Having redefined the practice amp with the Spark, Positive Grid is now applying its digital R&D magic to louder, high-output guitar amps for the stage, studio and home with the all-new Reactor series – 1x12 combo that lets players design tones via AI prompts.
This Reactor comes in 50 and 100-watt versions, each offering switchable single and 25-watt operation, and is one amplifier that you might want to take you phone out of your pocket to make full use of.
Out of the box, players have 24 amp types to play with, and then you would be forgiven for thinking that these Reactor combos were more of the same, digitally enabled modelling amps with a cornucopia of amp sounds to work with, presets to save your favourite sounds, yadda yadda yadda. But the accompanying app changes the calculus somewhat.
Under the hood, the Reactor amps tone-shaping powers are provided by Positive Grid’s Amp Intelligence technology, which has digitally taken apart and “decoded” more than 200 amplifiers at circuit level and can then use this secret knowledge to create tones out of the ether. It has analysed millions of tones.
These amps look familiar enough from the front. They have that clean modern design, the Reactor badge on the front of the grille cloth, the control panel on top. There is a lot going on, with Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble and Master knobs all holdovers from the analogue era, and a 6-way rotary dial with LEDs for amp type (Clean, Warm, Grit, Crunch, Hi-Gain, Extreme).
There is another 6-way dial for effects and a couple of mod switches, Heat, changes its feel and harmonic response without boosting the volume, and a Push/Smooth dial for lead and rhythm playing. "More heat means your tone is tighter," says Positive Grid. "Faster attack, richer harmonics."
But the Reactor combos are anything but familiar. They present us with an all-new way of dialling in an electric guitar tone.
Pick up the app, type in the kind of sound you want, and the amp will create it. You can be vague with this and type in an idea or you can get quite exacting, say, with the name of a track or a favourite artist. If words fail you – and with all the Reactor does, right now they are failing us – then you could upload an image. “Snap or upload a photo of gear, an object, a selfie or anything that inspires sound,” says Positive Grid, and the amp will do the rest.
There’s more. You can upload some audio or a screen recording and, like some digital myna bird in the Reactor’s brain, the Amp Intelligence technology will mimic the tone.
And we are not just talking about modelling existing tones, creating sounds from gear you can buy down the local guitar store. The Reactor amps can also create sounds out of nothing, effectively designing an amp that has never existed before.
It’s pretty wild and be sure to check out MusicRadar’s review of the amps for an idea of how this shakes out in practice.
Positive Grid has designed these with all the connections you’d expect. There is USB-C for direct recording, a line out with cab sim, an effects loop for bringing your pedalboard along for the ride and full MIDI connectivity.
We also have a power amp input, a headphones output, and your phone connects to the amp via Bluetooth.
The Reactor combos are also keenly priced, with the 50-watt version available for $349, the 100-watter for $449. The footswitch is sold separately for $149.
For more details, head over to Positive Grid.
