POD Farm 1.01 – Model Gallery

6•5

Citrus D-30
In 1968, in a little music store on Old Compton St. in London, Clifford
Cooper was having trouble getting amplifier manufacturers to take him
seriously as a dealer, as they thought he was too young, and his shop
too small. So he did what seemed only logical to an enthusiastic young
man with a background in electrical engineering – he designed and built
his own amplifiers. Since he had come into a large quantity of bright
orange vinyl that was what he used to cover his cabinets. It wasn’t long
before high-profile musicians like Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder, and
Frank Zappa were beating a path to his door. This model is based on
an Orange®AD30TC head, a 30 watt, Class A number with a great
personality that gracefully marries vintage British mid-gain breakup with
modern shimmer and presence. Back off the drive and you’ll get chimey
boutique tones, dig in with the drive up and the AD30 purrs pure Brit
Rock tone.
*All product names are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated
with Line 6. These product names, descriptions and images are provided for the sole purpose of identifying
the specific products that were studied during Line 6’s sound model development. ORANGE® is a registered
trademark of Orange Musical Electronic Company, Ltd.
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1967 Class A-30 Top Boost
The 1967 Class A-30 Top Boost model is based on* a Vox®
AC 30. Music was changing in the early ‘60s and guitarists
were asking for more brilliance & twang. So the Jennings
Company, makers of Vox® amps, decided to add Treble and
Bass controls (and an extra 12AX7 gain stage, incidentally)
in addition to the Treble Cut knob it already had (which in
actuality was a sliding bandpass filter that always seemed like it
was working backwards); this additional circuit became known
as Top Boost.
The AC 30 with Top Boost was the amp made famous by many
British invasion bands. Much of the unique character of the Vox® sound can be attributed to the
fact that Class A amps overdrive in a very different way than Class AB. Brian May of Queen, Mike
Campbell of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, and The Edge of U2 have all used classic AC 30s to make their
music. Although usually played fairly clean, a cranked AC 30 has a great saturated lead tone, a la Brian
May on the early Queen albums.
On this Amp Model, the Middle control acts like the original Cut knob on the AC 30. We plugged
into the Hi gain input of the AC 30’s Brilliant channel when creating it. We also turned the tone
controls around, since original Top Boost amps had the bass and treble turned all the way down when
the knob was all the way up. Go figure.
VOX® is a registered trademark of Korg Europe Limited and is in no way associated or affiliated with Line
6. These product names, descriptions and images are provided for the sole purpose of identifying the specific
products that were studied during Line 6’s sound model development.
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