I use a pair of JC-120 amps and the Strymon Trio for effects. (TimeLine, Mobius & Big Sky)

https://www.roland.com/ca/products/jc-120/
https://www.strymon.net/products/timeline/
https://www.strymon.net/products/mobius/
https://www.strymon.net/bigsky/

I used all kind of amps available in 18 years of Stick playing : i had some PA systems, then keyboard amps (KC serie from Roland, very nice), then light weight PA solution (JAM400 from SR technology) for years.

I'm now playing with a complete separate amps rig : melody strings are going to a Roland JC-40 (which I find really interesting for clean sounds, and it loves overdrives pedals as well), and bass strings are feeding a Trace Elliot AH1200-12 head and cabinet

It's not the lightest solution (that Trace Elliot head is incredibly heavy), but i really dig that configuration (it's quite recent as I had prefer for years the convenience of PA systems). Here are the main reasons :

- the drummer I'm playing with is really digging to hear distinctively what hands are playing, since there are now two sources, each one having a distinctive "color" ;
- for some reason I cannot explain, I feel that my sense of rhythm has developped a lot since.
- these amps choices help me to have a distinctive sound from what I hear from other Stick players. I came with this idea after discussing with Alex Nahas from Bright Brown, whom I interviewed for the AFSTG website. He told me, without any further precision, that he liked playing at the time with separate bass and tube guitar amps, which was not my liking then. But this idea caught on, and a few years later, I decided to go along with this idea.

Now, when I play at home with my JAM-400, i find my sound is definitely lacking some "dimension". I may sell it and buy a very small and light weight amp for home playing though.

I only used JC-120 in the late 80s with guitar and they were relatively early ones (in ensemble practice rooms in school - seems like JC-120 with a butler tubedriver was a uniform for a set of folks)

There were 2 things about them that I remember.

They had a baseline hiss (thermal noise from the big amplifier transistors I think) - that didn't change with volume (so at stage volume no biggie, but a little hissy at practice volume)

It seemed like the volume control had this cliff where it was hard to set it for practice room volume. it was quiet, quiet...now yu are playing at full stage volume.

Did they ever revise that?

Not really. I remember noticing a very light hiss when I bought my JC-40, but to be frank, I hardly notice it now, so I guess it’s very very light.
And you can’t play with the volume at 0,5, there is indeed a step between 0 and 1. But you can’t play on stage at 1, it’s very low. Not enough low to play while babies are sleeping at your side though.

I tried some JC-120 too. Fabulous sound, either to the bass strings and melody strings. But that thing is heavy as hell. un-carriable!

I've had several JC-120 amps. I like the older ones with the metal corners. They have better tone. As for the hiss, mine have all had minor hiss, but whatever hiss was remaining was removed via EQ. I had one amp with a lot of hum which turned out to be a broken ground wire on one of the pots.

I saw this on the web and thought about trying it in the ceiling of one of my buildings.
I'd be curious as to what kind of 'Stick' tones that I could get out of this type of design?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIye4RZ-5k[/youtube]

grozoeil that rig looks like so much fun to play through! The configuration looks very well thought out. I too have pondered what process for separation of left and right hand works best. Slowly but surely, I've opened my mind to new options and discovered that I can work with dual mono, that is, separate amps for melody and bass sides so long as they make sense.

A JC-120 is just too big for what I am doing and it's not designed to carry a bass signal. I used one with the Inclined back in the day, but it was only for two songs in the set - kind of a pain. A heavy pain, A heavy thing that brought about pain. lol. But seriously, those amps can move some air and one can get Granny Smith type crispness out of them.

I bought Steve B's (MichNS) Fishman Loudbox Performer, and I already had the Fishman Loudbox Mini. The Performer is absolutely perfect for all my Sticks: the active pickups on my Rosewood 10-string, the passive and phantom of the Railboard, and my active pickups in the NS/Stick. They all sound awesome through the Performer. I don't see me wanting or needing anything else, since I go in direct for recording and it's just what I use for jamming and practicing. I used to go through the studio board and studio monitor speakers, which were fine. But I much prefer the Fishman Performer. Love, love, love it.

Here's some more about it. I'm not an amp guy but I know what I like and I like this.

Walt, you’ll get 30 different responses for 30 different amps. The homework is already done here.
Any of the above amps will likely suit your needs. Pick one of the above in your price category and you’re good to go.

I use a fishman SA220 which I now wouldn’t recommend (replaced one speaker already and another one needs replacement).

I also have a big rig (too big) when I want to shake the tree.

Cheers,
Kev