Yes- I know I am in the honeymoon phase- in fact, after having the amp only a couple hours, I would call this the wedding night- the honeymoon has barely begun.
But I wanted to share my first impressions of the JVM410HJS I just scored.
I won't make this too long, but I have a 410H that was modified by Voodoo Amps- standard mod. I have no clue what they did, but the result was being able to use the two overdrive channels on the amp without squealing with the gain high enough to be useable for me on OD orange and red. Essentially, it allows me to use gain on 2 or 3 without becoming overly bright and compressed.
But after reading the reviews of the JS, I wanted to try one. I bid on a refurbished one on EBay, pretty lowball thinking they would not accept my offer. I did not do quite as well as Surf did in his recent post about his, but came pretty darn close.
So it arrived today, and I snuck away from work a little early (had to go get my knee x-rayed and didn't go back) and came home and fired it up.
In a word- WOW!! I can see one problem-I am going to have a hard time deciding on a "favorite channel."
I bought this amp primarily for the reviews of crunch red, and how it has some of the AFD circuitry in it. But truth be told, while crunch red is pretty frickin sweet, I like crunch amber better. The OD channels are really damn good too.
The amp sounds a bit dark to me- not that it is dark, but I am used to hearing my other 410, which is a brighter and "treblier" after the mod that was done.
I tried it through all three cabs I have- 425A, 1960AV with a mix of Marshall V30s and G12H30s and a 1960 slash (the old one) with V30s. I settled on the Slash cab, because it brightens it up for me with the V30s.
I used all my guitars, and my fav is the one pictured with Slash sig pickups. They all sound great though. My SG on on crunch amber is a perfect ACDC Live at Donnington tone. Except that I can't play for shit!
One note- below the face plate, just to the right of the headstock in the pic is about a 1 inch dent on the cab and the tolex is a bit torn there. I suspect thats why it was refurbished, but I don' care. It sounds great- just a little birthmark!
I'll post more later if anyone is interested, and answer any questions anyone has.
Overall, I am very, very happy. More later- back to my "wedding night!"