Flextone Manual Index - Replacement for Page 1 for Rev F - Monday, September 21, 1998 12:59 PM
User Manual
for the full line of Flextone Series Digital Guitar Amplifier Systems, including:
Flextone - 60 Watt Mono 1 x 12" Combo
Flextone XL - 100 Watt Stereo 2 x 12" Combo
Flextone Duo - 100 Watt Stereo 2 x 10" Combo
Flextone Plus - 100 Watt Stereo 1 x 12" Combo
Flextone Cab - 1 x 12" Satellite Cabinet for Flextone Plus
Flextone HD - 300 Watt Stereo Head
Flextone Cab 212S - 2 x 12" Cabinet for Flextone HD
and the optional foot controllers:
Floor Board and FB4
printed in the USA by Line 6 - part number 40-00-0030
Rev F
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Flextone Manual Rev E; bookfile Page 3 Tuesday, September 8, 1998 10:31 AM
The serial number can be found on the Flextone back
panel. Please note it here for future reference:
This equipment is UL listed (file no. E174693) for
UL 6500 and CAN/CSA-E65-94 safety standards.
SERIAL NO:
WARNING: To reduce the risk of fire or
electric shock, do not expose this appliance to
rain or moisture.
CAUTION: To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock,
do not remove screws. No user-serviceable parts inside. Refer
servicing to qualified service personnel.
CAUTION: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device
pursuant to Part 15 of FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause
harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause
undesired operation.
The lightning symbol within a triangle means
“electrical caution!” It indicates the presence
of information about operating voltage and
potential risks of electrical shock.
The exclamation point within a
triangle means “caution!” Please
read the information next to all
caution signs.
Flextone User’s Manual,Version 1.1 ©1998, Fast Forward Designs, Inc., manufacturers of Line 6 brand products. Line 6, Flextone, Floor Board,
FB4, andTubeTone are trademarks of Fast Forward Designs, Inc. All other product trademarks are property of their respective owners.
YOU SHOULD READ THESE IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS
KEEP THESE INSTRUCTIONS IN A SAFE PLACE
Before using your Flextone, be sure to carefully read the applicable
items of these operating instructions and the safety suggestions.
1. Obey all warnings on the amp and in the Flextone Manual.
2. The heat sinks on the back of the Flextone HD can get hot! Do not touch during operation or shortly after.
2. Do not place near heat sources, such as radiators, heat registers, or appliances which produce
heat. Keep the rear of the unit at least 3 inches from walls or other items that might block heat radiation.
3. Do not block any of the ventilation openings or use in an enclosed space.
4. Guard against objects or liquids entering the enclosure.
5. Connect only to AC power outlets rated 100-120V or 200-240V 47-63Hz (depending on the voltage range of the
unit; refer to the back panel). Current ratings should be a minimum of 5A for the 120V range and 2.5A for the
240V range.
6. Do not step on power cords. Do not place items on top of power cords so that they are pinched or leaned on. Pay
particular attention to the cord at the plug end and the point where it connects to the amp.
7. Unplug the amp when not in use for extended periods of time.
8. Do not perform service operations beyond those described in the Flextone Manual. In the followingcircumstances,
repairs should be performed only by qualified service personnel:
•liquid is spilled into the unit
•an object falls into the unit
•the unit does not operate normally or changes in performance in a significant way
•the fuse is blown
•the unit is dropped or the enclosure is damaged
9. Prolonged listening at high volume levels may cause irreparable hearing loss and/or damage. Always be sure to
practice “safe listening.”
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CHAPTER 1: QUICK START GUIDE
“Manual? I don’t need no stinking manual!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1•1
INTRODUCTION
Register And Get Great Free Stuff! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1•1
Get On-line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1•2
Flextone! Meet the Flextone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1•3
TubeTone™ Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1•3
Amp Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1•4
CHAPTER 2: GRAND TOUR
Front Panel Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•1
Rear Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•4
Flextone Flavors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•6
CHAPTER 3: MODELED AMPS
Which Amps Are Modeled? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3•1
Flextone Signature Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3•5
CHAPTER 4: FLEXTONE EFFECTS
Onboard Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4•1
Combined Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4•4
CHAPTER 5: CREATING & STORING SOUNDS
Using the Manual Channel Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5•1
Using the Channel Memories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5•1
Edit Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5•2
The Preset Reset Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5•3
CHAPTER 6: THAT’S USING YOUR FEET
USING THE FLOOR BOARD WITH THE FLEXTONE
Getting Connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•1
TWO MODES:
I. CHANNEL SELECT MODE
Banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•2
Channel Select . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•3
Manual Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•3
Editing & Saving Setups with the Floor Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•3
Tap Tempo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•4
Tuner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•4
Wah Pedal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•4
Volume Pedal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•5
2. EFFECT ON/OFF MODE
Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•6
Drive/Boost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•6
EQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•6
Trem/Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•6
Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•7
Reverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•7
Effect On/Off Settings Stored With Programmed Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•7
USING THE FB4 WITH THE FLEXTONE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•8
CHAPTER 7: INSIDE YOUR HEAD: DETAILS FOR THE FLEXTONE HD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7•1
APPENDIX A: AMP MODELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A1
APPENDIX B: EFFECT PARAMETERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3
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QUICK START GUIDE: “MANUAL? I DON’T NEED NO STINKING MANUAL!”
1 • 1
QUICK START GUIDE
or:
“MANUAL? I DON’T NEED NO STINKING MANUAL!”
1. Turn the CHANNEL VOLUME and MASTER VOLUME controls all
the way down to zero.
2. If you’ve got an HD, hook up your cabinets, following the
directions in the HD Cabinet Hook-ups chapter.
