Hotone has unveiled the Ampero II Stomp, a comprehensively refreshed second-gen amp modeller and multi-effects pedal that packs in a huge range of features, including 87 amp models, 68 cab sims and over 60 effects.
The Ampero II Stomp arrives in a keenly contested market, in which it would be a natural competitor to units such as Line 6’s Helix Stomp, Headrush’s MX5, and Mooer’s GE300 Lite. Hotone is counting on its more powerful tri-core DSP platform to give it the competitive edge, and promises more realistic guitar amp sounds courtesy of its CDCM HD & F.I.R.E. modelling tech, 24-bit signal processing and 127dB of dyanamic range.
Housed in a lightweight aluminium enclosure, the Ampero II Stomp has three assignable footswitches with halo LEDs, which let you cycle through some 300 presets spread across 100 banks and three patches.
But much of the editing will be performed on its 4” touchscreen, which has a newly designed interface for intuitive editing, offering players the opportunity to run a customised dual effect chain with multiple serial/parallel signal routing support, in which you can add any effect you like to the signal path.
Furthermore, you can run up to 12 effects modules simultaneously, and access over 400 effects from an expanded effects library.
As ever with these tech-forward floor units, there are options and lots of them. With a dedicated IR loader, you can upload your own or third-party impulse responses with 50 custom slots available on the unit.
The Ampero II Stomp comes loaded with 20 Celestion speaker IRs pre-loaded, each powered by Celestion Digital. There is an onboard looper pedal with 60 seconds of recording time.
The unit can be run in full stereo and has a stereo effects loop for integrating your pedalboard, MIDI I/O jacks, a USB port for managing your effects and sounds, and it can be used as an 8-in, 8-out USB audio interface, allowing you to not only to record direct to your DAW but to reamp your recordings as well.
There’s also a 1/4” input reserved for an external expression or control pedal so you can adjust parameters on the fly, a headphones output for silent practice and monitoring, and an auxiliary input for adding external audio.
The Hotone Ampero II Stomp ships in a pedalboard-friendly case, is priced £429, and is available to order now. See Hotone for more details.
