like a fat and smooth lead tone, and a big roaring, harmonic expression. I’d love to hear it doing some not scooped metal!
 
The best rock tone of my life http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=74391
 
donnyboiler said:
The best rock tone of my life http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=74391

Kinda makes me GAS just a little bit moooooooore....
 
JP-2C is an amp that will put a smile on your face. Oh yeah. This amp is what it is. Trade in the Mark V or sell it, get the JP-2C. I can basically dial in the JP to sound like the Mark V but only better but it is hard to do that with the Mark V as it may not be capable to match the JP-2C.
 
bandit2013 said:
JP-2C is an amp that will put a smile on your face. Oh yeah. This amp is what it is. Trade in the Mark V or sell it, get the JP-2C. I can basically dial in the JP to sound like the Mark V but only better but it is hard to do that with the Mark V as it may not be capable to match the JP-2C.

I’m sitting tight for an updated V. I like the flexibility of all the channels, including Tweed and Edge. It would be nice to have built in cab clone, MIDI and a dual EQ on the next all ‘rounder Mark (Mark VI?). But who knows, maybe Mesa will ditch the “all ‘rounder” approach with the next iteration.
 
I’ve had mine just a year and still can’t get enough of it. I play my Mark III and think man that is good stuff then throw the JP on and think that’s great stuff. I’ve had almost all the Mark series exception of an original C+ and like the JP best. It nails all genres with ease I think, just use guitar volume to make quick gain adjustments. I wouldn’t hesitate on getting one again.

Mark
 
I’m glad people are liking my video. Here it is on the same gig doing ‘80s stuff with some micro-pitch, delay etc.

https://youtu.be/oeDysCNOfDQ

Y’know, I’ve thought about what I would want from a Mark VI. I owned the V for a year and loved it too. The more I think about it, I want the VI to just be a JP-2C with Simul-Class. The amazing thing about the JP-2C is not only does it sound and feel amazing, but every control does exactly what you’d hope and expect. It kind of achieves more with less - the perfect example being the mid-boost control on the clean channel which takes me right up to Tweed territory. Also I don’t miss Crunch mode or Mark IV mode at all and I really thought I would.
 
donnyboiler said:
I’m glad people are liking my video. Here it is on the same gig doing ‘80s stuff with some micro-pitch, delay etc.

https://youtu.be/oeDysCNOfDQ

Y’know, I’ve thought about what I would want from a Mark VI. I owned the V for a year and loved it too. The more I think about it, I want the VI to just be a JP-2C with Simul-Class. The amazing thing about the JP-2C is not only does it sound and feel amazing, but every control does exactly what you’d hope and expect. It kind of achieves more with less - the perfect example being the mid-boost control on the clean channel which takes me right up to Tweed territory. Also I don’t miss Crunch mode or Mark IV mode at all and I really thought I would.

Buy a Simul Class poweramp and run W/D/W with it and the JP2C, I LOVE running mine with my Simul 295 this way...
 
UpNorthMark said:
A Mark VI with a mid boost on the gain channel like the little Mark V has would be nice as well

According to the manual, it’s only channel one that has the boost. Channel two is a standard mid control apparently. Might be a cool thing to have though...

paulyc said:
donnyboiler said:
I’m glad people are liking my video. Here it is on the same gig doing ‘80s stuff with some micro-pitch, delay etc.

https://youtu.be/oeDysCNOfDQ

Y’know, I’ve thought about what I would want from a Mark VI. I owned the V for a year and loved it too. The more I think about it, I want the VI to just be a JP-2C with Simul-Class. The amazing thing about the JP-2C is not only does it sound and feel amazing, but every control does exactly what you’d hope and expect. It kind of achieves more with less - the perfect example being the mid-boost control on the clean channel which takes me right up to Tweed territory. Also I don’t miss Crunch mode or Mark IV mode at all and I really thought I would.

Buy a Simul Class poweramp and run W/D/W with it and the JP2C, I LOVE running mine with my Simul 295 this way...

Neat idea. I still want a Simul head though!
 
Well, the Mark V is Simul... run it in stereo with a JP2C ? I’d love to have a Mark V running all EL34s...
 
paulyc said:
Well, the Mark V is Simul... run it in stereo with a JP2C ? I’d love to have a Mark V running all EL34s...

Yeah, a good solution. Y'know, the funny thing is I prefer having two IIC+ channels - the JP-2C sounds and responds so perfectly on both dirt channels that I'm unwilling to go back to Crunch mode from the V. I actually have two JP-2Cs to run in stereo right now (not that I ever get the chance at gigs really) for that exact reason. The perfect feel and voicing of the JP just trumped the V every time for me. I guess I'll be holding out to see what the Mark VI brings...
 
donnyboiler said:
paulyc said:
Well, the Mark V is Simul... run it in stereo with a JP2C ? I’d love to have a Mark V running all EL34s...

