JCA Circuits “Vibe” Amplifier

Vibe/5F1 Stereo Rig w/”Split It” Passive Transformer Splitter

Vibe is based on my beloved Silverface Fender Vibro Champ which was given to me by a friend in the early 90’s. I often run that Vibro Champ plus my prototype Tweed Champ in wet-dry rigs to amazing performance standards. That particular Fender amplifier was among the first platforms I used to delve into the fine details of music electronics modification & design. Throughout the decades, that humble amp has offered me countless opportunities to explore the incredible potential of single ended amplifiers. It has been heavily modified and re-built into various circuits & iterations over the decades. In the 2000’s, I came up with several design concepts relating to modified grounding schemes, power supply/filtering, voicing & frequency response, and touch sensitivity concepts which differ significantly from an original. These concepts have been included and expanded upon in the Vibe. It is designed to pay homage to & improve upon the incredible potential of my very favorite low power, single ended, class A1 guitar amplifiers. 





The musical potential of the Vibe far exceeds its physical dimensions. Vibe is designed to excel either on its own OR as part of a stereo/wet-dry/dual mono rig. It is a classic sounding amplifier which behaves as a very deep, clear, and warm resonant window that highlights guitar FX & pedalboards. Compared to other single ended guitar amplifier designs, the Vibe has an abundance of clean useable headroom, clarity, note separation, and touch sensitivity. It also displays a very low noise floor where the signal emerges from an inky black soundstage. 





The Vibe is highly useable for critical recording in a studio environment where it will not damage fragile microphones or cause excessive noise. Vibe’s design was heavily inspired by one of my musical heroes who talks about “leaning back into a wall of sound”. I designed Vibe to offer the player a richer, more complex spread of cleaner, clearer harmonics and super responsive experience of a guitar amplifier working hard-just scaled down to more useable levels. 





FEATURES
• Class A1 single ended 6V6/6L6 output stage
• Jupiter 8CS Speaker
• Eurotubes vacuum tube dampers
• Upgraded power & output transformers
• Extra power filtering stages which behave as a “Tank” circuit
• Modified star grounding scheme 
• Isolated input & output jacks
• 2 Watt Ohmite carbon film & metal film signal resistors
• Mallory 150 & silver mica signal capacitors
• Silver plated oxygen free copper/Teflon jacketed signal wire
• Stainless steel hardware
• All parts sourced within North America, Japan, and Europe

JCA

Testimonials

“This is the amp that would make Hendrix want to trade in his Marshalls!” Mick Mc Monagle

“Dude, it’s so quiet. And when you hit that bright switch, it sounded like a fucking HiWatt!” Mike Norton/Retrolinear

“Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi would probably love to have something like this in their green room!” Jim Steager

“Do you know what’s wrong with this amplifier? Absolutely nothing!” Tom Volpicelli/The Mastering House

“This strikes us as an unreal studio amp, or something that would be amazing for around home sitting right in front of it and pouring your heart out to after midnight. What a perfect little amp that can do it all. Hot damn…” Tone Quest Report

“For life, is all about the sweet spot, isn’t it? You know it when you find it. The amp has a beautiful and absolutely WIDE GLIDE, pure Fender tone, all while cranking out far more clean headroom than we thought possible from a small amp, and the use of the Jupiter ceramic 8-inch speaker was superb. It was definitively surprising how much sweet and stout low end each note has, and the clarity of the top and mids are also pristine.” Tone Quest Report

“Once we cranked it past about 8 it really sang, but still, maintained a gorgeous fidelity of signal with zero graininess or harsh frequencies. It loved Strats, Les Pauls, and the Junior, and we even put a Gibson J-200 through it to hear it acoustically. This amp is all about the pristine and stunning clean tones, and what you do from there is up to each player.” Tone Quest Report

“JCA Circuits Vibe, I just played it yesterday. It is astounding.” John Durso

“The best news of 2021, JCA is back and supplying the world with sonic goodness once again!
Those Vibes look fantastic, I should purchase them both but I’ve already placed my order for a ‘Dumble Killer’ (Golden Ratio). Thank you for returning to the industry, we missed you terribly. I wish JCA all the luck and success out there, you deserve it!” Jessica Harvey

July 2023 Tone Quest Report Review of the JCA Circuits “Vibe” Amplifier

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Vibe “Prototype“