McIntyre BluesMaker II

Overview

Designed by John McIntyre, who has been modifying and building guitar amplifiers for years. His articles in Guitar Player magazine on amplification mods have set standards in tone excellence. Actodyne General Inc. has teamed up with John to create a line of amplifiers based on his original "Bluesmaker" series. Designed for the guitarist, who demands tonal variations not found on conventional low powered amplifiers. The Bluesmaker MKII is a masterpiece of complex tone voicings with radical new tone complexity in the midrange area. Long known for guitar tone enhancement, designer John McIntyre has designed new proprietary tone circuitry that is cutting edge vacuum technology. You can make your guitar feed back even at low levels. The key to great tone is having great power tube distortion. The Bluesmaker MKII provides great power tube distortion at volume levels that won't make your head cave in. This makes the amp perfect for home studio, or apartment playing. Class A operation assures rich harmonics and a warm tone.

Bluesmaker reviewed in Guitar Player, May 1994, page 58.

Features

• Stereo, all-tube recording amp. 1 EL84 (6V6 available) per side. 3 watts per side (left, right). Class A.
• Speaker Out. Selectable Speaker Impedance; 4-8 ohm selector
• Built-in dummy load for each channel (left, right).
• Built-in speaker simulator (cab-sim filter) for each channel (left, right). Independently switchable between Smooth (Celestion 12") or Brite (Jenson 10").
• Can drive speakers or use headphone jack even while using built-in speaker load.
• Stereo tube fx loop
• Fan cooled
• Draws from the basic concept of the Bluesmaker amp modification described by John McIntyre in Guitar Player, Feb 93 [investigate] with greately enhanced tone control.
• Clean and crunch channels
• 4 midrange controls; 4 Tone Circuits.
• From Canada.
• Magic Eye acts as a radiant VU meter, available only in the JDS Model A Electro-Furniture Cabinet.
• Controls: Input, Gain (with Pull Boost), Bass, Midrange, Treble, Presence, Left-Right Master Volume Controls, StandBy, On/Off.

Review of the Lexicon Signature 284

What makes it so special? Well, one key factor is its low output power which allows you to get the sinuous touch and gorgeous tone that only a fully-cranked all-tube amp can deliver. With only 3 watts per side, its low-power design makes it ideal for recording as well as live performance applications where high volume levels are undesirable. The Signature 284's unique design combines a high-gain preamp with a low-wattage, stereo Class A power amplifier.The preamp section uses three 12AX7 tubes and incorporates a switchable high-gain stage and beautifully voiced tone controls. To put the finishing touch on the 284's tone, a stereo power amp uses two EL84 tubes in a Class A configuration. A tube-driven stereo effects loop lets you place effects in-line between the preamp and power amp for sonic effects that can't be obtained at the console. Simultaneous outputs let the amp drive any combination of stereo speaker, balanced recording and slave amp outputs. The speaker outputs can handle 4 or 8 ohm cabinets. Built-in speaker simulation lets you select "smooth" or "bright" independently for each recording output. For silent recording, the passive load is automatically connected when the speaker is disconnected. Because the slave outputs tap the signal after the power amp, they carry all of the Signature 284's characteristic tone and can be connected to any power amp and guitar cabinets for greater performance volume.

— Review in Sweetwater Sweet Notes - 1998

---