Modeled Amps: WHICH AMPS ARE MODELED?
3•3
4. Black Panel – Inspired by a couple of classics from Fender....
4.1 – The Holy Grail for many blues, country, and “roots” players has been a blackface
Fender Deluxe Reverb (Of course, now that the AX2’s here, that will all change).
After listening to quite a few candidates for modeling, we stumbled upon an extremely
cool ’64 Deluxe. Most players love a Deluxe when it’s turned up to about 7 for a nice
gritty sound that cleans up nicely when you back off your guitar’s volume knob just a
little. Notice how the tone control response changes as this Amp Model’s Drive is
changed; clean settings are crisp and present, while more driven settings will mellow
the high end. This is typical of what you get from a Deluxe, and is nicely captured
here.
The Deluxe itself has only Bass and Treble controls. Leaving us, once again, with the
prospect of a knob with nothing to say for itself. But fear not; in this case, we’ve set up
the Mid knob as an “active” style tone control, that can boost the mids. Use it to add
some post-Tubetone midrange contouring for a little more flexibility. Once again, set
the Mid knob to its “neutral” 12 o’clock position for the classic Deluxe sound.
Tweaked up right, this tone will cut through and sing.
4.2 – The classic blackface Fender Twin (in this case, a 1965 Twin) was a real
workhorse. Everybody used it from jazz and country players to serious rockers. I
remember seeing Johnny Winter at a concert where both he and Rick Derringer – am
I dating myself or what? – were using six Twins stacked in a pyramid each. We were in
the second balcony and it was REALLY loud even all the way back there. The Twin
has a lot of tonal flexibility and is at home in a great many different situations. It never
gets extremely overdriven and dirty, mostly just louder; a lot louder. This is the amp
for the classic surf sound. Dial up the spring reverb, switch on the tremolo, crank up
the volume, and look out for bikinis.
5. Modern Class A – The Matchless Chieftain, which was studied for the Modern
Class A selection, is a very expensive handmade amp. Originally designed to sound
like a top-boost Vox AC 30, the Matchless doesn’t exactly have a Vox sound, but
something unique; the sound is sort of “future retro.” Its soft clipping is typical of Class
A amplifiers and gives you almost a “hi-fi” sound in a great rock n’ roll amplifier. The
differences in tone from the Vox are largely due to the complicated scheme of the EQ
electronics.
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