TC ElectronicJIMS 800 PREAMP Guitar Pedal | Twin-Channel Guitar Preamp with Independent Channel Controls, Pre/Post Boost & Dedicated Outputs for DI and Headphones

UAFX got feedback saying their amps in a box were too clean. So they adjusted theirs to make them a little more dirty. And it wasn't a bad thing because nothing was lost. Their built in boosts just started working a little better really, and at least my Dream and Ruby have plenty of clean headroom. You just get a lot of that awesome cream/distortion mixing if you set either of them on the edge of breakup. most of the sound with any overdrive and most distortions is still your amp doing it. It's being forced to do it. Yes, you can plug a pair of headphones into a boss metal master and hear it "Liar!" surprise, it's doing it to your headphones. Yeah. That's what's happening. It's making your headphones make the noise. It's why a tubescreamer sounds different in front of different amps. Now all that said,TC Electronics got the opposite criticism. They were told all their pedals were "too hot". Probably because they were trying to avoid what UAFX went through. So their "we get to redo it" moment, they gave all their ampworx pedals more clean headroom, and tweaked their pretty outstanding cab sims to be less "shrill trebly". And it totally paid off. I did the update and they've accidentally made the best value in an outstanding pedal host on the market. I can side by side the Jims 800 set on the green channel clean, using their cab into a zoom ms70cdr+ with zoom's excellent pedal sims, along with the Dream 65, and the tubescreamer sounds outstanding with either, and if you listen you can identify the kind of celestion being used in each case. So pedal host, outstanding, And BECAUSE it's a JCM800 model, the dirty channels are outstanding also. They do sound amazing. Because the JCM800 "sound" is almost entirely the preamp section. And they've nailed it. And that's a good thing. Because el34's weren't getting picked because they "sound good" pushed. It's not that they don't, but that's not the point. They can make hundreds of watts easier than the boutique sounding el84's that Vox uses. That said, they are still more musical than fender's output section which is designed to be as clean as possible at high volume. All that aside, it makes the simulation an outstanding pedal host. Their preamp game is excellent. Just don't expect them to be emulating a sunn power amp, or anything else with output tube crunch and saturation. If you really want to add that missing sound to this pedal, you'll need to get an earthquaker devices acapulco gold pedal. It will just add back that missing sound if you want it. Perfectly even. That said, the jcm800 sound again, IS the preamp section. And they nail that. It just means that boosts switch on the back is useless. Leave it on pre. As for pedals, this thing adores the guv'nor and it's many clones, and it loves the Black Tea from Tone City. A lot. That's based on the daytripper circuit. It also loves the ts9 tubescreamer, and the new mini that's probably the best one Ibanez have ever made. It's not just a great pedal host. It's an outstanding one. The Way Huge Swollen Pickle is outstanding with it. So is the Danelectro Daddy-0, Sugar Drive, and any of the "royalty of tone" pedals. I have the duke with it now and it might stay for a bit. It likes Rat pedals a lot. It likes everything on that green channel. I think the high quality cab sim is what turns this into such a great enduser experience.Definitely do the update. This is win after you do. One box, that can just be your amp for real that's an outstanding pedal host, while nailing the sound of a beat up pawn shop jcm800 when you use the hot channel. this is a shoegaze dream amp in a box. It's not just great for metallica and van halen sounds. You could do doomer stuff with it easily with any decent fuzz. It loves the beetronics fuzz pedals a lot. I can't believe how inexpensive it is. My only real grip is the lack of stereo, but you can use a multistomp ms70cdr from zoom and make it stereo if you want. It's a great slot-in amp replacement that just works, and does it well. Is it as good as UAFX? No. Sorry. The preamp is. The output/cabinet are not the proprietary reactive masterpieces of dynamic response in the UAFX pedals. They are IR's from Celestion that they tweaks insanely well. But as a pedal host, you aren't going to worry about missing power amp dynamics, just like you don't in real life. You are caring about having enough sustain for that solo coming up. You'll have it.

Best marshall in a box I’ve ever had. So versatile. 🔥🔥

Would like to use this out of the box - doesn't come with power supply. I may have missed i but I did not see it in the description. For that kind of $ it should give you what you need.

Coming from an 80’s background and using a Marshal Jcm I was trying to simplify my live rig by going direct into a Pa. and getting close to that sound. The boost function doesn’t have enough volume for solos to cut through the mix. The knob’s responsiveness had a weird lag when moving them and I would get bumps up and down with channel levels. Really wanted to love this pedal for live gigs but unfortunately, going back to a multi- effects pedal.