Questions about Johnson J-station

[HillbillySims]

I never really thought much about one of these... But I bought one BRAND NEW IN THE BOX yesterday for $20!!

It has never even been sold before.

So I thought.. for $20, it could be a fun toy.

But do they sound very good? I havent had a chance to mess with it yet.

How do they compare to the various Line6 PODS?

[Tibbonds]

As far as I recall, those things are pretty old - like first generation amp modelling from around 10 years ago.

They got good reviews at the time, but I wonder how they hold up now the technology has come on so much.

For $20 though, it's gotta be worth it.

[3 Mile Stone]

I thought the one I had sounded pretty good.

[CharAznable]

I have one and it sounds pretty good, IMO.

It wins for having SPDIF outputs and bass models, which the POD at the time didn't have. It's also made of solid metal.

Make sure you have the last available firmware! It adds a bunch of useful models.

This was done with it:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=1958945

[Ben C.]

I think they sound good; still have one buried somewhere!
Definitely my preference over the POD of the time in regard to overall sound quality, and almost as good sounding as a DG Stomp.

-Ben

[jtw]

The other guitar player at my church gig plays one every week and it sounds very good.

[CharAznable]

The physical interface sucks, but definitely install J-Edit on your computer to edit your patches. It's actually quite nifty. Since this is old school, you're going to need MIDI cables and a MIDI interface for your computer.

[drbob1]

I thought it was OK for a modeller, and at that price you're pretty much golden for a backup in your gig bag in case your Two Rock amp goes down! I eventually sold mine because it never got any use. Also, if you can find the foot controller, that adds some pretty cool functionality.

[nekothecat]

I love my j-station, and I'm not a modeler guy. I much prefer it over the line6 stuff from the same era (haven't even gone within spitting distance of a line6 in the past 5 years or so).

Never bothered with the J-Edit thing - but I'm not a deep effects guy so I just select an amp model and twist the amp-like controls on the front end to taste. You don't need J-Edit to use it for practice or such. It's pretty easy to sound great through it.

It's a fantastic backup amp option, and has decent bass sims as well so you have a backup bass option too!

[RickB]

I have two of them that I run in stereo for direct recording and headphone playing when I can't go through my amps. I have owned or tried the majority of the modelers out there and to this day, I have yet to find one that takes pedals better or has a better "feel" than the J-Station. The Blackface model is what I use and it just works, sounds and feels right to me. The Rectifier model is also awesome. I am not a big fan of the other amp models or the effects but they are definitely useable and cool. The J-Edit software makes it even better as already mentioned.

[Gtr_Eng]

+1 on what RickB said. I use the jstation in the studio occasionally. The blackface model and the rectifier model are the 2 that I use as well. I think the built in effects are much better than the line 6 effects.

They are a lot of fun to play around with if you have a decent home studio setup. Not sure about gigging with them though. I think it would sound 2 dimensional in a live environment.

[HillbillySims]

Wow.. this sounds pretty promising! Anyone know how good the compressor is?.. I play a lot of modern/edgy country.. so a good compressor is a must.

Also, has anyone ever put a compressor, or OD pedal in front of it?.. Does it handle that well?

I have tried about everything out there... some of the real expensive stuff hasnt sounded as good as the cheap stuff.

Example, I bought the Fractal Audio AXE-FX. Of course, it has the most options & tweakability of anything out there. And the effects are very high quality. But to be honest, my cheap Roland GP-8 sounded better & warmer for my main 5-6 sounds that I use. Really, I thought my pedals sounded better than it did too.

But I miss being able to instantly recall program settings without tap dancing

[CitizenCain]

I used to have a couple J-Stations and got some mighty fine sounds out of them. I was auditioning a friend's Digi RP350 last weekend and it sure sounded a lot like my old J-Station. Digitech bought out Johnson right around the time their modeling stuff started to get better...hmmmmm. LOL!

J-Edit = X-Edit? You tell me!

[HillbillySims]

So is there anywhere that I can still download the updated firmware?

It almost makes me wonder why people havent started developing models & effects for it on their own (as well as other processors out there)

Fractal Audio was constantly giving updates.. that was one great thing about them

And is that editing software pretty easy to use?

[MightyGuru]

I got one from a buddy a couple years back (for free!) but I had to buy an adaptor ($30). I think it's a fun tool for jamming with headphones but I don't use it in my rig.