3. Plug the power cord into the rear POWER CONNECTOR, then
plug the other end into an AC wall socket.
4. Connect your guitar to the INPUT JACK.
5. Turn on the Flextone by pressing the POWER button on the
rear panel (front panel if it’s an HD).
6. Select an AMP MODEL.
7. Set the CHANNEL VOLUME anywhere from 3 to 5 o’clock, adjust
the MASTER VOLUME to a comfortable level, and set the BASS,
MID, and TREBLE to your heart’s desire.
8. Select your desired EFFECTS setting and adjust the REVERB
LEVEL and EFFECTS TWEAK so you’re happy with the sound.
9. What number 8?You’re ready to go!
But wait, before you go any further, flip to the inside back cover of this manual and
notice that it folds out. The idea is to have this handy pictorial reference always
opened out while you’re thumbing through the manual. And then you can
photocopy the back of it, and you’ll have a handy template for making a note of
your favorite settings.
REGISTER AND GET GREAT FREE STUFF!
Included with your Flextone is a handy, postage-paid card for you to send back to
us to register your purchase, and let us know a little about yourself. It is very
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Flextone Manual Rev E; bookfile Page 8 Tuesday, September 8, 1998 10:31 AM
QUICK START GUIDE: GET ON-LINE
important that you fill that registration card out right now, and send it to us in
the mail.
1 • 2
How come? Well, for one thing, it gets you all set up for warranty service should
you ever have a problem with your Line 6 product. It also insures that we will be
able to contact you if new software versions or other enhancements are offered –
not the kind of thing you normally have to worry about with a guitar amplifier, but
way important in this case. Cutting edge technology and all that.
Registering also gets you access to special resources available only to Line 6
registered users. Things like periodic free newsletters with tips & tricks, Flextone
and Line 6 news, and special accessories like Line 6 wear will all be made available
to the registered owners of the LUP.
GET ON-LINE
Here at Line 6, our mission is to bring powerful new technologies to musicians. As
part of that mission, we are going to be focusing great effort on making the
internet a valuable resource for every one of our customers. You may have already
your purchase, and found all the information already there on Line 6 products and
technologies.
The Line 6 web site is going to grow, because it is one of the most effective ways
for us to bring you what you need. Through the internet, we can give you instant
access to all kinds of great, free stuff to make your Flextone ever more powerful.
Like easy email access to our product support experts, handy tips & tricks,
electronic versions of this and other documentation, and the latest news of what’s
happening with Line 6 and the Flextone Series systems.
Already on the internet? Great! Visit us and check out the latest news and the
other resources there. Not on the internet yet? This may be the time to make the
big jump, and thereby insure that you will get all the great resources we can offer
for you and your Flextone.
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INTRODUCTION: FLEXTONE! MEET THE FLEXTONE....
1 • 3
INTRODUCTION
FLEXTONE! MEET THE FLEXTONE....
Thanks for buying a Flextone, the flexible Digital Guitar Amplifier System with
the killer tone (and you were wondering how we came up with the name). There’s
a bunch of stuff we have to talk about and only a few pages to do it in, so let’s jump
right in and get started.
What makes the Flextone so different from every other guitar amp? It’s...
TUBETONE™ MODELING
Well, just what is it, and why is it so important? (By the way, you sent in that
registration card, right? OK, just checking.)
Tubes, we can all agree, are the heart and soul of every legendary guitar amp and
are responsible for the warm, harmonic-rich tone quality of those amps. Solid state
devices (transistors) are simply unable to duplicate tube warmth and performance.
And “hybrids” – a tube in a circuit along with a bunch of transistors – are really a
vain attempt at warming up a transistor-based tone. They fall short in any
comparison to a 100% tube circuit. So that’s it – tubes or nothin’, right? Well, not
any more....
You see, the engineers at Line 6, being an adventurous lot, and totally pumped
about this whole guitar tone thing as well, decided to stock up on the coffee, bust
out the engineering equipment, and get down to learning everything there is to
know about tubes. Riding high on the caffeine wave, they began a three-year
project to analyze and map out exactly how different types of tubes respond under
various conditions typical of guitar amplifier design. How tubes process an input
signal, how the signal is colored and shaped, at what point it begins to distort, the
quality and characteristic of the distortion – complicated stuff, but all analyzable
as electronic data. A guitar pickup output, after all, is an electronic signal, and
tubes are really just a complex form of signal processing.
Having sussed it all out, the Line 6 engineers were then able to apply their digital
expertise to develop software which simulates the tube and other circuitry’s signal
processing entirely within the digital domain. Cool, huh?
This revolutionary software-based modeling technology, calledTubeTone, gives
Line 6 the power to create butt-kickin’ Digital Guitar Amplifier Systems like the
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INTRODUCTION: FLEXTONE! MEET THE FLEXTONE....
Flextone Series: value-packed amps with a whole new kind of tonal flexibility.
1 • 4
AMP MODELS
The TubeTone process allowed Line 6 to create software Amp Models modeled
after a collection of amplifiers recognized by guitarists the world over as true “tone
classics.” We got these amps together, cranked ’em up, and had a look at the
electronic data generated by the tubes, transformers, capacitors, plate and grid
voltages, tone control curves – and the whole mess of components and elements
unique to each amplifier design. This research led to the creation of TubeTone
software Amp Models. These Amp Models were tweaked up through careful A/B
listening comparisons to the amps that inspired them, with an ear open for the
effects of different volume levels and settings of the originals’ tone and gain
controls. The gain and equalization characteristics of the modeled amps were
carefully measured so that changes to amp knobs on the models would mirror the
effects of these changes on the originals as closely as possible. We’re talkin’ major
attention to detail here. Tone control center frequencies, slopes, and cut/boost
range were painstakingly analyzed, and we also carefully attended to the effect of
presence switches, “bright” channels, and other model-specific factors. Not only
that, but since these old amps had highly interactive circuits, we paid careful
attention to the way that the setting of one knob will change the way that another
knob on the amp will behave. All in an effort to make our Amp Models as much
like the amps we modeled as possible.
