Hello everyone I’m interested in the lxii to slave a line out from my Suhr amp into my stereo effects cab. Currently I use a clean ss amp but it does sound a bit too “solid state” but I know I want a pretty clean amp for this, I have a clanky old Marshall stereo power amp which is WAY too colored and severely degrades the quality of reverbs and delays. My wet cab does my lexicon rack effects, however I don’t run a true wet/dry set up as I still keep some dry signal mixed into the “wet” side thus TONE is important. To the point, can anyone tell me if the enhanced mode in the LXII does more than just engaging the depth and presence controls or does doing so also make changes to the circuit to make it more “guitar amp” sounding like dropping voltages, changing feedback etc? My concern is if the LXII is too bright I won’t have any way to mellow it out, only add even more high end with presence…and adding in bass resonance doesn’t always do the trick.
Hi Maddmaxx and Welcome to the Fryette Forum!
Let me start with this excerpt from the manual:
Footswitch TRS jack for remotely engaging the Presence (tip) and Depth (ring) switches on the front panel. You can use any standard 2-function TRS latching footswitch or remote switching device. Shielded or non-shielded cable is suitable for this application.
I’ll try to answer a few things as well as I can that you have throughout this post.
- A true Wet/Dry/Wet or Wet/Dry rig normally does have dry signal in the wet cabs. This is something that in some rigs can be muted for a particular effect. If you’ve ever played with a pure wet cabinet and moved to the opposite side of a stage, it’s uncomfortable at the very least, disorienting is the best word. Check out Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), you’ll see what I mean.
- Back to the LXII!
The enhance switches are the presence and depth switches. They can be shut off for more of a full range and frequency response for those pesky modeling amps.
The LXII is still a tube power amplifier. Fryette decide to set the default mode to be very linear. This is so you can use modelers without negatively affecting the sound and feel of the model. Negative feedback however changes the sound and feel of an amplifier, so yes, switching in the variable presence and depth makes it sound and feel like a Fryette guitar power amplifier, meaning, a great tube guitar amplifier power section. It is directly affecting frequency range and response.
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I’ve never dealt with a Fryette power amplifier that was ever too bright or too dark. We are known for our power amplifiers. Robust, incredible sounding, a tube powered beast amongst the MOSFET sheep (ok, sorry, that last statement is purely my opinion, not the company’s). Fryette has made a name for itself as not just one of the best guitar amps you can buy, but also the best tube guitar power amplifiers in the world hands-down.
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Presence and depth don’t really work in that manner. Where do you currently run your presence on the Suhr? Just remember that presence isn’t a additive high mid/treble control. It’s manipulating the frequency response by decreasing the amount of high frequency negative feedback allowed back into the power amplifier. In short, those frequencies are already there, the presence control just pulls the blanket off of them. It also changes the feel of the amplifier.
I hope this helps a little bit and I urge you to ask more questions about our products if you have them. All of us here love the products and enjoy seeing/hearing people get excited about getting a new Fryette.
Thank You,
Terry
Hi Terry thanks for the very thorough answer and so quickly! I think you’ve assured me engaging the depth and presence options alters the frequency response enough to become more guitar amp-like if desired. Probably I’d keep both set pretty low to stay closer to the full bandwidth end of the spectrum. Yes I agree 100% wet is not the way. I have the Suhr SL67 (yes with bright cap) it can get pretty aggressive, but I generally keep the presence low and I run the amp in its variac mode so it’s quite the pleasing “brown” sound on its own. I have leeway to run that brighter or mellower. As you surely know, SS amps like I’m using now to drive a guitar cab (marshall 412 wired for stereo) don’t interact with the speakers like higher output impedance tube amps do and that’s probably what I’m missing and hoping to get back with your LXii amp…but not at the expense of totally mucking up the clarity of my delays/reverbs which admittedly are very good with the class D ss amp I use currently. I like a more finished sound with delays/reverbs but not overpowering the raw tone of the amp of course. So yes I find it much easier to emphasize the “wet” stereo cab and keep the dry signal fairly present compared to the effects rather than try to balance a very wet effects cab against the completely dry cab. The downside with my current SS amp is the raw amp tone that you also hear through that cab is a bit too dull/processed sounding, so this is a balancing act power amp-wise. For anyone else reading this I should emphasize that I’m using the line out tapped right from the speaker outputs of the Suhr (with Suhr Iso line out) which captures the full sound of the amp including the power stage and this is why a massively colored tube amp to reamplify that doesn’t work; that’s sort of like running two eq’s or preamps into each other and you just get an ugly mess, so you have to re amplify the line out pretty cleanly. So I think we’re good here, a local store (Pitbull Audio) has your LXii in stock. Given that my current very hifi ss amp is pretty close to what I like and my old Marshall was way too far in the other direction I’m confident your LXii will be right on the money. Thanks again and sorry for the long reply I partly wrote this for the benefit of future readers with similar circumstances.
