Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head  (Used)

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

First I'll echo a few of the other reviewers: you MUST replace the stock tubes to get the full potential out of this little guy.

After you do that however, It's an excellent amp and an amazing value. The THD/Andy Marshall design allows you to swap in just about whatever tubes you like to achieve a desired tone. I currently use a 6550EH power tube with 5751 pre tubes for an aggressive tone at high gain that still allows nuances through. The 5W setting is surprisingly loud, it will keep up with a sax or trumpet though probably not a loud drummer.

One downfall of such an amp is that it takes time and fiddling to change tones, so it won't do as a standalone performance amp. That being said, you could buy two of these and an A-B switch for the same price as a two-channel tube amp.

Also I haven't found a tube combination that gives a lot of clean headroom without sounding pushed or breaking up; but I've only tried a few.

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

I bought this amp when it first came out. I liked the selling point that you could use many different types of tubes. It comes stock with a 6L6. I tried several different types of EL34 tubes (EH, JJ, and Tung-Sol). The amp didn't sound right at all with any of them. I took it to my amp tech and he said that the plate voltage is too low to run EL or KT type tubes. He told me that 6L6 or 6V6s should work fine.Otherwise, the amp dosen't sound bad overall. I would recommend putting higher quality preamp tubes in, as well. At least in the V1. Not a bad buy for [$], but I didn't get what I expected!

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

At first I thought this little amp sounded kind of ratty. It was really hard to get a clean tone even at low volumes, and the breakup as the gain was increased was not very smooth. I experimented with an EL84 and didn't hear a big difference. Then I tried a 655 huge difference. Warm clean tone, much more gradual breakup as gain is increased. Now I have pretty nice tone for a little practice amp.
Very simple, as expected. But the ability to change power tubes without rebiasing is great.
Very solidly built for a small amp.
Kind of expensive for alittle practice amp.

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

This is the best practice/recording amp that I've ever played. I wanted a single ended class A amp to do low volume playing with quality tone. This amp delivers. I have a quality Avatar cabinet with a Celestion G12H30 and a Vintage 30. The harmonics pouring out of this amp are outrageously musical. Highly recommended. Thank you Soldano!
A full set of eq with Treble Middle & Bass. Master & 5W/2W switch. Separate speaker impeadance jacks on the back. Ability to use any octal base tube - awesome. Compact and light.
Seems to be built like a tank.
Worth double the selling price.

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

Great sounding amp. I bought this and was apprehensive that this may be one of those metalhead amps that only sounds good with high gain. It is not. I play blues and classic rock. This has a great Zeppelin sounding sound to it and can keep up with everything from a telecaster to a les paul. I honestly can't complain. I fell in love with this amp shortly after plugging in to it. I have a Peavey Delta blues for clean sounds but I needed something that is quieter and can get a great crunch. I am glad I went with this.
For the size and price it has some great features packed into it. It's a budget low wattage tube head that has a 3 band eq, self biasing tube options and outputs for various speaker cabinets.
No problems with the quality. The amp is low noise and has a good looking construction.
Great value. You can probably get a cheaper amp head but it won't sound like this. This is a versatile amp although it really sounds great cranked up with high gain.

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

It does what it says beautifully.
I gave it 5 stars relative to what it is - a single channel amp made by some high gain folk with some cool auto rebiasing circuitry. It is that in spades. The high gain tone is great and if you kick the gain down about 6 you get some great blues tone. Clean is a nice tone but not fender clean but that's hopefully not what you were expecting. I put a boat load of effect pedals in front of this and pick a high gain violin like sound you want and it is there. I get the channels I need from a tonebone trimode. they work great together and it gives me another preamp 12ax7 and an effects loop. On the other end I hooked up a 1x12 with a vintage 30 in it. This little amp is the heart my mini rig. which is super transportable. I mic the cab as needed and I get oads of compliments on the sound...love this amp. buy one an figure out how to use it.
Solid
you can't beat this price

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

So first off, before you do anything else, you MUST change out the stock Chinese tubes this amp comes with, otherwise you will never hear what it can do (consider them useful for just testing that it arrived in working condition and little else). With the stock tubes this amp has almost no headroom and sounds muddy and gritty when you turn the drive up. I swapped out the stock 12AX7s for NOS RCA 5751s. These have somewhat less gain than a 12AX7 and gave more headroom plus much greater clarity, dynamics and gobs of creamy distortion.

The 2W mode is great for late night wailing without waking the kids (or neighbors), but it is much darker and more compressed than the 5W setting. The 'Hi' switch brightens things up considerably at 2W and gets you some Brit-Rock Townsend sounds at 5W. After changing out the preamp tubes, I found this to be a very versatile little amp for distortion sounds, It can go from Clapton Bluesbreaker crunch, through Angus Young and Jimmy Page JCM territory all the way to full-bore Metal saturation (my distortion pedals have been gathering dust since I got this amp). If you crank the gain and master it gets pretty darn hairy and loud enough to frighten pets and small children.

