Roland JC-120 as a powered Cab?

Ant Music

Ant Music

Fractal Fanatic
Hi Guys, I used to own a Roland Jazz Chorus and I've been thinking about getting one again and hooking it up to my Axe Fx to basically use it as a powered cabinet.

Ideally I would run the sends from the axe fx with no cab sims into the effects return on the JC120 but I am wondering if the volume controlls on the front of the Jazz Chorus attenuate the output of its power amp or the preamp.

I am basically trying to figure out if the volume dials on the front of the Jazz Chorus would give me any actual control of the power amp volume or do they only affect the gain into the pre amp? I havce a hunch that if I ran the axe fx into the power amp of the Jazz Chorus I'd only be able to control the overall volume from the output dial on the Axe FX itself. Love to hear your thoughts. It'd be great to have a Jazz Chorus again and be able to use it as a powered cabinet.

I hope I'm explaining myself well enough here.
 
Ant Music said:
Hi Guys, I used to own a Roland Jazz Chorus and I've been thinking about getting one again and hooking it up to my Axe Fx to basically use it as a powered cabinet.

Ideally I would run the sends from the axe fx with no cab sims into the effects return on the JC120 but I am wondering if the volume controlls on the front of the Jazz Chorus attenuate the output of its power amp or the preamp.

I am basically trying to figure out if the volume dials on the front of the Jazz Chorus would give me any actual control of the power amp volume or do they only affect the gain into the pre amp? I havce a hunch that if I ran the axe fx into the power amp of the Jazz Chorus I'd only be able to control the overall volume from the output dial on the Axe FX itself. Love to hear your thoughts. It'd be great to have a Jazz Chorus again and be able to use it as a powered cabinet.

I hope I'm explaining myself well enough here.
Click to expand...
Hi,
I have an old jazz chorus and once or twice (long ago) tried to plug a Sansamp PSA-1 rack outputs in the main ins (power amp inputs)
You don't have any control and the jc front input vol potentiometer controls the signal at the preamp stage (with treble, mid and bass, etc...)

It should work with the axe outputs vol controls

Hope that helps

Olivier.
 
Ant Music said:
Hi Guys, I used to own a Roland Jazz Chorus and I've been thinking about getting one again and hooking it up to my Axe Fx to basically use it as a powered cabinet.

Ideally I would run the sends from the axe fx with no cab sims into the effects return on the JC120 but I am wondering if the volume controlls on the front of the Jazz Chorus attenuate the output of its power amp or the preamp.

I am basically trying to figure out if the volume dials on the front of the Jazz Chorus would give me any actual control of the power amp volume or do they only affect the gain into the pre amp? I havce a hunch that if I ran the axe fx into the power amp of the Jazz Chorus I'd only be able to control the overall volume from the output dial on the Axe FX itself. Love to hear your thoughts. It'd be great to have a Jazz Chorus again and be able to use it as a powered cabinet.

I hope I'm explaining myself well enough here.
Click to expand...

The Jazz Chorus sounds great, but its a little bass heavy. Loud as hell too!
 
I run my FM3 through the power amp of my Blues Cube Artist. I can use the master volume and the wattage dial on the amp but everything else is controlled through the FM3. I disable cab/power amp blocks on the FM3. Works a treat for me and is seriously loud. It would probably sound a little better with a speaker upgrade but I’m not that fussed.
 
Holyoli said:
Hi,
I have an old jazz chorus and once or twice (long ago) tried to plug a Sansamp PSA-1 rack outputs in the main ins (power amp inputs)
You don't have any control and the jc front input vol potentiometer controls the signal at the preamp stage (with treble, mid and bass, etc...)

It should work with the axe outputs vol controls

Hope that helps

Olivier.
Click to expand...
Yes, Thanks mate. That answers my question perfectly. I figured that would be the case and that there would be no control of the poweramp output via the front panel. Good to get some clarification on that. Did you like using it as a powered cab in this arrangement?

I've been using a Seymour Duncan Powerstage 170 power amp to drive a Marshall 4x12 cabinet and I love the sound and everything but I hate carrying around a 4x12 and having to set up the external power amp as well when I'm getting ready to play a show. It'd be nice to have a amp that can be used as a powered speaker essentially that is a lot more compact and transportable, but can also be used as a normal amplifier if I want to.

I used to own a Jazz Chorus and I loved it. So I'm leaning toward that. They have great castors on them so that is a plus for me as well as them having a great tone and being loud as fuck.
 
km 202257 said:
I have used JCs several times and I recommend it not be used with Axe-Fx. It is far from a FRFR, it’s got its own character in it. You can use FOH and floor monitors and it will sound much better.
Click to expand...
I wasn't looking for an FRFR cabinet. I understand they are not that at all. I currently run two outputs, one direct into the FOH with cab sims and another output with no cab sims into an external power amp into a 4x12 cabinet.

