Roland JC-40 Jazz Chorus Compact Guitar Amp

As a guitarist today - you certainly have choice. A lot of good ones in how you want to get your sound. You can choose to have an amp do the exceptional tone and dirty work, you can use standalone preamps with a cabinet emulator and tie into a PA system, or you can get a very clean amp and use pedals. I've tried all and have essentially gravitated toward a good clean amp with good pedals. Seems the most flexible. I can more easily get what I want when I want it. Change it as needed. If this is you - hard to do better than this amp! Starting with the JC Clean this amp is revered for. It is a unique pristine clean. Tremendous front end to a note. Many speak of tubes advantages over solid state. Well - there are some advantages to solid state and this amp accents it and delivers it in abundance. Absolutely no sag and the cleanest of punch into a note. Amazing headroom. If you want to hear all the nuances of your guitar and supporting pedals - this is about the best I've ever had the pleasure to plug into. In fact - it exposed some very subtle artifacting on some of my drive pedals I had not noticed before. When you want clean - this amp does it sounding great. Again not tube great, but in its own great solid state way. This amp tends to be kind of polarizing in that way - and you either like it or not. It can put a real smile on your face. You also get this amp for the unique chorus. Revered draw of this amp and is all that. Very adjustable chorus and vibrato. Reverb is likewise quality and adjustable. The bright switch adds a nice boost of treble and also upper mids to give even more clarity without increasing icepickiness. Good adjustment with the BMT EQ knobs. The distortion is more like a simple gain, but has a touch of grit and while it won't replace your favorite distortion pedal it can do a tasteful accent and has good range. I do like to nudge it on to get that hair of grit. It's kinda of difficult to quantify, but all the features and aspects of this amp seem excellently done and seem to really fit together in a way that gives a great and unique - distinct - sound. The quality 2x10 speakers also insure that sound quality is well heard in stereo. Now - getting into the 2nd half of what makes this amp great. Supporting platform features goes beyond what is usually offered at this price point. It has a stereo pathway from the input all the way to the speaker output. It is essentially 2 preamps sharing the same bright, volume, BMT and distortion settings. Each of these preamp paths can feed into its own path of one of the 2 power amps. The 2 power amps share the chorus/vibrato settings. The effects loop is feature rich. It allows a stereo return - each into its separate power amp, or monaural into both. The effects loop can be series or parallel. Series directs the wet return to the power amps. Parallel allows the stereo dry signals across and blended with the wet signal return. The only shortcoming is that the effects loop is not quite a full stereo path. The send is a blend of the preamp channels and you can't just get a return to a single power channel. Still - it's a lot to work with and this ended up being a large reason I got this amp after more closely looking at it. Summary: If you're looking for a JC Clean - this has it with quality. Likewise coupled with the chorus. Otherwise I suggest you try before you buy. It is a bit of a one trick pony with its sound. Be a bit wary if also trying to use it as bedroom amp. It gets loud fast. I had use a volume pedal at the end of my amp lead in pedals to allow a large and usable signal to be pared down enough to get bedroom levels. Very good speaker presentation, but stereo line outs too. It does go a nice extra long way with being that pedal platform with the stereo pathways options at the input and in the effects loop. Lastly his thing is built with quality throughout and can be put to work above just toying around. Tend to think it a good and lasting investment. A great clean never goes out of style... Update 4/18/2019: Still have this amp. This amp has really made me happy to have. It simply delivers a special sound, set of resources that makes it so useful - and fun. I think I can speak for many who have more than a couple of differing amps- That you can get tired of a particular aspect of an amp, and find yourself wanting to plug into something else. When wanting perhaps to go for a clean change after a period of whatever kind of dirt you got into for a bit - this amp is - to me - like the most rewarding way to do that clean nirvana. As mentioned before - this amp is a bit of a 1 trick pony. And yes - if like me - you can get tired of the 1 trick. But I guarantee you'll never get tired of coming back to the special 1 trick this guy does!

This is an iconic amp. The 40 watt version may be little big for a bedroom setup but perfect for recording studio or practice space. It’s even gigable. You can’t go wrong with this one. The cleans are so perfect and the chorus and reverb sound great. This is a stereo amp with 2 speakers and you can use stereo effects in the effect loop. The distortion is a little finicky and it’s best to turn the treble down a bit if you’re going to turn the distortion up. It’s a little pricy but honestly I think it’s worth it. One of my favorite amps. It’s not just for Jazz, you can get great tone out of it for Rock, blues, and other genres as well. In fact Metallica used one for some of their recordings including the clean parts on the song One. I think it’s a really fun amp that takes pedals well and the chorus and reverb built in sounds great. I pair this with a Fender Vibro Champ to get my perfect tone.

Super clean sounding. Great with or without pedals. True Stereo input, As well as Mono. FX Loop with Series or Parallel options. Foot-switch inputs. As well as mono as stereo line outs. A Headphone jack for silent playing, as well. Easy to setup and use. Great compatibility with lots of different pickup types. Very adjustable tone, That can be tailored towards anything. Solidly constructed. It's about 35 to 40 pounds. So the same as a 5 gallon water jug, Or bag of salt for a water softener. Or a bag of soil for a garden.

