ROLAND, JAPAN AND UNITED KINGDOM, 1984

Seeking a clean, powerful tone, Johnny Marr purchased this Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus amplifier as new in spring 1984 during The Smiths’ first major tour and came to rely on it as an essential component of his live rig throughout the band’s short reign, using it for almost every live performance from May 1984 to April 1987. Interviewed for the BOSS Tone Radio podcast in 2014, Marr delved into the various considerations that led him to the JC-120 when the band were starting out: I came out at a time when there were a lot of no-no’s in guitar culture. It’s gone down as being post-punk, but it was actually the birth of what has come to be known as indie rock now. And with that there were some musical politics, throwing away everything that had happened in the previous generations of rock culture, which was a lot of distortion, bluesy playing, extended solos, fast solos, and effects. All of those things were considered passé and somewhat outdated in the culture that I came out of. I was trying to still have that love [of guitar history] and bring guitar culture forward – not completely annihilate it and be anarchic, but be of my time. And so a lot of my sound came out of that. There was not a lot of distortion, there was certainly not extended solos, there was not a lot of effects, and it was certainly not bluesy. And the Roland JC-120 was a brand-new innovation [at the time]. To use a Roland amp was very unusual and exciting and a lot of people did it. I got one as soon as I could afford one. I had a Fender Twin [lot 6], but the next thing I got was a JC-120, and those two amps fired together were really quite amazing. That was a big part of my sound, you know, that clean, chorus-y sound. It’s not really a surprise that your gear dictates the way you play, and so I was fortunate. The interesting thing is that now – many, many, many years later – kids still ask me about playing the JC-120. They like that sound. I’ve had quite a few people really geeking out over the JC-120.

The JC-120 was first seen when The Smiths played their first show in Germany at the Markthalle in Hamburg on 4 May 1984, which was broadcast on German television show Rockpalast. The Hamburg show saw Marr stack two Roland JC-120s together, which was not a setup he would regularly repeat. It's probable that this was his main JC-120 for live use, whilst the backup is easily distinguished by its lack of logo on the grille cover. Speaking to Guitarist’s Geoff Twigg in 1985, Marr explained that he would alternate between the JC-120 and his Fender Twin Reverb on the 1984 tour, noting I used either one or the other depending on what sounded good in the sound check… My Fender was out of action for quite a long time and I couldn't afford to get it fixed; so I only had the Roland. Notable gigs which saw Marr use the JC-120 as his sole stage amp during this period include:

- L’Eldorado, Paris, France, 9 May 1984, which was broadcast on French television show Les Enfants Du Rock on 18 May 1984
- Provinssirock Festival, Törnävä, Seinäjoki, Finland, 3 June 1984
- GLC "Jobs For A Change" Festival, Jubilee Gardens, London, 10 June 1984
- Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury, Somerset, 23 June 1984

By the time The Smiths performed at the Parc Des Expositions in Paris on 1 December 1984, Marr had begun using the JC-120 and the Twin Reverb in parallel, a setup he would utilise throughout the Meat Is Murder Tour from February to October 1985. With my amp set up, he told Twigg, the Rickenbacker's just perfect as it goes through a Fender twin and a JC120. The Fender twin has got loads of power and that handles the bottom to mid range. The Fender has also got the best reverb, so I just let the Roland handle the top end most of the time; it's a dream and sounds great. It's something that I wanted to get together for a long while… The amps are both miked up and DId into the PA system, so there's loads of signal going through to the desk and I'm monitoring on the actual amp. Very rarely do I have any coming through my actual front wedges or the side monitors. It appears that on the US leg of the tour, an additional JC-120 and Twin Reverb were added to the rig to bolster the sound. The set list for the tour regularly included the band’s 1984 B-side ‘How Soon Is Now?’, which was incredibly difficult to reproduce live because of the two distinct guitars Marr used on the track. Marr’s solution was to use a digital delay line, telling Twigg I just sent the effect straight through the Fender twin… and put straight guitar through the Roland. I just stuck a slide on and it worked.

For The Queen Is Dead Tour in 1986, Marr would daisy chain at least three amps together. From the outset of the tour the setup would include the JC-120 with a 1960s Fender Bassman and a Mesa Boogie, as seen at the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre on 19 July 1986, until he swapped out the Bassman for another Mesa Boogie on the final UK leg of the tour that October. He upped the stakes for The Smiths’ final show at the Brixton Academy in London on 12 December 1986, with two stacked JC-120s, a Twin Reverb and two Mesa Boogies. Notable television appearances with the JC-120 included live performances of the singles ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ on BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test on 20 May 1986, ‘Panic’ on the Channel 4 special Euro-Tube, broadcast on 5 July 1986, and ‘Sheila Take A Bow’ on Channel 4’s The Tube on 10 April 1987, the latter of which would turn out to be The Smiths’ last ever performance in front of a live audience.

Marr has returned to the Roland JC-120 in recent years as he re-embraced his signature Smiths-era sound as a solo artist, specifically using it for songs such as ‘Ariel’ on his 2022 solo studio album Fever Dreams Pts 1-4. For this album, I also dug out my old Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus amp, he told Guitar World in 2022. Transistor amps have a sonic presence that puts the sound right in your face. It’s sort of an Ennio Morricone sound… Mic'ing up a Roland JC-120 is very pleasing. The chorus sound is incredible.

See lots 5, 10, 15, 22, and 104 for additional images of this lot.