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f the jcm800 2203 which was initially a close copy of the brand s first master volume equipped amp the jmp 2203 released in 1975 but underwent several circuit changes in the next few years 12 throughout the 1980s mesa boogie continued revising its mark series pioneering new features with their mark ii iterations like channel switching and effects loops smith and his company s most significant revision produced the mark iic variant which had a tighter more aggressive tone that was popularized by metallica 6 the jcm800 and mark series marked a transition from vintage style amplifiers to modern designs 6 technicians in the 1980s continued pushing modded amplifiers into higher gain territory and some became successful enough to launch their own companies including soldano bogner and rivera soldano s slo 100 helped establish the high end high gain amplifier market and inspired later german brands like engl hughes kettner and diezel 6 toward the end of the decade many professional guitarists adopted complex rackmount setups often consisting of multiple preamps power amps and studio grade effects all operated with a custom pedal controller popular rackmount preamps included the a da mp 1 mesa boogie triaxis marshall jmp 1 and soldano x88 r 13 1990s present boutique brands and digital modeling edit while rackmount setups were widely used by pros they were expensive and by the time affordable rackmount options came to the market in the early 1990s grunge had inspired a return to standalone amplifiers vintage style effects pedals and a less processed sound 13 14 the 1990s also experienced a new wave of boutique amplifier builders the old fender and marshall amps previous techs had modded were by then too valuable to alter so many instead founded companies that built new amps inspired by vintage designs a notable example was matchless and their vox ac30 inspired dc 30 combo 14 other companies continued to push the boundaries of high gain with mesa boogie s dual rectifier becoming the decade s quintessential high gain amplifier 6 peavey s 5150 co designed with eddie van halen became another frequently used amplifier among metal guitarists 4 an axe fx ultra modeling technology advanced significantly during this time tech 21 had released its analog sansamp amplifier modeler in 1989 but it became popular in the 1990s as a direct recording solution 14 line 6 released its first digital modeling amplifier the axsys in 1996 followed by the bean shaped desktop pod processor two years later early modelers were regarded as home practice tools 6 until the 2006 arrival of fractal audio s axe fx the first modeler considered sufficient for professional use 15 the kemper profiler followed in 2011 pioneering profiling also known as capturing a technology that allows users to create and use digital versions of their own physical gear 16 the success of digital modeling in an otherwise analog landscape has led to a long running debate over the merits of tube amplifiers compared to modelers 17 tube amp players often appreciate the nostalgia of the technology and argue analog amps and cabinets have a soul that cannot be replicated modeler users value their portability consistency and reliability 17 many tube amp manufacturers have responded by implementing digital technology into their products especially impulse responses irs which are digital emulations of speaker cabinets and microphones irs allow for easier home recording letting players skip the use of physical cabinet setups while still using a tube amplifier 6 alongside the development of modelers smaller lunchbox amplifiers amp heads that use metal cases and a low output power stage have become popular following the success of the 15 watt orange tiny terror released in 2006 18 boss debuted its katana line of analog digital hybrid amplifiers in 2016 and it became the industry s bestselling amp line 19 as digital signal processing technology has progressed modelers have become more compact and inexpensive with budget offerings from brands like mooer nux and joyo many brands now incorporate ai and machine learning into their products and design process 17 one such company neural dsp established itself through audio plug ins that create computer based virtual amplifier and effects modelling suites neural released their first piece of hardware the quad cortex in 2020 20 structure edit format edit fundamentally guitar amplifiers function by taking the signal generated by an electric guitar s pickup s and feed it through an electronic circuit in which the tone is shaped and amplified before being projected through one or more loudspeakers 21 an amplifier in which this entire process happens inside a single enclosure is referred to as a combo when the tone shaping and amplification occur inside a dedicated unit that requires a separate speaker cabinet it is known as a head 21 most amplifiers utilize a tone stack that consists of controls to individually adjust bass midrange and treble frequency levels reverb is a commonly included effect for models that use vacuum tubes the specific tube types used and the number of them have a significant impact on the amp s tone and ability to create distortion 21 many amps are designed with two or more selectable channels which allow for different volume distortion and equalization settings control layout edit the control panel of a bogner shiva amp head control knobs and buttons are typically located on the front of an amp s chassis common front panel controls include those for preamp volume or gain bass middle and treble frequency adjustments and master volume amps with more complex feature sets can also include presence and resonance controls or even a graphic equalizer as in the mesa boogie mark series these tone controls can be passive or active passive tone controls use parts like resistors and capacitors that do not require additional electric power and can only cut selected frequencies active tone controls can cut or boost frequencies but use parts like transistors and op amps that require external power to operate 22 guitars are connected to the amp via one or more 1 4 jacks back panel features include connections for the external speaker cabinets and optional features like an effects loop power attenuation headphone use and direct recording preamp and power amp edit the electronic circuit of a guitar amplifier can be divided into two sections the preamp or preamplifier receives the initial input signal from the guitar and is responsible for the amp s tone shaping and equalization controls 23 the amount of amplification applied to the incoming signal known as gain affects the amp s volume but to a greater extent affects its preamp distortion the power amp then receives the processed signal and amplifies it to the player s desired output level via the loudspeakers wattage is used as a measurement of how much power an amp can produce 23 for the first several decades of their use guitar amplifiers almost exclusively used vacuum tubes in both the preamp and power amp sections the 12ax7 is the most common preamp tube while power amps utilize el34 el84 6l6 or 6v6 tubes among others tubes are also sometimes used for rectification which convert ac power to dc and impart their own tonal character solid state amplifiers replace these tubes with diodes and transistors 23 power output edit the relationship between power output in watts and perceived volume is nuanced generally speaking more wattage equates to