I've been trying a lot of melody side amps lately and I thought I would share some of my findings. I'm a jazz guy looking for jazz guitar tone. I play grand sticks and primarily ACTV2 pickups. For reference I have been looking for less of a Metheny "question and answer" era tone where most of the highs and mids rolled off and more of a modern Julian Lage tone. Full range as much acoustic as jazzbox.

It's all in the fingers. However different amps can bring out the beauty of a seasoned player in different ways.

Amps tested

Fender Deluxe reverb reissue ($1000)
Carr Impala ($2700)
Roland jc 120 ($1000)
Schertler jam 400 ($1300)
Phil Jones super cub ($1300)
Fishman performer 100 ($800)

The fender deluxe does the rolled back tone well but does not pretend to be a full range amp.
Nice loud can handle a loud drummer just fine. I just can't get the sizzle that a tweeter brings. A bit papery for my taste.

The Carr Impala is the priciest. It is the BEST fender clone I've found for the stick just gorgeous tube tone. However, again not a full range amp if I had the cash and just wanted a muted tone I would go for this but I'm looking for more. Btw it's loud enough.

the Roland was nice but lacked a bit of wArmth and was not full range. Very loud and a bit noisy,

Schertler jam 400. GREAT GREAT full range amp perhaps a bit underpowered. Does the pretty stick sound really well pretty much the jam 150 on steroids. Be careful of repairs on Schertler's
I have a horror story I can share privately.

The Fishman loudbox 100 is LOUD!!!!!!! a great jazz amp the top end of the sound is great, not the deepest warmest tone but this thing kills with a good jazz drummer. Did I mention LOUD

FInally my new favorite jazz melody amp the Phil Jones Super cub.
This is audiophile man gorgeous lies miss and highs. No tweeter so closer to a guitar amp sound than any other acoustic amp I've heard and that is a good thing. It only flaws is that it a bit underpowered. But man playing with drummer on Tuesday I'll give report

More later brett

I still stand by Carvin's acoustic line if you're looking for pristine clean sound and built-in effects. I use an AG100D, but the newer models look even better. And the price is a big plus!

http://carvinaudio.com/collections/acoustic-series

Kris

Good thread Brett
My faves for this style are

1-Quilter Pro 8
2-Epifani piccolo amp into 12" Epifani speaker cab

I cover Wes, Metheny, Pat Martino and Django. And Sting, Jeff Beck, Beatles and King Crimson
These two amps both sound very authentic.
Some Stickists at my Iridium shows commented on the big warm sound of the Epifani.
Over the years/decades I've gigged with many of the amps you mentioned.
No sales pitch, the two abovementioned amps are my choice by far.

Steve A

Brett, have you tried the PASV4? I find its front pickup position more jazz guitar sounding than the ACTV2. Also check out the current Fender Rumble bass amps (for both sides of the Stick).

Good points guys. I have a pasv4 and greatly prefer the actv2, although I really like the pasv4 bass. Eric I really want to try a carvin, looks great so hard to test every amp.

And Steve great points just saw Pat with Ron Carter. Ron is using same head as you with the smaller cab. I want to try the quilter. Steve are you running the melody side of the pasv4 into an amp or are you using the gk3 pickup only?

So many amps to try. I'm very happy with my Phil jones right now but I am always looking.

Keep the discussion going.

Yes Ron Carter, Christian McBride and Brian Bromberg are 3 upright players who use Epifani. I will soon be added to their artists page.
I use two identical setups. The melody side sounds as good, if not better than the bass side. Gets expensive to buy two heads and two cabs. But it's worth it because it's easily the biggest sound I've ever played through. Over my Quilter and my QSC powered speaker. Loved my JC 120 and Fender deluxe. And Fisherman tower. But the quest always continued and here's where I'm at. Not just my ears, but audiences and bandmates hear the positive difference. Big, 3-dimensional, warmth and clarity doing justice to all those angular melodies and sophisticated harmonies.
And I do use my VG99 from my GK pickup exclusively on the melody side.. Lots of guitar sounds from Wes and Pat to Santana and Beck.
The amp quest for the Stick is perpetual. I've played and endorsed Koch, Hartke, Gallien-Krueger. Right now Epifani is easily my fave.

Steve A

Hey Brett, what are you using for the bass side, Phil Jones?
Bill

For the bass side Right now I use a Demeter bass head with a bag end cab. I love the sound of this amp for the bass side.

And I really want to try the new fender acoustic amp.

I also want to try Henriksen amps and jazzkat tomkat

Brett

Do you plug in to the Carvin amp directly, or through a pre-amp of some type.

I'm a huge fan of the Fender Deluxe Reverb e-issue that's currently available. I tend to use a pretty extreme eq setting with it, bass cranked way up, treble at "1", but it sounds gorgeous to my ear, with just the Stick plugged straight in. EMG, PASV-4, Stickup, they all sound good to me.

Plus, with two input channels, it's a terrific low-volume practice amp for both sides of the instrument.

I had a chance to play through two of them at once with stereo efects in Interlochen this past summer... gotta save up for another one, I think...

I'm not a jazz musician, I just play one on TV...