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)
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!
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/
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!
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.
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
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
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.
Try a Fractal Axe-FX III - not only can you run those same amps modelled, but for certain genres (not necessarily Metallica), you can run your signal through both clean and distorted amps simultaneously, and if you're gigging, you'll a heckuva lot less to have to carry in and out. If Metallica is using the Axe-FX, should be pretty great for us mere mortals!
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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
4:54 @The-Art-of-Guitar I think it would be nice to make a video on the topic of switching between pickups and in which cases it is better to use a neck or a bridge pickup, or a middle single pickup (if there is one) and also in which cases it makes sense to use split coil mode. For some reason, as far as I know, no one has made a video about it.
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. ❤️🔥🎸
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.
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).
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.
The JC 120 has always been my favorite. Tge tone and power is unequaled! Thank you for this video showing this off! In the 70’s and 80’s when I was playing, I had a good friend working at Roland. Roland has always been an awesome company with incredible products!! Great vid!
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
The Roland Jazz Chorus - 77 was the first amp I bought (used) with my own money because I knew it was the Metallica clean amp. That was one year into playing guitar (to be fair, I also had the internet). There are two Roland JC-120 amps in the Metallica - One music video stacked on top of two V30-filled Marshall 1960 cabs
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!
5:22 You can partially solve the mixer real-estate problem via a small external submixer. In other words, use a small cheap mixer that mixes down to one signal/cable to go to the main mixer. For example, for about $80 you can get a small Behringer Xenyx mixer that has 6 or 8 channels (2 XLR inputs, only TS output), or a Yamaha MG06 6-channel mixer with stereo XLR out for $140, and have your cab mics go to just that mixer, then feed the output to the main mixer. Balance your mic/cab signals to taste, and when you use your ABY to choose between amps, it'll just switch over to that amp's sound when feeding the main mix. The upshot is that many small mixers have EQ, built-in effects, or jacks for insert effects that further allow controlling your sound before going to the main mixer. Also, if you use the Y split instead of the A/B, you can even spontaneously blend your two amp tones into one signal. This flexibility helps make it worthwhile to have a submixer despite having yet another piece of gear. Regarding the Jazz Chorus, I have the JC40 which I like better than the JC120. The JC40 is smaller and lighter, plus it has stereo input (L and R jacks) rather than the High and Low inputs of the JC120. Both have a stereo Return in the effects loop. The JC120 is only better if you need more wattage headroom or care more about the distortion 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.
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 🙂
You could do this with a multi effects pedalboard too. If you use a cab sim, you can get an IR for the Marshall and the Jazz Chorus. You just have to figure out what speakers they use and find the IR's. Then, dial in a chorus pedal. Run the rig through an FRFR. One FRFR speaker, one pedalboard, and you can just run the output through the front of house. Make two presets and switch between them with one pedalboard.
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!
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!
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.
I think it's funny. I'm 15 as of now and I found out about Metallica when I was late 14 and started guitar. I just got my dad into metal unlike most people getting into metal because of their father.
I love the Jazz Chorus for cleans AND my heavy rock tone. So, one day I was experimenting to get a unique heavy rock sound that I could call my own. So I threw a Carvin VLD1 Legacy Drive (Steve Vai’s sig) on the high gain channel in front of the amp and my God it sounded awesome! It was even better when using a Tube Screamer to tighten it up a bit. I got a sound I’d always wanted and totally by accident. I thought maybe the amp wasn’t the key (I expect the cab played a big part) but that pedal didn’t sound as good, to my ears, in front of anything else. Congrats on your set up! It sounded dead on and totally fits your playing.
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 have a vintage Jazz Chorus 77. The Roland Jazz Chorus is one noisy clean amp. Once you turn the chorus off it starts to hiss, which can get annoying. It also weighs a ton.
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.😎😎🤘🤘🤘
you know...hooking a looper pedal to the cable that goes to the JC-120 and it could probaly be a good fit for having the clean section loop for you during the harmony/james solo in master of puppets.
I got me a Roland Jazz 50 for free in June, instant Hetfield ❤ I do think you need to work on the switching thought, flip the selector on the guitar and the ABY simultaneously 😊
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!
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.
Nah. They still make cool riffs, it's just the production that gone soft. I learnt this when I watched StateOfMercury video played their new stuffs with older album's tone. It just sounds waay better.
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…
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.