While I can get some very useable Fender-ish clean tones with the gain below 3 O'clock (with the 5751s), it breaks up soon after that, For more headroom, some 12 AU7s should do the trick, so I will try that next along with maybe a NOS EL34 or two. I've learnt to be very careful with NOS tubes and only buy ones that have been tested on a dynamic tester (not passive) for shorts. I've had some NOS tubes work fine in one amp only to short-out in another. Usually, it's the tube and not the amp that is to blame. Vintage NOS tubes can sound great, but their reliability in this day and age can be spotty to say the least.
I like being able to switch between 2W and 5W mode while the amp is switched on. The 'Hi' switch makes the amp more versatile at low volumes, The Bass, Mid and Treble controls all have a very useable range and allow you to dial-in the tone you want. The amp also has a Standby switch which should increase the life of your tubes, but I don't like the loud thump when you come out of standby, or the even louder one when you change the mode between 2W and 5W (do not operate these switches while recording). It has a good, but basic set of features, but at the price, I can't complain. Being able to experiment with different Octal tubes is a big plus.
The Jet City PicoValve appears to be very solidly and well built. I haven't taken it apart yet, so can't comment on the internal circuitry, but the cabinet is solid metal and the cage is heavy-duty, It should last a long time. I am not sure if I would gig with it, but you could if you wanted to for Cafes and small rooms without a loud drummer (just don't park your beer on the open-mesh cage!).
I'm giving the PicoValve 5 stars for value because at this price, I wasn't expecting all that much, but wanted a low wattage amp with good, useable distortion sounds for practising at home and recording, With a tube-swap, it delivers that in spades for the price of a couple of decent pedals (or one spendy boutique pedal). If you can't crank a big rig in your home studio without disturbing the peace, this amp may well be the answer,

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

As noted above, it fried a very expensive tube on me. I bought it to experiment with different power tube types, which is how its advertised. I now have a box (7) different single power tubes (all JJ) which i purchased to experiment with and are all non-returnable. So Ive got about a lot of money in tubes I cant use plus the 420 STR it runed.

Its a nice idea to be able to roll out different power tubes but I should have spent the extra money and bought the THD univalve, which is what this is modled after.

Now that I have the box of single power tubes, not matched sets. that are useless Im looking at getting the univalve. However, thats a high priced commitment and I havent even replaced the tubes in the boogie.

I must mention that I also own a jet city 20 watt head and it is a great product, but I would not recommend anyone buy this amplifier given my experience which I have stated.

I should have known better than to put such a valuable tube in a cheap amplifier and bought the THD univalve instead.
Not flimsy, very sturdy, but thats where it ends.
Worked well for about 2 weeks then it fried a 1980s 6l6GC 420 STR. Came out of my vintage mesa when I was rolling the power tubes. Not sure if I can even find a duet to replace them for the boogie but if I do its going to probably cost me more then this amp. I should rate this a 0 for quality because of that. Its one thing to have a defective product but a defective product that costs far more than its worth is another matter.
1 channel, no loop and impossible to get any sort of clean sound.

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

Even though I downrated Features (no effects loop) and Quality (made in China) slightly I have to give it a 10 overall. I anticipate having this amp for a long time and look forward to the opportunity to hot rod it with improved tubes to find some of that cleaner high end I'd love to have in my arsenal.
Features-wise I'm happy with the gain and tone controls of the Jet City Picovalve. While I wouldn't mind a little more clean high-end I can't help but be impressed with the warmth of the sound. The only feature I wish this little gem had is an effects loop. Yeah it would be nice to have a headphone jack but I've got my Tonelab ST for totally quiet practicing. The multiple impedance outputs are great - more flexible than many other amps in this wattage range - and allowed me to use the 12" 8 Ohm Celestion speaker in my old Legend combo amp. It's a perfect tonal match for this amp. The amp responds amazingly to string attack, whether I'm playing my O'Hagan Nightwatch (HH) or my Fender Aerodyne "Crafted in Japan" Strat (S/S/S). I really get a wide range of tones by varying the guitar settings and playing with the gain and tone structure on the amp. Just incredible!
Well it sure is heavy duty... it sure is HEAVY! I've got a set of Sovtek tubes that I might swap in if I feel ambitious, but for now I'm really digging the sound right out of the box. The only thing that bugs me is the "pop" when I go from "standby" to "on." This amp is solidly built and everything (knobs, jacks, switches) feels of a higher quality than the price suggests. Still can't help getting hung up on the "Made in China" printed on the back but I couldn't have gotten it for the price paid had it been made here in the good old USA!
I have to give this amp top ratings for value given what I paid for it! I tried the Epi, the little Fender, the Vox and a couple others but when this one showed up at the price offered I couldn't resist. I plan to pull the electronics out of my Legend combo and put them into a small rack case to lighten the cabinet for transport. Might experiment with closing the back to see what it does with the tone. Getting this little amplifier head at a price that didn't even raise an eyebrow with the wife - especially when she heard me play through it - is one of the better deals I've enjoyed in a while!

Comments about Jet City Amplification PicoValve 5W Tube Guitar Amp Head:

I bought this amp to replace an Epiphone Valve Jr., a 5w amp head. The Pico is very well made and constructed, and appears to be a quality piece. But, that's where the appeal ended for me. At any volumes approaching what my old Epiphone cruised at, the Pico would break up and the tone would turn into a dirty super-saturated sound. Sure, this is great if you are playing at grandma's house at 1 am, but for just jamming with your friends, you better get used to this one dimensional tone. The gain knob cannot be turned past 3 or 4, if so, you loose all dynamics - a fizzy distorted mess. The master volume allows the Pico to attain an overall max volume that is about half the volume of my Epiphone Valve Jr, but with absolutely no headroom. FYI, the Jet City J20H amp head is a much much better sounding device [about the best sounding inexpensive amp head available!]. The Pico is an all or nothing kinda amp, all string/touch dynamics you put into the fretboard are gone, when using this amp at any real volumes, and the gain control renders the amp useless for anything other than playing dirty - really dirty - fun for 5 minutes, but sux if you actually want to get some dynamics from your guitar. I wanted to like this amp, but I returned it and repaired my old Epiphone Valve Jr. The pico is a good idea, just executed poorly. Perhaps JCA could re-engineer this amp to behave more like its competition, but until that happens, there are many, many better options out there.