Line 6 Flextone Cab 212S user manual Modeled Amps Which Amps are MODELED?

Flextone Manual Rev E; bookfile Page 19 Tuesday, September 8, 1998 10:31 AM

MODELED AMPS: WHICH AMPS ARE MODELED?

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 (largely due to the complicated EQ scheme); the sound is sort of “future retro.” Its soft clipping is typical of Class A amplifiers; almost a “hi-fi” sound in a great rock n’ roll amplifier.

Brit Class A - Modeled after a 1960 Vox AC 15. Vox amps owe much of their unique tone quality to a Class A power amp and were standard issue for English bands in the 60’s. They were actually one of the first amplifiers designed specifically for electric guitar; the other companies essentially got their designs straight from the RCA Radio book. This particular sound is based on Channel 1 of the best AC 15 we could find. Once again, the original amp had only a single tone control – a treble cut. We faithfully modeled that and then slipped in some post- Tubetone Bass and Mid contouring. Set the Bass and Mid in neutral (12 o’clock, or halfway up) and play with the Treble control to get yourself some of those classic British invasion sounds.

Brit Blues - This Amp Model is based on a JTM-45 head with block logo (predates the “scrolled” Marshall logo), complete with a gold Plexiglas (Plexi) front panel, although the sound normally associated with Plexi amps comes from the late 60’s, 50-watt version that was the inspiration for the next in the Flextone’s line up of TubeTone Amp Models. The JTM-45 marked the beginning of Marshall’s transition from a mellower Fender-like tone to the distinctive bright “crunchy” sound of the later Marshalls.

Brit Classic - Modeled after the infamous Marshall Plexi – coveted by tone connoisseurs the world over. By this time (ca. 1968) Marshall had completely changed the circuitry away from the Fender 6L6 power tube heritage and moved to an EL34 tube; another major tone difference was due to the necessary output & power supply transformer changes. (See, we told you we spent some time looking into all this stuff.) All this mucking about added up to create a tone forever linked with Rock Guitar. Amps of this era didn’t have any sort of master volume control, so to get this sound you’d have to crank your “Mark III Super Amp” to max – just the thing to help you really make friends with the neighbors. Hendrix used Marshalls of this era; 20 years later Van Halen’s first two records owed their “brown sound” to an unmodified 100-watt Plexi. In order to get a crunch sound out of a Plexi you would likely crank up the input volume and the tone controls (to 10!). You’ll find that the Brit Classic, in keeping with our basic “make-it-

3 • 3