Yeah, NAILED the tone and the playing. So satisfying to hear. GREAT video man.
Bro me too lmao
@@russellzaunerHow's the JC sound when introducing distortion pedals to it for a metal tone?
For what its worth, back around 1999, I tried a boss metal zone on a roland jazz chorus, and it was terrible.
Sounded broken
Isn’t it wild how no matter how long or how much we listen to metallica & the lore behind them, we NEVER get tired of it
I’m mainly into the lore and behind the scenes stuff these days , listened to their songs enough times in my teens to last me forever
@RyanRoffI love them all, but ngl my favourite Metallica album is Load.
Also the early Cure/Robert Smith sound.
@@user-ly8pm2pc7z Na bro, Megadeth are shit.
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.
That breadfan was lit
Yes it was. Please give a lesson on the Garage Days EP.
Jfc yes
The Metallica version is quite poor compared to the original budgie version though...imo imo 😅
Where? I didn't notice...
Was thinking the same thing!
The chorus effect always been the key to this clean tone, even with a completely different amp you can get pretty close by using a chorus pedal
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.
I managed to get this tone fairly close fairly easily with an Ibanez chorus pedal. I was using a Randall 50W tube amp at the time. Single coils too.
@@nckhedshare some ss to me plz
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.
Do they really use the chorus effect? Why doesn't it sound right to my ears?
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)
Dime used Rolands a lot for everything I believe. He likes the solid state amps, think he used Peavy at some point as well
@@chadgrov and naturally he used solid state Randalls forever until he found the Krankenstein people
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!
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/
On those earlier albums, yes. But stuff like St Anger and Death Magnetic had horrendous guitar tones.
Watch “heavymetalcat”
experienced metal guitarplayer
replies:
oh shutup--it's distortion along
with an intune sounding
guitar.
@@ltjoseph9042Yeah you definitely are not experienced if that is all you think that is lol
@@raifparker3990haha boss gt-8 goes chugchugchugchug
Man, both the JC and the Engl sound absolutely awesome. Killer combination.
That sound provokes a feeling of my younger years. Crazy how much a guitar sound can hit you different.
The JC 120 was the clean sound for SO many songs of that era and slightly prior.
Great tones, great playing!
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!
The jazz chorus and emg's is where its at... I have modeled a lot of cleans off of James. And that Engl is excellent!
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.
For me my introduction to metallica was the ride the lightning album....
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
That is absolutely spot on. I knew they used the Roland Jazz Chorus for the cleans- I must acquire one. Great video. Thanks Mike.👍
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
I have a JC-40 and I love it but dang its LOUD, definitely keeps up with my dual rectifier.
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.
Holy cow. I want one
Roland Jazz Chorus is a brilliant amp. Iconic on many tunes and is a beautiful tone. Great job!
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.
Seeing them live this Friday for the first time, fan since the late 90s. Thanks for this!
MetLife ??
One made me fall in love with modulation effects and i love having a chorus on a clean everytime
That tone has always been a legendary tone
Bought a JC-120 back in the late 80s. Still have it. That chorus has always been gorgeous.
I have the JC-77 80 watt version from the 80's. It's freaking loud and worked great with MultiFX pedals, so I didn't need 2 amps.
The intro tone from one is just beautiful !
Try a Fractal Axe-FX III - not only can you run those same amps modelled, but for certain genres (not necessarily Metallica), you can run your signal through both clean and distorted amps simultaneously, and if you're gigging, you'll a heckuva lot less to have to carry in and out. If Metallica is using the Axe-FX, should be pretty great for us mere mortals!
Wow, that is spot-on perfect! And that ENGL sounds awesome too. That's a very sweet setup you've got there now. Well worth annoying the sound guy for.
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.
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.
The "magic" of the JC-120 chorus is it is Stereo (or 2 speaker) and using the effect across both speakers.
Yeah, it definitely makes it a lot more lush vs a mono chorus
Our boy is gonna need three mics live if he really wants to get that ideal sound 😂
That Roland chorus sound is so damn sublime. Just perfect for the song.
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…
Damn. Now I gotta modify. :)
Bingo brother. Bingo:)
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.
To hear that sound out of you own amp must be true pleasure! nicely done!
Love that tone. I remember when I found out what amp James uses I went to the guitar store and played through one. It was amazing. So load and clean
Good for you Micael! You're a good dude.....your hard work ethic always shows through! You earned this!!