The resulting TubeTone Amp Models are the foundation of the Flextone guitar
amp. Now, then. Here are a couple of things we want to be crystal clear on:
1. TheTubeTone modeling process is a 100% digital software-based technology
exclusive to Line 6.
2. TubeTone is not sampling, nor is it solid state; no special guitar, pickup, or
cabling is needed.
So, now that you know what’s in store, it’s time to experience the TubeTone Amp
Models for yourself. Grab your favorite axe, plug in to the Flextone, and flip back
to the handy Quick Start Guide on Page 1•1 if you haven’t already been
through that. Then, press ahead with us to the Flextone GrandTour....
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GRAND TOUR: FRONT PANEL CONTROLS
GRAND TOUR
FRONT PANEL CONTROLS
2 • 1
If you haven’t already done so, turn to the inside back cover of this manual and
notice that it folds out. Ooh, pretty pictures! The idea is to have this essential
pictorial reference always opened out while you’re thumbing through the manual.
And then you can photocopy the back of it, and you’ll have a handy template for
making a note of your favorite settings. The boxed numbers that pop up
throughout the manual correspond to the numbers on the foldout’s illustrations.
Most of the Flextone controls operate exactly the way you’d expect them to:
1
Input - You plug your guitar in here. (Well, we want the manual to be
complete, don’t we?).
2
MasterVolume - Controls the overall output level of the amp. Also
sets the headphone level. This setting is not saved when you store a setup into one
of the Flextone’s memory locations. Unlike many conventional amps, changing the
Master Volume level does not change your tone. So you can get the tone you want
at any volume level.
3 Model Select - When you spin this knob, it’s essentially like changing
what electronic “circuitry” is running inside the Flextone to make your amp sound
(see also Modeled Amps on page 3•1). We’ve arranged the Amp Models around
the knob so that they go clockwise from “cleanest” (Jazz Clean) to “dirtiest”
(Modern High Gain). Then the four unique Flextone sounds come next, followed
by the Fuzz model.
4
Drive - This knob controls how hard you’re driving the chosen amp
model. Think of it like the input volume control on a non-master volume amp; the
higher the setting, the more “dirt.”
5
Tone Controls - Bass, Mid, and Treble. Just like a regular guitar amp,
only when you change Amp Models, the response and interactivity of the controls
changes too – to act like the tone controls of the original amp that inspired the
Amp Model you’ve selected. The Flextone also has a Presence bump that can be
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GRAND TOUR: FRONT PANEL CONTROLS
switched on and off when you hold the Tap Tempo button. The detail is in theTap
Tempo section that begins on the opposite page....
2 • 2
6
ChannelVolume - This knob controls the relative volume level of the
channel you are playing through. Use this to balance levels between the setups you
store in two different channels (say between your rhythm and lead setups).
7
Reverb Level - Pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? How much reverb do
you want today? There are two flavors of reverb that live inside your Flextone; a
TubeTone-created model of a spring reverb, and a standard digital room reverb
tone. Which one you get depends on which Amp Model you select. Generally
speaking, if the amp that inspired a given Amp Model had a spring reverb, that’s
what you’ll get. If the amp didn’t have a reverb (like the 1968 Marshall “Plexi”
which inspired the Brit Classic model), you’ll hear the room reverb. The back
cover foldout, Chapter 4, and Appendix A run down the details.
8
EffectTweak - This knob will always change something, but exactly
what it changes will vary depending on which effect you have chosen. Turn it up
and something will go deeper or louder or just plain more. The speed of the effects
(delay, tremolo, chorus, flanger, rotary speaker simulation) is set by theTapTempo
switch (see below). For all the inside poop, look at the back cover foldout, see
Appendix B for Effect Parameters, and read the Effects chapter.
9
Effects - Selects which effect or combination of effects you get. Once
again, all the details will be in the Effects chapter.
10 Manual Select Switch - Selects Manual mode of the amplifier. This
is the basic “where the knobs are is how it sounds” amplifier mode - all the knobs
are “live,” so whatever they’re set to is just what you’re getting out of the Flextone.
11
Channel Select Switches (A, B, C, D) - You use these
buttons to save and recall complete amp-and-effects setups in your Flextone. By
using the four programmable channels, you can save all the details of a complete
Flextone setup for easy, instant recall any time. Thanks to these programmable
channels, you won’t ever have to waste any time when you want to change from
one setup to another, and you’ll never have to lose your “perfect” setups. The
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GRAND TOUR: FRONT PANEL CONTROLS
position of every Flextone knob (except the Master Volume) is stored into the
channel memory when you save a channel. You can also save and recall your
Flextone channels hands-free when you use the optional Floor Board or FB4 foot
controllers (seeThat’s UsingYour Feet in Chapter 6 for more details). Once
you get used to the Flextone’s programmable channels, you’ll wonder how you
could ever stand to play an amp without them!
2 • 3
12
Save - This button saves a complete “snapshot” of all the knob positions
into one of the Channel memories. Chapter 5 explains exactly how it works.
13
TapTempo - This control sets and displays the current tempo or speed of
delay or tremolo/chorus/flange/rotary speaker. This is also called the LFO (Low
Frequency Oscillator) speed. For Chorus, Flange, and Tremolo effects, the LFO
speed is actually displayed and set at twice the speed of the oscillator so you don’t have
to count to 23 between taps if you want to set up a really slow chorus. To use the
Tap Tempo control, just tap the button at the tempo you want. Hmmmm... Tap...
