fin al verdict

Which amp solution is the right one for you?

For many players, the fact that you can even consider eliminating an amp from your setup to have just a pedalboard is astonishing. That the sounds on offer from these pedalboard amps are so good is equally as impressive: there now simply isn’t a reason to have a full-fat ‘real’ amp other than for the aesthetic and headroom.

For the home studio, the combination of a Two Notes Le Preamp and the Torpedo CAB is the way to go. Most players will probably gravitate towards the Fender-like clean tones of the Le Clean or the beefier Marshall heft of the Le Crunch, but the Le Lead is a great sounding unit, too, albeit trickier to dial in. By mixing in the parallel channel ‘A’ set to a clean tone, the saturation of the ‘B’ channel can be tamed to a crunchy metal rhythm tone not unlike that of Adam Jones from Tool. For the more budget-conscious, the Mooer preamps are a solid option and the Fendervoiced models in particular shine.

For live use, the BluGuitar Amp1 is most akin in feel to a real tube amp and sounds great through a cab, while the Seymour Duncan offers a great mid-price, foolproof option for running a cab directly from your pedalboard. It’s got tonnes of headroom and despite the fact that the Mooer preamps have more of an amp-like voicing to them, for live, the PowerStage is the narrow winner. And its potential usefulness to modelling users, indeed even Le Preamp users, for driving an onstage cab should not be overlooked.

For the pure bedroom player, the combination of DI and recording outs with simple cab sim as well as headphone out makes the Le Preamp series a no brainer.