My Vision of the Future Guitar Amp

[Phostenix]

Let me start by saying that I fully understand there will always be a percentage of players that will never give up tube amps and analog effects. I don't know what that percentage of the market is, but I believe that as technology improves & prices come down over the next 5 years or so, 2 things will combine to dramatically change the typical new guitar amp. More refined, modify-able modeling technology & multi-touch screens could provide the features & user interface that push the vast majority of players over to digital modeling for good.


Here's what I envision for the evolution of the common guitar amp:

The "faceplate" will be a multi-touch flat panel screen that runs the width of the amp.

The screen will allow you to choose pre-amp effect(s), the amp sim, and post-amp effect(s).

You will "flip" through pictures of effects boxes & amps with a swipe of your finger ala the iPhone.

Once selected, the screen will display visual controls that match the original effects & amp models' faceplates.

You will "grab" virtual knobs with 2 fingers & turn them like you would a real knob for adjustments.

Higher models will have an "Advanced" button for the modelled amp or effect that adds more virtual knobs for parameters that the original didn't. Players who want simple interfaces get what they want & players who want more options get what they want, too.

Foot controllers could be as simple as switch & light units that correspond to the pre-fx, amp, and post-fx displays - keeping all the controls up on the amp. No more bending down to the floor to adjust effect controls.

The amp could have only guitar speakers or it could have FRFR (Full Range Frequency Response) speakers, enabling it to be used with electric or acoustic guitars or even with guitar synths. The amp sim & effects can be suited for any use at that point.

The number of effects, amp models, preset banks, etc., can be varied for different sizes & price points, but the undelying technology can be reused from model to model.

Since power up is essentially a computer boot, the display could show the amp in "Standby" until the computer is ready, when it shows "On".


Here's where I think it gets very interesting. If manufacturers adopt an open software model for their amps, modders could begin modding the sims or creating new ones - including your own custom faceplates (Line6 already has software available that you can use to create your own effects). The ability to create your own sound AND look would be very compelling, I think.

[anson]

I hope this proposed amplifier has Windows compatability and and can double as a DVD player/web browser. Pop-up software update reminders would be a nice addiion too.

[tubeswell]

I hope this proposed amplifier has Windows compatability and and can double as a DVD player/web browser. Pop-up software update reminders would be a nice addiion too.

... and comes with a fully equipped bar that also does espresso and latte and shoe shine (and a whole lotta other things that no self respecting tube amp can do)

[Phostenix]

I hope this proposed amplifier has Windows compatability and and can double as a DVD player/web browser. Pop-up software update reminders would be a nice addiion too.

I'm guessing Linux or Android would be the OS of choice.

[Phostenix]

... and comes with a fully equipped bar that also does espresso and latte and shoe shine (and a whole lotta other things that no self respecting tube amp can do)

C'mon, guys, where's the, "You'll have to pry my tube amp out of my cold, dead hands!"?

[tubeswell]

C'mon, guys, where's the, "You'll have to pry my tube amp out of my cold, dead hands!"?

Yup - that too

[Old Tele man]

...when the only vacuum is in the heads of the "new-wave" players and not inside the tubes, it'll be a total "loss" situation (all puns intended).

[loudthud]

And then one day you amp catches a virus from all the crap you had to download and it dies in the middle of a gig. All your patches are lost. So you have to buy more software to protect you amp but it needs updates every day and you have to pay a subscription. Eventually you have to spend more on the subscription and software updates than the original cost of the amp. Then there is also a problem where your amp crashes at random times. The amp manufacturer says it's not their problem because the amp passes the diagnostics. The third party software vendor says it's the amp manufacturers' problem. Does any of this sound familiar? When will your guitar have a USB port?

[Phostenix]

And then one day you amp catches a virus from all the crap you had to download and it dies in the middle of a gig. All your patches are lost....

'Cause nobody's ever had a tube amp crap out in the middle of a gig? Gigging with a backup rules still apply.

Viruses are a somewhat valid concern, but let's look at it. The OS in a dedicated hardware modeller (not software running on a pc or Mac) is not a "general purpose" operating system like Windows or OSX. It's a custom OS built to do 1 specific thing. As such, it can be hardened against attack. As long as you don't download OS updates from bit torrent, you should be fine. User patches should never be able to touch the OS. This is what will separate the men from the boys. Just like any piece of gear - including tube amps - there are ways to build things to be stable & reliable and there are ways to cut corners. "You get what you pay for" still applies.

System configs & patches can all be backed up. If you have to blow away the system & start over, then you reload your data. It's a computer, you'll operate it like one.

When will your guitar have a USB port?

We'll save the modelling guitar of the future for another discussion.

[tedmich]

for a baby step towards this future, check George Anderson's (tubelab.com) Minitron amp project (its award winning!)