Tempo... Tap... Tempo... Pretty clever naming there, huh?
You can also simply hold theTapTempo button and turn the EffectTweak knob
to change the speed or tempo of your effects. This is especially useful if you are
trying to nudge your Tap Tempo setting to just the right value. See the Effects
chapter, the back cover foldout, and Appendix B for Effect Parameters to learn
exactly what Tap Tempo controls for each of the Effect settings.
TheTapTempo button also lets you access a few extra Flextone features:
a Presence Boost, aVolume Boost, and a Drive Boost. You can think of the
Tap Tempo button as a sort of BOOST switch for these controls. Here’s the detail:
Hold down, and keep holding down, the Tap Tempo button as you turn the
Drive knob up past twelve o’clock, and you get the kind of extra ‘dirt’ that you’d
get from a Distortion pedal. This is just the same as turning on the Distortion
from the Floor Board (details in Chapter 6). As you do this, the Channel A light
comes on if you turn the Distortion on.
Hold down, and keep holding down, the Tap Tempo button as you turn the
ChannelVolume knob up past twelve o’clock, and a Volume Boost kicks in. This
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Flextone Manual Index - Replacement for Page 14 for Rev F - Monday, September 21, 1998 12:59 PM
GRAND TOUR: REAR PANEL
is just the same as turning on the Drive Boost from the Floor Board (details in
Chapter 6). As you do this, the Channel B light comes on if you turn the Drive
Boost on.
2 • 4
Hold down, and keep holding down, the Tap Tempo button as you turn the
Treble knob up past twelve o’clock, and you get a Presence boost, brightening
your tone. Same as the EQ boost on the Floor Board (details in Chapter 6). As
you do this, the Channel C light comes on if you turn the Presence “circuit” on.
REAR PANEL
FLEXTONE HD OWNERS, LISTEN UP: After reading these chapters, be sure to
also spend a bit of time with Chapter 7, which covers all the important differences
between the HD and the Flextone combo amps.
Power Connector - This is where you plug the end of the power cord
14
that doesn’t connect to the wall socket.
15
Power Switch - The ultimate digital control; On or Off. Choice is
everything. The HD has a front panel power switch.
16
Headphone/Direct Out - If you have a Flextone HD, please see
Chapter 7 for details on direct out setup. If you have a Flextone combo, plug your
headphones or a 1/4” cable into this jack and it will silence the internal speakers,
providing you with private listening or a direct connection to your mixing board or
recorder. Plugging into this output turns on a built-in speaker cabinet simulator to
emulate a miked speaker cabinet. That means no direct box is needed for recording
or feeding to a live PA setup; just plug into this Direct Out for great sound right out
of the box! This output is stereo on the Flextone Duo, Plus, and XL, and mono on
the Flextone. Note: The Master Volume controls the output level here, too, so be sure
your level isn’t cranked up too high when using the Headphone/Direct Out.
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GRAND TOUR: REAR PANEL
17
Extension Cabinet (on the Flextone Plus only) - This connection is for
the Flextone Cab or other 8W speaker cabinet only.
2 • 5
18
Foot Pedal Connector - This jack that looks like a telephone
connector on steroids is where you connect the Floor Board or FB4 foot controller.
If you have a Flextone HD, be sure to see Chapter 7 for more details on foot
control capabilities.
19 Effects Send and Return - HD folks, see Chapter 7. For all
Flextones, effect send and return are pre-Master Volume. The send can also be used
for a line out connection in live situations where you want to use the amp for an
onstage monitor, and feed the sound system for the main room sound. When using
the send as an output (instead of the Headphone/Direct Out) the cabinet simulator
will be bypassed, so you may want to use a direct box. On the Flextone Duo, Plus,
or XL, the send and return are stereo. On the 1-12” Flextone, they are mono.
USE THE RIGHT CABLE!
When hooking up your effect send/return, be sure to use the right kind of cable.
With a regular Flextone, the effect send and return are mono, so you should use a
mono cable. With the Flextone Plus, Flextone Duo, or XL, the effect send and
return are stereo, and you should be sure to use a stereo cable to connect them to
other devices. If you are connecting the Flextone Plus, Duo, or XL to a device with
separate left and right inputs or outputs, you’ll want to use a standard “insert” cable,
which gives you a single stereo quarter inch connector for the Flextone end, and
two mono quarter inch connectors for the two ins or outs of your other device. HD
people, see Chapter 7.
Note: If you use a mono cable with a Plus, Duo, or XL, you will only get one side of the
signal on the send, and when using a mono cable for the return, the returned signal will
only be fed to one of your Flextone’s speakers.
And note: You probably won’t want to use stomp box-type effects in this loop, as they
aren’t usually designed to take line level signals. Most likely you’ll want to plug your
guitar straight into the stomp box, and then go from the stomp box to the Flextone’s input.
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Flextone Manual Index - Replacement for Page 16 for Rev F - Monday, September 21, 1998 12:59 PM
GRAND TOUR: FLEXTONE FLAVORS
FLEXTONE FLAVORS
In case you haven’t noticed, the Flextone actually comes in several different
flavors. Here’s what each one’s got, starting with the compact combos:
2 • 6
The Flextone - Mono, 60 watt setup with a single 12-inch speaker. The
Headphone/Direct Out and Effect Send and Effect Return are mono.
The Flextone Duo - This is the stereo, 100 watt setup (50 watts per side) with a
pair of 10-inch speakers. The Headphone/Direct Out and Effect Send/Effect
Return are stereo, and the onboard effects are stereo, too.
