Wow. I am speechless. That describes IK Multimedia's newest addition to AmpliTube. I mean W-O-W. I have been playing guitar for 10ish years now and have done more than my fair share of looking for "that" tone. Seriously have spent thousands of dollars worth of gear and thousands of dollars worth of gear sold. I mean its not that I didn't find anything good, Just not what I have been looking for. That is when I went to my usual line 6 stuff. Not stellar but good enough ya know? Well when I heard about AmpliTube Fender I was intrigued. Wasn't really too sure about it but still intrigued. After reading tons on it I finally bit the bullet and opened up the best Fender sim I have ever heard. Seriously. No wait..the best guitar plug-in. Ever. They have set a new bar and the worst part for other companies...they set it high.
Now I usually play through a Pro Junior, even had a Bassman LTD for a bit too. Loved them both, but I stuck with the Junior cause its small and I do a ton of gigging and recording. For gigging purposes with some decent pedals its pretty versatile. Bassman is nice, but it is heavy and kills my back! Now I'm a bit spoiled, as a lot of you are, with a multi effects unit. You know the type...a kazillion amp models, a kazillion cabs, one or two mic models and kazillion effects. Nice if your plugging directly into a board for a gig or if your in a home studio it can be okay but lacks realness. It usually lacks depth. Yeah, well, I can honestly say this is missing nothing. Nothing. Not even a tuner. Noise gate? Yep. Compressor? It's there. Fuzz? Check. Wah. Uh huh. Mic models? Well...how about 9 different models!? I mean seriously, this is a whole mic locker in itself! I was ecstatic! I am in heaven!
When I first plugged my Strat (If you can't tell I was a Fender guy to start....) I was immediately impressed. Now I knew it would be nice I mean I have IK's Ampeg SVX (also Highly recommended) and love it, but wow. Forget the awesome sound, these LOOK LIKE THE REAL AMPS. Just the the Ampeg SVX looks exactly like a Ampeg looks, these look just like the FEnder amps that they emulate soo well! Now I know I should really just pay attention to how well and realistic it sounds but a little eye candy never hurt right? Plus when your spending your hard earned money in this recession you really want your moneys worth. You want to be sure they put everything they had into your purchase. Well the detail in this is amazing! Not only in the tone knobs, cabs, grill cloth but even down to the specific mic models that are being modeled! The Condenser 87, 84 and 414 looks like a 87,84 and 414 would. The Dynamic 57, 421 and 441 all look like a 57, 421 and 441 look like. The ribbon looks like a ribbon and the Groove Tubes mics look like them too! I mean the logo is even there! Back to how they sound though..Each amp is ridiculously emulated to where, Now I know this is blasphemy, but seriously....I enjoyed this more than I do my real amps! Now I know, I know, whatever right? No. I mean I had my headphones on and jammed for about 4 hours when I first got it. I never do that with my amps, Never. I though ok I'll just record a few lick's and just change presets til I find stuff I like and go from there. Well within 2 presets I was hooked. I had to create my own preset folder just to save the presets that I like! I spent 4 hours of my life going through about 25 or so presets, I didn't even make it past first amp in the series! I fell in love with the '57 Deluxe! Amazing tones coming from presets!? I mean usually I'm not a preset guy but the amp is amazing! Errr, well I mean this plug-in is amazing...kind of weird to say but, again, Wow. I had to come back and say "Okay Obi, your going to go through all the presets, amps and effects just to check this out and know this plug in...you are not going to stay on any said part of this plug-in for more than 2 minutes...". I have been messing with this for a little over a week and still am in love!
Now usually I don't write reviews for a lot of gear purchased unless its for my website but this is amazing! I can not stress it enough, this is by far the best thing any home studio can have to rival the big studios when it comes to how your guitar sounds. This is ridiculous. You get so much for the price its hard to say no. I have just put my Pod XT Live in its gig bag to be sold on eBay since I can use this live! This new Fender plug-in is my new studio and gigging workhorse!