Roland JC-77...

[SadFuzz]

So yesterday I was in town, checked in to the guitar shop as I usually do, browsed a bit. Then I saw this Jazz Chorus. They usually only have either Blackstars or practice amps so I tried it out. Really rich and clear, a lot nicer than the Champion 40 I'm currently running. I'm not usually a big chorus fan but it was fun to mess with. Reverb was great, distortion was interesting if you like nasty lo fi stuff, I didn't mind it. They said £300 in cash. This a good deal?

[Trout]

Yes, I think so. Not super good but certainly not too much at all imho. I have a 55 myself and it’s super loud and super clean

[shoule79]

Great amp, I love mine.

The price seems okay for purchasing in store. Craig’s list/Kijiji it would be a bit much.

[scottydanger]

I picked up a JC-22 recently and it is freaking fantastic. It grows on me more and more every time I plug in, even when I think I couldn’t love it more than I already do. It hangs with my tube amps like a champ.

[cestlamort]

They seem to run about $300-375 second hand in classifieds, more in a store.

I lucked out on one years ago (best $150 I've ever spent on gear) and would easily pay twice that now. Not quite as much oomph as a JC120 but requires significantly less oomph to move.

That said, our guitar player is using this in our practices and says this particular one is much better than one he used to have, so try before you buy.

[BlueSparkle]

They seem to run about $300-375 second hand in classifieds, more in a store.

I lucked out on one years ago (best $150 I've ever spent on gear) and would easily pay twice that now. Not quite as much oomph as a JC120 but requires significantly less oomph to move.

That said, our guitar player is using this in our practices and says this particular one is much better than one he used to have, so try before you buy.

I agree that you should try before you buy - absolutely.

Older vintage JC's are known to experience issues with channel dropout on the vibrato or chorus, and sometimes on the 2nd channel input.

with the chorus, it is the wet signal that drops out, leaving one speaker (left one) to deliver the dry signal. The vibrato can also drop out, the signs of this are intermittent at first, almost as if it's automatically switching off before the input signal is gone.

The really new stuff is vastly different circuit-wise. It's fair to say the chrous is not the same as the vintage units, but that's not a bad thing either. The circuit in the new JC's is more like the CE-2 than the original CE-1 circuit in the 1975-83 JC-120. In 1984 there were a lot of changes to the JC's circuits - enough to say it's "not the same" - and this is ALL the JC's not just the JC77. The major changes started with the JC-120H.

It's really about the bbd and the clock freq. later units have different bbd and much higher clock freq. because the originals went out of production. But the actual drive circuits and pre's changed about 4 times each between 1975 and 1984, so it's important to know if you're desired SS-amp is FET& BJT or TA7122 integrated preamp IC's, or discrete FET gain stages. There are so many permuations and combinations of the boards in the amps due to the fact that roland was continuously evolving the design to what it is ultimately today... which is a very versatile and very reliable hi fidelity amplifier.

Just like the original reticon SAD 1024 BBD in the A/DA flanger and the Electric mistress, the MN series bbd's in the original JC's were "lo-fi" compared to the super smooth refined circuit in their current offerings.
I believe they are again remanufacturing the older design MN300x series, the chip itself is updated, and wile the pinouts are the same in some cases, they don't sound the same... I have learned this from experience.

If you're going to buy one, just make sure you try it out for a good 10-15 mins. Enough to get the transistors on the back warm (test for thermal cycling) and give the inputs a good shakedown.

When these things are working and warmed up, they will easily walk over a fender valve amp. for comparison, my JC-120 on '2' is equivalent to my 65 twin reverb on about 4 ⅓ . the JC is killer loud if you want it to be. and the EQ is very linear. Some people find them glassy, so keep the treble rolled off if that is you and crank the bass a bit more to get your more 'rolled off' valve type cleans, if that is what you're aiming for.

Oh and one other thing. Germanium fuzzes and JC's are not all super-happy together. Neither are tubescreamers. So if you have a dirt pedal or a fuzz you particularly like, I do absolutely recommend you take it with you and test it plugged right into the front on both channels.

There is no point in buying an amp if the pedals you already have and love, pedals which are core to your own sound, are not compatible with the amp.

That is pretty much a given for any amp really. You should test it thoroughly before buying.

[Harmoncj]

They seem to run about $300-375 second hand in classifieds, more in a store.

I lucked out on one years ago (best $150 I've ever spent on gear) and would easily pay twice that now. Not quite as much oomph as a JC120 but requires significantly less oomph to move.

That said, our guitar player is using this in our practices and says this particular one is much better than one he used to have, so try before you buy.

I agree that you should try before you buy - absolutely.

Older vintage JC's are known to experience issues with channel dropout on the vibrato or chorus, and sometimes on the 2nd channel input.

with the chorus, it is the wet signal that drops out, leaving one speaker (left one) to deliver the dry signal. The vibrato can also drop out, the signs of this are intermittent at first, almost as if it's automatically switching off before the input signal is gone.

The really new stuff is vastly different circuit-wise. It's fair to say the chrous is not the same as the vintage units, but that's not a bad thing either. The circuit in the new JC's is more like the CE-2 than the original CE-1 circuit in the 1975-83 JC-120. In 1984 there were a lot of changes to the JC's circuits - enough to say it's "not the same" - and this is ALL the JC's not just the JC77. The major changes started with the JC-120H.

It's really about the bbd and the clock freq. later units have different bbd and much higher clock freq. because the originals went out of production. But the actual drive circuits and pre's changed about 4 times each between 1975 and 1984, so it's important to know if you're desired SS-amp is FET& BJT or TA7122 integrated preamp IC's, or discrete FET gain stages. There are so many permuations and combinations of the boards in the amps due to the fact that roland was continuously evolving the design to what it is ultimately today... which is a very versatile and very reliable hi fidelity amplifier.

Just like the original reticon SAD 1024 BBD in the A/DA flanger and the Electric mistress, the MN series bbd's in the original JC's were "lo-fi" compared to the super smooth refined circuit in their current offerings.
I believe they are again remanufacturing the older design MN300x series, the chip itself is updated, and wile the pinouts are the same in some cases, they don't sound the same... I have learned this from experience.

If you're going to buy one, just make sure you try it out for a good 10-15 mins. Enough to get the transistors on the back warm (test for thermal cycling) and give the inputs a good shakedown.

When these things are working and warmed up, they will easily walk over a fender valve amp. for comparison, my JC-120 on '2' is equivalent to my 65 twin reverb on about 4 ⅓ . the JC is killer loud if you want it to be. and the EQ is very linear. Some people find them glassy, so keep the treble rolled off if that is you and crank the bass a bit more to get your more 'rolled off' valve type cleans, if that is what you're aiming for.

Oh and one other thing. Germanium fuzzes and JC's are not all super-happy together. Neither are tubescreamers. So if you have a dirt pedal or a fuzz you particularly like, I do absolutely recommend you take it with you and test it plugged right into the front on both channels.

There is no point in buying an amp if the pedals you already have and love, pedals which are core to your own sound, are not compatible with the amp.

That is pretty much a given for any amp really. You should test it thoroughly before buying.

All good info, Thanks for sharing!