I wanted a JC-120 for years, but every time I tried one in a guitar store, the loudness of it put me off. Seeing how this smaller version retains all the features I wanted, I bit the bullet and ordered one. Weight I was pleasantly surprised by the weight of it. I own two 6L6 driven tube amps and this thing is a lightweight in comparison. I can lift this easily and move it around without throwing out my already bad back. It's not super light, but it doesn't sport the excessively heavy weight of a tube amp. Features Even though I wanted a JC-120, the JC-40 is not exactly a scaled-down version of its big brother. It has two 10-inch speakers rather than two 12-inch speakers and it doesn't have the "Normal" amp channel, just the "Effects" channel from the JC-120. Since you can simply turn off the effects, this is not a big deal to me. Everything else is the same: line out jack, headphones jack, foot-switchable distortion/reverb/chorus, stereo inputs, etc. Sound You know what you're getting with a Roland JC amp: cleans for days. I was worried that the 10-inch speakers would sound significantly different than the JC-120, but they sound the same to me. Combined with single-coil pickups, this thing sounds killer with the EQ just flat. When I run humbuckers through it, I do feel like I need to EQ it just slightly, but most of the time, my EQ is set at 12 o'clock. I've heard complaints online about the reverb, but it sounds deep and lush to me, even though it is not a spring reverb. I don't see a need to replace it with a pedal, but then again, I don't run my sound super wet and don't rely on reverb for my sound. The chorus is classic and gives you that 80's tone without even trying. With some fiddling, you can get a very subtle increase in the fullness of your sound without it sounding overly chorused. Just a great sound, overall. Conclusion I use the line-out for recording which gives a very clean signal, though a balanced XLR output would have been a nice feature. Other than that, I have no complaints whatsoever and I feel like I'm still learning all the different sounds I can get out of this beast. I've owned many amps from Fender to Marshall to modern to vintage; you name it I've owned it at some point. This is the first time that I'm content with the tone I'm getting without having to fiddle around with it.

I bought the JC-40 because I wanted to run a small stereo pedal board in to the front end stereo inputs and use this set up in a 3 piece rock cover band. I also own some really nice hand wired tube amps and after a few weeks I have to say I'm very happy with this Roland JC-40. If you just want a nice clean reverb-y base tone that takes pedals well and is loud enough to gig and won't break your back you could do a lot worse. The on board chorus and vibrato are great but to be honest I hardly use them - it's a very niche sound IMO. The reverb which I do use is just fine to my ear. The on board distortion....eh.....if it's set really low for just a little bit of gritty blues lead thing it's OK. Anything higher starts sounding pretty transistor and nasty. I just leave it off and use a pedal. It seems to like single coils, P90s, and humbuckers equally well. The beauty of this amp to me is it's simple snappy clean tone with a dash of reverb and the tight note attack when playing. This lends itself well to funk comping, pop strumming, clean chordal blues and jazz. Volume knob at 9 o'clock which is something like 2 1/2 on the volume knob hangs with the bass and drummer just fine. Between 9 and noon the tone and attack stays clean and the volume is impressive. Loud bar band stage levels at this point. After that you start hearing a solid state power section beginning to break up a little and some cab resonance/rattling but by that point you are very very loud. When combined with a few pedals this is a very capable and flexible amp for around the house and playing live.

I play in a band that does wedding receptions, picnics, outdoor parties, etc. To say that COVID impacted our business is a gross understatement. I purchased this as a less expensive replacement for a very old Fender Twin that gave up the ghost a few weeks ago. It actually caught fire internally and cooked all the components. I have to be honest about the Jazz Chorus 40: Pros: Superb clean tone. Maybe the best there is. Sparkling chorus effect, which is more amazing the louder it gets. Incredible headroom -- this amp can play a 200+ venue without being mic'd. It's that loud. Lightweight especially when compared to the 120. No casters necessary. Takes modulation pedals like flanger, phaser, and delay beautifully. Nice built-in digital reverb. Not quite a tank, but a good emulation. Cons: (oh boy, here we go...) Despite many reviews to the contrary, you will not get a good "dirt", distortion, or overdrive tone out of the amp regardless of what boutique pedal you put in front of it. I tried an Ibanez Tube Screamer, a JHS Bonsai, a Wampler overdrive, and a ProCo Rat. The "rock" tone (using that term loosely) was tepid at best, no matter how much I turned up the gain and effect. The best it can do is a kind of muddled whitebread blues tone that might be good for Neil Young or some country. But nothing beyond that. We play Aerosmith, Journey, Bowie, and others, and it was no where near that territory no matter what was pushing it. Most likely because it's solid state, and just not designed for rock. You might be able to get what your looking for in a floor-based guitar effects processor. But most of those are almost expensive as the jazz chorus. The distortion that comes built into the amp is no help either. It is effectually unusable. Very muddy and fuzzy all at once. Nothing musical about it. TD;LR: the amp really just does one thing - a crystalline clean tone with a deep rich chorus. If you are a gigging musician playing a wide repertoire of music, you could go with this if you also had a Marshall, Orange, or Mesa side rig for the harder stuff, and an A/B switch to bounce between them.

