-Took 3 DECADES To Get This Dream METALLICA Tone! Check out all my lesson vids at: www.the-art-of-guitar.com Facebook: / fansoftheartofguitar / theartofguitar Thanks!!!
Man my jaw dropped too when you hit that chord. There’s nothing quite like a thick chorus on a clean guitar. Absolutely gorgeous sound. Sanitarium sounds so damn good on that
The Roland JC line is special. Exceptionally transparent cleans can be found other places perhaps but the "dimensional space chorus" is particular to Roland. Copypasta from Roland's site, so I don't get it incorrect. Dimensional Space Chorus The JC chorus effect is also the result of its specialized design. By using two dedicated power amps, one of the two speakers plays the direct tone, and the other speaker generates the tone with periodic pitch modulation. These two tones are mixed in aural space creating the beautiful chorus sound. The characteristic sound produced by this unique design is called “Dimensional Space Chorus”. This is the world’s first Chorus effect which made its debut onto the music scene with the launch of Roland’s JC-120 Jazz Chorus back in 1975.
I caught the bug in 1991 and still haven't exhausted the catalogue. there's songs and even albums I don't listen to as much, but I never tire of them. The more i listen to it the more I just love Death Magnetic, which really didn't resonate with me at first. Now, I think its a sampling of the best of everything they've ever done.
I have a Katana 50 and, in my opinion, I dialed in a similar clean tone using the acoustic channel instead of the actual clean channel. I also use a Super Chorus pedal -- the included chorus effects on the amp sound alright, but the pedal just sounds much better to my ears. I use the Tone Studio on my laptop to further tweak the EQ, utilizing the GE-10 equalizer included in the app. It is certainly the best clean tone that I have personally dialed in and I am quite satisfied with it. I think I've got a pretty good metal tone dialed in, as well, but I'm still trying to figure out how to smooth it out just a little more. I'm not very familiar with how frequencies work, so I just have to wing it and really listen to the adjustments I make and compare them as I go along. I'll write my current settings down, make my adjustments, then switch back to the current settings, and do that until something good happens.
Yeah, there's something about those jazz chorus amps, though. I plugged into one, in a local guitar shop about 20 years ago, and the sweetness of the tone still lingers, to this day.
That clean sound from Roland just instantly reminds me of Metallica and Pantera clean tones ( I belive Dime also used Roland Jazz for clean tones on albums)
You're the first person I've heard that really captured the "Metallica" sound, that heavy crunch along with the distortion and clean sound and it's amazing.... It seems so hard because they are so unique with their sounds and nobody else sounds or comes close to to the Metallica boys \m/
My drummer had an old JC120 under his carport for a few years, always told him it was a good amp and he should put in inside. Turns out it belonged to his mom and she ended up giving it to me since she knew I would use it. cleaned it up and it sounds awesome, Total score!
The One music video was my introduction to Metallica and it was life changing for me too. As always great video Mike and you nailed that tone! Cool Van Hager cameo also 🤙
My introduction to Metallica was f*cking St Anger. It almost put me off them entirely. I legit thought at the time they were a Nu Metal band. It took a friend at work lending me Master of Puppets for me to realise how wrong I was.
Yess!! This sounds freakin amazing! I do love the sound of the ENGL. Hearing you play these Metallica riffs with that perfect tone makes me soo happy, love it! Congrats on 818k Subscribers!
Congratulations on your addition to your new optimized rig. Your tones coming through my headset are epic. Your efforts are rewarded at long last. You are like an overnight success, three decades in the making 😉. Keep Rocking
I remember playing through a Roland Jazz Chorus back in the 90's. They just sound so amazing. I finally bought one about 5 years ago. It sounds great. I really enjoy all your videos. Keep up the good work. Take care, Sam.
My local guitar store has a JC-40 and it’s definitely one of the coolest-sounding amps I’ve ever played through, the clean tone by itself (as well as with the chorus) is just beautiful and the built-in distortion sounded pretty good as well
Man. You and I have so many similarities. From our age to the One video to the small town (western MD for me) to drooling when Im concentrating hard playing. I truly enjoy your personal stories.
I have a Peavey Rockmaster preamp and what is great about that is that is has separate FX loops for the clean and distorted channel and an FX loop for the overall amp. So you could have (for instance) a chorus in the clean loop, a gate in the heavy rhythm channel and a delay for the solo channel. Or anything else you can dream up. More amps should use separate fx loops imo.
