Bugera 6260 - 412H-BK Half Stack

Behringer is known for its wide range of amazingly affordable and primarily solid-state music equipment. The Behringer crew decided it is time to enter into the heavyweight tube-amp arena, and they didn’t come quietly, they came in blazing with a new brand to grace upon us. Meet the budget blaster … the Bugera tube amp! Read more

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Kirk Hammett talks about his Gear and Sound for Death Magnetic

When Kirk Hammett, the lead guitarist of Metallica, was asked about his gear and tone for their new Death Magnetic album, this is what he had to say. Read more

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Fortin Bones Tube Amp

The BONES amplifier is a stripped down “bare bones”, single channel, all valve, electric guitar amplifier. With delicious modern styling and a straightforward & intuitive front panel layout, BONES is exceptionally versatile and completely inspirational from the first note played. It maintains all the detail of your guitar and playing dynamics as well as front-end dynamics from stomp box pedals.

The BONES front panel features consist of Input, Gain, Bass, Bright switch, Boost switch, Middle, Treble, Voicing L/M/H switch, Depth, Presence, and Master controls as well as Power and Standby switches. The Voicing L/M/H is a 3-way switch that selects between 2, 3 or 4 stages of gain. This function really changes the tone and feel of the amplifier giving you an astounding array of sounds. From succulent, vibrant cleans to blazing, cabinet erupting high gain overdrive, it’s like having three totally different amps! The rear panel includes 5 LOUDSPEAKERS, AC input, 4-Bias controls and test points, jacks and if requested, the following optional features (FX loop, Lineout with level, Footswitch & MIDI). The individual Bias controls are a powerful feature and tool for tapping into more tonal possibilities with the BONES amp. You can also mix and match different tube types together for virtually unlimited variety of tones.

BONES Chassis mounted components are wired, “flying lead” design, to a 1/8″ thick, 4oz weighted FR4 PCB. All ceramic tube sockets, sealed stainless steel shafted pots, metal jacks, metal switches, custom designed precision wound power, choke and output transformers are mounted to a rugged14 gauge brushed stainless steel chassis. Front and back panel are clear anodized brushed alloy with laser etched lettering that will not wear off. Housed in a ¾-inch birch-ply head case, accented with custom black aluminum anodized metal grills and a ¼-inch thick machined alloy logo plate. Premium components are used throughout, combined with solid, reliable design that will last several lifetimes over.

BONES FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS:

World Mains 100/110/120/220/230/240 VAC 50/60HZ.
VOICING L/M/H selects between 2, 3 or 4 stages of gain.
4 - 12AX7s (1 x 12AT7 FX Loop) & 4 x Power tubes in any combinations of EL34, 6CA7, KT77, 6L6, 5881, KT66, 6550, KT88, KT90, KT100. Class-AB, 100 to 180 watts
4 - BIAS locking pots.
RMS, depending on types of power tubes used.
Fully regulated preamp DC heaters for an ultra low noise floor.
Optional FX Loop, Lineout w/ level control and other footswitching and MIDI options.
Marriage of PCB and Point-to-Point assembly.

Approx Street price: $2575.00

Visit Fortin Amps web site at www.fortinamps.com.

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Johnson Marquis JM60 Guitar Amp Review

 

Johnson’s Millennium amplifiers have set a good standard for what a digital modeling amp should be. While the Marquis is something of a scaled-down version of the Millennium, it retains much of what makes the amp noteworthy, resulting in a user-friendly amplifier with excellent voices overall and flexible, wide-ranging functions.

The Marquis eschews the Millennium’s multiple LED and LCD screens for a single LED readout showing which preset is on call. Good old-fashioned knobs—master volume, gain, treble, mid, bass and level—remain, along with dedicated buttons with which to scroll through the amp voicings and effects, and platform editing chores. The amp voicings have been reorganized into three groups of six (American, British and Johnson), the built in tuner is gone and the effects-processing circuitry has been simplified too: one 12AX7 does the work of the Millennium’s two, and the power output has been scaled down to 60-watts in mono or 120-watts in stereo. Surprisingly, MIDI implementation is gone as well, leaving you with 27 editable factory presets recallable from the front panel rotary knob via optional foot controllers.

