Using a different power amp section

I think the comment "GreatGreen" made on that exact point was really good.

"At one point, Cliff said that he didn't want users to be able to turn off the preamp and link two amp blocks together in a preamp-to-poweramp arrangement because it would make it easier for the competition to reverse engineer his work. However, if you could, instead of just turning off part of the amp, instead cycle through a menu of power sections like you can currently choose the tonestack from different amps... I don't know, maybe this could do everything you'd want without "opening" up the system in any significant way. I know I'd love to be able to do that. There are lots of great historic tones involving the preamp of one amp being slaved into the poweramp of another amo with fantastic results. Just off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure mostly all of Metallica's And Justice For All was recorded using a Mesa Boogie Mark IIc+ preamp sent to the power section of a Marshall JCM 800. That would be an easily achievable tone if we could hot-swap power sections in the amp block."
 
Wolfenstein98k said:
However, if you could, instead of just turning off part of the amp, instead cycle through a menu of power sections like you can currently choose the tonestack from different amps... I don't know, maybe this could do everything you'd want without "opening" up the system in any significant way. I know I'd love to be able to do that.
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Yes, exactly what I was saying.


Wolfenstein98k said:
Just off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure mostly all of Metallica's And Justice For All was recorded using a Mesa Boogie Mark IIc+ preamp sent to the power section of a Marshall JCM 800. That would be an easily achievable tone if we could hot-swap power sections in the amp block."
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Yes, exactly what I was saying at the beginning of this thread.
 
VanHalen said:
However, I really think we can make great associations of preamp and power amp just by adding something between : an EQ ! If you just plug one into the other I think you have good chances to not have a good sound. Remember this, preamps and power amps are sources of distortion, if you want to shape the sound, you’ll have to do this :
EQ -> Preamp -> EQ -> Power amp -> EQ
Fortunately, since FW19 we are able to do this because we have the possibility to choose the location of the GEQ in the amp block (we can set it to pre PA !). I think it’s a question of level between preamp and power amp. With heads or combos, the level is set by the designer of the amp/combo. If you want to make your own association, you’ll have to set the right level/EQ by yourself and it’s possible right now.
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+1
 
ScotHessler said:
The answer remains "No". A button to choose which power amp with whatever pre-amp is separating the two from each other and would allow the possibility of reverse engineering Cliff's code. He's been very clear about this. Multiple times.
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:numbness:

FractalAudio said:
One of the things I've been working on is "User Amp Models". A computer utility allows you to enter the various parameters and then you download the amp model to a "User Amp Slot".
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http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-discussion/87827-user-amp-models.html
 
While I can grasp the drawbacks of "user amp models", I find very useful both for Cliff & user the ability to select preamp section and poweramp section type. We have tubes selection, but it is a bit different to change the entire section.
 
The benefit of having two amp blocks, one running a preamp and another one running a power amp is that you can put any block between them, exactly like if we had a FX loop in an amp block. For me it would be interesting to use PEQ between preamp and power amp.
 
Clive said:
The benefit of having two amp blocks, one running a preamp and another one running a power amp is that you can put any block between them, exactly like if we had a FX loop in an amp block. For me it would be interesting to use PEQ between preamp and power amp.
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Looking for Metallica tones ?
 
While it is less than ideal, one thing that might be fun is a small set of preselected 'hybrid' amp models. I.e. A FAS Mark 800 or whatever. These would theoretically be low R&D efforts since the amps in question would already be G3'd @ the component level.
 
zenaxe said:
While it is less than ideal, one thing that might be fun is a small set of preselected 'hybrid' amp models. I.e. A FAS Mark 800 or whatever. These would theoretically be low R&D efforts since the amps in question would already be G3'd @ the component level.
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This reminds me this : http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-f...ts-ajfa-amp-mark-iic-pre-jcm800-poweramp.html

Of course, if we had the opportunity to put a PEQ like James did at the right place (in the FX loop), it would be the ultimate tool.
 
Honestly, the tonal differences are about the size of a gnats eyelash. You can do quite enough by changing the power tubes, preamp tubes, transformer parameters, and other doo-dads to put you pretty close to the arrangement you sought with the aforementioned mixed bag. If that is still unsatisfactory, maybe one should have never bothered with this technology from the start. Most of the time, you'll do more with input gain and tonestack settings than any other set of three-to-five knobs (within reason) - just look at what Jeff Beck can do with only the knobs on his guitar...
 
ScotHessler said:
The answer remains "No". A button to choose which power amp with whatever pre-amp is separating the two from each other and would allow the possibility of reverse engineering Cliff's code. He's been very clear about this. Multiple times.
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This is exactly how it went down. Let the man protect his work.
 
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