I rarely write reviews on amazon, but this amp is outstanding. I owned a roland jc 90 and ended up selling it at one point to buy a different guitar, and I had always regretted it. This amp gives same beautiful tone along with more options such as the tremelo and bright switch. I'd argue the built in distortion isn't terrible, but still not the best (for people not familiar, the built in distortion on roland JC's are typically pretty bad). Get yourself an overdrive or distortion pedal. Id recommend a proco rat of some sorts or a walrus fundamental overdrive. Only problem is the amp is incredibly loud and the potentiometer that controls the volume seems to be very sensitive at low volumes (basically gets very loud quickly).

I have nothing new to add to the sound of the AMP itself. It is just Sweet. I am going to talk about my VG-99 and JC-40 I have a ROLAND VG -99 with which I have a love/hate relationship. Firstly I believe connecting a guitar straight to the amp .. multi effects ( especially digital) KILLS the soul of the AMP/Guitar .. but the VG99 has loads of modelling guitars (and okayish set of AMPS). I use the GK3 pickup with VG-99 and although it has a pickup blending , I have hated what it does to the analog signal. With the JC-40 I use 2 separate paths. One goes straight from my pickups to the left/Mono channel in the front. This gives me the unadulterated sound of my Guitar and Amp. Secondly, the STEREO out from my VG-99 goes into the rear effects in ( which gets fed to the left/right stereo power amps). ( MAKE SURE to leave the effects out unplugged as this will mix the left and right signal paths and convert everything to Mono) .. The result is FANTASTIC !! I can blend the lovely JC40 with VG-99 sounds.. Secondly I dont have the crazy situation where I am going to thru two preamps ( one simulated and one physical ). I control the blend using volume knob / pedal. My only criticism is that I wish the Chorus and Reverb were part of the preamp rather than the power amp signal path ( atleast when the send effects are set to be in parallel) This way I could set the reverb/Chorus to my pick up independently of what I have set in VG-99. Right now these settings apply to both front and rear inputs. So I taking away 1/2 star and rounding it up to 5 stars. But after years of experimenting with various kind of amps ( including Portable PA systems !!!) This really checks most of my boxes.

Solid-state amps get a bad rap, but the Roland Jazz Chorus 120 has long been the exception to that rule. It is a stupid rule, anyhow; I love solid-state amps for a variety of reasons (usually cheaper, sound decent at any volume level, weigh less, usually are more reliable - to name a few). There have been a few different versions of the Jazz Chorus over the years, and while I'd love a 120, I decided to try out the more manageable, more affordable little brother - the JC-40. It does go pretty loud, though I haven't tried playing my usual hard-hitting grunge/metal drumming alongside it as of yet, I don't expect there to be too much of an issue. Mostly I play by myself anyhow, and I wanted this classic sound of lightly-modulated pristine clean to serve as a pedal platform, for inspiration and songwriting. It certainly sounds nice with a Classic Vibe Jazzmaster through it, though I have struggled slightly with there being too much top end. That's partly my fault, though, as I am reluctant to use the tone knob on my guitars (no real reason why). But I've got some nice growly sounds out of my Rat and OD Gloves, and even the Kraken V1 sounds good in it. But where this shines is the effects. Reverb, delay, more reverb... It all shines in this amp, especially stereo effects with the stereo inputs. You could use the FX loop if you want, but I didn't bother. The distortion built into the amp sounds passable for me, but I don't use it. There are three mono jacks for latching switches to toggle it, as well as the chorus/vibrato and reverb, but there's no footswitch included. For this price, it sure would have been nice to have... But no matter; I have a 3D printer and some cheap components I got from an overseas company that shall not be named here. I whipped up a slim housing for two footswitches and wired them into a stereo 3.5mm jack, then plugged in a 3.5mm stereo to split 1/4" mono cables, and it works perfectly for toggling the reverb and chorus from my pedalboard (I could have done 3 switches, but it wouldn't be as clean as having the one stereo cable, so I chose to forego the distortion option). Anyhow, this is a good little amp, plenty loud for me, and sounds good. The only thing I don't like is that it kinda sounds like the left speaker might be slightly quieter than the right (even when modulation is off). I don't know if that's really the case, or if it's just the positioning in my studio in relation to where I stand; it is not noticeable if the amp is on the ground or if you're not actively trying to nitpick for flaws. Could also be just my bad ears! In any case, I'm happy with it.

Desde que probé este amplificador, me enamoré de su sonido. La verdad el precio fue muy bueno y ahora es mi amplificador principal para tocar en vivo

De lo mejor

A more compact and lighter version of the legendary Jazz Chorus from Roland. The clean tone is as good as you've heard, as is the built-in chorus. Even the newly improved distortion doesn't sound half bad. Works great as a pedal platform too.

sounds so magical