The Flextone XL - This is the stereo, 100 watt setup (50 watts per side) with a pair
of 12-inch speakers. The Headphone/Direct Out and Effect Send/Effect
Return are stereo, and the onboard effects are stereo, too.
The Flextone Plus - This is the stereo, single 12-inch speaker setup. The
Headphone/Direct Out, Effect Send/Effect Return, and the onboard effects
are all stereo. With no extension speaker you get 60 watts of power. Plug in a
Flextone Cab, and you’ve got 100 watts – 50 watts per side.
The Flextone Cab - The Flextone Cab is an 8 ohm open-back cabinet loaded with
a custom 12-inch speaker, designed by Line 6 for use with the Flextone Plus.
Connect it to the Plus’s satellite speaker output for 100 Watt, stereo amplification.
The Flextone HD - This is the stereo, 300 Watt Stereo head Flextone. The
Headphone, Direct Outs, Effect Send, Effect Return, and the onboard
effects are all stereo. The HD can drive 4, 8, and 16 ohm cabinet setups. Be sure to
read Chapter 7 for all the info on the specifics that differentiate it from the
Flextone combo amplifiers, including it Direct Outs, MIDI out, and recommended
cabinet configurations.
The Flextone Cab 212S - The Flextone Cab 212S is a stereo/mono 2x12" closed-
back cabinet loaded with a pair of custom 12-inch speakers, specially designed by
Line 6 for use with the Flextone HD. Connect one or more Flextone Cab 212S
cabinets to the HD as described in the oft-promised Chapter 7.
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MODELED AMPS: WHICH AMPS ARE MODELED?
MODELED AMPS
WHICH AMPS ARE MODELED?
3 • 1
Note: For the following description of the TubeTone Amp Models, and other references
that you will find throughout this manual, please be aware that Fender, Marshall, Vox,
Boogie, Soldano, Peavey, Roland, Matchless, Arbiter, ADA, Leslie, and other amplifier
model designations, and the names of musical artists and groups, and effects, are all
trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with
Line 6. These marks and names are used solely for the purpose of describing certain
amplifier tones produced using Line 6’s TubeTone modeling technology. The TubeTone
modeling technology provides the Flextone Series of Digital Guitar Amplifier Systems
with a wide variety of sounds and effects modeled after some of the most popular sounds
of the classic amps, effects, and artists mentioned here.
Jazz Clean - This Amp Model is modeled after the classic Roland JC-120.
This transistor amp was known for a strident clean sound and built-in stereo
chorus. When using the Jazz Clean Amp Model, try cranking up the treble for a
shimmering clean sound that’ll cut through just about any mix. It’s also perfect for
that 80’s “new wave” sound. Alternatively, try backing off on the treble and turn
up the bass and mids for a darker jazz tone. It’ll give you an essentially flat
response, providing a balanced tone across the fretboard for jazz chord melodies or
single-line phrasing.
SmallTweed - Modeled after a 1952 “wide panel” Fender Tweed Deluxe, this
Amp Model will snarl with the best of them. The original amp had only a single
tone control, essentially a Treble roll off. We set up the Treble knob to give you
this Treble roll off when using this Amp Model. Which left us with the Bass and
Mid knobs just sitting there. That just didn’t seem right, so we figured out a way to
put those knobs to work without mucking about with the authenticity of this Amp
Model’s Treble tone control. We set up the Bass and Mid as post-TubeTone
controls, which essentially lets you EQ up your tone as you would do on a mixing
console after recording your amp. Set the Bass and Mid knobs at halfway to put
them in “neutral,” and try the Treble knob somewhere above halfway for a classic
Tweed sound.
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MODELED AMPS: WHICH AMPS ARE MODELED?
Tweed Blues - The classic Fender Bassman 4x10 combo was the amp that
started it all – instant rock and roll tone. Originally a bass guitar amp, the
Bassman became a Blues staple for 6-string guitarists. It has the fat bottom end
you’d expect from a bass amp but also has the Fender twang on the top. The
Bassman was the “blueprint” for the Flextone’s Tweed Blues. Incidentally, when
Jim Marshall built his first amps with Ken Bran they were heavily influenced by
the early Bassman. One of the interesting things about the Bassman is just how
3 • 2
interactive the Mid and Treble controls are. The Mid control isn’t a bandpass, as
in most tone control setups. Instead, it’s almost like a second treble control. The
two are additive, so if you’re running the Mid knob higher than halfway up, you’ll
find that the Treble Control might give you more bright than you really want. On
the other hand, when you turn the Mid knob down, you’ll probably want to boost
the Treble.
The Bassman, like many of the amps modeled for the Flextone, didn’t have a
master volume. So to get the kind of tone that the Bassman can deliver at higher
gain settings, you had to crank it up loud enough to do some serious damage to
anyone who might be standing close by. With the Flextone, you can get that kind
of tone at a bedroom or studio level – or through your headphones even! Try a
drive setting of about 4 or 5 – it’s guaranteed to dredge up the best R&B licks you
know.
Black Panel - The Holy Grail for many blues, country, and “roots” players
has been a blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb (Of course, now that the Flextone’s
here, that may all change). After listening to quite a few candidates for modeling,
we stumbled upon an extremely cool ’64 Deluxe. Most players love a Deluxe when
it’s turned up to about 7 for a nice gritty sound that cleans up when you back off
your guitar’s volume knob just a little. Notice how the tone control response
changes as this Amp Model’s Drive is changed; clean settings are crisp and
present, while more driven settings will mellow the high end. This is typical of
what you get from a Deluxe, and is nicely captured here.
