Monday 27 August 2007

Line 6 teams up with Bogner?!

Bogner, a name that conjures up images of top of the range boutique valve amps, the sort of stuff you'd have to sell your home, car and possibly even the house cat to be able to buy. Valve amp purists everywhere swear by the name, and they are in many peoples eyes the "holy grail" of tone. So it's not exactly the sort of name you'd expect to appear on a digital amp eh?

Believe it!

Be it heresy or not, it seems that Reinhold Bogner is teaming up with Line 6, the people who made digital modelling mainstream to bring us the new Line 6 Spidervalve series of amps.

Digital tech has come a long way since the beginning, nowadays you can get some pretty convincing valve amp sounds out of a modelling amp, however there is always that extra something missing, those dynamics and that warmth that it seems valve amps are still, for the moment, the sole possessor's of.

So in answer to this problem? Line 6 are making their new amps... valve amps! Partially anyway. The info given is that the front end of the amp will be all Line 6 Tech, and the subsequent preamp and poweramp full valve. It's an interesting concept, and while it may seem somewhat self defeating at first, the idea of bringing the tonal versatility of digital modelling some extra life is always welcome.

Not being a big fan of digital amps I remain skeptical. I'll be sticking with my Engl head for the moment thanks!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.