As mentioned before, the JM60 comes with a single Eminence 12-inch speaker and delivers 60 mono watts in this configuration. By plugging in the J112 satellite speaker cabinet, the output is double to 120 watts stereo. The headphone jack, like the Crate’s, doubles as a speaker compensated direct output. It won’t automatically shut of the speakers, which is smart, since using it as a direct output usually means that you’ll still want to hear what you’re playing. Instead, the speakers are disabled with a recessed switch. The effects send and return points are accessed with two stereo ¼-inch phone jacks and, at 680 ohms out and 15k ohms in, are intended for use with rackmount effects.

The Marquis’ 27 presets show off it excellent modeling circuitry and adds enough effects to demonstrate how wide ranging and detailed its possibilities are. The onboard effects consist of three groups (Mod/Pitch, Delay and Reverb) that, like the amp voices, are accessible by scroll buttons. The chorus was somewhat weak, but the tremolo and vibrato were quit usable. The phaser and flanger both dishes out plenty of thick psychedelic swirl, while the pitch/detune went a long way toward beefing up some of the more aggressive settings as well as providing that trademark Digitech parallel harmony. (Johnson and Digitech are both owned by Harmon International.) The delay flavors consist of a high-frequency-suppressed analog, a clear and amazingly regenerative delay and “Ping Pong,” which sends the delay bouncing back and forth in hard stereo separation. The reverbs (plate, hall and spring) are all excellent.

The Marquis’ amp modeling is largely excellent and earns high marks for nailing some of the more difficult tube tones. This could have something to do with the fact that they’ve chosen to keep one 12AX7 tube in the circuit. For example, the “Class A Clean” and Class A Dirty” both had the warm, fuzzy bottoms and grainy mids one would hope for, and the “Boutique” (based on a Matchless DC30) was nothing short of jaw-dropping in its huge range of dynamics via pick attack. The Fender clones were spot on, although a little more grain from the “Tweed” would be nice. The aggressive metal voicings, including the Soldano-inspired “High Gain,” the requisite Marshall models and Johnson’s own “Saturated Tube,” “Overdrive” and “Metal” settings, all had punch to spare. In fact, Johnson’s forte is in the bottom, where notes are felt in the groin rather than heard. The only setting which seemed to suffer form over-bodacity was “High Wattage” (based on a Hiwatt S50LC), which never quite mustered the high-end crackle of the original.

Special mention should be made of the Marquis’ noise gate circuit, which is subtle, kind and adjustable. The adjustment is “hidden” within the amp model selector switch and preset selector knob, but a quick read of the well-written manual will unleash as much or as little gating as you please, and provide a cool backward-attack sound, too. http://www.johnson-amp.com/jm60.htm

End Note
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The Marquis delivers a heap of high quality and tones and effects in a very attractive package. If you don’t miss the MIDI implementation, the Marquis could be your pro-level workhorse.

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Crate DX-212 Guitar Amplifier Review

With its brushed copper front panel, big black knobs and jellylike, illuminated keypad, Crate’s digital Dx-212 looks like a Sixties vision of the future. The knobs (Master, volume, gain, bass, mid, treble. Channel level, effects adjust, reverb level, and reverb depth) are arranged as on any amp. Read more

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Crate and Johnson Marquis Guitar Amplifiers

 

The ascension of digital modeling technology in amplifier design continues. The latest entries in the tone-cloning competition come from Crate and Johnson, who bring out the contest remarkably similar packages. Both the Crate DX-212 and the Johnson Marquis JM60 arrive in combo format, with easy to tweak knobs in addition to digital keypads, begging to be played live in the studio or taken out to gigs. Both amps serve up a popular selection of models (the Crate offers 16, the Johnson 18), nine effects plus reverb, and comparable wattage, with Crate delivering 100watts stereo and Johnson 120 watts stereo. It should be noted that Crate’s DX-212 comes in a 2×12 format, while the Johnson Marquis JM60 ships with a single 12-inch speaker putting out 60 watts mono. To cash in on the stereo sound and the extra 60 watts, the review model was hooked up to the company’s J112 satellite cabinet as an option only. When will the amp makers learn that you can’t play guitar and switch panel settings at the same time?

Stay tuned for the review of the Crate DX-212 and the Johnson Marquis JM60 REVIEW

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Understanding Speaker Cabinet Designs

Lesson #1

Ask a group of guitarists what their favorite instrument, amplifiers and effects are, and each one will surely ramble on for hours about his gear of choice. Ask that same group about their favorite speakers and cabinets, however, and many of them will likely respond with a simple “I dunno.” The sad truth is that even though cabinets and speakers play major roles in shaping the tone of a guitar sound, they are often overlooked by players.