That first strum on that amp gave me goosebumps. It instantly heard nothing but Metallica. One and Sanitarium just jumped at me the most from that alone.
Brother! You fkn nailed it! I'll be 48 years old soon. Been playing guitar since I'm 15... All because of Metallica and the One video !! But it wasn't until the Black album came out... Is when I actually picked the guitar up. But, that video was tattooed in my mind since the very first time I watched it. Shocked, and fkn loving it! I never heard music like that before, at that time. I wasn't allowed to listen to it. But, James, and the way he looked back then.... One angry, roaring Lion of a man and make NO doubt about it! But it was also that guitar, and everybody else of course.... ❤️ I remember my mom hating it so much, smh, it made me love it so much more. And I never looked back. I discovered Slayer and King Diamond, Death, the list goes on, and on... Love it man, you earned a subscription from me! 🤘
Awesome reference to breadfan \m/ I was in love with James clean tone and while I was a student at Belmont I finally had the chance to play one and it was truly an insane experience awesome to see someone so happy to own such a great amp.
Aw hell yeah! Wow that setup makes my heart smile, it sounds soooo good! Incredible Metallica sound. Now I've got that Roland jazz chorus on my ever-growing gear wishlist. ❤️🔥🎸
Ive got a very early jc120 with a switch instead of a knob between chorus/vibrato selector. Great clean amps! Also, I saw a interview with Bob Rock and he said Hetfield’s Jc-120 uses 300w EV speakers…
Sometimes when I watch your videos, I feel like I'm watching a Multi-verse version of myself. I hear you talk about the bands you grew up with that changed your life, and I believe we are about the same age (of course we look totally different). You make videos about the exact same tab books I used in high school, bringing up points that I thought only I thought (like how bad they were). Except you actually fulfilled your dream of playing in bands and getting really good at guitar, whereas I'm still basically at the hobby level (and always likely will be, I'm ok with that).
I was 8 when One came out and I’ve been a metal head ever since. I always loved James’ tones so I bought a Jazz Chorus from my brother in law a few years ago and a JP2C shortly after it came out.
Rad! I got myself a Friedman Runt 50 (for Marshall-y tones) and a Synergy SYN30 Head with a Diezel VH4 module, so I can mix them and get sorta close to the Adam Jones tone. I can get Fender cleans from the Runt and set the SYN30 clean channel to the AC30 setting. It's a pretty versatile setup.
Love the Chorus on the cleans. I was born in 70 so i am an 80's metal fanatic. I suck at finding tones (never have time to actually sit and do it) but you cleans with that chorus are friggin awesome. I really want to get a distortion like Ratt got on Lay it Down.. Again great tone and of course the playing makes it that much better 😀
Hey man tbh most amps sound the best with all the settings around noon (a bit above or below) and then just mess with the treble/presence. If you go to crazy it sounds weird. If you don't like the distortion type of an amp I recommend something like the plumes pedal that has multiple different styles of distortion to push the front of the amp with. That's really all you need to know about tone. I've spent years on this stuff and that's my consensus, especially for recording guitars. Some post EQ can be nice too if the mids funky or it's not bright enough but that's it. Nothing that crazy. Its all about the amp
I love that you've been chasing this tone for as long as you have, I chased it for a long time and ended up putting my money into and axe fx 3. One day I'll get a jc120 and mesa boogie dual recto but bang for buck I decided to go with a modeller for now so I can get all the album tones I want because I'm just at home playing for myself. Keep going man love the channel.
The Jazz Chorus 120 is one of the most magical AMP's you could ever have. I have had one for the last 20 years. I have never needed another amp in my life and still use it every day. It's an original to boot, not a re-issue:) What even gets neater is actually using a BOSS DS1 for distortion. Many people have wondered what the Metallica magic tone is. I can tell you with 100% certainty the Roland JC120 is THE MAGIC AMP James used. It started with Ride The Lightening Album. I know because I saw Metallica in the way back early day when they toured Ride The Lightening and he had a JC120 on the stage he had a DS1 as well. They did not have a metric ton of equipment back then. I copied what James had. My tone hunting was answered very early on:) I know people hate on the BOSS DS1 and avoid it. Big Mistake. Among other things people say he had a Mesa Boogie back then and he did everything through that but I call BS. I did not notice Mesa's back then maybe he did I do not remember.
