About Us

JK builds unique guitar and bass amplifiers as well as preamps using technology which is unknown anywhere else in the music world. Many world-famous Polish artists, (including Kinga Glyk), switched from using popular brands to JK Amplifiers. JK`s bass amplifier was awarded “Gear Of The Year of 2019” by The Bass Player Magazine and its sound has been described as “ beyond impressive” which makes it one of the best sounding bass amps on the market.

The company is currently rapidly expanding to the Western Market. We recently started working with Luca Faraone, who has become an official endorser of JK. Luca is one of the hottest session players in the UK and over his career worked with Stormzy, Craig David, Sir Tom Jones, Emeli Sande, Rita Ora and many more.

Oxygen 1 preamp

for digital modellers

JK Amplifiers together with Luca Faraone have created “Oxygen 1”, a revolutionary preamplifier for guitarists and studio engineers. It is handmade point to point in Katowice, Poland. We especially designed it using JK’s unique technology for digital modelers and profiling amps, however it works beautifully with acoustic instruments as well. As we all know, in recent years digital modelers have taken over the guitar world. These digital devices have tons of amplifier presets; they are light, portable and are incredible value for money. Even though these products are fantastic, at some point they miss true valve response and can sound too digital. This was the very reason to create Oxygen 1. Our preamp, in conjunction with your digital modeler, will give you the finest studio guitar sound with a true valve response . If you are a touring musician, bedroom player or sound engineer, Oxygen 1 will be a game-changer for you. Watch our presentation where Luca takes you through our amazing preamp step by step.

Guitar Amps

We manufacture guitar heads as well as combos. There are two types available: push pull and single-ended. The power varies from 5 up to 100 Watts, depending on the customer’s bespoke order. There is a choice between one up to three channels. Valve loop and reverb can also be built into the amp. Mike Bradley has tested our guitar amplifiers. Watch the video to find out more.

Bass Amps

It has been awarded “Gear Of the Year 2019” by The Bass Player Magazine and is available in two versions: 100 Watt and 200 Watt. Widely considered one of the best-sounding bass amplifiers available on the market, it works on KT88 tubes, has a built-in line out and can be successfully used in the studio as well as on the road. The design prevents the tubes from overheating, and it is built to last for a lifetime.

Cabinets

Our guitar cabinets are fully customised depending on customer wishes. For the guitar we use either Eminence, Alessandro or Jensen Falcon speakers. For bass cabinets we use FaitalPRO ultralight neodymium speakers. They are also fully customisable.

Audio

Reviews

JKB200 Valve Amp

Tube amps still have their place – and here’s proof

Are valve amps out of fash­ion? Not on this ev­i­dence, says Mike Brooks
With the cur­rent pop­u­lar­ity of Class D am­pli­fiers, you would be for­given for think­ing that valve am­pli­fi­ca­tion is be­com­ing a thing of the past. Still, plug your bass into a high­qual­ity valve amp and you may have your head, and ears, turned by the warm, solid and colour­fully rich tones that await you. Sure, they’re not the eas­i­est piece of equip­ment to trans­port – but in cer­tain mu­si­cal sit­u­a­tions, they hit the nail on the head. JK Am­pli­fiers, based in Poland, are be­gin­ning to en­ter the UK and US mar­kets with their 100- and 200-watt bass am­pli­fiers. At £2199, this 200-watt beauty isn’t cheap com­pared to the av­er­age £500 Class D amp, so does its per­for­mance jus­tify the out­lay?

Sure, this thing is heavy, a whop­ping 27 ki­los or 60 pounds, but it’s full of valves – four KT88s in the power amp sec­tion and two 6J9P valves, a 6N2P-EW valve and an ECC81 valve in the preamp, to be ex­act. Aided by two side-sprung han­dles, pick­ing it up will be man­age­able for most of us, although I ad­vise car­ry­ing the amp hor­i­zon­tally to pre­vent the valves be­com­ing un­seated. It’s cov­ered in a fetch­ing black and blue Tolex with white pip­ing, while the amp’s valves are pro­tected by a metal grille at the rear. The front con­trol panel is sim­ply laid out – there’s no chance of be­ing con­fused with these tonal op­tions.

Two in­put sock­ets ac­com­mo­date pas­sive and ac­tive in­stru­ments (the ac­tive op­tion comes with a -15dB pad) and this is fol­lowed by chicken-head con­trols for Vol­ume (Gain), a three-band EQ (boost only) com­pris­ing Tre­ble, Mid­dle and Bass, a Mas­ter vol­ume con­trol and a Bass Cut con­trol which of­fers four dis­tinct tonal voic­ings. A Bright switch is also in­cor­po­rated on the front panel, while a quick look at the rear re­veals two Speakon/jack combo out­puts, a Line Out Level con­trol, a bal­anced XLR DI out­put and Pre/Post EQ and Ground/Lift switches. As you can see, there is noth­ing com­pli­cated go­ing on here; if you like an amp to be ob­vi­ous, this one is for you.

Sounds

Armed with sev­eral dif­fer­ent brands of cab­i­net with dif­fer­ent speaker con­fig­u­ra­tions, I picked out a va­ri­ety of ac­tive and pas­sive basses to see how the amp re­sponded. The valves give out a great deal of heat, and you can smell them as they heat up: leave the amp on standby for 20 to 30 min­utes be­fore you play, so that the valves can reach oper­a­tional tem­per­a­ture. Pas­sive Pre­ci­sion and Jazz basses go first, sound­ing warm and colour­ful straight away. Although some valve amps can make a P-Bass sound a lit­tle clanky, es­pe­cially when you open the tone con­trol up, in this case a con­sid­er­able amount of smooth­ness is re­tained, pro­vid­ing a hefty, warm tone. All three tone con­trols of­fer a sig­nif­i­cant boost, which is use­ful for sculpt­ing the tone of a pas­sive bass.

The Bright switch is the JK’s se­cret weapon. Con­sider the best valve sounds you’ve heard, and then ap­ply the clar­ity and glasslike top end from a high-qual­ity solid-state amp. Com­bine that with the vi­brant coloura­tion that only tubes can of­fer, and you’re in dream tone ter­ri­tory. It’s very im­pres­sive, with both pas­sive and ac­tive basses. Bring­ing the Bass Cut con­trol into play, some ex­per­i­men­ta­tion is re­quired to find the tones that work best with cer­tain basses, but all four op­tions give a dis­tinctly dif­fer­ent edge to your tone. Per­cus­sive play­ers will find it use­ful for en­hanc­ing the mid-range re­sponse, with­out bloat­ing their tone with a bot­tom-heavy boost.

Conclusion

Son­i­cally, this amp is be­yond im­pres­sive. I thought I knew what to ex­pect from the JK, but it im­me­di­ately sur­passed my ex­pec­ta­tions. Granted, it’s not cheap – but stand­out amps rarely are. If you pre­fer the sound of valves but feel that they com­pro­mise your per­cus­sive tones, start sav­ing now.

Contact

All products manufactured and sold by KT88.PL "Daniel Sarna"
VAT EU PL5831692782