Mesa Boogie JP-2C John Petrucci Signature Standard rörtopp

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Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci and Mesa Boogie have been good friends for thirty years now. To celebrate this happy occasion, they have teamed up to develop this JP-2C Standard tube amp head, a signature model that comprises the years of experience and know-how of both parties. What makes it so special? For starters, this all-tube amp head has three channels, selectable wattage, expansive equaliser, speaker simulator output, MIDI connectors; but that's not all. Despite the fact that it houses a large number of features, it's not a big unit, but it can still look menacing nonetheless with its aluminium housing covered in black vinyl. It also comes with a protective cover.

So much to choose from

John Petrucci was clearly intent on raising the bar for these new amp heads that were based on the Mark IIC+. They also include five 12AX7 preamp tubes and four 6L6 output tubes and the reverb is driven by a tube as well. When you want to hook up the JP-2C Standard, you can choose to do so with two 4-ohm cabinets, an 8-ohm cabinet or even a 16-ohm cabinet. Should you be in the studio, or not have a cabinet at your disposal, you can also use an XLR to connect to the CabClone DI, which is a speaker simulator. This output has a booster/limiter function and ground lift switches, but best of all, it offers the choice of an open or closed back, and a selection of vintage voices.

3-Headed monster

Once you've connected the head, you can turn your attention to the front panel, which has one channel for every block of six knobs. Each channel can be controlled separately using the two 5-band equalizers, or by means of the Mesa MIDI foot pedal. Speaking of MIDI, the JP-2C also features an input and thru/output so you can connect it directly to your interface. When adjusting your sound, the mid knob is an interesting feature - one half functions as a regular tone control while the other half works as a variable gain boost. To activate it, pull the boost push/pull knob. In the same way, you can shift the frequency by pulling the presence push/pull knob.