I have been playing my way for 30 years. I have learned a lot from you. You are awesome. Thanks.
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.
My bad- meant to say jc-120
fun fact, in my school's music department, we have a JC120, and yes, it is tons of tun to play
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 😀
The tone for the intro riff is a cranked plexi. Nothing crazy. The leads are a fender amp I’m pretty sure.
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
4:54 @The-Art-of-Guitar I think it would be nice to make a video on the topic of switching between pickups and in which cases it is better to use a neck or a bridge pickup, or a middle single pickup (if there is one) and also in which cases it makes sense to use split coil mode. For some reason, as far as I know, no one has made a video about it.
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. ❤️🔥🎸
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.
The legendary Boss CE-1 pedal was chorus circuit from a JC-120. You'll get the same tone on clean channel of any amp, really.
You won't get a stereo chorus effect out of most amps
I know the feeling. The first time I had the chance to play my Ken Lawrence replica, with the EMG 60, plugged into a Jazz Chorus... beautiful.
SWEET TONE!! Tone chasing is a maddening obsession.
That's such an ICONIC sound! Get a Tonex pedal and make models of both amps. You will just need that.
Congrats on your new amp. You deserve it 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
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).
Man That Amp Is Spot On!
Those Riff’s Take Me Back!
Metallica Is So Much Different Now! I Still Dig The New Album! 🤘🏻
I got chills when you played the One intro. It's like James is playing right in front of me.
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.
The JC 120 has always been my favorite. Tge tone and power is unequaled! Thank you for this video showing this off! In the 70’s and 80’s when I was playing, I had a good friend working at Roland. Roland has always been an awesome company with incredible products!! Great vid!
Real question is why Metallica isn't using such good sound tones anymore?
Digital modelers
Fractal
Smart money says hearing damage.
I heard james used a Mesa boogie for the distortion ok master of puppets. That engl sounds amazing ofc
Sounds amazing. Roddy Piper approves.
Was hoping you were also going to play the intro for Nothing Else Matters... 🙂
That clean tone 3:20, reminds me Testament's - The Legacy a lot
I gave my wife a phantom bracelet for her birthday. She can't see it on her wrist but I promise her it's there.
That explorer is awesome. Binding and dots are the best combo.
Dude, this sounds so good. Like really close to the real thing. I love it.
I think the hardest part is getting the mic to capture all the tones - genuinely, well done Mike - it's pretty spot on.
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
Compression is great but I got more pop when I took it off.
@@TheArtofGuitar sounds like you need to adjust the attack time
The Roland Jazz Chorus - 77 was the first amp I bought (used) with my own money because I knew it was the Metallica clean amp. That was one year into playing guitar (to be fair, I also had the internet). There are two Roland JC-120 amps in the Metallica - One music video stacked on top of two V30-filled Marshall 1960 cabs
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!
5:22 You can partially solve the mixer real-estate problem via a small external submixer. In other words, use a small cheap mixer that mixes down to one signal/cable to go to the main mixer. For example, for about $80 you can get a small Behringer Xenyx mixer that has 6 or 8 channels (2 XLR inputs, only TS output), or a Yamaha MG06 6-channel mixer with stereo XLR out for $140, and have your cab mics go to just that mixer, then feed the output to the main mixer. Balance your mic/cab signals to taste, and when you use your ABY to choose between amps, it'll just switch over to that amp's sound when feeding the main mix. The upshot is that many small mixers have EQ, built-in effects, or jacks for insert effects that further allow controlling your sound before going to the main mixer. Also, if you use the Y split instead of the A/B, you can even spontaneously blend your two amp tones into one signal. This flexibility helps make it worthwhile to have a submixer despite having yet another piece of gear.
Regarding the Jazz Chorus, I have the JC40 which I like better than the JC120. The JC40 is smaller and lighter, plus it has stereo input (L and R jacks) rather than the High and Low inputs of the JC120. Both have a stereo Return in the effects loop. The JC120 is only better if you need more wattage headroom or care more about the distortion channel.
And btw.. you nail that tone better than anyone ive heard in 35 years.. outside of James or Kirk. I truly mean... wow. Thats it!
2:54 For a brief moment I even seen Hetfield’s tone approval face on the back of your fretting hand.
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.
*Lightning
He wasn't using Mesa until after RTL. Mark iic+.
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.