The overall sound of a cabinet is the result of all the components that go into building it and how they’re put together. Once you acquire the knowledge of what goes into building speakers and cabinets, you’ll start to understand exactly what you like and dislike about different cabinets. In this lesson, I’m going to focus on defining the components and materials that go into building speakers and cabinets as they relate to the sound they produce. My hope is that at the end of the two lessons, you will be well informed and on your way to identifying what you preferences are and what speakers and cabinets complement your playing the best.

With very few exceptions, cabinets are made out of wood. Plied birch wood is far and away the most common choice, though some cabs are made from particle board or a combination of the two. Sonically, birch is great because it strikes a very desirable balance; it’s rigid enough to produce punch and definition while being soft enough to sound warm but not floppy. Remember that the cabinet acts as a resonator for the speakers just as the wood of a guitar acts as a resonator for the vibrations of the strings. Birch is also super durable and is well suited to withstand the vibrations, abuse and travel that a cabinet is likely to endure.

The average wall thickness of a 4×12, 2×12 and 1×12 cabinets is ¾-inch, though some combos have been made from one-inch thick wood. A one-inch wall will be more rigid and will produce a tighter, darker and more blunt sound; a ½-inch wall will usually accentuate high frequencies.

Another factor to consider is whether the cabinet has an open back or a closed back. Open back cabinets generally don’t produce as much low end because the back pressure created by the speakers has a lot of room to escape. With a closed back enclosure, the back pressure has a much harder time escaping the cabinet which, in turn, creates a more significant low end resonance. In some closed back and front loaded (where the speakers are mounted on the front of the baffle board) cabinet designs, you will see holes in the front or back of the cabinets. Those holes are known as ports and are intended to let some of the back pressure escape to allow for desirable frequency response.

An interesting characteristic I discovered about closed back cabinets is that you can change the sound of the cabinet by loosening and tightening the screws that hold the back board on. By loosening (or removing) some of the screws, you can “tune” the cabinet to be soft and floppy. If you want clarity and defined punch, use all the screws and tighten them up. It’s similar to the way drums are tuned—just think of the back board as the drum skin and the rest of the cabinet as the drum.

Another thing that I’ve found to affect the sound of a cabinet is the vinyl covering and the glue that holds it onto the cabinet. The glue and the vinyl slightly muffle the higher frequencies, in most cases in a desirable way. I first discovered this when I decided I wanted one of my 4×12s to have bare wood finish and proceeded to rip off all the vinyl. After the vinyl had been stripped I noticed a difference in sound.

The age of the cabinet and amount of time it’s been played also affect the sound. An old cabinet with years of use and heavy gigging will, in time, soften up and lose it’s stiffness-sometimes too much for desirable results. The sound of a cabinet is also affected by what surface it’s sitting on. I’d much rather have my amp sitting on a wood floor than carpet or concrete. Wood interacting with wood will only extend the resonance of an amp as opposed to carpet or concrete which have a little or no resonating abilities. For the same reason, I also recommend resting cabinets on rubber feet or nothing at all, as opposed to leaving the wheels on all the time.

That’s all for now. Next time we’ll look at different types of speakers. Come join us at Gear-Monkey Music Gear Message Boards

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Crown CE1000 Amplifier Review

Crown is another name with a solid rep among pros the world over. The CE series seems designed for the first-time buyer or musician who has been forced to be a soundman without actually being a soundman. Hence the colorful, informative and sometimes even playful owner’s manual, chock full of tips and other useful info. Read more

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Hughes & Kettner Switchblade Amplifier Series

There are many amazing tube driven amplifiers on the market. There is also a dizzying array of solid-state modeling amps to choose from. Up until now, there has never been an option for players who are looking for those real tube tones AND modeling features

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Peavey PV 2000 Amplifier

If your standard answer to life’s big questions is “more power!” then the PV 2000 may be for you. The four-rackspace behemoth offers 1000 watts per side into 2 ohms (400 per 8 ohms) and up to 2000 watts in 4-ohm bridged-mono mode. Reported frequency response is as wide as 10 Hz-40 kHz. Read more

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