BluGuitar Amp X

Whizzinby said:
“If you really want to play that Dumble, you’ll have to pay for it”

Yeah, how about the initial $1,999 :ROFLMAO:

Geez. Dude said he is going to preload some amps on it and put audio glitches in it unless you buy.

Music Video Wtf GIF
Click to expand...
Maybe 20 units sold was overestimating
 
2dor said:
1,999 EUR / USD still.

BlugPrints (DLC amps) roughly 100 EUR / USD or more depending on how much work goes into it.

Source:

Think I'll see myself out.
Click to expand...

I can't watch the video right now, but I would imagine some part of the money goes to amp makers?
 
But yeah... That's.. not great news. Kind of confusing tbh. All this cash for the ampx and then spending 100s on new amp models, which apparently only blueguitar will be able to make.

But I don't know how much will be included at release. Maybe there's a wealth of amp models that come stock?
 
Dimiguitar said:
But yeah... That's.. not great news. Kind of confusing tbh. All this cash for the ampx and then spending 100s on new amp models, which apparently only blueguitar will be able to make.

But I don't know how much will be included at release. Maybe there's a wealth of amp models that come stock?
Click to expand...
From the site.

  • Fully programmable
  • All-analog amp circuit
  • Neural Analog Amp™ design
  • 100 watt Nanotube™ X power amp
  • Ships with tones from AMP1™ Mercury Edition and Iridium Edition
  • Onboard analog effects (compressor, boost, overdrive, fuzz, tremolo)
  • 16 core digital FX processing
  • Pre/post, mono/stereo digital effects (chorus, phaser, flanger, delay, reverb)
  • Dynamic IR™ stereo speaker emulation/recording output
  • Get more amps, effects, and cabinets with the expandable BlugPrints™ sound library
  • Flexible I/O: two speaker outputs, stereo line output, stereo headphone jack, effects loop (mono sent, stereo return), MIDI Out, MIDI In option with MIDI1™ Adapter (not included), two expression-pedal inputs
  • AMP X Wings™ option to integrate additional pedals or controllers (not included)
  • Universal power (100-240 V)
  • 9 V 500 mA phantom power option with POWERX™ Adapter (not included)
  • Weight: approx. 3 kg/6.5 lbs.
  • Measurements: 426mm (length) x 198.9mm (width) x 92.6mm (height)
We reserve the right to perform technical modifications without prior notice.

So if that isn't out of date you get the Merury and Iridium Edition amps and pay for everything else?
 
Dimiguitar said:
I can't watch the video right now, but I would imagine some part of the money goes to amp makers?
Click to expand...

He said it was due to the time/effort to produce them. He didn’t explicitly state any kickback to the makers, though I started half listening after a while.

I did catch that they are starting production of the units this week, leaving finalizing the software as the final hurdle.
 
The specs read super-underwhelming.

But then, obviously that is only so when you compare the thing to other modelers. Which of course isn't what Blug is after. He wants to sell this as a fully analog core rig with digital FX on top.

So let's for a moment assume that is in fact what it is. Then, when you compare it in that bracket of the market, this almost becomes a steal. I mean, how much fully analog *and* programmable tube amps are there? In fact, I can actually only think of one, namely the Hook Wizard amp, which kicks in at €3450 and has zero FX (but at least motorized pots).
Let's further assume that the amp models are in fact as close to the originals as it gets (they sound pretty close in the video, I can't tell the difference - but he might've used the very settings working best) and it's even more of a steal. I mean, try to shop for a decent Dumble clone. Even the cheaper ones cost a whole lot more than Amp X. Add programmability, FX and a foot controller to the picture.
I guess that's possibly the marketing Blug kinda has in mind. He's not trying to compete with Line 6, FAS or whomever, he's trying to position things along the big analog players.

I do however think that this isn't how most people look at this thing (I certainly don't, but I'm not the target customer anyway). They rather compare it to the high end digital devices around, just with a poweramp thrown in for good measure. And in that very market, Amp X will likely not be able to compete.
 
My Amp1 Mercury sounds great. I have no doubt this is going to be a killer product even without the paid upgrades.
But the price is too step. SS/hybrid amps just don't sell for $2k, no matter how good they sound or how many features they have. This has been tried many times by many reputable companies over the decades and it failed every single time.
The 2k+ range belongs to tube amps and some high-end digital processors.

At $1200, he has a chance. At $2k, it's DOA.
 
GuitarBilly74 said:
My Amp1 Mercury sounds great. I have no doubt this is going to be a killer product even without the paid upgrades.
But the price is too step. SS/hybrid amps just don't sell for $2k, no matter how good they sound or how many features they have. This has been tried many times by many reputable companies over the decades and it failed every single time.
The 2k+ range belongs to tube amps and some high-end digital processors.

