AXL Guitars Faultline Bass Heads and Cabs
October 30, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
AXL Guitars, San Francisco-based company, take another leap forward in the quest to create earth-shaking tones, releases their FAULTLINE series of Bass Amplifier heads and cabinets. Read more
Fortin Bones Tube Amp
October 6, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
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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Line 6 Flextone Amplifier
September 16, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
Destroy the tubes! No, not the Eighties pop band that brought us such classics as “Talk to ya Later” and “She’s a Beauty.” You know, those hot pieces of glass in the back of amplifiers that some people think you need to produce a great guitar tone. Well, those people clearly don’t include the engineers at Line 6, who continue to design amplifiers that use digital processing to emulate the sounds of classic tube amps. Their argument runs that most folks are happy to use digital processing, and more and more guitarists are enjoying the cheap flexibility of recording in the digital domain. Furthermore, we are happy to listen to CDs, use samplers, download music from the Internet—all digital. So why not a fully digital amplifier that includes models of the world’s favorite amps along with an array of powerful effects (and absolutely no tubes)?
The Flextone is rated at 60-watts with two different 100-watt stereo versions also available. The open-back combo design is familiar, with a single Line 6 12-inch speaker, top-mounted controls and a retro look. The control panel has most of the features you’d expect to see—master volume, drive, treble, mid, bass, reverb—but the exciting stuff happens with the two rotary selectors. The first allows you to choose from 16 different amp models, including Roland JC-120, Fender Blackface, Marshall Plexi, Soldano SLO and some of Line 6’s own concoctions. The second control offers a variety of effects in different combinations, such as chorus, flanging, delay and tremolo. So, you choose your amp, tweak the sound to taste, add your effects and then save it in one of the four channel selections. It’s really a breeze; unlike some digital amps, the controls are very self-explanatory, and the comprehensive but lighthearted manual keeps you out of trouble.
The real question, of course, is, “Does it sound like the amps it’s designed to emulate?” Amazingly enough, the answer is yes. The modeling is very believable, despite a touch of high-end frizzle on a couple of the sounds. Pitted against a class A/B tweed amp, the sound of the Flextone’s Bassman model definitely held its own. The other models are equally impressive and capture the distinct voicings associated with legends like Vox and Marshall. High-gain tones really fry, without that swiffness normally associated with digital amps. The clean sounds, probably the most contentious area for such a design, handle the range from jazz to country with a confident swagger. Add to that a fat fistful of studio quality effects and you’ve got an amp capable of dialing up virtually any sound you can imagine.
The optional Floor Board controller that we tested with the Flextone is also worth a mention. At a hundred bucks, it’s a good value just for the volume pedal, excellent wah effects and built-in tuner. You also get a road-ready foot controller that lets you hop through everything the amp has to offer, including the delay tap-tempo feature.
The End Line
While Eric Johnson probably won’t hock his favorite Plexi in favor of this digital mimic, most players will buy these convincing tones.
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Vox Black Diamond Modeling Combo Amp -Music Equipment Reviews
June 23, 2008 by Chazders · Leave a Comment
Vox has released 2 new and great products; the first is the Vox Black Diamond Modeling Combo Amp which is a combination between the sweet vintage tone (valve) and the latest technology (digital modeling) that is related to the Valvetronix series family.
Features of the Vox Black Diamond Modeling Combo Amp include 200-massive-watts of output power (2×100-watt in stereo mode), a 12AX7 preamp tube (inside the Valve Reactor circuit, like in all Valvetronix models), 32 built-in different amp models (from the highly regarded classic to the modern models), 25 effects types (essentially 76 different effects in 3 banks, including, compression, wah and pickup simulator. In addition to another with distortion and spatial effects and the final one with modulation, delay reverb and noise reduction), 128 user and 64 factory presets, Celestion Neo Dog 150-watt speaker and a very appealing manual mode, which reflects the physical position of the knobs in the selected presets.
The Vox Black Diamond is loaded with an editor and library software, chromatic tuner, MIDI connections and optionally you can control some of the effects with a footswitch controller. The price and availability of the Vox Black Diamond Modeling Combo Amp have to be announced yet, but Gear-Vault can’t wait to get our hands on one and try it out. We’ll keep you updated – but in the meantime, head over to Gear-Monkey.com discussion boards.
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