BluGuitar Amp 1 Iridium "metal edition" is coming

[laxu]

No sounds unfortunately but an overview of what it will do:



Since this forum is more metal oriented I thought this might be of more interest than when I posted about the Amp 1 Mercury Edition. The Iridium looks to be largely the same deal but with some improvements like cab sim filters switchable off on the record out and a higher power poweramp to accommodate metal tones even better. Of course all the amp types have been tweaked to work better for metal.

I am still totally impressed by the Amp 1 Mercury Edition and I believe the Iridium will be one of the best sounding metal amps you can buy at less than 800 euros when it is released. People really need to throw their preconception of "it must be all tube" out the window and give these things a go.

 

[Gmork]

Saw the video the ither day and it certainly does sound interesting! As a pedalboard rig guy id love to try it out!

 

[Jeff]

It certainly looks cool!

 

[Crundles]

Interesting... your posts about the Mercury Edition got it on my radar, and it seems lower-gain players are pretty happy with the Amp1 ME, so I'm relatively hype about the Iridium edition.

Hopefully we get soundclips soon.

 

[John_Strychnine]

It's really very good. I currently a prototype at my place..

 

[Backsnack]

I ended up watching a few videos about the previous model. The most interesting one was when they did A/B comparisons against a few Friedman amps. Mind you, these cost well north of $3,000, and it was incredibly difficult to tell the difference in a blind A/B comparison. The Dirty Shirley was particularly impressive, considering the 5881 tubes provide a unique sound.

What it also showed was that Mr. Blug knows his product front to back and understands precisely how to dial in many different, particular sounds.

 

[Backsnack]

Interesting... your posts about the Mercury Edition got it on my radar, and it seems lower-gain players are pretty happy with the Amp1 ME, so I'm relatively hype about the Iridium edition.

Hopefully we get soundclips soon.

Same here. I’m also curious as to what amps are being modeled.

 

[Backsnack]

Edit:

Watched the video, sounds like he isn’t modeling anything specific. Just more eras of metal tone. Should be interesting!

 

[Backsnack]

It's really very good. I currently a prototype at my place..

So what are your impressions of it so far?

 

[sylcfh]

This is probably the most interesting development in the last few years for me. Maybe the decade. Already loved the idea of it, but it just didn't have the metal tone I wanted. I played SS Randalls for 20 years and moved on to high gain lunchbox tube amps, and this fits perfectly in between.

 

[laxu]

Same here. I’m also curious as to what amps are being modeled.

They are not modelers really, just based on Thomas Blug's favorite amps in the same way most amps are "like X but with Y and Z tweaked". So while in the Mercury Edition you can find tones of various Marshalls, they are not meant to be an exact reproduction of some specific model. The little knobs on the side allow changing each channel's tone and for example the Classic channel goes from '70s JMP type Superlead sounds to what I would expect from a JCM800 and then it goes even further from there. Put the knobs somewhere in between and you get a mix of those kind of sounds.

I expect you can find a lot of great metal tones in the Iridium spanning modded Marshall territory hopefully to Mesa Recto style tones. In the video of the Mercury Edition posted above what Blug is doing to match all those different amps is just varying the tone knobs on the side and the EQ on the unit. The EQ is super powerful.

I'm really interested to hear what Blug manages to do for the Iridium edition Vintage channel. On the Mercury that's the only channel that does not have the tone knob on the side and that's because it's so damn good sounding that you don't want one! It's got this awesome sound that is cutting but not harsh while at the same time sounding full but clear.

 

[youngthrasher9]

This thing sounds heavy and tight as fuck.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

This thing sounds heavy and tight as fuck.

I was worried it was just gonna be an Amp1 with just more wattage. REALLY happy to see it isnt.

 

[MASS DEFECT]

Fuuuuu...that sounded goooood! What's gonna be the price for these?

 

[Bearitone]

I want to know how wet the reverb can get

 

[mnemonic]

Sounds real neat. I just listened with my cars stereo on the way home, I’ll have to give it a proper listen with some good headphones later.

I think the Mercury is popular on TGP, so that bodes well also.

 

[Backsnack]

They are not modelers really, just based on Thomas Blug's favorite amps in the same way most amps are "like X but with Y and Z tweaked". So while in the Mercury Edition you can find tones of various Marshalls, they are not meant to be an exact reproduction of some specific model. The little knobs on the side allow changing each channel's tone and for example the Classic channel goes from '70s JMP type Superlead sounds to what I would expect from a JCM800 and then it goes even further from there. Put the knobs somewhere in between and you get a mix of those kind of sounds.

I expect you can find a lot of great metal tones in the Iridium spanning modded Marshall territory hopefully to Mesa Recto style tones. In the video of the Mercury Edition posted above what Blug is doing to match all those different amps is just varying the tone knobs on the side and the EQ on the unit. The EQ is super powerful.

I'm really interested to hear what Blug manages to do for the Iridium edition Vintage channel. On the Mercury that's the only channel that does not have the tone knob on the side and that's because it's so damn good sounding that you don't want one! It's got this awesome sound that is cutting but not harsh while at the same time sounding full but clear.

Yeah “modeling” was a misnomer. I should have said “mimicking.”

The vintage channel on Ola’s demo sounds like sort of like a single Recto? Like a mid-gain tone? Not sure exactly, but it sounds really nice for leads.

I couldn’t help but notice the close-up camera picking up some fan noise on the unit. How audible is it when using at home in a small room or in close proximity?

 

[Backsnack]

Sounds real neat. I just listened with my cars stereo on the way home, I’ll have to give it a proper listen with some good headphones later.

I think the Mercury is popular on TGP, so that bodes well also.

Same here, but with a Bluetooth speaker while I was getting ready for work. Gonna listen on my studio monitors later.

 

[youngthrasher9]

Fuuuuu...that sounded goooood! What's gonna be the price for these?

Sweetwater has the mercury edition for $800, I’d be willing to bet the iridium is gonna be about the same.

 

[MASS DEFECT]

I'm really interested. Sounds like it has a nice sag. It's 100W solid state. And I use solid state power amps for my digital rig. And my experience with 100w ss amps is that they run out of headroom real quick. How are these in band volumes against, say a 5150?