Ampeg J-20 Jet Guitar Amplifier Review

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Jason Trahan

When it came time to find a new amp to bring out on the road, I wanted something that was all (or mostly) tube, compact and had at least a 12″ speaker. The Ampeg J-20 is all that and more.

…I’m glad I took the chance, because this amp was completely worth it…

I love that it’s all hand-wired and that it has a tube rectifier.

The speaker is an Ampeg alnico and it’s broken in to a real punchy sound after playing on it for a few years.

The tremolo sounds great as well. This is a cool looking, no-frills amp that always gets the job done and has a unique sound to it.

Features:

Tremolo, 8 ohm speaker output, all tube (6V6).

Ease of use:

Volume/tone is all you get and that’s all you need with this amp.

Pushing the tone above 2 o’clock seems to give it a bit more grit at higher volumes, so some knob-tweaking can be rewarding.

Sound Quality:

Humbuckers, single coils, and semi-hollow guitars all sound great through this amp.

When in standby mode, there is a little signal bleed. I’ve read that this is pretty common in this amp series.

Reliability:

I’ve had it serviced once in the 4 years that I’ve had it and it’s never let me down. Very reliable.

Overall Rating:

I bought this amp without hearing it first.

It was a big risk, but knowing that it was hand-wired and all-tube meant that I could get it worked on pretty easily if need be.

I’m glad I took the chance, because this amp was completely worth it.

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Jason Trahan