Line 6 Original inspired by the original high gain Big Bottom model
About
To create the Line 6 Badonk, the Big Bottom model from the XT code was rebuilt using new tools so that the overall EQ and pre-post distortion filtering matched. The previous tone stack was a little limited, so it was tuned up to have more range and provide a realistic, interactive response.
To make this model feel more like a full amp, the power amp from the Fatality model (mesa rectifier mod) was added then tweaked slightly to reinforce the overall EQ curve of the Big Bottom.
Tone Secret: The Big Bottom does not have a crap-load of low frequency. Instead, it is an amp with a slightly more than average amount of low end that can really hold together while being fed a lot of low frequency. It holds together well with heavily detuned guitars.
Line 6 Original inspired by boutique mid-gain amps
About
Smooth-overdriving, easy to play, boutique mid-gain.
The “Litigator” was born not constrained by making a model that matched a real world amp. It started from a Fender place like so many of the boutique amps, moving the tone stack to a different location later in the circuit and also tone stack cap values and ranges (wasn’t constrained by the real world, low pass and high pass filtering before each of the gain stages). driving knob adjust frequency responses in various places in the circuit (fine tuning the knees of how the individual tube stages entered clipping). Tuning the power amp to make it distort in an idealized way. Adjusting the sag so that it reacted in a ideal way.
Based on a heavily modded Fender and then hammered on and tweaked. It wouldn’t be impossible to make in the physical world, but it might get a little messy. removing a lot of the noise and irregularities that people find unpleasant, but adding just enough of the wrong things so they enhance without being a distraction. It’s like a vintage amp with movie magic color correction and hyped depth of field.
Like a dirty Vintage Deluxe, dumble-esqe, very smooth, mid-gain, edge-of-breakup model. In the same general neighborhood as the Pete Anderson Deluxe model that was in the HD model packs, but with more gain on tap.
Low Overdrive type amp in the Helix to give me a usable sound right out of the box, sounds awesome with the Stupor OD drive distortion.
Line 6 Original based on a Hot-rodded Marshall® JCM® 800.
About
Hot rodding would usually entail internal modifications to the amplifier.
This could just be changing the odd resistor/pot/cap value to change drive levels, tone etc…
Or it could actually be a change to the signal path itself, such as adding and extra gain stage or wiring two different inputs in parallel on older Marshall amps. Marshall with extra gain mod.
The original intent of the term “modded Marshall’ was to achieve the added gain without resorting to a pedal. For instance GnR album Appetite for Destruction, was recorded with a Hot Rodded JCM 800.
Hot Rodded Marshal JCM example, 12ax7 (ecc83) added, using triode:
Here’s a hybrid to fill a void for doom/sludge players. It’s a JCM800 preamp going into a Hiwatt® power amp with some additional tweaks, to give you large amounts of gain and a rich, sag-induced reaction with a whole lot of bass.
This high-voltage, face-melting original has interactive presence & mid-range controls, with more gain than you can shake a stick at. It has something from the first Bomber Uber.
(It has only volume and 1 tone control, no master)
With its single-ended 6V6 output stage, unusual preamp circuitry, and oval 6” x 9” speaker, the SuproS6616 of the late ’50s and early ’60s—manufactured by Valco in Chicago—might seem an unlikely candidate for “classic amp” status. Yet more of the stuff of legend, Jimmy Page has admitted to using a Supro amp to record most of the first two Led Zeppelin albums. The only problem is, he never copped to which Supro model he used. Talk about a real communication breakdown! Wind it up, and the S6616 offers juicy, brown overdrive that can sound like a raging stack when mixed with the track, yet with a character all its own.
Reined in to clean volumes, it has a beautifully crisp spank. And at all levels the 6” x9” speaker yields nodes and peaks that contribute to an unusual and distinctive sonic voice that has come to be known as the Supro sound. We don’t know if this is ‘the one’ or not, but it sure sounds like it to us! (Dragon pants not included.)
PRS Archon/Archetype- a spongey, driving type of modern tone. Lots of gain without brutality. Great sounding amp!! Beefy cross between a Marshall and a Mesa.
PRS Archon Head, all-valve, 100/50 watts, 2 channels, , fixed Bias, 6x 12AX7 preamp tubes, 4x 6L6GC power amp
The Archon Twenty-Five features six 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section, a duo of 5881 tubes in the power section, and a solid state rectifier.
