[Leon]

since Petrucci, Hammet, and Hetfield all play Mesa's, if you want to get close to their tone, you'll want to go Mesa. my advice would be to continue saving up, and waiting for something secondhand to show up. let someone else pay the depriciation value

[Metal Ken]

JSX's are badass. that is all \m/

[Nyquist]

Thanks guys, the JSX it is.

I'm going to purchase the head shortly. Now the cabinet...

I'd like a 4x12, but for practicallity and portability reasons I think I'm better off with a 2x12 for now.

The Carvin Legacy 2x12 cab seems to be the most afforable Vintage 30 cab around, but how does it hold up to metal? Has anyone tried tried playing stuff like Dream Theater's "Lie" through one of these?

[eviltoaster]

Originally Posted by Leon

since Petrucci, Hammet, and Hetfield all play Mesa's, if you want to get close to their tone, you'll want to go Mesa.

first of all you will never get their recorded sound,second,metallica does play everything else than mesa,nobody really knows afaik they had some diezel vh4 last times!the rectifiers on stage are just for posing

[Hawksmoor]

Long time since I came by...

Anyways, it's the same as always: if you like your basic sound but it isn't heavy enough throw a TS style overdrive in front an kick the front end like there's no tomorrow!

Ok, all metal bravado asside.
I never leave the house anymore without a TS9 ( I hear amazing things about Maxon too, I saw Trivium in 2005 using them to kick their rented amps into searing sounds) because it tightens up the low end and gives enough mid punch for your super high gain sounds to really cut through.

Remember, the goal of the game is to be actually heard. A lot of small bands make the mistake to pour on the gain, leave out the mids and eventually that just won't work. It sounds like mud mixed with shit with just a zest of the puke you get after mixing beer with martini for a whole night...
Especially that last one is nasty.

Try it on the JSX. It's a trick that has never ever failed me.

[7StringofAblicK]

Is it heavy enough? yes

and it covers the tonal perspective pretty well. Good cleans, good OD, and the Ultra Channel is fantastic for heavy metal. Like others have said, do your best to try it out; you may hate it or you may love it.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Nyquist

Thanks guys, the JSX it is.

I'm going to purchase the head shortly. Now the cabinet...

I'd like a 4x12, but for practicallity and portability reasons I think I'm better off with a 2x12 for now.

The Carvin Legacy 2x12 cab seems to be the most afforable Vintage 30 cab around, but how does it hold up to metal? Has anyone tried tried playing stuff like Dream Theater's "Lie" through one of these?

What about avatar cabs?? or vader?

[skattabrain]

man i love my avatar cab.

i have 2 hellatone 60's ... which are v30's broken in and i also have 2 G12T 'Hot 100''s (see here http://professional.celestion.com/gu...tail.asp?ID=32 - and here - http://professional.celestion.com/gu...tail.asp?ID=16

the 100's are pretty f'in awesome but the combo of the 2 speakers is even better ... not many here i think have heard them cause no one talks about the 100's much ... but man can you push the low tuned freq's and not sound like mud ... not even a hint of woof on hard picked, palm muted drop G chords. i didn't have $1000 to spend on a cab ... and the avatar left me feeling like i stole something at the paltry $488 i spent.

i jsut wish i bought my jsx on eBay instead of new ... cause at $900ish for a mint jsx head and $500 for the cab ... we're talking $1400 for 1 absolutely kick ass rig.

also ... my new JSX came with JJ EL34's ... i thought that was pretty cool. i bought JJ 6L6's from eurotubes but i don't even want to put them in ... my rig sounds so awesome and cuts through so well.

the jsx is a very underrated amp ... but that won't last long ... i think it's the next 5150 (not in sound, but in legacy). i mean, c'mon ... it's satch's and his range of tonality is VAST.

Originally Posted by Hawksmoor

... throw a TS style overdrive in front an kick the front end like there's no tomorrow!

i want to get my hands on a TS9 to hear it through my amp so bad. but i've spent so much $$$ on the band thing, i need to wait a bit. plus i'd hate to buy it and not "love it".

as it is ... my gain on the ultra has gone from 10 to 7 and sounds defined yet crushing.

[Universe74]

Originally Posted by Nyquist

Thanks guys, the JSX it is.

I'm going to purchase the head shortly. Now the cabinet...

I'd like a 4x12, but for practicallity and portability reasons I think I'm better off with a 2x12 for now.

The Carvin Legacy 2x12 cab seems to be the most afforable Vintage 30 cab around, but how does it hold up to metal? Has anyone tried tried playing stuff like Dream Theater's "Lie" through one of these?

I like my legacy 2x12 cab. Works for metal so far. I have been using a vamp with Mosfet amp though. I actually plan to get a tube amp, and the jsx is sounding like it. You'll have to let me know how it sounds if you get it first

[Drew]

Originally Posted by eviltoaster

first of all you will never get their recorded sound,second,metallica does play everything else than mesa,nobody really knows afaik they had some diezel vh4 last times!the rectifiers on stage are just for posing

Hmm.

1.) I'll grant you Metallica. Their older material was mostly Mark-IIC+'s, but by the Black album it was the Marks layered with a ton of other amps.

2.) Obviously, you're not going to get anybody's "recorded tone" out of a live amp. On the flip side, though, when recording it, given appropriate guitars, mics, preamps, and positioning, and appropriate post-recording processing and mixing, you can get pretty close.

3.) That said, that still leaves Petrucci, who is more or less the living, breathing epitome of "Mesa tone." If that's the kind of sound you're after, nothing of the "modded Marshall" tonal school (which the JS-X is, essentially) is really going to get you exactly there. You may get some tones reminiscent of Petrucci, but especially for leads Mesas respond VERY differently from most "marshall-style" amps.

Not to call you out or anything, but Leon's right, if you list three players who are known for the work they've done with Mesa Mark-IIC+'s (as all three of them recorded heavily with that rig), a JS-X probably isn't the best fit, no matter how much you like yours personally.