MiniTron

[Enzo]

For something this complex, why would it NOT be windows or something like it? Why would Marshall or Peavey or Fender invent a OS from the ground up when they could just license existing systems and embed them? And then your internet could constantly update the available models. Of course the system would decide to download the updates just about the time you start into your solo. Your notes come out 10 seconds behind...

[Phostenix]

for a baby step towards this future, check George Anderson's (tubelab.com) Minitron amp project (its award winning!)

MiniTron

Seems like a totally different track, but very interesting. Tube guys should be intrigued by the promise of 2-3 times the power output of a given tube amp.

I'm always amazed by how many really smart people are out there doing really interesting things that most of us never know about.

Thanks!

[cminor9]

it's always interesting to speculate.

Personally, I'd hate to see this happen. Look at what has happened to phones. You have your iPhones, Android phones, etc, etc, which are very cool.

Until you realize that often new tech is used by corporations to make more money and remove more control from the hands of the users.

First, you have planned obsolescence. Do you see guitar players, or let me rephrase that, *working* musicians, upgrading every few years? I don't. Things get built to break, or in such a fashion that over time what was once sufficient is no longer sufficient. I am typing this on a computer that is six years old. Firefox 3.5 sucks on this machine, as does iTunes, as does just about everything else I use. Why? The software doesn't do much more than it did four years ago. It's just that since there is such better hardware out there apps are built much fatter now.

Also, corporations do not make interoperative systems. It's not in their own best interest to be compatible. Nope, they'd want you to buy upgrades, new effects, whatever have you from them. I'd be shocked if such a system were created with an open source paradigm.

Then, back to the idea of cell phone service providers. If you want a verizon phone, then be prepared to pay for everything. Want a ringtone? That'll be $2. Never mind the fact that you can buy the entire song for a buck and make your own ringtone. Well, if you can connect your phone to your PC. Providers make every attempt to stop that. Want an iPhone? Well, get ready to (over)pay for phone service, a data plan (even though you may be already buying DSL service from them), text messaging, etc. Text messaging? Don't get me started. The plan for unlimited text messaging on an iphone is $20. If you send 300 messages a month, calculate the cost for that. Probably a lot more per kb than you pay for net service or email. A LOT more. Bottom line, you pay through the nose, only because other people willingly pay through the nose. It's easy to charge whatever the market will bear when you and your buddies control the market.

The beauty of old technology is that I can build whatever I want. Nobody can stop me. If I have the know-how, which isn't that hard to get, I can build it. I could conceivably build a mesa-boogie, a matchless, a fender, whatever.

I am no luddite. I love technology. But I HATE that it is used to extort money from people too ignorant to know better.

[Phostenix]

For something this complex, why would it NOT be windows or something like it? Why would Marshall or Peavey or Fender invent a OS from the ground up when they could just license existing systems and embed them? And then your internet could constantly update the available models. Of course the system would decide to download the updates just about the time you start into your solo. Your notes come out 10 seconds behind...

Too much "extra" stuff they don't need. There is an embedded version of Windows, but just about every kind of box you can think of is already running custom versions of Linux. All the modelling amps today have some sort of OS running them. I'd be curious what they are....

[Gollum]

I've been saying for YEARS now that Line6 would do well to make a simple color LCD screen that showed a picture of the amp model you were running, and use knobs that are unlabled, that would switch functions depending on what model you were on, you could make the amp picture line up with your knobs. It wouldn't even need to be touch screen, just well implemented. One of my biggest beefs with their amps is having mid and presence controls on amps that never had them! I want the model to at least TRY to act like the original.

There's a lot of disconnect for most players with modeling amps still. Tonally they really need to nail speaker emulation. They can emulate cabs well enough, but not speaker dynamics. This is why to me a modeling amp should be rung with ZERO cab modeling and run into a good speaker like a V30. I believe this to be the MAIN reason the spidervalve sounds so much better than the regular spider amps. They're the same basic models, tweaked a bit, and then run through a completely clean tube amp. I'm 100% positive it's the speaker dynamics of a REAL guitar speaker being driven hard that makes it sound better, and not the bogner badged glass bottles. That reeks of marketing to me. (lets not forget that if you pull the speakers out of any line6 amp they're generally comparable to a full frequency mid driver PA speaker)

But either way, speaker emulation or not, the next generation of modeling amps WILL start to look and act more and more like computers, since that's basically what they are.

If anything though, I expect the electrical manufacturing market to kill tube amps long before modeling amps do. I've met very few $1,000+ modeling amp owners that don't enjoy some similarly priced tube amps from time to time. They're not exactly a competing market for the most part. Manufacturing on the other hand though, is moving more and more towards low voltage parts, and the need for our high voltage parts goes down every year.