The New Age of Guitar Amplifiers

The hunt for great guitar tones is a life-long quest and guitar players always strive to find ways to improve their tones. Alas, the sometimes-exorbitant prices of guitar amplifiers that are used to craft the signature loud rock tones we all know put them out of reach of all but the most affluent rockers. Today however, thanks to the wonders of amplifier modeling, guitar players of all financial qualifications can now enjoy playing with classic guitar tones.

Modeling is a broad term that encompasses the analysis of objects and their physical characteristics and behavior and trying to replicate this behavior through software. In the context of musical instruments, a modeler can analyze the characteristics of a trumpet, for example, to come up with a reproduction of a flute’s sound.

With ever-increasing processing power and improving algorithms, physical modeling of musical instruments is getting closer and closer to producing sounds that mimic the real things. The same concept of physical modeling has also been applied to modeling guitar amplifiers.

The earliest guitar amplifiers that came out in the early 1900s all used vacuum tubes to amplify sound. While vacuum tubes are an outdated technology, the sound a vacuum tube amplifier produces is full-bodied. Modern solid state technology that do not use vacuum tubes fail to reproduce the desirable qualities of a vacuum tube amplifier. This is the main reason vacuum tubes are still in use in many modern amplifier designs today. However, for all their sonic benefits, vacuum tubes are inconsistent, sometimes unreliable and inefficient.

The earliest amplifier modeling device was the Tech 21 Sansamp, introduced in 1989. The revolutionary concept of the Sansamp was to provide accurate reproductions of the three basic types of amplifiers without the use of vacuum tubes, thus providing reliable and consistent operation. Since the introduction of the Sansamp, many amplifier companies have entered the modeling era by producing their own designs and by further developing modeling techniques.

Today there are dozens of modeling amplifier brands to choose from. The Line 6 company focuses on modeling amplifiers and has risen to prominence as a maker. Their Pod, Spider, and Vetta product lines are all recognized to be among the best and most accurate modelers available. The German company Behringer have followed suit with more affordable clones of the Line 6 products. Tech 21 has not given up on modelingFractal Audio unveiled the Axe-Fx, arguably the current pinnacle of amplifier modeling technology. The Axe-Fx has come even closer to reproducing the feel and dynamics of a vacuum tube amplifier.

With the advances that amplifier modeling is bringing, pretty soon the signature rock sounds that only a real vacuum tube amplifier can produce will be within everyone’s reach without requiring a ton of cash.