Neural DSP has expanded its lineup of guitar VST plugins with the launch of the Morgan Amps Suite, which comprises three of Joe Morgan’s tube amp designs in digital form, plus a host of effects and tools to sweeten your tone.
Morgan Amplification is a boutique amp brand with sounds that offer a contemporary take on classic guitar amp designs. The idea was to offer all the touch-sensitivity and dynamics you would want from a vintage model, with all the reliability of a new one – and this being the golden age of the pedalboard, these amps would also offer a solid platform for the stompbox enthusiast.
And so that is what we have here, with three very different core sounds to build upon.
There is the AC20, which is a single-channel 20-watter and you can just guess the original inspiration for that amp (clue: think diamond pattern grille cloth). With this one you’ll get thick and creamy saturation the more you dime the gain.
The Morgan PR12, meanwhile, is based on one of the all-time classic studio and small-stage combos, the Fender Princeton, operating at 12-watts, with spanky cleans for your single-coil needs, a raunchy drive and spring reverb for some US-style splash.
Rounding out the collection is the SW50R, a 50-watt head based on a Dumble clean channel, augmented by tube-driven reverb. “This amp encapsulates everything Morgan Amplifiers does best,” says Neural DSP. “At full volume, the amp breaks up drastically, producing killer tones for grunge and stoner rock.”
Pre-effects include a studio-style compressor pedal, with a switchable attack, a “warm overdrive” with some heat in the midrange, and a high-gain transparent drive, with an amp-like tremolo pedal to give you that classic US amp throb. You get a tape echo style delay pedal with high and low-pass filters, ping-ping mode and tempo synchronisation, and “a studio-grade” reverb.
Your cab option here is an open-back Morgan 1x12, equipped with a Celestion Creamback, and constructed of Baltic birch. This, of course, being a digital reproduction of such a cabinet you don’t have to worry about carrying up the stairs.
As with previous plugin packs, you get a nine-band graphic equalizer, tuner, metronome, you can run it as a standalone app or via your DAW. Other tools include a transposer and a doubler for creating a simulated stereo field – a lot easier than playing a part twice.
The Morgan Amps Suite is priced €399. See Neural DSP for more details.
