The Silver 120 clean amp available in the Spark has been inspired by the Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus.
When the JC120 was released in 1975, all the ingredients for a disaster were there. it was a solid state guitar amp whith an highly artifical distortion, coming from a brand known for its keyboards and effects. The amp was massive and hidddeous and on top of that, it was Japanese!
Despite all these the JC120 will prevail. The amp is extremely well designed and built, hardly breaks down and is very easy to repair.New Wave then arrives and with it the aspiration for powerful and shimmering clean sounds. The amp has power, its chorus adds color to it. The Police and Andy summers (among others) will give it notoriety.The Roland JC 120 definetly became the sound of the ’80s rock era.
Its success is also due to its clever design. From a mono preamp, the signal is routed to two power amps of 60W each, one dedicated to the dry sound, the other to the chorus, creating what has been called “Dimensional Space Chorus” and allowing the amp to deliver a true stereo sound.
With probably the best clean in the music industry, the “Jazz Chorus” guitar amp is widely used across many stages. It has been of the main gear for artists like James Hetfield, John Frusciante, Andy Summer, Eddie Vedder, Joe Satriani, Joe Perry, Gustavo Cerati, or Dimebag Darrel…
Leave A Comment?