Roland JC-120
- Jay EuDaly
- 18 hours ago
- 4 min read
In 1990 I was working with Kevin Mahogany. We were on the 1st night of a 3-night stand and my amp - a Polytone 102 - failed. The next day I left it with my tech and went to the music store where I was teaching and requested a loaner.
"Well" the manger said, "I've got this Roland JC-120. You could try that."
I showed up with it at the gig that night and plugged in. Instant affinity. I mean, instant! From the very first chord I loved it! That doesn't happen very often.
I started watching the classified ads in the Sunday paper. Whenever a Roland JC-120 would appear I would go check it out. Between 1993 and 1995 I collected 3 of them, all used. I paid $500, $350 and $250 for them respectively. I still have, and use, all three. Today, new ones are in the neighborhood of $1400.
At one point I was gigging with all of them. I would set one up at the beginning of the week wherever the weekly club gig was at the time. That one stayed in place for the week. I had a Saturday matinee that I played every week; I just left one in the back room there. I had a steady Friday matinee at another club and carried the 3rd amp in my car for that one.
From the mid-nineties to now, that’s 30 years, not a single problem, and they were used when I bought them! Any issues have been due to human error or abuse; one time a lead singer knocked one over and the footswitch jack in the back broke off inside the chassis. There have been knobs broken off and replaced - stuff like that. No systemic issues: no bad transistors, no blown speakers, no loose solder joints - nothing.
Within the last year or so, a couple of them have had some age-related issues, mainly oxidation on knob potentiometers.
My tech informed me that one of the ones he worked on was an '81. Over 40 years of use before any age-related issues popped up. That's impressive.
The Roland JC-120 is powerful, super-clean and has the best-sounding onboard chorus and vibrato effects out there. The chorus and vibrato sound so good because they are true stereo, oscillating between the two speakers.
On the back panel is a headphone jack (never used it), stereo/mono line out as well as an effects loop and foot switch jacks.
Now let's talk about the negatives.
In my opinion, the main problem with solid state amps in general is the distortion sound sucks!
I've owned one solid state amp that had a great distortion sound; it was a Crate. The problem with that amp was that it wasn't versatile. I loved the sound of it on rock gigs where I was playing solid-body guitars but the clean sound wasn't warm enough for Jazz or Blues. It was like the speaker was too efficient or something.
My solution to the lame distortion sound with solid state amps is, of course, pedals. You can always dirty up a clean-sounding amp with a pedal. But if an amp doesn't have a good default clean sound you can't go the other way. There's no pedal that cleans up a dirty or harsh-sounding amp.
With the JC-120, for Rock and Pop gigs I have a pedalboard that I designed specifically for that amp. It has two signal chains and so uses both channels, and takes advantage of the onboard chorus and vibrato.
Sometimes on a Bluesier gig (with no pedalboard) I'll use the onboard distortion, but only in tandem with the chorus, which softens it up some and gives it a kind of John Scofield-y sound. I never use the onboard distortion on it's own. It just doesn't sound good - to me.
Another thing about the distortion on the JC-120 is that when you switch it on there's a db boost; way too much of a boost in my opinion. It's annoying.
One more thing; it's heavy! 62 pounds. I have a dolly for it and if there are no stairs to the stage I don't even take it off the dolly; I just wheel it up there and leave it. The weight is becoming more of an issue as I get older.
So...for over 30 years the JC-120 has been my main amp. Great clean tone, best-sounding chorus and vibrato (true stereo), plenty of power, versatile and extremely durable.
For the last few years, I've been on the look-out for something small that I could use to replace the JC-120, especially on jazz gigs in smaller venues. I eventually discovered Henriksen Amps, and now use a Henriksen Bud SIX for those kinds of gigs. But I still use the JC-120 on at least a gig a week.
Sometimes you just need clean power.
How About 5 Lessons?
The 5-Lesson Foundational Series teaches the Circle of Keys as an organizational mechanism by which you ensure that whatever you learn is drilled in every key in all possible positions. It also gives you a method to find any note, anywhere, without memorizing note names on every string. That is a beautiful thing!
Almost every lesson I teach presupposes these 5 lessons.
You can download the 5-Lesson Foundational Series right here with no further obligation or commitment:
Click the pic to access the download page:
Your email will never be shared
You will not be spammed
You will receive Master Guitar School's free monthly newsletter
Easily unsubscribe at any time
Keep the PDF
Check out Master Guitar School!
Sign up as a Master Guitar School site member and get access to over a hundred site-based lessons, a monthly newsletter that contains a brand-new lesson, and DEEP discounts on lesson series downloads - plus more!
For more information on site membership see: Why Become a Site Member?
Click the pic for Jay's Bio:
