New Amp Day - Jvm210h

[novafx4]

I started my account awhile back, after purchasing a brand spanking new DSL-40C, but that amp is long gone and I've been playing through a Blackstar HT-100 for the past year. I was browsing Sweetwater late last week and saw this JVM210 that was a demo and was significantly discounted so I made the purchase.

After getting jerked around a bit by Fedex it arrived today. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to bring it to the rehearsal room and give it a workout but it appears to be in good working order and not a mark on it. It's like brand new.

Here she is still in the box:

 

[paul-e-mann]

Looking forward to your review, congrats

 

[4Horseman]

Congrats on the minty JVM! What did you think of those settings out of the box, a little thin maybe?

 

[MarshallDog]

Congrats on the new amp...hope you enjoy it.

 

[novafx4]

Congrats on the minty JVM! What did you think of those settings out of the box, a little thin maybe?

I got it set up and connected to my 1960A cabinet for rehearsal last night. I had my Les Paul plugged directly into the amp and didn't use my GT-100 unit. It's a different beast than my Blackstar and took a bit of trial and error to get a setting that I liked. It's going to take a bit of time to really get it dialed in but my first impression is that I like it. We're back at it this evening so I'll bring enough cables to get my Boss unit connected through the effects loop and really give it a workout. I took a pic last night that I'll post later today when I get home from work.

 

[novafx4]

Congrats on the new amp...hope you enjoy it.

Thank you, I'm liking it so far.

 

[chiliphil1]

Congrats! Once you get used to the modes and controls on that thing you'll love it! Great amps.

 

[novafx4]

Well, here it is sitting atop my 1960A cabinet in our cramped rehearsal space.

 

[Ghostman]

Nice score!! On my "to play" list.


it's a short list.

 

[John BNY]

Congrats. I have JVM 210 that I run through a 1960a or a 1936, both loaded with T-75s, and it's my primary gigging amp. I don't use any pedals, other than a harmonizer for dual guitar solos that I'm trying to play alone. It's a great amp. My one suggestion is to control yourself on the gain knob. Anything past the 5 (or Noon) mark, I think you start to lose the tone.

 

[MonstersOfTheMidway]

Nice pick up. Hope it serves you well. Let us know what channels/modes are most useful for your purposes. Enjoy.

I love the JVM2 amps (especially the 210H).

 

[sellen]

Got this amp recently, sounds promising.
Only complaint so far was that as i understand the crunch mode orange should sound simmilar to a 1959 super lead/1987x. I got the 1987x and a wizard vintage classic, both sounds pretty hot and raw. The Jvm orange mode in crunch sounds nothin' like that, way to "nice" and clean. Not saying it's a bad sound, i like it. I just need to drop what it's written that it supposed to be and use my ears. I really hope i will love this amp, because of the great footswitch 2 master volume -decent enough reverb-6 diffrent modes. I find out tomorrow when i test it with the band

 

[Angus Rhoads]

Got this amp recently, sounds promising.
Only complaint so far was that as i understand the crunch mode orange should sound simmilar to a 1959 super lead/1987x. I got the 1987x and a wizard vintage classic, both sounds pretty hot and raw. The Jvm orange mode in crunch sounds nothin' like that, way to "nice" and clean. Not saying it's a bad sound, i like it. I just need to drop what it's written that it supposed to be and use my ears. I really hope i will love this amp, because of the great footswitch 2 master volume -decent enough reverb-6 diffrent modes. I find out tomorrow when i test it with the band

I remember reading a thread on the JVM Forum where Santiago, the amp's designer, chimed in and said that the manual was wrong (bad copy & paste job, I guess) and that Crunch Orange and Crunch Red are meant to correspond to the same modes on the JVM4; that is, Crunch Orange is actually modeled on the JCM800 2203 (gain+gain+gain+tone) and there is no 1959/Plexi sound on the JVM2 (the Clean Green is a unique mode to the JVM2).
That said, on my 215C the Crunch Orange to me does sound a lot like a 2203, certainly not clean, it's got good drive. I mean, not as much gain as Crunch Red but about what I would expect from an un-modded 2203. Maybe your power tube bias is off?

 

[chiliphil1]

Got this amp recently, sounds promising.
Only complaint so far was that as i understand the crunch mode orange should sound simmilar to a 1959 super lead/1987x. I got the 1987x and a wizard vintage classic, both sounds pretty hot and raw. The Jvm orange mode in crunch sounds nothin' like that, way to "nice" and clean. Not saying it's a bad sound, i like it. I just need to drop what it's written that it supposed to be and use my ears. I really hope i will love this amp, because of the great footswitch 2 master volume -decent enough reverb-6 diffrent modes. I find out tomorrow when i test it with the band

I felt the same way. The 2 series is missing crunch and OD1. If you compare the 4 series to it the 4 has clean, crunch, OD1, and OD2. The 2 only has clean and OD2. Some of the channels sort of bridge the gap and get into some of the sounds from the 4 but as Angus said, it doesn't really have a plexi mode in it. The modes to me never sounded like what they were supposed to, they have their own sort of flavor. Lots of guys mod these amps and make them pretty much identical to the amp that they're supposed to sound like. The mods are very simple, I did a couple of them myself and it really made a big difference.

 

[Angus Rhoads]

Actually it's missing the Crunch Green but has the Orange and Red, and is missing all the Clean Modes (Clean Green is unique to the JVM2), and all of OD1. They should have made a flowchart or something, lol.
Honestly, though, the difference between OD1 and OD2 tends to get kind of exaggerated, I think it's pretty subtle if you even up the amount of gain, plus I like the tighter bass on OD2. I'm not sure that the OD channel on the JVM2 is exactly identical to OD2 from the JVM4, though - to me it's always kind of sounded somewhere in between OD1 & OD2.

 

[Deep Purple fan]

Got this amp recently, sounds promising.
Only complaint so far was that as i understand the crunch mode orange should sound simmilar to a 1959 super lead/1987x. I got the 1987x and a wizard vintage classic, both sounds pretty hot and raw. The Jvm orange mode in crunch sounds nothin' like that, way to "nice" and clean. Not saying it's a bad sound, i like it. I just need to drop what it's written that it supposed to be and use my ears. I really hope i will love this amp, because of the great footswitch 2 master volume -decent enough reverb-6 diffrent modes. I find out tomorrow when i test it with the band

I have the 4 Series but previously had the 210H. THE 800 tones are easy to find in the amp. The plexi tones are more challenging. To make the first channel orange mode get some hair you need to drive the power tubes by pushing the master volume and channel volume. I recently discovered some very nice plexi tones in my crunch channel orange and green modes on my JVM410HJS. Although your amp is different, I'm confident you can pull vintage tones out of the amp. I use a hot plate to attenuate....I push the master volume above noon on the dial...I use a maxon overdrive in front, sometimes I use an mxr compression pedal, sometimes I use both, but most times one or the other. The resonance setting is key. Don't turn it way down. I dime the gain. Without an attenuator, this will be very loud. I a/b it to a 1987X and I got close. The JVM was the better sound.

 

[novafx4]

I find myself spending most of my playing time on the Crunch Orange setting with the gain dialed way back. It gives my Les Paul a satisfying growl in the 1 to 2 range. I've got my Boss GT-100 set up with the 4 cable method and still have to get the clean and crunch channel levels equal. Right now the clean channel is much quieter than the crunch but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Overall, I'm still getting used to the and will put it to the test over the Labor Day weekend when my band plays two gigs.