more volume but there can be a significant difference in perceived volume depending on the nature of the power amp tube based power amps for example will seem louder than their solid state counterparts at a given wattage with a 10 to 15 watt tube amp being roughly equivalent in volume to a 50 watt solid state amp 23 among tube amps however there is not a significant difference in maximum volume based on wattage as measured in dbs a 100 watt tube amp is not significantly louder than a 15 watt tube amp the major difference is instead in headroom or how loud an amp can be set before it starts to distort with the 100 watt amp being able to stay cleaner at much louder volumes than the 15 watt amp 24 for many players though the output level setting is chosen not purely for reasons of volume but also for the perception that tube amps often sound their best at specific volume settings that strike a balance between driving the preamp and power amp while preserving the dynamics of a guitarist s playing 24 distortion edit distortion or overdrive is an important characteristic of most guitar amplifiers distortion can be produced in either the preamp or power amp or both early amplifiers like the 100 watt marshall super lead used a single volume control to control the amp s overall output volume distortion was produced by increasing that volume control to overload the amp s power amp tubes which often required extremely high volumes the more volume the more distortion generally distortion is more associated with tube amps which have less headroom than solid state amps and are considered to have a more pleasing overdriven character 24 most modern amplifiers use two volume controls an initial volume control often labeled preamp or gain that affects the level of the input signal and then a master volume control placed at the end of the circuit after the power amp tubes allowing for level attenuation before the signal is sent to the loudspeakers a master volume allows distortion to be produced by pushing the preamp and or power amp into distortion before the output level is then set to the player s desired overall volume conversely amps like the soldano slo 100 produce distortion solely in its preamp allowing for significant levels of distortion at any volume 25 preamp gain is often preferred for its added compression and harmonic overtones 24 high gain edit amplifiers designed to produce heavy amounts of distortion for genres like hard rock and metal are often referred to as high gain early amps like the super lead could produce distortion and saturation but proved unsatisfactory as much of rock music became more aggressive into the 1980s and beyond master volumes were an important factor in the development of high gain tones as was mesa boogie s pioneering of cascading preamp designs in which multiple gain stages arranged in series would spill over one into the next as the preamp gain control is increased allowing for unprecedented amounts of distortion 26 high gain abilities are now considered a definitive quality of modern amplifiers 6 in popular culture edit the original up to eleven knobs in the 1984 film this is spinal tap volume control gradations are typically numbered from zero to ten in the 1984 film this is spinal tap guitarist nigel tufnel demonstrates an amplifier with volume knobs marked from zero to eleven believing that this numbering increases the highest volume of the amp he explains it s one louder isn t it this misunderstanding of the underlying operating principles led to the idiom up to eleven also phrased as these go to eleven as a consequence of the film real bands and musicians started buying equipment whose knobs went up to eleven or twelve cabinet design edit back view of a mesa boogie lone star combo partially showing its pair of 12 speakers combos and external speaker cabinets required for use with heads come in a variety of configurations combos often use one or two 12 speakers or between one and four 10 speakers smaller practice amps often use even smaller speakers standalone cabinets paired with heads typically use up to four 10 or 12 speakers several different designs can used including an open back design a closed back design essentially a sealed box and the less common bass reflex design which uses a closed back with a vent or port cut into the cabinet 27 with guitar amps most open back amp cabinets are not fully open part of the back is instead enclosed with panels combo amp cabinets and standalone speaker cabinets are typically made of plywood some are made of mdf or particle board especially in low budget models 27 cabinet size and depth material types assembly methods type and thickness of the baffle material the wood panel that holds the speaker and the way the baffle attaches to the cabinet all affect tone 27 when two or more speakers are used in the same cabinet or when two cabinets are used together the speakers can be wired in parallel or in series or in a combination of the two e g two 2x10 cabinets with the two speakers wired in series can be connected together in parallel whether speakers are wired in parallel or in series affects the impedance of the system two 8 ohm speakers wired in parallel have 4 ohm impedance guitarists who connect multiple cabinets to an amplifier must consider the amp s minimum impedance parallel vs series also affects tone and sound speakers wired in parallel slightly dampen s and restrain s them giving what some describe as tighter response and smoother breakup some describe speakers wired in series usually no more than two as sounding looser giving a slightly more raw open and edgy sound 27 stacks edit a 3 6 stack of mock marshall guitar cabinets for jeff hanneman of slayer when an amp head is placed atop a speaker cabinet it is sometimes referred to as a stack a head placed atop a single speaker enclosure is called a half stack when two speaker cabinets are used it is known as a full stack in the case of full stacks the upper cabinet often uses a partially angled front while the lower cabinet uses a straight front stacks were popularized by marshall in the 1960s the brand initially paired their amp heads with a single cabinet consisting of eight 12 speakers but these were unwieldy and quickly replaced with two cabinets each using four 12 speakers and placed or stacked on top of each other some touring metal and rock bands have used large arrays of guitar speaker cabinets to create an impressive appearance some of these arrangements include only the fronts of speaker cabinets mounted on a large frame 28 types edit vacuum tube edit main article valve amplifier four electro harmonix kt88 power tubes vacuum tubes called valves in british english were by far the dominant active electronic components in most instrument amplifier applications until the 1970s when solid state semiconductors transistors started taking over transistor amplifiers are less expensive to build and maintain reduce the weight and heat of an amplifier and tend to be more reliable and more shock resistant tubes are fragile and they must be replaced and maintained periodically as well serious problems with the tubes can render an amplifier inoperable until the issue is resolved while tube based circuitry is technologically outdated tube amps remain popular since many guitarists prefer their sound 29 tube enthusiasts believe that tube amps produce a warmer sound and a more natural overdrive sound solid state edit most inexpensive an...
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