Have your say in a very ambitious project

  • Thread starter Thread starter ZEN Amps
  • Start date Start date
Clean channel of a plexi bright input (think be100 deluxe). Can be clean or pushed to the max for some break up.

Middle channel is a 101B esque blue channel. Fat and smooth.

High gain channel is something like a Uber/recto. As long as it sounds like it’s about to explode I’m happy.

Assignable bright and fat switches per channel.
Foot switchable gain stage applicable for all channels.
Global negative feedback.
Non tube loop (series/parallel)

XLR di out that you can load your own IR into is a huge benefit. Double bonus if it has a load for silent stage.

I think we’re going to see a new Suhr PT IR in the 50w range that does a lot of this in the next year.
 
skoora said:
Yeah, just build what you would want the amp to be. Catch-all designs tend to suck, never having one glorious tone but a few good ones. The builder having a particular vision is what matters more. The amp should live or die on that.
Click to expand...
Yeah absolutely - that's how this whole thing started a few years back. I was speculating on my ultimate amp with my business partner one evening over drinks, and before we knew it 'what if' turned into 'why not?'.

A few prototypes in and the feature set is mostly locked in - but was curious to throw the gates open to the crowd here. And enlightening it has been.

Any yes, tone comes first - no fun in building a jack of all trades product.
 
ZEN Amps said:
Yeah absolutely - that's how this whole thing started a few years back. I was speculating on my ultimate amp with my business partner one evening over drinks, and before we knew it 'what if' turned into 'why not?'.

A few prototypes in and the feature set is mostly locked in - but was curious to throw the gates open to the crowd here. And enlightening it has been.

Any yes, tone comes first - no fun in building a jack of all trades product.
Click to expand...
It sounds like you are on the right track. We have had a few threads where we spoke of what was important in an amp. For me, it is voicing, tightness, low noise floor, feel.

The tightness could be lost if the noise floor is low enough because i like not using a gate and adding a boost isnt a dealbreaker at all. But if adding the boost increases the noise to insane levels, it is a turnoff.

A lot of people wrote what they want in an amp with a ton of different features. And some of the ideas were pretty cool sounding for sure. But if you focus on a core tone, and dont try to please everyone, i think you will find a heavy following. Compromise is usually the enemy
 
ZEN Amps said:
Yeah absolutely - that's how this whole thing started a few years back. I was speculating on my ultimate amp with my business partner one evening over drinks, and before we knew it 'what if' turned into 'why not?'.

A few prototypes in and the feature set is mostly locked in - but was curious to throw the gates open to the crowd here. And enlightening it has been.

Any yes, tone comes first - no fun in building a jack of all trades product.
Click to expand...
From memory of some proto clips you posted a while back it was sounding pretty good. Kind of raw and rough around the edges iirc. (Which I like).
 
Use full size traces & components and high PV like they did in 70s and 80s amps. People wonder why modern amps (for the most part) lose all the dynamics & push of the vintage amps, and I've always wondered if it's because of the miniaturization of the components.

Another thought, every single channel amp I've played had something special going on that multi channel amps didn't. A rule of thumb for me has been the more channels, the worse feels. There's a billion pedals and add-ons out there, keep it simple. For example if I want a red beer I want to make a red beer so I get the red right, not buy a premade red beer.
 
I've been playing since 85' and have played a bunch of amps over the years. The features on an ultimate amp or basically the ones that have wowed me are:
- Ability to sound great in an apartment or in a venue
- External bias pots
- Two Channels

Like some mentioned above, I'm cool with a small amount of options if I can get a great sound.
 
Variable negative feedback and and resonance with frequency select switch are a must IMO.
 
It's all covered it seems but if you're going to make a high gain amp, put a noise gate in it. It's ridiculous not to these days.

If you have a tight/fat switch....make it actually tight...like tight as fuck.

Response switch? Is that even a thing? Fast response to your notes on one side and the other.

What's innovative that hasn't already been done? A built in tuner?