The Deluxe itself has only Bass and Treble controls. Leaving us, once again, with
the prospect of a knob with nothing to say for itself. But fear not; in this case,
we’ve set up the Mid knob so you can add some post-Tubetone Midrange
contouring for a little more flexibility. Once again, set the Mid knob to its
“neutral” 12 o’clock position for the classic Deluxe sound. Tweaked up right, this
tone will cut through and sing.
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MODELED AMPS: WHICH AMPS ARE MODELED?
Modern Class A - The Matchless Chieftain, which was studied for the
Modern Class A selection, is a very expensive handmade amp. Originally designed
to sound like a top-boost Vox AC 30, the Matchless doesn’t exactly have a Vox
sound, but something unique (largely due to the complicated EQ scheme); the
sound is sort of “future retro.” Its soft clipping is typical of Class A amplifiers;
almost a “hi-fi” sound in a great rock n’ roll amplifier.
3 • 3
Brit ClassA - Modeled after a 1960 Vox AC 15. Vox amps owe much of their
unique tone quality to a Class A power amp and were standard issue for English
bands in the 60’s. They were actually one of the first amplifiers designed
specifically for electric guitar; the other companies essentially got their designs
straight from the RCA Radio book. This particular sound is based on Channel 1 of
the best AC 15 we could find. Once again, the original amp had only a single tone
control – a treble cut. We faithfully modeled that and then slipped in some post-
Tubetone Bass and Mid contouring. Set the Bass and Mid in neutral (12 o’clock,
or halfway up) and play with the Treble control to get yourself some of those
classic British invasion sounds.
Brit Blues - This Amp Model is based on a JTM-45 head with block logo
(predates the “scrolled” Marshall logo), complete with a gold Plexiglas (Plexi)
front panel, although the sound normally associated with Plexi amps comes from
the late 60’s, 50-watt version that was the inspiration for the next in the
Flextone’s line up of TubeTone Amp Models. The JTM-45 marked the beginning
of Marshall’s transition from a mellower Fender-like tone to the distinctive bright
“crunchy” sound of the later Marshalls.
Brit Classic - Modeled after the infamous Marshall Plexi – coveted by tone
connoisseurs the world over. By this time (ca. 1968) Marshall had completely
changed the circuitry away from the Fender 6L6 power tube heritage and moved
to an EL34 tube; another major tone difference was due to the necessary output &
power supply transformer changes. (See, we told you we spent some time looking
into all this stuff.) All this mucking about added up to create a tone forever linked
with Rock Guitar. Amps of this era didn’t have any sort of master volume control,
so to get this sound you’d have to crank your “Mark III Super Amp” to max – just
the thing to help you really make friends with the neighbors. Hendrix used
Marshalls of this era; 20 years later Van Halen’s first two records owed their
“brown sound” to an unmodified 100-watt Plexi. In order to get a crunch sound
out of a Plexi you would likely crank up the input volume and the tone controls
(to 10!). You’ll find that the Brit Classic, in keeping with our basic “make-it-
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MODELED AMPS: WHICH AMPS ARE MODELED?
sound-a-whole-lot-like-the-original” concept, is set up to do pretty darned near
the same thing. Max out the Mid and Treble knobs and turn Bass to about 9 or 10
o’clock on the Flextone when using this Plexi-inspired Amp Model and you can
treat those nice neighbors to a tasty slice of fat rock tone.
Brit Hi Gain - Turn to this Amp Model to conjure up tones of the coveted
JCM 800, one of Marshall’s most universally-acclaimed modern amps. This
updated version of the Plexi continued Marshall’s heritage with added gain and
edge for a new generation of rock guitarists. One of the biggest differences here is
that the tone controls are located after the preamp tubes. We worked with a 1990
JCM 800 with Master Volume to develop this model. This is the metal sound
Marshall made famous. Although not many people play Marshalls clean, it’s a
great tone, so you should also be sure to check out this model with a low drive
setting, too. Of course, you can always pump up the drive and rage....
3 • 4
Rectified - This model is modeled after a 1994 Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier
Tremoverb. Boogie made their mark in the late 70’s and early 80’s by adding
master volumes and more gain stages to amps with Fender-style circuitry. You can
hear the Fender heritage but with more “punch” in the mids. The Boogie Dual
Rectifier’s tone controls are post-distortion, and as with the tone sections of most
of the amps we based our models on, the individual controls interact with each
other and with the drive. When used at its highest drive setting, the Dual Rectifier
gives you a lead sound reminiscent of the early Boogies with the characteristic
nasal midrange push, but with even more drive and presence than the early Mark I
Boogies. Cranking the Rectifier Amp Model’s drive knob will get you into this
neighborhood. Try your Santana licks here. With high drive settings, you can
scoop the mids and crank the bottom end for some great Seattle grunge sounds.
Modern Hi Gain - We obtained one of the early amp heads Mike Soldano
produced when he was based in Los Angeles in order to create the Flextone’s
Modern Hi Gain setting. The Soldano sound is intensely overdriven, and also has
EQ after the preamp distortion. This oversaturated tone is well-suited to thrash
metal and grunge bands, but has also been used more subtly by artists like Eric
Clapton. The Soldano amps are very similar to a Peavey 5150; this is a good Amp
Model to use if you want to get a current Van Halen or Joe Satriani sound. With
the Drive control cranked way up, you’ll get sustain for days.... Go out’n’ave a bite
– when you come back it’ll still be sustaining!