Essentially I'm looking to eliminate the external power amp and 4x12 cabinet and replace it with a more compact 2x12 cabinet with a poweramp built in.
 
Brendan MacLean said:
I run my FM3 through the power amp of my Blues Cube Artist. I can use the master volume and the wattage dial on the amp but everything else is controlled through the FM3. I disable cab/power amp blocks on the FM3. Works a treat for me and is seriously loud. It would probably sound a little better with a speaker upgrade but I’m not that fussed.
Click to expand...
Yeah cool. Thanks for the info. I'm wondering what it might soundlike running a no cab sim feed into the Jazz Chorus preamp section with the eq set to flat, as in noon?
 
Ant Music said:
Yeah cool. Thanks for the info. I'm wondering what it might soundlike running a no cab sim feed into the Jazz Chorus preamp section with the eq set to flat, as in noon?
Click to expand...
So I'm bumping this thread since I just discovered that I really dig running my FM3 into my JC-40. I had lent this out before I got my FM3 and just got it back, so thought I'd give it a try. I was very pleasantly surprised.

I ran my FM3 into the front panel inputs from the FM3 output 2. I think it sounds fantastic. The JC preamp is pretty non-coloring and accepts line level signal well (tons of headroom). I used the tone controls to tweak the tone a bit to my liking.

It doesn't sound good without the cab sim IMO, so I left a cab block in the chain.

For what it is worth, I think I get a better live representation of what I hear in my headphones (MDR-7506s) using the JC-40 than with my Headrush 108s. I know that sounds strange, but this was my initial impression. I have really found I need to use a PEQ to get what I want with the 108s, and honestly am not usually that happy with what I get.

The JC 100% gives a better live amp feel than the Headrush. It just feels better.

Lastly, running in stereo does actually come across pretty well with the JC. It obviously doesn't have the same separation as the two 108s when they are a distance apart, but it provides some nice dimensionality to the sound while keeping that tight amp punch (which tends to be lacking with the 108s).
 
I don’t see why the Roland Jazz Chorus would not be an excellent pairing. You can always change treble and bass. I don’t see that a frfr is somehow magically better. I would have to see both compared together. That is what ai want to hear.
 
If you’ve already got the JC’s there’s no law that prevents trying it out. You might like it for all the “wrong reasons”… 😉
 
I wouldn't expect it to sound like the 4x12 cab though. You're going to have a different speaker voicing and a different cab resonance. That being said, it's a solid state amp with a speaker/cab. No reason you can't dial in some awesome tones. I would expect the line in to work better but as always, whatever sounds good is good. I've got a Marshall DSL 40 that I sometimes run into just to get the amp in the room experience. The HBE preamp that I created in the AxeFx3 sounds much better than the amp's preamp section. Plus I can get a Fender Twin like clean too. I just wish I had a greenback instead of the creamback so I could push the speakers at lower volumes. The thing is sooo loud.
 
Don’t have, but it’s a clean amp with lots of headroom, so hard to see much color to it. An analog amp would work well too…. Hard to see paying $1700 for a Matrix frfr….
 
I guess I can see maybe not a flat frequency response up to 20kHz…but probably a lot of this is marketing telling you you need a frfr…I mean any stereo that is good is a frfr…
 
I use my AXEFX 3 into the stereo effects loop of my JC-40 and love it. It work as a Monitor for big gigs and standard backline for small/pub gigs. Honestly I've considered other options but there aren't many that will improve on this setup. I also have a SD700 and it works well into Stereo guitar cabs... If I could be bothered lugging bigger cabs about I may be doing that instead but the JC-40 is light and does it all in Stereo and is ususally loud enough.
 
BrazosGuitar said:
I guess I can see maybe not a flat frequency response up to 20kHz…but probably a lot of this is marketing telling you you need a frfr…
Click to expand...

Fractal recommends using FRFR, and they have no speakers or cabinets to sell, and they’re not partners with any companies selling them so why would they do that if they’re not going to make money? Because they have experience and knowledge of how the technology works?

From the manual:

1669637907713.png

BrazosGuitar said:
I mean any stereo that is good is a frfr…
Click to expand...
Yep, they might be, but stereos are also designed to be pretty and fit into the decor of a house, not be moved around, and can’t survive the treatment they would get night after night on stages. While they might output the sound range and might be able to get loud enough, they definitely are not designed for that purpose.
 
I bought a Mission Engineering FRFR. It’s awesome, but the fan is a little bit noticeable at bedroom levels. I bought a new power supply with appropriate amperage and voltage andI am installing it tomorrow. It doesn’t have auto switching on voltage, but it is fanless. Looking forward to this!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom