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Ben Adrian talks about the origin of the Litigator


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Here it is if you don't want to re-direct.
 

 

I'm pleased and surprised by the "Litigator" reception. I have to admit, it's fun to see the response when the amp is behind the virtual curtain. So, if you like the model and don't want to ruin the magic, you should stop reading.

We had talked about modeling a smooth-overdriving, easy to play, mid-gain, high dollar boutique amp for a long time. However, they can be expensive and hard to find. When you do find one, people get nervous that it will be partially disassembled and probed.

The "Litigator" was born out of two scenarios; one, I came from the world of building pedals and doing a lot of tube amp repairs and mods, and two, I was not constrained by making a model that matched a real world amp.

I asked myself, "what would I do if someone brought me an amp and wanted me to mod it into something smooth and boutique-y?" So I took a schematic for an amp that we had modeled and I drew out the mods on paper. Yes, it started from a Fender place like so many of the boutique amps.

I made the "mods" in the digital world, and it wasn't right. It didn't sound bad, but it didn't sound like I imagined that it would sound. I was disappointed in myself. So, I went a little further. I moved the tonestack to a different location later in the circuit. I also messed with tone stack cap values and ranges. Plus, I remembered that I wasn't constrained by the real world. I was able to dig into the low pass and high pass filtering before each of the gain stages. I was able to have the drive knob adjust frequency responses in various places in the circuit. Most importantly, I could fine tune the knees of how the individual tube stages entered clipping. I tuned the power amp to make it distort in an idealized way. Finally, I adjusted the sag so that it reacted in a way that was pleasing to me, not just matching what happened in a physical circuit.

So, the amp is not based on any specific amp. It's a circuit I dreamed up based on a heavily modded Fender and then hammered on and tweaked until we all liked playing it around the office. It wouldn't be impossible to make in the physical world, but it might get a little messy. I removed a lot of the noise and irregularities that people find unpleasant, but I was able to add just enough of the wrong things so they enhance without being a distraction. It's like a vintage amp with movie magic color correction and hyped depth of field.

I usually operate in a very objective world. If you like a physical amp, I hope that you like the model of the amp. If you don't like a certain physical amp, then I would not expect you to enjoy the model. I would say that a normal amp model is 95% objective and 5% subjective. The "Litigator" is pretty much 50/50. To be totally frank, I'm generally not a fan of the type of amp that this model is based on. I can sometimes make blues lawyer or yacht rock jokes in private. It's not that I don't respect the musicality, it's just that it's not my world or my wheelhouse. I was expecting to not really like this amp model when I was finished. However, even I couldn't stop playing it when I was done. I kind of sick-burned myselfclear.png  When it was built into test builds here at Line 6, many other people couldn't stop playing it. It's pretty much the highest compliment when I hear these stories.

Thanks!
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i think all the other line 6 originals are all already high gain

 

i'd like to see a small vintage amp done in such a manner ✌ï¸ï¸

Indeed. All of the subtleties that really shine in the low to midgain regions would be completely lost with high gain. What would be the point since everything that makes this amp model what it is would pretty much become inaudible?

A small vintage amp makes a lot more sense. My vote is for the Supro or the AC15... or both!

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Here it is if you don't want to re-direct.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for posting this. Really interesting to hear this level of detail from a model designer and definitely strengthens the perception that there is serious attention to detail and effort going into the design of the amp models.

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ahh there's a few already aren't there.??

 

 

There's always one (or twenty) guys shouting for a "Line 6 original high gainer".... like there aren't a tonne already :/

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't most of them basically remakes of ones from the POD series?

 

I mean I would like a high gain amp, like he did with the litigator (original) that is not from a previous series. Something entirely new for the Helix.  

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Line 6 Fatality

Hmm I was under the impression that it came from the POD series? I could be wrong on that. So many amp models and alternative names to remember.  Actually I think I was confusing it with the Electrik, or Doom amp.

 

If this is the only one then I would still like one more. Though I don't expect it any time soon lol, just some time along the Helix lifespan.

 

Thanks for pointing out this Fatality amp, I don't think I have used it yet, I will give it a go!

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Good, interesting read! I finally got around to checking this model out a few days ago and decided to make it my "go to" semi-dirty amp. It responds so nicely to picking dynamics and the volume knob! One of my favorite guitar players is Scott Henderson and he does a lot of stuff where he's playing complex chord types with a slightly overdriven sound. It's hard to find that balance where all the notes in those kind of chords speak when you're using some grit... and for me, The Litigator is the right tool for the job. The patch I made for it has a Vermin (Pro Co Rat) with the drive set fairly low lying in waiting for leads. The two together have a nice vibe; kind of nasty, but not quite rude. Whatever... I'm really digging it and I hope Ben creates some more "virtual amps" for Helix; he definitely has a talent for it!

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I would enjoy more "nuts and bolts" stuff like this from the guy(s) behind the curtain. Very interesting. Sounds like Ben is pretty active on TGP, might have to give that Helix thread a read in all its 1500+ page glory...

There is a handful of Line 6 people on TGP contributing meaningful content. If you reconfigure your TGP preferences to display 100 posts per page, each page provides many more posts with easy scrolling with reduced successive page loading.
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  • 10 months later...

There is a handful of Line 6 people on TGP contributing meaningful content. If you reconfigure your TGP preferences to display 100 posts per page, each page provides many more posts with easy scrolling with reduced successive page loading.

 

Or you can just find the users, go to their profile pages, and peruse all their posts...

 

benadrian

Digital Igloo

Design Guy

Frank Ritchotte

 

and several others I can't remember at the moment

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