Not Your Father’s Modelling Amp - Fender CyberDeluxe
Back in the late 90s when the Line6 AX2 hit the market, the hype was big, but the tone didn’t always live up to the discriminating tastes of the seasoned tube fanatic. Sure, there was something really cool about the idea - physically modelling classic amp tones and then recreating them digitally - but would the real tone freaks be fooled. Absolutely not. Not by a long shot…
That said, it sure didn’t stop us from rushing out to the local music store to check’em out. Like a lot of players, the promise of this technology was just to much for me to ignore. What if the geeks could actually deliver the goods on this deal? One minute a Super Reverb and the next a screaming Mesa-Boogie. Daddy Like.
Well it kinda worked. I mean this patch sorta sounded like a ‘65 Blackface Twin and that patch sorta sounded like a Plexi, but it also sorta didn’t. Buying into the promise, I bought a couple of Flextones and a Line 6 POD before I finally gave it up and bought the next best thing to a tonal chameleon - a THD Univalve with a big assortment of tubes. That was back in 2001.
Fast forward to 2005 and I started hearing about a new line of amps from Fender, the Cyber Series. In my opinion, Fender was smart by not trying to sell emulations of specific amps, but rather, the promise of single amp that could simply cover a lot of tonal ground. I heard this first hand one night at a club hosting a touring blues man - I forgot the guy’s name, but he was wailing through a Fender CyberTwin with tone that almost made me cry…I could feel the G.A.S building before I even left the club!
After some research, I decided the CyberTwin was a bit too much, but the Fender Cyber Deluxe was just about right. After performing my due diligence on the web, I located a nearby dealer, Shannocks in King, NC, and gave this pup a workout with my Jeff Beck Stratocaster. What I had been dreaming about with the Flextone was finally here in the Fender Cyber Deluxe. An AC/DC Plexi one minute and a spanking, sparkly Fender Twin the next. Daddy Like.
I think of the years I played in cover bands when I would have killed for an amp like this. With the programmable patches, you can dial-up almost any sound you want faster than the drummer can steal your girlfriend. Stay tuned for a full review, but forget everything you know about amp modelling, ’cause the technology is finally catch’ up.