Reckless Technology
Reckless Amp
v0.21An entirely original guitar preamp: a treble boost, two gain stages with switchable curves, a Master that drives an output clipper, and a noise gate. Its one classic element is the tone stack, the standard passive circuit of the Marshall Plexi and of many Fender and Vox amps, which gives the EQ the response a guitarist expects. Every one of its components can be changed on the schematic, and the amp behaves as if you had swapped that part in the analog circuit.
The SIMPLE view
The same amp with just the five controls of a guitar amp's front panel - Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble and Master - under the tubes, glowing as you play. A new Amp opens here; the plate at the right of the header switches between SIMPLE and WIZARD.
From the user guide
Using it
Set Gain and Master for the drive and Output for the level: Output compensates for Gain and Master, so high gain gets only a little louder. The gate listens at the guitar input and acts at the very end.
Bass, Middle and Treble are the three pots of a passive tone stack, so they interact as an amp’s do: Middle changes the treble, and the stack loses level at most settings. The circuit is drawn in the bay; double-click a part to type a new value (p, n, u or k, M), then Enter.
Three tubes in the bay, STAGE 1, STAGE 2 and OUTPUT, glow with how hard each clipping stage is driven. Beside them sit the GATE LED (green open, red closed) and an oscilloscope of the output’s last 10 ms.
SIMPLE and WIZARD
The plate at the right of the header picks the view. SIMPLE, where a new Amp opens, is Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble and Master under the tubes. WIZARD is everything. A view only hides controls; hidden settings keep working. The view is kept with the session, never with a preset.
Controls
| Close-up | Control | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Gate | Off, −80 – −20 dB | Off | Noise gate threshold; below it the output drops 40 dB. |
 | Gate Key | Input / Sidechain | Input | What the gate listens to: your guitar, or the sidechain input. |
 | Release | Fast / Slow | Fast | Gate close time: 80 ms or 500 ms. |
 | Bite | 200 Hz – 2 kHz | 700 Hz | Treble boost into the gain stage; higher is louder and tighter. |
 | Gain | 0 – +60 dB | +30 dB | Drive into the two gain stages; +20 dB is unity, +30 a crunch. |
 | Gain Stage One, Gain Stage Two | Polynomial / Rational / Triode / Diode / Tanh / Hard | Rational, Triode | Each stage’s clipping curve; changes the flavour, not the volume. |
 | Edge | Off / On | On | Treble network between the stages: tighter, brighter, more cutting. |
 | Sizzle | 700 Hz – 7 kHz | 4 kHz | Rolls off fizz before the tone stack; lower is darker. |
 | Bass | 0 – 10 | 5 | The bass pot; most low end arrives in the upper half. |
 | Thump | Off / On | Off | +6 dB bump at 100 Hz after all clipping, for cabinet weight. |
 | Middle | 0 – 10 | 5 | The mid pot: down scoops around 800 Hz and brightens. |
 | Treble | 0 – 10 | 5 | The treble pot: a fade toward the bright path. |
 | C1, C2, C3, R1, R2, R3, R4 | two decades about the stock value | 470 pF, 22 nF, 22 nF, 220 k, 1 M, 22 k, 33 k | The tone stack’s parts, typed on the schematic. |
 | Master | −24 – +30 dB | 0 dB | Level after the tone stack and drive into the output clipper. |
 | Output Stage | Polynomial / Rational / Triode / Diode / Tanh / Hard / Wide | Wide | The output clipper’s curve; changes the character, not the volume. |
 | Output | −40 – +12 dB | 0 dB | The level leaving the plugin, with Gain and Master compensated. |
Tips
- Classic crunch: Gain 32–38 dB, Bite around 400 Hz, Bass, Middle and Treble at 6. Clean up with the guitar’s volume.
- Eighties high gain: Gain 54–60 dB, Edge on, Bite 800 Hz–1 kHz, Middle 3, Treble 7, Bass 5. If it fizzes, bring Sizzle toward 2 kHz.
- Tight to the kick: Gate around −40 dB, Gate Key on Sidechain with the kick routed to it, Release Fast.
- Distortion after the EQ: Gain low, set the tone stack, then turn Master up into the output clipper; Output stays where it was.