Maybe 2 amps in one with a completely different sound with the flip of a switch?

Saturation knob to get from a little to extreme.
 
Last edited:
As far as more fancy pants, a feature on my Mesa LSS and the 90 MKV I had that I thought were great, was the ability to drop to one power tube. 5 watts for the LSS and 10 watts for the MKV. Not sure if it was single ended class A but not only did it work great for an at home power level, it also imbued very cool wild characteristics when cranked up. So also a good recording tool to get a different character.
 
Smash said:
It sounds like you are on the right track. We have had a few threads where we spoke of what was important in an amp. For me, it is voicing, tightness, low noise floor, feel.

The tightness could be lost if the noise floor is low enough because i like not using a gate and adding a boost isnt a dealbreaker at all. But if adding the boost increases the noise to insane levels, it is a turnoff.

A lot of people wrote what they want in an amp with a ton of different features. And some of the ideas were pretty cool sounding for sure. But if you focus on a core tone, and dont try to please everyone, i think you will find a heavy following. Compromise is usually the enemy
Click to expand...


Dialing in tightness would be good.

If an amp is already too tight, then it's usually hard to thicken it up.

And it's why I can't stand those new clanky overly tight circuits going around.

Want some bloom and balls hanging off my chuggs. 😂
 
ZEN Amps said:
Can confirm. It was created by two Americans, is currently owned by a Japanese company, and loathed by most Aussies.


Disturbing imagery for a Sunday morning.
Click to expand...


Saturday night over here in the political dumpster.

Big ole... bloomy balls... chugging like a choochoo 🚂
 
Cordoba said:
Well said. I mentioned the Crate Stealth a while back, but even that has features I don't need, like reverb, two gain channels and an effects loop.
Click to expand...
Yep! I think a good idea is a great core sound with convenience. The problem with amps that have tons of things packed in is that they are a jack of all trades but don't do all of those things great.

The small Friedman amps are a good example. The XLR out with cab simulation was really good and did tons of recordings with it. But having EL84s instead of EL34s eventually made me want to sell them. They sounded great but just a hit short for the tone in my head. My Marshall studio amp with EL34s retains that sound I know.
 
A footswitch connector that is reliable. You shouldn’t be able to jiggle the footswitch jack and change every feature on the amp due to bad connections.
 
I've been thinking about this thread and wondering if I could even articulate what I would want out of a blank slate amp if I tried. I made a post earlier listing some features EQ / NFB stuff I'd like but... those features could honestly fit any amp from a Hell Razor down to a Twin.

Like let's say you were designing a Dual Recto but my "ideal" amp was a Rev1 Uberschall. Even if I knew you were designing a Dual Recto, how would I be able to describe what I wanted in such a way to steer you towards designing an Uberschall? I probably wouldn't be able to do that.

I can talk about how I'd love at least this much gain on tap and at least this much control over low cut at the input or something, and then I could list off all the EQ and NFB controls I know about that are useful, but there's really nothing I can say over text to describe or change the most important parts of the amp, the core voicing. Maybe some amp building masters could list off components and grounding strategies or something but I certainly couldn't.

Either way, it's cool of you to open up the thread and let us feel like we're contributing, or even just reminding you of a feature you might have thought about adding but forgot about or something, lol.
 
Last edited:
TheGreatGreen said:
Either way, it's cool of you to open up the thread and let us feel like we're contributing, or even just reminding you of a feature you might have thought about adding but forgot about or something, lol.
Click to expand...
I've always found it interesting to hear what pros and serious enthusiasts have to say about the gear they use (or would like to use) for their craft. Obviously you're going to get a wide range of suggestions with a question this broad, but there's always value in being curious. Hmm, maybe I've watched too much Ted Lasso...

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that many guys here value having a NFB switch or pot. I'm fond of this feature, but surprisingly own very few amps with this capability. A depth control, and some optional high-pass filtering at the input are also handy tools for heavier tones - check and check.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top