DS1 into a JC sounds like ass, not James. That pedal if anything was maligned by Boss using JC120s on their GC demo settings. Even into a Marshall that gets you Candlemass, not Metallica, ever.
Hi! I really like the clean tone you got with Roland. However, I am really amazed by your distorted Metallica sound! This one is pretty accurate! Do you have any video on how you got that sound? If not you should really consider making one. It's massive!
The Roland jc140s chorus is so incredibly warm,washy, and deep/crystal clear sounding. Metallica made it clear the jc140 is Truly one of the greatest clean tones to ever come out of an amp.
Hey Mike. Found you channel this week and subbed. Love your approach and honesty even when you spoke about being bullied etc at school.I was in a similar predicament. All the cool kids had their own bands and I was never cool enough to get into one as I wasn't one of the popular kids. Things change man, and now I've been playing 34 years, and played in one band for around 6 months in the 1990s then decided I loved it just being me, myself and the guitar. 'ONE' is also one of my favourites. Also, P&W by Vai was my first ever guitar only tape ever! Keep it up bro!
Good thing amp sims are so amazing these days that we can enjoy having all these sounds in one small package. Fractal nails the JC120 sound. If it's good enough for James, it's good enough for me 🙂
hey Mike :), love the tone however I also found that if you add a compression pedal and manage to set it up so that the notes kind of "pop" that also sounds pretty cool and Metallica ish
Omg yes!! I've also chased James' tone for years! Particularly his 03-08 live sound, clean and heavy. It took me forever, because I only had guitars with floyd rose for the longest time and the floyd rose really affects the pick-attack, which is key to Hetfield's tone. For clean, another essential element is the EMG 60 (occasionally 60A) in a guitar with les-paul-like scale, 22fret-neck pickup position and mahogany based body and neck. Also essential for that ultra crispness is adding the mesa boogie triaxis on rhy green with bass 2.0, mid 2.0, treble 7.5 and presence 10 to that Jazz Chorus. And the final essential element is holding the pick like James. Crazy what a difference it can make. Pure bliss that tone is. I wish James would go back to using the emg 60 and 81 again. I really prefer their sound to his signature set, but that's just me and probably because that tone imprinted on me when I started playing guitar and saw their 03 Rock am Ring performance.
I always loved the Hetfield clean tone I had an opportunity to play a JC120 stereo amp back in 2014 and couldnt BELIEVE that i got that sound from my own guitar. LOVE IT!
I Think, What James and Kirk Did While Playing "One" They Tuned Up just a slight bit like 25Hz up from standard e just quarter Step up a lil while Playing Thru the Jazz Chorus. I could be wrong but im pretty sure that's what they did just wanted to throw that in if you didn't know. keep Ripping Mike.😎😎🤘🤘🤘
Holy Shit! Nailed their tone! Congrats! And I just realized I wasn't subscribed. Sorry bout that! And you're a good dude for slippin the sound guy some extra for doing the extra step for you. That's how you make friends and not enemies, kids!
This is one of the better guitar related channels on YT. Mike is a very good and very proficient player & he's one of the very few guitarists whos conent gets me excited about the instrument (I've been at this 25 years 😁)...keep it up 👍
THAT TONE! It’s perfect, holy shit, haha! It surprised me when you slowly passed through that first chord when you were mentioning the engineer turning the chorus on. So cool!
Man you should definitely look at synergy amps, get a IICP (mark II C+) and a OS ( Dumble Overdrive Special for cleans). With a Syn-2 you have those 2 preamps in the same head and a pedal switcher is included. Then get a Marshall style poweramp to feed in the IICP (early Metallica tone) and all of that is very compact. Cheers from France (and great video by the way)
Hi, I been seeing them around more than i can remember, got a new 3 yrs ago at 60, still blows me away, so clean. It also handles Whammy pitch up better than any other amp, the amp's freqs are freaks, so good.
My dad has a magnitone amp that my grandma won for us in a Sweetwater giveaway last year and it was the first time I had ever heard great distortion and great clean at the same time in an amp.
Oh hell no dude the acoustic is gorgeous in that song come on. Electric is still nice but the juxtaposition of the electric and acoustic in the song is super important given there’s no sung chorus in it.
The JC - 120 has always been to me atleast the holy grail of Clean tones. Always played through a combo when I could. But I really want to try out one of the Head Versions…