Hi Maddmaxx,
Outstanding! I have run a few of the handwired Suhr amps. They are very cool! I don’t think you’ll have an issue with the LXII and I can’t wait to hear what you think after you get it set up. Please do keep us updated in this post. Have a great day!
Thank You,
Terry
Hi Terry,
I bought the LXii from PittBull Audio although the one they had turned out to be open box and had a bent rack ear that I managed to bend back sufficiently to rack. This of course meant the dirt bag who returned it dropped it but I decided to take the gamble for the discount they gave me. Seems to be working fine. As I hoped it was an immediate night and day improvement over the ss amp I was using, guitar tone just sprang to life and I have pretty much an exact duplicate of the dry tone in in other cab, just what I wanted. I backed the depth and presence off to about 1/4 turn before installing and that is just the right amount of both for me though I’m only engaging the depth knob and sometimes not. Clarity and fidelity of the effects don’t seem to have been compromised at all. With the ss amp I was getting what sounded more like a recording of the amp and effects played back through that cab now sounds real!
Only thing I’m struggling with is the fan noise though it’s not actually the fan itself, just the sound of air rushing through the front panel. There is also a faint high pitched wine but that’s not an issue. Can you confirm the fan only runs at two speeds as seems to be the case? A bit of reading showed complaints of fan noise are out there for other power amps too. I do have to question whether the cooling is over engineered. I get it for a stage rig to maximize long term reliability but for for a home studio situation playing at low volume I’d be much happier if there is a way to keep the fan at low speed. The power tubes surely emit the vast majority of the heat and they are vented directly above them. And since the sensor is right next to one of the power tubes that seems to me a bit like placing the sensor for HVAC right next to the the air supply vent. Though I’ve always wondered why they were ever designed that way in the first place there are scads of powerful 50-100w amps (twin reverb and countless others) mounted upside down bathing the chassis with heat that have run for decades with no problem. I notice fans have been appearing on lots of amps like mesa maybe because they have sensitive digital cab IR’s etc though the Mark V doesn’t. Is there some especially heat sensitive device in the LXii that strictly needs so much cooling?
Anyway we can certainly keep this off the forum and I fully understand this would void the warranty but is there some reasonable mod that could be made to keep the fan running only at low speed? I bought two usb fans to place over the vents and assist with cooling at the suggestion of a local player friend who did the same for his Synergy version but they didn’t help me, they only delayed the switch to high speed for a few minutes. These fans can flipped either direction to either blow in or suck out air. I tried them blowing in and out.
Hi Maddmaxx,
I’m glad the sound is what you were looking for! As far as the fan, it does operate at two speeds. Fryette builds amplifiers for stage and studio use. Here is where the problem tends to occur. The term studio is very different than it was just a few years ago. Studio for a lot of people is at home. That can be an issue. Normally, you wouldn’t notice things like this in a stage or studio environment.
There is no modification that will ever be recommended by this company, or that can be given off of the forum.
The LXII is a professional level small enclosure power amplifier that is made for just that, professional use. It had to meet certain requirements and certifications for many things, including the top cover going over a particular temperature. The sensor is in a location that gives a correct signal at the correct time to kick the fan up into the higher speed and cool what it needs to. This is why you hear people on this same forum saying “the tubes aren’t burning hot and my fan went into a higher speed mode, that makes no sense”. Well, hopefully now it makes sense. It’s not because the tubes are getting too hot.
I hope this helps. We are very happy you enjoy the amplifier! If you have any other questions please reach out again.
Thank You,
Terry