The Tone King Presents - Ampeg J-20 Point-2-Point All Tube Amp Review

[harlesslee]

For tone, go see Andy's review with Pro Guitar Shop on YouTube.

[harlesslee]

I have two of these and I daisy chain them live. go into the normal and out of the bright, to the other normal input. It's basically a Brownface Era Deluxe, with minimal mods, to eliminate farting, when cranked. This amp, used the proper way (cranked wide open and controlled by the guitar) is a tweed amp refined. I'm surprised that no one has caught on to this. Not the best review here, for tone, but i'm sure he'll get better at what he's doing.

[harlesslee]

It's the audio gear, mixed with the hotplate. With some advice and some change, these reviews will be on par. Give him a little time to get it sorted, guys.

Note: The amp sounds lovely cranked, stock. Use your tone control and volume on the guitar to fine tune the tone you want.

[basdertwarj]

That overdrive is horrible, maybe it's the hotplate sucking the tone or the crappy webcam mic but that doesn't sound special to me

[philbio66]

LONG LIVE THE TONE KING!

[benalmighty]

1:54 sounds like someone is receiving a text. lol.

[eduf93]

The amp is farting as hell...any reason or it sucks as hell too?

[MyManDan]

this guy sounds like im about to buy a hoagie off of him. Haha cool amp tho

[mfcpj]

I wonder if there's a way to solve this "farting out" as mine does the same. Tried various speakers, extension cabs, tubes, guitars and cables, nothing helped.

[7818122344]

Can you tell me the manufacturer of the Attenuator

[magicseahorse]

@7818122344

It's a THD Hot Plate.

[roaringwaterbay]

what is a rectifier tube?

[magicseahorse]

@roaringwaterbay

It's a tube in the amp's design that provides a certain "feel." it affects the response time to transient peaks and such in your playing dynamics. Amps with tube rectifiers tend to have a slightly slower attack than amps with solid state rectifiers.

[AtAsTeOfCaHoSeGUITAR]

yo tone king nigga what is by far your favroit amp and how much and then a gfood play ing amp for a good price? plz a thank you

[bobert995]

don't ask this joke

[taygoo13]

Is this amp like a supro amp that Jimmy page used

[themarzvolta2112]

Youre a brutal player

[ravenrage07]

could you do a review of the Ampeg VH-140C?

[jvkeboxhero]

u killed this vid by playing stairway to heaven at the end. dont you know thats a huge faux pas

[raedwulfone]

what you have is a turret board ....p2p is a different construction technique.....

[tragictravisty]

i like how he doesn't seem to notice that the amp is completely farting out at high volumes. also, speaker distortion is a huge part of a good tone... and an alnico speaker doesn't clip at all when you attenuate the power amp.

[lmsjr]

hey tragic - I hear ya man. Com'on - u didn't like the vid at all :-) I think I cut this vid at like 3am :-) ... which is why I used the hotplate - but yes, all good points. Thx bro!!

[tragictravisty]

yea, i did like parts of the video, i was maybe a bit harsh. and i understand that its impossible to get speaker distortion w/out being very loud, so i understand the use of an attenuator. also, i appreciate the demos.

[spentonmediocrity]

Thanks for the demo.

I just snagged one on ebay for 495 shipped.I can't wait,and like you I appreciate the fact that it comes in pine equipped with a beefy alnico speaker.

When the power sags(cranked) and the speaker breathes I know this amp will kick.

I like the simple/short circuits.

[ibanezplayer23]

is this guitar an entry level guitar

or for the advanced players?

[bloozelover]

is it just me or has anybody else realized how bad this guy sucks in all his vids he calls him self the tone king but his tone is absolute shit just like his playing

[bluescountryfolk]

ha ha lol

[fullofblood]

Oh c'mon.I've seen your videos and i know you play better but this guy is very nice(his playing at least).It's that YOU are a beast,not that HE is bad!

[IfanSaer]

For gods sake, tune that guitar

[theghost2987]

I love that guitar!!

[strybel]

I'd go with Gibson GA-40RVT instead.

[chris1969kw]

Tone King, your reviews are good, but something occured to me. A little too much talking, maybe you should script your bits out beforehand.  That way you can pare the information down to the essentials. Check out guitar pro shops youtube reviews and you'll see what I mean.

[protofuzz]

This could be a way to compensate for the lack of guitar skills.

[libertyfalls]

thats what I was thinking

[descaz2223]

hey this is a little off topic but is the guitar you are using good for metal music!

[stylesofshifty]

I feel like it got better sounding as the video went on, is it me getting used to it r did the tubes warm as you played?