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MODELED AMPS: FLEXTONE SIGNATURE SOUNDS
FLEXTONE SIGNATURE SOUNDS
While TubeTone modeling was first developed to allow Line 6 to capture classic
tones for our Digital Guitar Amplifier Systems, it also has opened the door for us
to create unique new tones not possible with conventional hardware – that’s
where this whole software-based thing really comes in handy. Informed by the
forty years of classic guitar amplifier design that we’ve studied to develop
TubeTone, we’ve selected the best elements of various amplifiers and brought
them together in the four Flextone Signature Sounds: Flextone Clean, Flextone
Crunch, Flextone Drive, and Flextone Layer.
3 • 5
Flextone Clean - To create this Amp Model, we essentially grafted the top
end of a JC-120 onto the bottom end of a JTM-45 to give you you the crisp and
clear top end of a solid state amp, but with a rich, satisfying tube amp-style
bottom.
Flextone Crunch - Our “boutique” sound. Not too clean, but not too
raging. We spent some time with a rare Dumble combo, and picked up a few tricks
from it to put together this tone. Great for modern blues or jazz, this sound should
be like a fine cognac, smooth and warm going down, but with a nice kick. The
Mid control is located before the TubeTone Drive, but the Bass andTreble
controls are placed after the Drive for maximum range.
Flextone Drive - Our version of the modern, super-saturated, high gain,
lead amp; smooth, yet biting. All the tone controls here are post-Tubetone for
maximum control with minimum muddiness. Again, this unique overdrive tone
was created by merging different tone-shaping elements from different high-gain
amps. It’s like playing through a collection of amps simultaneously – a studio
technique that has made possible some of the greatest guitar tones of modern
recordings (Flextone Layer builds on this idea with even more versatility). With
the Flextone, you can get this same kind of rich, multi-amp tone out of one
combo, a feat that wouldn’t be possible with traditional guitar amps.
Flextone Layer - Flextone Clean meets Flextone Drive. As we’ve already
mentioned, many guitarists and producers have experimented with running
multiple amps simultaneously, with each amp making a contribution to the overall
tone. Stevie Ray Vaughn, for example, would split his guitar signal to drive a
Marshall, Fender Vibroflex, and Dumble Steel String Singer simultaneously to get
some of the great sounds on his records. This Amp Model was produced by
superimposing a “traditional” clean guitar tone and a particularly tweaked-up
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MODELED AMPS: FLEXTONE SIGNATURE SOUNDS
variant of the Flextone Drive. The Drive knob acts as a blender control – fully left
you’ve got big bottom 21st Century Clean, and fully right you’ve got paint-peeling
Ultra-drive. Set it anywhere in between, and you get to have your cake and smear
it all over your audience, too.
Fuzz - Although not technically an amp, we felt that the unique tonal qualities
of the classic 1960’s Arbiter Fuzz Face earned it a place among the amps modeled
3 • 6
to create the Flextone’s TubeTone Amp Models. This fuzz box used broad
frequency transistor-based clipping. The result is a buzzing kind of distortion that
has become popular again with the alternative and grunge set. Jimi Hendrix was
among the first guitarists to popularize the Fuzz Face in the States, but our model is
considerably dirtier than the tones found on “Are You Experienced.” Try playing
“Satisfaction” by the Stones, or the lead from “American Woman” by The Guess
Who. Liberal use of the Bass, Mid, and Treble controls will let you go beyond the
tones that the Fuzz Face could deliver, enabling you to discover your own unique
recipe for those elusive fuzz tones in your head.
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FLEXTONE EFFECTS: ONBOARD EFFECTS
FLEXTONE EFFECTS
ONBOARD EFFECTS
In addition to all the great Amp Models built into the Flextone, there are some
great sounding effects. To pick which effect you want to hear, turn the Effect Knob
(
). Then, you can control the character of the effect you’ve chosen by tapping
9
on theTapTempo (
13
how it all shakes down:
) control, and turning the EffectTweak ( ) knob. Here’s
8
4 • 1
Reverbs - Reverb is the effect that makes it sound like something is in a room.
It’s basically a whole bunch of echoes smeared together to give you a sense of
sound in an ambient space. With the Flextone, Reverb is always available. You
control how much with the Reverb Level knob. There are two basic reverbs in the
Flextone; a TubeTone-created model of a spring reverb, and a standard digital
room reverb tone. Which one you get depends on which Amp Model you select.
Generally speaking, if the amp that inspired a given Amp Model had a spring
reverb, that’s what you’ll get. If the amp didn’t have a reverb (like the 1968
Marshall “Plexi” which inspired the Brit Classic model), you’ll hear the room
reverb. The back cover foldout and Appendix A run down the details.
Compressor - A compressor “squeezes” your sound so that the softer sounds
are louder and the louder sounds won’t be as loud. It helps to even out your
playing, and can also be used to give increased sustain. Compression is often
expressed in ratios, like 2:1 or 5:1. The higher the ratio, the less difference there is
between your softest and loudest playing. TheTweak knob will control the
compression ratio. There are 5 settings: 1.4:1, 2:1, 3:1, 6:1, and :1.
Tremolo - Modeled after the classic Fender tremolo. TheTweak knob controls
the depth;TapTempo controls the speed.
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FLEXTONE EFFECTS: ONBOARD EFFECTS
Chorus - You’ll find two different chorus sounds in the Flextone. Chorus 1 is
modulated by a square wave, so it sounds more like a “rack” type chorus. Chorus 2 is
modulated by a sine wave with more feedback, so it has a richer harmonic content
with more movement. Chorus 2 was massaged to closely approximate the classic tone
of an old Roland CE-1 box.The Tweak knob controls the depth;TapTempo controls
the speed. By the way, if you want to get a really slow chorus, you have to tap really
slow - try about 6 or 7 seconds between taps. And if you don’t like that, remember that
you can always set your Tap Tempo speed by holding down the TapTempo switch and
then twisting the EffectTweak knob to wherever you want to go.
