BluGuitar has unveiled a pedalboard guitar amp that presses 100-watts of nanotube-enhanced power and three different gain channels into the service of heavy metal. There is no cause more noble.
While there really isn't any mistaking the Amp1 Iridium Edition as a jazz amp, it does have a clean channel – and with plenty of headroom and a tone that begs for some shimmery reverb, says BluGuitar. But it is the variety and plenitude of gain, allied to the portability and the power of this amplifier that is going to get metal guitarists foaming at the mouth here.
Its three distortion channels – Vintage, Classic and Modern – are independent of each other and selected by a rotary knob. Each is controlled by a three-band EQ, volume, gain and master volume controls. The amp has Amp1 Iridium also has an onboard boost and reverb.
The Modern channel pomises huge low-end, heaps of gain, and that all-important string separation and definition that's essential to keeping contemporary metal tones tight and aggressive.
The Classic channel puts a little more mid-range front and centre, perhaps shooting for that hotrodded Marshall tone while the Vintage channel sounds like it's going to roll the clock back that bit further – creamy gain, tight mids.
So it sounds like there's something for the Deep Purple, Judas Priest and Meshuggah fan alike; think of it as Download or Bloodstock Open Air in a pedal.
Other features include an onboard noise gate and an analog loudspeaker simulation for home recording.
Thomas Blug, the man behind BluGuitar, really seems to be seizing the initiative with his Amp1 series. The Mercury Edition took the idea of the pedalboard amp to the next level, and the Iridium Edition could do something similar.
The Amp1 Iridium Edition ships on 1 November, priced £810 ($849, €799).
See BluGuitar for more details.
- Embrace the heavy with the best metal guitars
