Johnson J-Station

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » 1 Feb 2001 6:37 pm

I just bought one of these. This will allow me to practice, and record some without bothering my son studying, or my wife and neighbors. I have only used it with guitar so far with pretty good results. I would like to her from anyone who has used it with steel, and possibly programmed any presets.
Thanks,
Lefty
Sh-Bud LDG

Glenn Austin · Post by **Glenn Austin** » 2 Feb 2001 9:03 am

Lefty,
I have a line6 pod which sounds alright with steel, but not as good as playing thru a real steel amp.The reverb doesn't sound right for steel either.I use a boss eq pedal to lower the gain from my guitar so as to avoid getting distortion, which is what it was designed for.It does make my vegas 400 sound great for regular guitar playin'. Apparently J-station is better at clean amp tones than pod.My favorite amp models are fender twin and boogie mkIIc. I like it for gigging because I don't have to haul 2 separate amps for guitar and steel.

Jay Ganz · Post by **Jay Ganz** » 2 Feb 2001 9:26 am

Yamaha has a similar unit called the 
DG-Stomp. It's supposed to be
better in the "clean tone" department.
The reverb & delays are also reported
to be excellent. I guess they're all
about the same price.

Martin Abend · Post by **Martin Abend** » 3 Feb 2001 1:44 am

I could still kick my butt for selling my Tech 21 Trademark 60 amp to buy this piece of ... red metal. Grrr!

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martin abend my homepage chicotarde@web.de
s-10 sierra crown gearless 3 x4 - fender hotrod deluxe

ajm · Post by **ajm** » 3 Feb 2001 8:51 am

I've tried out all three.

The POD may be slightly better in the amp simulation department than the J Station; it's a really close call. However, the J is TONS better in the quality of the effects. IMHO, the reverb on the POD is a disgrace.

If I were going to buy one today, I would probably buy the DG Stomp. It doesn't appear to give you amp types (Boogie, Twin, Class A, etc.), or at least it doesn't label them as such. But the configurations it gives you are all very good. It actually responds and feels like a real amp. The EQ works. The effects are all there and they sound really good. It also seems much more rugged than the other two. You can use it on a desktop or as a stomp box. It also has a pretty "transparent" sound, meaning you can tell what guitar you're using with it. All of this and I didn't even get into any of the cabinet simulations. The thing I don't know is if it will take a steel guitar pickup on the input without overloading.

I bought a Yamaha REX 50 effects processor years ago and ended up demanding my money back because IMHO it had a design problem that several others in the store also had. I swore that I'd never buy another Yamaha product after the crappy response I got from their technical support people, but the DG Stomp may make me ease up on my position there.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 3 Feb 2001 10:51 am

Martin - I don't mean to rub salt in your wound, but Tech 21 now has a matching 12 inch speaker cabinet with another 60 watt power amp built in. The combination of the two is bound to be way cool.

Lee, from South Texas

Martin Abend · Post by **Martin Abend** » 3 Feb 2001 12:02 pm

Yeah,
thanks, Lee. I tried the Trademark with the powered extension cab in December. Awesome. Almost beat my Fender HotRod deluxe.

You live, you learn

------------------
martin abend my homepage chicotarde@web.de
s-10 sierra crown gearless 3 x4 - fender hotrod deluxe

Adam · Post by **Adam** » 3 Feb 2001 2:32 pm

I just bought a yamaha dg for guitar use and it sounds excellent.I was not expecting to like it as much as I do as I am not a big fan of effects.The reverb and echoplex sounds are great.I'll file a report when I try it on steel.

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » 3 Feb 2001 8:27 pm

I guess I should have tried ot all the different manufactuers before buying, but I got a good deal on the J-Station, and had heard positive things about it. I can't make a comparison, though. It has some presets I will never use, but I guess they are all geared toward a wide range of players/music. I have tried editing some of the emulations, and was able to get a pretty good Allmans "Melissa" sound out of the British stack with the gain all the way down and sound good clean Fender.
I only wish they would make a model just for Steel players with amp models of Evans, Sessions, Webb, Fender Vibrosonic with different speaker emulations JBL D-130, Black Widow etc.
Maybe Peavey is working on that one.
Lefty
Sho-Bud LDG
Johnson J-Station

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » 4 Feb 2001 1:31 pm

I managed to get some pretty good Steel Guitar sounds with this gizmo today. The Blackface Twin sounded believable, and clean. I got a good solid state sound using the Johnson clean setting with a little delay and reverb, and a little tweeking. Lap steel is also good in the tweed setting, from Santo to Lindley. Nothing beats the sound of a good amp, but this is a nice convienient way to record. I want to try it through a PA, which would be convienient in a small setting. I would still like more clean amp simulations and less metal, but.
Lefty
Sho-Bud LDG
Johnson J-Station

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 5 Feb 2001 1:07 am

Lefty....I don't own a J-Station myself, but I did have the opportunity to borrow one and use it's computer editing software for a pretty good trial. The software is definitely the key to getting a steel sound! Try using the bass amp models & cabinets, and go from there. At anyrate, I A-B'd it to my live rig, and it far surpassed my Profex 1...then I used it going direct on a session, and impressed the engineer way more than I would've imagined. I think it might have the sound if you have the patience to tweek it enough. I'm saving up for one.[This message was edited by Rick Schmidt on 05 February 2001 at 01:09 AM.]

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » 7 Feb 2001 3:18 am

Thanks Rick,
I am going to mail them for the free software. If you are looking to buy one try E-Bay. I got mine new from a music store who was dicontinueing their Johnson line, and selling out stock. I got it for just over the $200.00 mark.
Lefty