[Patriot1962]

Does the camera not have a 'mic in' if so it should be simple enough with the mixer and a few adapters? if not then I guess you would need to record it all separately, now you are be getting deep into film making! you might need a clapperboard or something to sync it all up!!

You could roll credits at the end 'conceived, performed, produced, directed and sound engineered by.... would look good on a resume!

[lmsjr]

Ha - I already own a clapperboard - I was actually going to work it in as a gag 'The Tone King, take 1, rolling' :-) I have 2 cameras that I toggle between ... neither have a mic in, which sucks. BUT - I can work it on my sound card. To be honest, it's not worth the effort. I get to listen to the products live, then over the video - and they're not all that bad. Until this becomes profitable (which will most likely be never) - I'll keep doing it as-is for fun, or until I get a cam w/ a mic.

[theghost2987]

So u buy all this stuf???OMG!!

[Patriot1962]

Is there any way in the future that you can use a better quality mic set up to record your demos with? something that can handle the high SPL's and still give a good rendition of the original sound, SM57?

I remember when Alnico magnet speakers were cheap, back in the late 70's (early80's) the cost of cobalt (I think it was) skyrocketed and that pushed the price way up. Also, Alnico alloy is easily de magnetized and was sometimes a problem for people that were hauling stuff around the globe.

[lmsjr]

I can. Infact, I own several SM57s and SM58s. The part I'm struggling w/ (and I'll welcome any advice you have) - what is the best way to get the audio in? So - for example, what do I plug the SM57 into? Plus, once I mic the amps - I will have to Mic everything (amps, voice, etc., meaning I need a mixer (which I have also) - but again - what does the mixer plug into? Whereas I'm pretty good w/ guitar stuff - I lack on the (how to mix audio / video into 1 medium). Thoughts / advice? Thanks.

[RNRDOLL]

id say try getting a usb interface (audio buddy, line 6 toneport, etc they all usually have some sort of xlr input for microphones) and do the demos that way itd be a cost effective way to have the amps mic'ed up for the demos

one more thing--ampeg's been making amps earlier than the 60's.

[VanMocen]

poor recording..

[joesl8]

Man, that Hot Plate cost about half of that amp!! Sounds great I wish they'd put reverb in all amps however.

[purenectar]

i bet 'cranked' you could get the 'can't you hear me knocking' stones tone.

[javiceres]

That would be heaven for me, thats The Sound

[Laura1093]

im gonna buy a decree but in lava red. thx for the review. now i know what it sounds like and i decided on it for the budget.

[PJBlandford]

Thanks for the review. The OEM Speaker is an 18 oz. Eminence I think. It's worth about 100 bucks. I picked my J-20 up new for 500 bucks plus tax... I was very lucky. I have since modded my J-20 (I build amps) and it is one of my all time favorite amps. I hear people complaining about lack of reverb, but I'd take this tremolo over reverb any day for the price point. I run a Timmy and an Ibanez analog delay into mine and the thing just screams. It now has a V30 and new TungSols 6V6.

[javiceres]

Hi I've just bought this amp 2nd hand I can't play it properly now (jus in my bedroom,volume at 1),so, just wanted to know about your mods:Celestion V30, and TSols (new prodiction ones) 6V6's...what else?I though the stock speaker was better than V30.

Thanks!

[jarudy]

Youtube must not do this amp justice when the amp isn't cranked. It sounds great all the way up though.

[rokinrandy]

I like playing slide guitar through those old ampeg amps.

especially with a nice overdrive pedal..

sweet and simple!

[EL34]

where do you get all these lovely toys?

[fabbola]

Ampeg guitar amps offer up alot of compression. So much so that dynamics get lost a little. This amp, by the sounds of it, is in keeping with that tradition. You may love it, you may hate it. I prefer something with a little less compression so that when you want to pick lightly it comes through as such and when you want to strum chords it's not such a muddy sound. But whatever suits the individual. I am not seeing to many guitar players with ampegs these days. Nice demo.

[FilthyInsomniac]

the amp sounds great but, i'm more interested in that MK Patriot Decree can shoot me back with some specs on that guitar like what you think and how thick is the overall guitar and do you recommend it just wondering what your opinion is.

[brutusgamez]

brilliant review that amp sounds really tasty

[vampreen12356]

hay great review but maybe u should git an external mic. so not to git a bad sound and git a even better truer sound just saying......great stuff

[TheGamingGuitarist]

I got 4 coupons and a free $10 gift card from Guitar Center this month. I'm going to use them on Black Friday. They've got an MXR Distortion pedal on sale for $29.99! They also have a pack of 12 Dean Markley Vintage strings for the same price of the pedal! So it's obvious where I'm going on Friday.

[AndySan]

That's a real nice vintage-sounding amp! The tremolo sounds great!

It's too simplistic for my tastes though.