At $1200, he has a chance. At $2k, it's DOA.
Click to expand...
Not for people who gotta have it..
 
In the video, Blug says they need to make money, considering the investment in the ampx, work required for new models and such.

But I wonder how many people would be more likely to buy an ampx if it had a lot of amp models built in and/or new amp models were cheaper.

Are they really financially better off selling amp packs this way?

I don't understand the market enough to be able to answer that question with any level of confidence. But what do you guys think?
 
Dimiguitar said:
In the video, Blug says they need to make money, considering the investment in the ampx, work required for new models and such.

But I wonder how many people would be more likely to buy an ampx if it had a lot of amp models built in and/or new amp models were cheaper.

Are they really better off financially selling amp packs this way?

I don't understand the market enough to be able to answer that with any level of confidence. But what do you guys think?
Click to expand...
I was very determined to buy one at launch assuming:

- the unit came with a few additional amps bundled in, amps that aren't what's already in the Mercury & Iridium. Even having 2 amps of the user's choice included with a new purchase would have been cool

- BlugPrints would have been more accessible. At 100 EUR (or more) a pop, that's a pass in my book, at least for now on top of the 2K entry ticket.

And it looks like even the drives are behind a paywall - I assume it's the same for cabs & effects because in one of the vids in the past days he mentioned only reverb's included by default.

Hope it works out for them; might revisit this in a few years.
 
I don't even mind the paid thing too much. It does take a lot of time to measure and reproduce amps, pedals and whatnot. I assume it gets much easier when they have most of the archetype amps covered, in the same way e.g Fractal can slap together a Marshall SV20 model quickly because by dialing in the right values for the model params - most of which are probably identical to the other Marshalls Cliff has already done.

But consider this: a lot of you have amps that you love. Would you pay money to get an additional channel or mode for your favorite amp that expands its capabilities? I know I would. We are just used to having that cost baked in on digital modelers, where the R&D cost is amortized via volume sales.

Could BluGuitar make the Amp X cost say 2500 € instead with free upgrades? Yeah, but now it faces a lot more competition from traditional amps. There's still a stigma that solid-state/hybrid amps should be cheaper. The Amp 1 units are in that sweet spot where they are not cheap, but they are not that expensive either considering what you get.

The two Amp 1 models are so versatile that I would mainly care about additional delay/mod/pitch/reverb effects. The Amp 1 boost is good enough, and the amp channels have so much gain on tap you don't really care about overdrives.

My big issue is that I fear the usability will be the worst of "pedals with presets" experience. You can never look at your knobs because they never point at the right value. You have to constantly wiggle them back and forth to get to the saved value, and then the value that you really want. All this could have been avoided by using infinite encoders and just showing the value on screen, especially for the X controls.

Blug says that everything is MIDI controllable, so it's possible that you could build 3rd party tools to get around the issues of the Amp X design. But that's always going to be a bit hacky compared to first party solutions, and more complication that could've been resolved ages ago in the Amp X design.

My pedalboard is about the size of the Amp X, and probably much more weight. But the plus side is that I can put any effect from any manufacturer on it, each with dedicated user experience rather than a generic one.

Something like a HX Stadium seems like a better idea to me because it does offer unique ways to edit effects (Focus view) and greatly simplifies programming switching compared to my MIDI driven setup.
 
laxu said:
My big issue is that I fear the usability will be the worst of "pedals with presets" experience. You can never look at your knobs because they never point at the right value. You have to constantly wiggle them back and forth to get to the saved value, and then the value that you really want. All this could have been avoided by using infinite encoders and just showing the value on screen, especially for the X controls.
Click to expand...
Why do you think they made th3 decision not to go with infinite encoders? I wonder what reasons there could be.
 
laxu said:
I don't even mind the paid thing too much. It does take a lot of time to measure and reproduce amps, pedals and whatnot. I assume it gets much easier when they have most of the archetype amps covered, in the same way e.g Fractal can slap together a Marshall SV20 model quickly because by dialing in the right values for the model params - most of which are probably identical to the other Marshalls Cliff has already done.
Click to expand...

The problem isnt entirely that he wants to charge for amps. (Though I’d have declining interest in that approach unless the launch selection was thorough) The problem is he is going to charge $1,999 to ship you a device where some (if not all?) of the new amps are paywalled. A person would generally assume that the purchase itself is compensating him for his effort to bring it to market, not just a vehicle for additional purchase of all the new stuff he had been working on.

Amps he develops in the future, maybe that would be tolerable.

Sounds to me like this is just not a financially viable product, and he is banking on users to bail him out?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Tone X 1.5 Update
2 3 4
Replies
67
Views
10K
MirrorProfiles
MirrorProfiles
Back
Top