Yeah, a good solution. Y'know, the funny thing is I prefer having two IIC+ channels - the JP-2C sounds and responds so perfectly on both dirt channels that I'm unwilling to go back to Crunch mode from the V. I actually have two JP-2Cs to run in stereo right now (not that I ever get the chance at gigs really) for that exact reason. The perfect feel and voicing of the JP just trumped the V every time for me. I guess I'll be holding out to see what the Mark VI brings...

Well said. I did consider another JP-2C but opted for the TC-100. Also holding out to see what may be next in the Mark series....
 
donnyboiler said:
UpNorthMark said:
A Mark VI with a mid boost on the gain channel like the little Mark V has would be nice as well

According to the manual, it’s only channel one that has the boost. Channel two is a standard mid control apparently. Might be a cool thing to have though...

paulyc said:
donnyboiler said:
I’m glad people are liking my video. Here it is on the same gig doing ‘80s stuff with some micro-pitch, delay etc.

https://youtu.be/oeDysCNOfDQ

Y’know, I’ve thought about what I would want from a Mark VI. I owned the V for a year and loved it too. The more I think about it, I want the VI to just be a JP-2C with Simul-Class. The amazing thing about the JP-2C is not only does it sound and feel amazing, but every control does exactly what you’d hope and expect. It kind of achieves more with less - the perfect example being the mid-boost control on the clean channel which takes me right up to Tweed territory. Also I don’t miss Crunch mode or Mark IV mode at all and I really thought I would.

Buy a Simul Class poweramp and run W/D/W with it and the JP2C, I LOVE running mine with my Simul 295 this way...

Neat idea. I still want a Simul head though!

Actually, now that I'm really thinking about it, a Simul 395 would be even better, as it has switching of it's modes, better fit for the JP2C and it's MIDI.
 
I don’t foresee another Mark series amp for quite a while, probably years.
 
Today I played my old Mark V alongside one of my current JP-2Cs. Very cool afternoon and plenty learned. The V is still a killer sounding amp.

I came away with the impression that, as brilliant as the V is, the JP has moved the game on in several key areas. CabClone and MIDI are obviously indispensable, but it's more than that. The way the controls respond, the way it achieves very nearly the same flexibility without all the complication - but more than anything, there is a purity, weight and muscularity to the JP that simply cannot be replicated on the V. Even switching the V to IV mode and working the sliders it doesn't feel as big. Even if I deliberately handicap the JP by putting it in 60W mode or running weaker settings, it still has more impact and more "realness" than the V at any setting. Somehow the V sounds slightly "further back" even if you set it brighter than the JP (interestingly this isn't the case with my V:25 which sounds beautifully pure).

I'll temper this by saying the V does have more complexity in the mids, and a slightly faster attack. It is still a magic amp, and Crunch mode admittedly has a Marshally snarl that doesn't quite exist anywhere in the JP.

For me though (and I realise I'm only one guy in a field of Boogie fanatics here) I felt I could get more tone, response and enjoyment out of two JPs set up differently than out of one JP and a V. That says it all for me - the V is very, very good but the JP is a masterpiece.
 
Yes, the JP-2C is a masterpiece. Having two JP-2C is the magnum opus. No need to stop at just two. Not sure if there is a limit on how many JP-2C you can daisy chain together.

There are a few things going on with the Mark V that either should not be there or were added in haste and should have been unpopulated. Most of the focus could be narrowed down to V4 (primary culprit for the stale tone on CH3) and then there is V6 with a similar tone robbing capacitor. If you had the opportunity to compare all of the historic schematics starting from the IIC+ on up to the Mark V, all of the amps have identical drive circuits with a few exceptions, Mark V has a 120pF shunting the grid to the cathode on V4B and V6A. Perhaps the cap is there for oscillation control (lets face it the amp begins to squeal with moderate gain settings on CH3, also one reason why some have adopted the Jan Phillips 12AT7 for the V4 tube and or the V6 tube. I took a gamble and removed C39 from the V4B circuit, made the amp brighter but the added side effect was that it restored the missing midrange. That was a game changer for me. I have not bothered with the other cap on V6A circuit (C44 if you need to know). What a difference that made, and I can adjust the gain setting much higher using all 12AX7 tubes in the preamp. Before all of this I could not set the gain any higher than 9am or the amp would just freek out with too much feedback which is not musical at all. Now I no longer have a love/hate thing with the Mark V as it is far more enjoyable to play. Amp has no warranty anyway as it is past its 5 year thing. One has to appreciate the Mark V in a different light than the JP-2C.

TC-50 is a fun amp to no end as much as the TC-100. I still cherish the JP-2C as the top shelf amp. Too bad that Mesa used same midi commands for different function in the TC-100, if there was any overlap and common commands I would be running both the JP-2C and the TC-100 at the same time, they sound perfect together such that each on its own cannot replicate the combined tone.
 
Actually bandit, it's irrelevant if the commands overlap or not, just set the amps to different midi channels and use a goodish quality controller to switch both or 3 or whatever.

Which actually is a good segue into why I logged into the forum tonight... Does anyone know (I could not find it in the manual) if the JP2C can power a midi footswitch by using the 7 pin port or is that a no no? I am looking into buying this:http://www.famcmusic.com/store/LF-JR
 

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