Joe Satriani Takes JSX Amp on Clinic Tour
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May 8, 2004
Peavey endorser and guitar
virtuoso Joe Satriani will demo his new co-designed Peavey JSX guitar
amplifiers on an upcoming U.S. Clinic Tour, which runs from May 11 in
Overland Park, Kan., through May 18 in Portland, Ore.
The new three-channel JSX guitar amplifier combines the tonal
flexibility and responsive, versatile gain structures he's always sought
into a single guitar amplifier. As a starting point in creating this
amp, Peavey amplifier design engineers began with two amps
Satriani has used extensively throughout his career: the Peavey Classic
50 and, more recently, Peavey Triple XXX Series amps. "I started to
rely on those amps quite a bit, but I wound up in a situation where my
live rig was completely different from what I used in the studio," he
said. One of the main goals of the JSX amp project was to bring these
different tones and EQ options together in one amp.
Satriani road-tested several JSX prototypes during the 2003 G3 Tour.
"It was really great to hear the JSX in an actual working situation," he
said. "It was interesting to hear how the shape of my guitar solos
changed (simply) because I was so excited about what was coming out of
those Peavey speakers." Peavey engineers tweaked the amp according to
his suggestions and sent the new versions of the JSX to him on the road
so he could test them immediately.
Work on the JSX amp began with the Clean channel, which Satriani wanted
to be lively with a flexible EQ but, most importantly, free of any
distortion. The result is a purely clean channel that resists breaking
up. As Satriani noted, this is especially imperative for players who use
pedals for their distorted tones. "You have to start with a completely
clean channel to get pedals to sound true. That way, you get the best
articulation, the least amount of noise and a really nice, singing
tone."
Once they nailed the amp's clean tone, they moved on to the Crunch
channel, nicknamed the "amber" channel for its warm gain structure,
response, articulation and punch. "It's a really good soloing and
melody-playing channel, as well as a really punchy rhythm channel that
gives you a wide range of EQ and gain," he said. "I wound up using the
Crunch channel quite a bit on the G3 Tour for those exact reasons."
Next came the Ultra channel, which the engineers set up for a chunky,
explosive tone and serves as the lead channel. "We wanted to bridge the
gap between the Classic 50, which has a lot of gain to it; the Triple
XXX, which has all the gain in the world; and a more vintage British
tone, which also has as much gain as you'd ever want, but in a different
form." Satriani wanted to maintain as much chunk as possible to keep the
low E, A and D strings from sounding soft when he dials in massive
levels of gain. "I wanted a lot of 'oomph' in that channel, even though
it's set up for soloing."
Peavey engineers also added a fully adjustable noise gate for the
Crunch and Ultra channels, something Satriani concedes he always wanted
on an amp. "The noise gate control is a fantastic innovation for a high
gain, completely versatile, 100 Watt head," he said. "Let's say you're
playing a high gain rhythm with a lot of moments when you don't play.
You don't want all those tubes screaming during the quiet moments. You
can set this noise gate so it clamps down very tightly, or not at all.
It's not a notch control, with 1-2-3 settings and so on*it's a fully
adjustable knob, so you can set it just the way you like it. It's even
fantastic for recording." All controls are located on the front panel
for easy access.
U.S. Clinic Tour Schedule
- May 11, Guitar Source, Overland Park, KS
- May 12, Dale's Music, Hazelwood, MO
- May 13, Buddy Rodger's Music, Fairfield, OH
- May 14, Guitarworks Inc., Greenwood, IN
- May 17, Bellevue American Music, Bellevue, WA
- May 18, Showcase Music & Sound Inc., Portland, OR
All clinics begin at 6 p.m. local time.
MSRP on the JSX is $1499.99. For more information, visit their web site at www.peavey.com. |