The amp is hand-wired. The pots are all high-quality Alpha pots and the tubes are mounted directly to the chassis.
The Archon offers individual Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Master Volume, and Bright switches for both the Clean and Lead channels and global Presence and Depth controls.
The Clean channel is rich a dimensional and stays clean to almost full volume. Reminiscent of the mesa and soldano cleans.
The versatility of the three-band EQ lets you dial in tones from across the decades and across genres.
Placing the Treble and Bass around 3 o’clock, the Middle at 9 o’clock, and the Bright switch on, the Archon is capable of a surprisingly accurate blackface approximation. Playing Tele and running a Tremolo and Reverb in the loop, It could easily cover country and surf. Dialing the Treble and Bass back to noon and cranking the Middle to 3 o’clock creates a more British sounding clean tone.
Cranking the Clean volume and Master volume makes a sound that made me think of Pete Townsend and his Hiwatts. The tone has a little power tube grit to it, but it’s big, rich, and percussive.
The clean channel is excellent and also takes pedals very well.
The Lead channel starts out in hot-rodded Marshall territory and quickly works its way up into modern high gain tones. As long as you keep the Lead volume below noon, you can always clean things up with the volume knob on your guitar. If you crank the Lead volume beyond noon, totally higain.
Lead volume around 9:00 or 10:00 range of dirt tones and the way in which the Archon allowed the nature of each guitar.
The three-band EQ adds a ton of versatility. You can scoop the mids for more modern sounds or push them for classic rock tones. With Treble and Bass at noon, Middle at 4 o’clock, and the Bright switch off, the Archon is a ‘60s and ‘70s rock monster.
For an amp with this amount of gain, the Archon is amazingly low noise. To the extent that even hitting the above-mentioned classic rock tone with the extra gain of a Park Fuzz Sound didn’t add any hum or hiss—it did make for a ripping lead tone, though. The fact that the Lead channel can handle the extra gain and harmonic content of a fuzz pedal demonstrates just how articulate the Archon is.
It should come as no surprise that with the rich distorted tones of the Archon, the collection of dirt pedals were neglected. But pedal fans fear not, the Archon is one pedal-friendly amp (especially with the versatile EQ). Dirt pedals come out sounding large and natural. Pairing the Archon with a klon gave me instant access to four distinct tones from pristine to mean.
It has the clarity of gain of an Engl meaning you can pile it on if you feel the need and it won’t turn to a fuzzy mushy mess, but isn’t as overly tight or stiff and compressed as an Engl can be. It has a bigger bottom than the Engl too, nice chunk, but not a flabby mess like a Dual Recto which needs a boost in front to tighten it up. The mids seem to sit in a real good slightly lower mid place where they don’t have any upper mid honk but aren’t overly scooped when set half way either. It’s got good cut and clarity on the top end with a nice bite than isn’t as aggressive a bite as a Soldano or Marshall can be.
Cross between a Mesa Dual Rectifier’s larger-than-life delivery and a fluid, midrangy Marshall. Cranking the master volume to 11 o’clock was like waking a dangerous beast. Here the amp is blisteringly loud, and the low end feels like a medicine ball to the ribs. Thanks to the responsive EQ and presence controls,
The overdrive channel is remarkably flexible. Setting the controls at noon with the gain knob at 11 o’clock produces modern hard rock tones perfect for drop-tuned Tool and Alice in Chains riffs. Raising the presence and treble knobs while dipping the midrange to nine o’clock provided fast low-end response well suited to old-school Metallica-style thrash. Boosting the mids while pulling back lows and highs is perfect for barreling ’70s/’80’s British metal. The amp’s brawny midrange makes it slightly trickier to achieve the razor-like edge needed for some extreme forms of modern metal, but the amp handles low B, A, and even G tunings exceptionally well, never sacrificing tightness or detail, even within full chords.
The Archon has such ludicrous amounts of gain on tap that you don’t need to do much dialing to obtain enormous tones. If you’re willing to make the power amp sweat a bit, you’ll find that many of the Archon’s tightest and heaviest tones don’t require preamp saturation.
It was modeled with the bright switch in the ON position (Lead) . The bright switch is entangled in the tone control circuit, and when the bright switch is set to off is shunt some high frequencies to ground. When it’s set to ON, it’s pretty much a standard tone circuit topology.
