Radial JDX-48 - it’s a DI box that sits in between your speaker and your cabinet. I bought it used and never quite found a use for it with either guitar or bass - even disregarding the room, speakers are a very important component of a sound and hearing the amp on a track without a speaker was kind of too much of one and not enough of the other. For thumpy bass I prefer a clean DI signal processed until it sounds like Motown or CCR (or a growly 70s english rock track w/ 1176 if using roundwounds) and if I’m using a guitar di it’s because I want something completely out in the weeds that this DI wasn’t giving me.
For moog synth, though, this DI is fucking great. I compared the synth > Ampeg V2 > Radial JDX DI to a synth > EA DI and synth > Ampeg V2 > EV 15L > “Warbler” Chinese U87 clone and the Radial DI really did something special, and I quite like the way that track handled the amp’s spring reverb. I’m definitely going to pull it out more often now.
Aside from stuff like the AC30 my favorite tube amps tend to be in the 60s/70s vein of being made to handle pretty much any instrument like Ampegs, Traynors, Bassman, etc, so since I’ve started messing with keys I think I’m going to be pulling this thing out of the box for synth and other nonstandard uses, especially w/ creative reamping. Any standard sound, especially with distortion, definitely needs the speaker and the room, though.
Re: Micro-reviews of Gear You Just Bought
962Been curious about these types of devices. My old Epiphone has a "monitor output" that is just a jack soldered off the speaker transformer with some amount of resistors for voltage/current divider type shit, but it is pretty noisy and it has always kinda freaked me out to use it. This would definitely be safer.
EDIT: Out of curiosity I looked on Reverb and found one for $80 so I picked it up. Been wanting to try one out for a while. I reamp vocals through the Epiphone for Reverb all the time and this might be a better way than just using a mic on the speaker or that weird noisey monitor out.
Re: Micro-reviews of Gear You Just Bought
963Cool, let me know how it works for you. I was worried about safety as well but am paranoid with tube amp speaker connections anyways so haven’t had any issues.Kniferide wrote: Wed Apr 30, 2025 9:40 amBeen curious about these types of devices. My old Epiphone has a "monitor output" that is just a jack soldered off the speaker transformer with some amount of resistors for voltage/current divider type shit, but it is pretty noisy and it has always kinda freaked me out to use it. This would definitely be safer.
EDIT: Out of curiosity I looked on Reverb and found one for $80 so I picked it up. Been wanting to try one out for a while. I reamp vocals through the Epiphone for Reverb all the time and this might be a better way than just using a mic on the speaker or that weird noisey monitor out.
Voice would be a great thing to run through this amp di. It’d be cool to have an additional option hear the amp effects without the speaker and room - and of course nothing is stopping you from putting the mic in front of the speaker on another track anyways. A little more gainstaging but not much more in the way of setup.
Re: Micro-reviews of Gear You Just Bought
964Always makes me shaky too. having a transformer in between make me feel a lot better.llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed Apr 30, 2025 10:41 amI was worried about safety as well but am paranoid with tube amp speaker connections anyways so haven’t had any issues.
Re: Micro-reviews of Gear You Just Bought
965I've got one of these. I dont use it a ton but there are a few things I really like it on. I've got an old Garnet stencil vibro champ clone that I use it on all the time. The amp always sounded a little ratty to me and I was on the verge of selling it when I tried it with the JDX. It sounds like a totally different amp with the speaker taken out of the equation. I shouldn't be surprised but the difference is huge. I should probably just put a different speaker in there.llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed Apr 30, 2025 9:24 am Radial JDX-48 - it’s a DI box that sits in between your speaker and your cabinet. I bought it used and never quite found a use for it with either guitar or bass - even disregarding the room, speakers are a very important component of a sound and hearing the amp on a track without a speaker was kind of too much of one and not enough of the other. For thumpy bass I prefer a clean DI signal processed until it sounds like Motown or CCR (or a growly 70s english rock track w/ 1176 if using roundwounds) and if I’m using a guitar di it’s because I want something completely out in the weeds that this DI wasn’t giving me.
For moog synth, though, this DI is fucking great. I compared the synth > Ampeg V2 > Radial JDX DI to a synth > EA DI and synth > Ampeg V2 > EV 15L > “Warbler” Chinese U87 clone and the Radial DI really did something special, and I quite like the way that track handled the amp’s spring reverb. I’m definitely going to pull it out more often now.
Aside from stuff like the AC30 my favorite tube amps tend to be in the 60s/70s vein of being made to handle pretty much any instrument like Ampegs, Traynors, Bassman, etc, so since I’ve started messing with keys I think I’m going to be pulling this thing out of the box for synth and other nonstandard uses, especially w/ creative reamping. Any standard sound, especially with distortion, definitely needs the speaker and the room, though.
I also really like it when I'm reampiing vocals through guitar amps.
