I think this is an amazing factory preset! It’s been so inspiring and has been getting me out of my typical Mayer sounds.
Thank you!
Thanks! Factory preset too.
Which one?
The CA3+. I believe it’s modeled after the Custom Audio OD100.
* EDIT: Up-to-date information is available in Yek's Guide to the Fractal Audio Amplifier Models *
CA3+: based on Custom Audio Amplifiers 3+ SE preamp
Another tube preamp, one that has left a mark in history. It’s from the ‘90s when lots of guitar players used gigantic “refrigerator” racks, stuffed with preamps, mixers, effects devices etc., and the 3+ SE fitted right in there. You've probably heard it on lots of albums as it was a common studio device. It helped Bob Bradshaw (and John Suhr) establish Custom Audio Electronics (CAE) / Custom Audio Amplifiers (CAA). The number 3 denotes the number of channels on this preamp. It is famous for its clean tone (channel 1 sounds like a blackface Fender) as well as for its characteristic crunch and lead overdrive (channels 2 and 3). More background.
Steve Lukather played this preamp a lot. Others were/are Peter Frampton, Eddie Van Halen (on the F.U.C.K. album), Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong.
Custom Audio also builds the OD-100 amplifier, which is based on the 3+ SE preamp but also different in certain aspects. John Suhr, who worked at CAE/CAA and co-designed the 3+ SE and the OD-100 and who later started his own company, also sells the OD-100 under the CAA name.
Bob Bradshaw:
“From 1985 to 1990 I toured with Steve Lukather on all the Toto shows. We were taking a lot of equipment to Europe and it got to the point were we needed to scale down and change things a lot. I go well: here we are with this big rack full of amplifiers that we're basically using as preamps. It was a Mesa-Boogie for a clean sound, a Marshall for a crunch sound and a Soldano for a solo sound. We were just using the preamp section of those amps, so I thought, why can't we make a three channel preamp with clean, crunch and overdrive and we'll use power amps that were using anyway. So I went to Mike Soldano and explained him the situation that we needed to scale our rig down to take overseas. Hence the Soldano X-88 R. Which was my concept, Soldano came up with the circuitry and everything, but it was my thing. The amp came out and it was a big hit. $1800 a piece. Soldano sells em to me for $1700. I only make a $100 for each amp I sell myself, it's like, com'on you now. But I own the prototype. In the meantime I start working with John Suhr. John is building great guitars at the same time, he's interested in doing amp work. John was on the eastcoast. The Soldano preamp needed help, it always needed an extra EQ to breathe some life into it. It was a great basic thing, but it needed some top, some bottom. There were things about it that we wanted to change. Mike Soldano was kind of reluctant to make any of these big changes, he had something going and was happy the way things went. (…)”
CAE:
“The Clean channel is extremely warm and punchy with tons of tight low end, smooth midrange and silky highs.
The Crunch channel in itself is capable of a high gain solo sound and can also clean up to a classic slightly overdriven clean sound by rolling off the guitar volume or turning down its gain control while still retaining its warm, round tone.“The Lead channel, the highest gain channel, is not only able to clean up as well as Channel 2, but is also able to provide a rich, fat, searing overdrive with a quick attack while maintaining sensitivity to picking technique.”
The preamp has separate Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble and Master controls and a Bright switch for each channel, plus shared post-EQ controls (Presence and Depth). The lower the Gain settings are, the more active the Bright switches will be.
I'm not sure which power amp model is used in the three CA3+ amp models. Mesa or Marshall?
Match the models with any cab you like.
TBH I ignored the CA3+ overdrive models for a long time. Didn't care for their fizzy sound with emphasis on the upper mids, lacking depth. When writing this article I tried them again, of course, and I like them better now. Maybe because of the Quantum improvements, I don't know.
A selection of YouTube videos:
And here's a demo of the Fractal Audio model, pre-Quantum:
You’re right. I should’ve known since I was listening to the Tone Talk podcast with Bob Bradshaw last night.