The tone control circuit is highly interactive, and when the bright switch is off, it becomes highly interactive in a different manner. I knew I could match it well with it in the ON position, so I did that. While it’s possible to match it in the off position, I’d have to have a whole second tone circuit running behind the scenes, using DSP. Plus, I did use a little personal preference, so I just modeled it in the more classic “on” position because that sounded better to me.
Clean channel model has bright switch On-Off modeled.
Mesa Boogie Mark IV Combo of 85 watts Class A or Simul-Class (depending on the type and arrangement of the power valves you can also deliver 70, 50 or 30 w). Mesa Boogie Mark IV A Celestion C90 12 “speaker. 3 independent channels with different response modes. 5-band graphic equalizer switchable and auto assignable to R2 and Lead channels. Mesa Boogie Mark IV. Record outputs, line, & amp; nbsp; Reverb .. 5 valves 12AX7 in the pre. 4 valves 6L6 power; Selector of power valves like pentode or triode. Variac for normal (Full Power) or classic (Tweed) response.
In 1984, Mesa / Boogie released the first “Tri-modal” amplifier, the Mark III. Tri modal, because it has separate modes for Clean sound, Crunch sound and Lead sound. The Mark IV, which came out six years later, significantly improved the ability to control each channel separately by introducing two controller knobs on the front panel, thus optimizing available space without increasing the Mark III’s comfortable and versatile size. It is a complete amplifier, has all ranges, from blues, jazz, rock, heavy, even metal, has immense possibilities and just so make it especially complicated.
Rythm1 Gain-Rhythm 1 Gain and Pull Bright
This control defines the sensitivity of the clean channel, in settings on the 8, it starts to cause distortion, but in general it is clean crystalline. When it is saturated, it gives the sensitivity to the right hand of the guitarist, like to play blues, although for that is the channel Rhythm 2.
Pull Bright: Adds brilliance to the sound. With Rhythm 1 in low values (from 4 down), you add a lot of brilliance. At high settings (from 7 upwards), little brightness.
Rythm2_Gain-Rhythm 2 Gain and Pull Fat
It controls the gain of channel 2. It is a very powerful control; In low values, between 1 and 4, we can get a low saturation, which allows us to play blues and be able to control it only by striking loudly or slowly to the guitar string, an alternative clean channel.
But in high values (from 5 upwards), we can achieve a second Lead sound for our solos. With much gain and sustain.
Pull Fat: When it is deactivated it is possible to achieve blues sounds by controlling the channel only with gain and presence control, but if I want something closer to rock or heavy metal, you have to activate this control and raise the gain to values as high possible. It is a very useful tool when it comes to being versatile.
Treble Controls
The Mark IV has three separate and independent treble controls. One for each channel. It is a very powerful control, with much to do with the amount of gain of each channel. It directly influences this, and it is no less, because most of the sound energy in this ampli is routed to be controlled with these three seemingly insignificant little perches.
Let’s see it neatly, first the controls for the two Rhythm channels, then for the Lead channel:
-Rhythm 1 Treble
Between 0 and 3, it gives a warm jazzy tone, but most people occupy it between 5 and 7. That would be a mid-point to play pop, rock. This control passes a lot of sound energy and defines the sound of the channel to a great extent. It’s essential.
-R1 + R2 Bass & R1 + R2 Mid (Low and Medium for channels 1 and 2)
These controls regulate the amount of bass and half of the two channels at once Rhythm1 and Rhythm2. They are the only shared controls on the Mark IV.
These controls depend largely on how the Treble of the two channels is set. If the Treble is too high, these bass and midi controls become subtle and do not produce much change in overall pitch. Now, the lower the Treble is set, the lows and midpoints will be highlighted. However Bass and Middle controls serve to round the sound and give it a bit more definition. Therefore Treble must work well first and then round with low and medium.
-Rhythm 2 Treble
It works very much like Rhythm 1 Treble, while higher, more gain and sustain for the channel, while in low values the controls of Bass and Mid predominate, giving more warmth to the sound. This control must be handled in conjunction with the presence control corresponding to the channel.
-Presence Controls
There is a presence control for each channel in this amplifier. The presence usually refers to an enhancement of the mid-treble and a little bass. The more presence, it will sound brighter and warmer at the same time with a little more definition. At lower presence, a more opaque sound is achieved.
The Rhythm2 and Lead channels have a “Pull” function. If one pulls the knob out, the presence control acts on a higher frequency range, allowing a more sharp sound to help us to excel
