Johnson J-Station Review - Tony Thomas' Techtrends

Johnson J-Station Review

Tony Thomas

Having surveyed all of the existing guitar effects boxes on market, I can say that the Johnson J-Station really stands out because of its amp and cab models, S/PDIF output, tone controls, effects, editing capabilities and new really low price (now $149 US). It may be a blowout of massive proportions (a la the famous $99 Alesis Wedge), but the drastic price reduction has put immense pressure on the rest of the market. Witness the recent sightings of Line 6 PODs going for bargain prices.

At $149, it was difficult not to justify buying a J-Station, so I did. That turned out to be a really good decision as I am very pleased with its sonic capabilities. I decided to write a review to share my sonic experiences with the rest of you.

Mondo Modeling

As with most of the other popular guitar multi-effects boxes out on the market today, the J-Station's primary focus is amplifier modeling. The idea is that you can bring up the sonic signatures of classic amplifier designs at with the flick of the wrist. The J-Station's models include three Johnson models (Clean, Crunch, Solo), Boutique, Rectified, British Stack (two models), British Combo, Tweed, Hot Rod, Blackface, Blues and Fuzz. There are also three bass amp models: Modern, British and Rock and two acoustic guitar models: Boat Back and Flat Top.

I don't think that the amplifier models would fool very many pro players if A/B'd with an actual amplifier, but that isn't the point. The J-Station can provide some very good replications that at least get you in the ballpark of the real thing. In a track, they sound like a real amplifier and, in many cases, a very good one. Some models are better than others. I think that the most faithful are the Blackface and the Rectifier.

Johnson takes the concept a bit further by also modeling different speaker cabinets. The speaker cabinet models are essentially equalization and phase curves, but sound very good in context. However, I found that I could simulate cabinet modeling by using a multi-band parametric equalizer. In fact, I would have preferred to have a multi-band parametric equalizer with the different models as presets rather than the fixed speaker cab models. That would have provided far more flexibility.

Special Effects

While the amp and cabinet models are the main selling points of the J-Station, the feature that sets it apart from the competition is its array of effects. First of all, you get a really decent compressor, reverb, delay and noise gate. The other effects include a very good chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, rotary speaker, auto wah and pitch/detune.

Although only one of these other effects can be used at a time (in conjunction with the reverb, delay, compressor and gate which are always available), the resulting sound is quite impressive and musically useful. In fact, it is quite possible the J-Station could be used as the only guitar effects unit for a given project.

In my studio, I route the guitar into a Morley PWA which routes to a Morley ABY box which selects either (or both) the J-Station and my Zoom 505 Mk II. I use the Zoom for more stompbox type tones while the J-Station provides more authentic guitar amp w/effects type sounds. I use the Zoom very rarely these days. I find that the J-Station can do most of what I need.

Open Sesame

Even though it is possible to make basic adjustments to the J-Station via the front panel controls, you have to dig a bit deeper to realize its true potential. They call this "deep level editing". It is best done with the Windows-based editor that is included with J-Station, but it can be accomplished in a pinch using arcane commands and the manual.

The J-Station Windows-editor is a great piece of software. Not only can you get to all of the "deep level" parameters but you can do other interesting things like use different speaker cabinets other than the ones dedicated to each amp sim.

The main drawback of the editor is that you need to have a dedicated MIDI input and output to operate it or constantly plug and unplug.

Summing It Up

The J-Station is a very capable and powerful device. If you know a lot about effects, you can go far beyond the presets, which are good but not outstanding. If you don't have that kind of ability or inclination, you can download sounds from the growing library. I don't think that you are likely to find a more capable and better sounding guitar effects processor for the price--or anywhere close.