James actually used an ADA MP1 for the cleans on justice, the Roland Jazz chorus was acquired later on the tour, this sounds identical though
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 🙂
But the amp is better.
If the original is good enough for james in 1988, its good enough for me. Fractals are the devil
A real amp hits different
@@turolretar Except in a blind test.
You could do this with a multi effects pedalboard too. If you use a cab sim, you can get an IR for the Marshall and the Jazz Chorus. You just have to figure out what speakers they use and find the IR's. Then, dial in a chorus pedal. Run the rig through an FRFR. One FRFR speaker, one pedalboard, and you can just run the output through the front of house. Make two presets and switch between them with one pedalboard.
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!
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!
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.
I think it's funny. I'm 15 as of now and I found out about Metallica when I was late 14 and started guitar. I just got my dad into metal unlike most people getting into metal because of their father.
One completely changed my relationship to music. This hits home!
sounds like the live metallica clean tone for me
Bro those clean tones are absolutely spot on! Sounds like it’s from the Binge & Purge album.
Damn dude you were 12 in 1988?! Shit dude you look good for 40 something
Hes 48
Yeap I was doing the math i first heard AJFA when I was 13 and I'm 49 now.
He looks much younger.
@@lasang..yeah that’s fuckinf bananas. I’m 40 and look young for my age but dude looks 30, no grey hair wrinkles. Benjamin button shit
I love the Jazz Chorus for cleans AND my heavy rock tone. So, one day I was experimenting to get a unique heavy rock sound that I could call my own. So I threw a Carvin VLD1 Legacy Drive (Steve Vai’s sig) on the high gain channel in front of the amp and my God it sounded awesome! It was even better when using a Tube Screamer to tighten it up a bit. I got a sound I’d always wanted and totally by accident. I thought maybe the amp wasn’t the key (I expect the cab played a big part) but that pedal didn’t sound as good, to my ears, in front of anything else. Congrats on your set up! It sounded dead on and totally fits your playing.
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 have a vintage Jazz Chorus 77. The Roland Jazz Chorus is one noisy clean amp. Once you turn the chorus off it starts to hiss, which can get annoying. It also weighs a ton.
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.😎😎🤘🤘🤘
Yeah, i also heard that recently when i tried to play along with orginal recording
@Roberto-nn6kb yeah it's barely noticeable but I promise it is there gotta tune up a slight bit to play to the original recording and track of "One"
I have a 1976 Jazz Chorus 60. Sole owner. Best clean sound ever. Works great with pedals.
Whats the name of that song? 🙏🏻 2:06
bread fan
you know...hooking a looper pedal to the cable that goes to the JC-120 and it could probaly be a good fit for having the clean section loop for you during the harmony/james solo in master of puppets.
That tone sounds awesome whether Metallica used it or not. Fantastic!
An axe fx would make life a lot easier and it's what metallica actually use.
It’s kind of crazy that guys like James, Kirk and even Mustaine(and many, many more) can still rule ass on their guitars even well into their 80’s.
60s
Kirk certainly doesn't
I got me a Roland Jazz 50 for free in June, instant Hetfield ❤
I do think you need to work on the switching thought, flip the selector on the guitar and the ABY simultaneously 😊
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!
Great clean tone and that is a completely badass distorted tone, too. Wow, that Engl amp kills!
I really wish James would always use the electric on Fade to Black. The chorus tone fits so much better imo. Especially in the verse.
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 verse riff (hold my breath as i wish for death) and James' fist at the moment - is starting moment for my Metallica love!
Metallica's tone sounds weak now. I hope they'd go back to this tone
Nah. They still make cool riffs, it's just the production that gone soft. I learnt this when I watched StateOfMercury video played their new stuffs with older album's tone. It just sounds waay better.
Went to digital shit , cant tell the diffrence my ass , if you can't tell the difference your not playing loud enough
I heard somthing to do with the new modler amps i dont like lols i just want to plug and play
@@OliverCarrierenah the issue is that they're not quad tracking anymore
@@vermilion6667I like how you said “Nah” then agreed with him
Musicians “ annoy the sound guy” just by existing 😂
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…
Eh, I'll take a Marshall Club & Country like Alex Lifeson & SRV for the cleans
this was great. the dedication, chasing a tone for years. amazing!
Dude, you're in your mid 40's?
The tones from both amps fits like a glove for that Metallica tone. I love that chorus effect especially!