Jarick
Rock Star
- Messages
- 3,866
Alright, finally pulled the trigger and bought my dream tube amp last night.
Never thought I'd own a real Friedman amp. A few years ago it was a big deal to me to get a real Friedman overdrive pedal, and same with the IR-X. Jerry Cantrell is probably my favorite guitarist both for songs (riffs) and for tone. Since I heard the demos, the JJ Junior has basically been my dream amp if I were to go away from modelers.
When I saw this amp on FB Marketplace a few weeks ago, right after they were discontinued, it got stuck in my head. So I decided to sell my Quad Cortex and bank the cash in case it was still available. It was, and I got a heck of a deal on an amp in excellent shape.
Running it through my Orange 1x12 it sounds a lot better than the Orange Rocker 15. The sound is smoother with a much deeper low end, the gain is way more natural and less fizzy sounding, and the clean tone is much better. It is crazy loud though so I can barely crack the master volume at home. It still sounds good at conversation levels but it's difficult to get/keep it there.
One issue I have though is with the effects loop. I tried running a JHS little black amp box in the loop which is a passive volume knob but got some hum. Then I tried an HX Stomp in the loop for effects and volume control, same thing. Running 4CM was even worse, tons of noise. Ground lift didn't help.
Did a little reading this morning and saw comments about running the cables towards the input of the amp and away from the power side. Sure enough that brought the noise way down. If you pass the cable over the amp you can hear the hum get really loud. That's a little concerning but I may have to get some better shielded cables?
I'll be messing around with the amp for a while as I ponder next steps such as swapping out the speaker/cab or thinking about potential attenuators. I've got a Torpedo reactive load I may try using to insert the amp to my Axe FX 3 and hear the difference there. Too bad the direct out with built in reactive load always has some level of mic/cab sim baked in.
Never thought I'd own a real Friedman amp. A few years ago it was a big deal to me to get a real Friedman overdrive pedal, and same with the IR-X. Jerry Cantrell is probably my favorite guitarist both for songs (riffs) and for tone. Since I heard the demos, the JJ Junior has basically been my dream amp if I were to go away from modelers.
When I saw this amp on FB Marketplace a few weeks ago, right after they were discontinued, it got stuck in my head. So I decided to sell my Quad Cortex and bank the cash in case it was still available. It was, and I got a heck of a deal on an amp in excellent shape.
Running it through my Orange 1x12 it sounds a lot better than the Orange Rocker 15. The sound is smoother with a much deeper low end, the gain is way more natural and less fizzy sounding, and the clean tone is much better. It is crazy loud though so I can barely crack the master volume at home. It still sounds good at conversation levels but it's difficult to get/keep it there.
One issue I have though is with the effects loop. I tried running a JHS little black amp box in the loop which is a passive volume knob but got some hum. Then I tried an HX Stomp in the loop for effects and volume control, same thing. Running 4CM was even worse, tons of noise. Ground lift didn't help.
Did a little reading this morning and saw comments about running the cables towards the input of the amp and away from the power side. Sure enough that brought the noise way down. If you pass the cable over the amp you can hear the hum get really loud. That's a little concerning but I may have to get some better shielded cables?
I'll be messing around with the amp for a while as I ponder next steps such as swapping out the speaker/cab or thinking about potential attenuators. I've got a Torpedo reactive load I may try using to insert the amp to my Axe FX 3 and hear the difference there. Too bad the direct out with built in reactive load always has some level of mic/cab sim baked in.
