Any Peavey JSX owners here? What's your opinion of them?

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JohnnyGtar

JohnnyGtar

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I've been checking out the Peavey JSX videos on YouTube. I want one. I'm selling my Triple X head (not impressed with that head at all) and some other gear to snag a JSX. I'm interested in the head or 2x12 combo. Anyone here own one of these? If you do, what do you like or dislike about them?
 
JohnnyGtar said:
I've been checking out the Peavey JSX videos on YouTube. I want one. I'm selling my Triple X head (not impressed with that head at all) and some other gear to snag a JSX. I'm interested in the head or 2x12 combo. Anyone here own one of these? If you do, what do you like or dislike about them?
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If you don’t like the XXX you WILL NOT like the JSX. They’re damn near the same amp.
 
Bram576 said:
If you don’t like the XXX you WILL NOT like the JSX. They’re damn near the same amp.
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Ahh, yes and no. It's the same basic layout but more refined along with the added Noise Gate.

The clean and crunch were revoiced for Joe. And the Ultra Channel on the JSX is the Crunch channel from the XXX. When I owned both that was fine with me since I never used the Ultra on the XXX. I thought the Ultra was unusable on the XXX whereas it was my main channel on the JSX.
 
If yours is the XXX II, they are pretty close. If it's the first xxx the jsx is much more dynamic in my opinion (also owned them both). I've actually been thinking of getting another jsx. The combos tend to be where the deal is at and can be modded into a head or whatever you want to do with the speaker/cab situation. @Bad.Seed I think owns them all and can probably give you the rundown on more recent experience.
 
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I like the JSX ok, if you're playing it pretty loud with a full band mix & keep the gain pretty low. It's not a great home use amp at all.

Like a few others have said, it's very close to the XXX, so I'm not sure you'd be happy swapping one out for the other.
 
From the videos I've seen, the JSX is a lot tighter, has less fizz in overdrive channels and more percussive. Opinions?
 
I had one many years ago. I recall that it it had a sort of honky, slightly-odd midrange thing going on. That could just be me, but I got rid of it pretty quickly.
 
Rayneman said:
I had one many years ago. I recall that it it had a sort of honky, slightly-odd midrange thing going on. That could just be me, but I got rid of it pretty quickly.
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This ^
I've had two of them , and I could not dial it out, it was best with KT-77's in it.
 
jabps said:
Ahh, yes and no. It's the same basic layout but more refined along with the added Noise Gate.

The clean and crunch were revoiced for Joe. And the Ultra Channel on the JSX is the Crunch channel from the XXX. When I owned both that was fine with me since I never used the Ultra on the XXX. I thought the Ultra was unusable on the XXX whereas it was my main channel on the JSX.
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This. And I'll add, the crunch channel was based on the Peavey Classic 30/50 lead channel. It's a better amp.
 
The Peavey Supreme 160 SS amp is so badass. Great clean, killer distortion. I am always ln the prowl.
 
i found it to be quite different from the Triple X. I dug the rhythm channel on the JSX, as well as the lead channel. I remember the head being physically heavy AF.
 
way different overall, but the lead channel is definitely the same family. i still have mine around the rehearsal spot and use it somedays. i LOVE the crunch channel and live there on this thing. it doesnt have the squawk inherent in most peaveys on this channel and i boosted the piss out of it to play death metal, but it was clear and huge sounding. i also love the noise reduction on it as i use a gate out front and that knob took care of the amp noise, so i didnt need two gates. also the same reasons i use the iconic now....
with mid-heavy pickups, and a mid-heavy boost, and v-30's, i found that channel to be balanced and the active eq as well as the presence/resonance is super powerful, so didnt need any external eq either...
 
I've got the JSX 212 combo. It's got a really good clean for a channel switcher. The crunch channel is seems like a refined Marshall crunch. Maybe a little darker, and has more range of gain. It doesn't need a boost like a 2203 does to get the same level of crunch. The ultra channel is my least favorite. More gain/compression than I care for.

Overall though, I think it sounds great. The crunch channel roars, and this thing is LOUD. I swapped out the factory speakers for V30s, and I think that complements the darker crunch channel great, and cuts through in a band mix. The noise gate is fairly useless though. It seems more like a singled-ended "hiss" reduction than an actual gate.

I'll add, I run EL34s in mine. I wouldn't trust the bias test points either way.
 
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napalmdeath said:
This. And I'll add, the crunch channel was based on the Peavey Classic 30/50 lead channel. It's a better amp.
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Yep, forgot about that on the Crunch Channel.

I loved the Ultra on the JSX and the Crunch on the XXX....again they were the same. I just thought the JSX was just overall a better and more well rounded versatile amp than the XXX. And I preferred mine with 6L6's, it opened up the bottom end a hair when you had the amp opened up with some volume. Hell the heaviest tones I ever recorded were with the JSX, a Genz Benz 2x12 along with a stock 5150 4X12.

The only reason I got rid of my JSX was the band I was in at the time was not as heavy and I was slowing heading back into the Marshall tonal realm.

The JSX along with the OG 5150 are really the only amps of all I have owned (from Soldano to Bogner to VHT) that I wished I still owned.
 
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