Re: Micro-reviews of Gear You Just Bought
966out of curiosity, how does something like this affect the speaker load. I know a lot of old tube amps are pretty sensitive to having the right load and it can damage the output transfmr if you are too far under/over load. Also, how much over/under is actually a bad idea? I used to sit my Twin Reverb ontop of a Bassman 2x15" cab and use the second spkr out to be stupid all teh time when I was a kid and it never seemed to cause any damage. It was one of the 135 super linier things though. No idea what that really means. I've never really gotten too far into changing speakers/cabs out so I haven't really thought about it in a long time.
Re: Micro-reviews of Gear You Just Bought
967I don’t think old amps are that finnicky about speaker load, I’m just always sure not to plug a 2 ohm cab into a 4 ohm Bassman amp or a 16 ohm cab into a 4 ohm amp. But you can still plug a 4 ohm amp into a 8 ohm cab, 8 ohm cab into a 16, etc. i only really own vintage tube amps from the 50s - 70s except a favored Balls AC30 and never have any problems. Even if I accidentally plug into the wrong speaker out on an Ampeg or something, it generally wouldn’t hurt the amp for a minute unless you’re really blasting the fucker trying to figure out where your sound is.
One thing is that you can hear a slight ohm difference and sometimes its even an improvement if you kind of want to narrow the bandwidth of an amp sound, which can be helpful if you’re trying to get a traditional rock sound out of a Fender or whatever. I would disconnect two speakers from my Super Reverb for that reason.
I’d be more cautious with that Radial head switcher that is supposed to allow you to swap two heads into a single cab while they’re all on. That company obviously knows what they’re doing, but that box kind of feels like a solution looking for a problem.
One thing is that you can hear a slight ohm difference and sometimes its even an improvement if you kind of want to narrow the bandwidth of an amp sound, which can be helpful if you’re trying to get a traditional rock sound out of a Fender or whatever. I would disconnect two speakers from my Super Reverb for that reason.
I’d be more cautious with that Radial head switcher that is supposed to allow you to swap two heads into a single cab while they’re all on. That company obviously knows what they’re doing, but that box kind of feels like a solution looking for a problem.
Re: Micro-reviews of Gear You Just Bought
968My understanding is that it's basically invisible as far as load goes. The speaker in and out Jacks are directly connected with the DI circuit feeding off of that connection (if I'm explaining that well at all).Kniferide wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 10:27 am out of curiosity, how does something like this affect the speaker load. I know a lot of old tube amps are pretty sensitive to having the right load and it can damage the output transfmr if you are too far under/over load. Also, how much over/under is actually a bad idea? I used to sit my Twin Reverb ontop of a Bassman 2x15" cab and use the second spkr out to be stupid all teh time when I was a kid and it never seemed to cause any damage. It was one of the 135 super linier things though. No idea what that really means. I've never really gotten too far into changing speakers/cabs out so I haven't really thought about it in a long time.
You can't run the JDX on a tube amp without a speaker attached because it doesn't provide any load at all.
Ive run it in between head and cabs or out of the extension cab jack on fender style amps (with the main speaker connected). I also made a speaker cable with alligator clips on one end and connect that to the lugs on the speaker when it's a combo and the speaker is hard wired.
Re: Micro-reviews of Gear You Just Bought
969Seems like it would add the load of the input side of the transformer in parallel to your speaker load, but I don't know if it matters. My main amps are both low watt 60s tube amps and I've been warned about the speaker loads but don't know if it is alarmist mojo voodoo. I know with all the silver faced shit I owned as a kid I just plugged in everything under the sun with no I'll effects.adavidmackinnon wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 5:45 pmMy understanding is that it's basically invisible as far as load goes. The speaker in and out Jacks are directly connected with the DI circuit feeding off of that connection (if I'm explaining that well at all).Kniferide wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 10:27 am out of curiosity, how does something like this affect the speaker load. I know a lot of old tube amps are pretty sensitive to having the right load and it can damage the output transfmr if you are too far under/over load. Also, how much over/under is actually a bad idea? I used to sit my Twin Reverb ontop of a Bassman 2x15" cab and use the second spkr out to be stupid all teh time when I was a kid and it never seemed to cause any damage. It was one of the 135 super linier things though. No idea what that really means. I've never really gotten too far into changing speakers/cabs out so I haven't really thought about it in a long time.
You can't run the JDX on a tube amp without a speaker attached because it doesn't provide any load at all.
Ive run it in between head and cabs or out of the extension cab jack on fender style amps (with the main speaker connected). I also made a speaker cable with alligator clips on one end and connect that to the lugs on the speaker when it's a combo and the speaker is hard wired.
Re: Micro-reviews of Gear You Just Bought
970Bought a Quilter Tone Block 202 a couple of weeks ago while my tube amp was and still is in the shop. Now I'm thinking about selling my tube amp and getting another one for the other cab. One for 1x15 and one for my 2x12.
Shit those little fuckers sound great for that price point. Shit, they sound great period.
Shit those little fuckers sound great for that price point. Shit, they sound great period.
Nothing major here. Just a regular EU cock. I pull it out and there is beans all over my penis. Bean shells all over my penis...