4 • 2
Flanger - Flanging is that familiar “jet-plane” whoosh you remember from
recordings of the 70’s. Originally the effect was used rarely, mostly because engineers
had to set up two tape decks and use finger pressure on one of the tape reels so they
could slow down and speed up the tape in tiny increments to get this effect. Since the
part of the tape reel they pressed on is called the flange, you can see how the effect got
its name. As soon as someone figured out how to get this effect electronically, it was no
longer rare and was probably used a little too much for the next several years. We’ve
got two flavors of flanging available on the Flextone, both of which closely model the
tone of an old ADA flanger stomp box. Flanger 1 is a light flange with no pre-delay,
and is subtler than Flanger 2, which is inverted, and has a deeper range (depth). The
EffectTweak knob sets the amount of feedback. TapTempo controls the speed.
Rotary Speaker - This effect simulates the effect of a miked, rotating high
frequency speaker horn, like on a Leslie. Caution for Flextone Duo and Plus
owners: listening to this effect in stereo through headphones could cause motion
sickness. Rotary speakers have two speeds: slow and fast. We’ve set up the
Flextone’s Rotary Speaker emulation to select a fixed slow speed if you tap slowly,
and a fixed fast speed if you tap quickly. When you switch from one speed to the
other, you’ll notice that the speed doesn’t change immediately, but gradually
changes from one speed to the other, just as a real rotating speaker’s speed would
ramp from one setting to the other. The Tweak knob controls the amount of
Doppler effect (pitch modulation); TapTempo controls the speed.
Delay - Otherwise known as echo or slapback. The Tweak knob controls the
level;TapTempo controls the delay length – in other words, how far apart the
echoes are spaced from each other. When you are using quicker delay times, we
cut down the number of repeats so you can get those rockabilly and surf slapback
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Flextone Manual Rev E; bookfile Page 25 Tuesday, September 8, 1998 10:31 AM
FLEXTONE EFFECTS: ONBOARD EFFECTS
sounds. Most times that you use Delay, the EffectTweak knob controls the Delay
level.
In a final moment of brilliance before finalizing the Flextone software’s final
details, we realized it would be really handy to let you set the maximum delay level
high enough that your Delay’s echoes can be louder than your direct signal. You
may find this handy for getting delay effect setups like U2’s The Edge is known for.
Incidentally, we wanted to point out one of the nice little details about the
Flextone that might otherwise escape your notice. The Flextone actually has two
entirely independent delays built into it, with a full 3 seconds of delay time for
each. Try setting up two channels with different long delay setups and then switch
from one channel to another. Notice how the delay tails smoothly across the
change from one channel to another? That’s thanks to the double delay line setup.
It’s the kind of detail that we feel sets the Flextone apart from many effects
devices, and helps you to make the best-sounding music possible.
4 • 3
Noise Gate - The Flextone includes a built-in noise gate, intended to reduce
the hiss and noise guitar amplifiers tend to put out when you’re not playing,
especially at high gain settings (since high gain means that noise is turned up
along with your guitar sound). Any time you want to disable the noise gate, you
can turn it off by holding down the TapTempo button, and turning the Effects
knob to the Bypass position. To turn it back on, hold down Tap Tempo and turn
the Effects knob to anything but bypass.
The Channel D indicator light, by the way, will show you the status of the Noise
Gate as you are turning the Effects knob. Hold down theTapTempo button and
turn the Effects knob and the Channel D indicator light will turn on to show that
the noise gate is on. It will then switch off when you turn the Effects knob to the
Bypass position, thereby turning the Noise Gate off.
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FLEXTONE EFFECTS: COMBINED EFFECTS
COMBINED EFFECTS
The rest of the effects are combinations of DELAY and one other effect. They
should be fairly self-explanatory. You’ll note that the TapTempo control generally
sets the delay speed - Delay/Tremolo is the one exception to this rule.
Delay/Compressor -Tweak controls Compression Ratio.
Delay/Tremolo - TapTempo will control the Tremolo Speed with this
setup;Tweak controls Delay Level. Delay time is set at 100 milliseconds.
4 • 4
Delay/Chorus 1 - Tweak controls Delay Level.
Delay/Chorus 2 - Tweak controls Delay Level.
Delay/Flanger 1 -Tweak controls Delay Level.
Delay/Flanger 2 -Tweak controls Delay Level.
Delay/Swell - Well, here’s one we haven’t explained before. Swell is like an
automatic volume pedal that will give you a very even volume swell with each
note or chord you play. The EffectTweak controls the attack speed of the volume
swell.
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CREATING & STORING SOUNDS: USING THE MANUAL CHANNEL FEATURES
CREATING & STORING SOUNDS
USING THE MANUAL CHANNEL FEATURES
When you are in the Manual Channel of the Flextone, all of the controls are
active and the sound of the amp always reflects the knob settings. Sounds just like
any ordinary guitar amp, doesn’t it? Who says technology is threatening? You
know you’re in Manual Mode, by the way, whenever the Manual button is lit (but
you probably already figured out that part). Play with the knobs until you get a
sound that you really like. At this point, you can either follow tradition and put
tiny little pieces of tape on the amp or mess it all up with grease pencil to mark
your favorite settings, or you can take a bold step into new technology and save
your sound to one of the Flextone’s memory locations. Which we’re about to tell
you how to do in the next section of the manual, appropriately titled…
5 • 1
USING THE CHANNEL MEMORIES
So, there you are with a sound that you really like – wouldn’t it be nice to be able
to call it up any time you want it? That’s simple once you have it stored into one of
the Flextone channel memories. How do you do it? Just press the Save button
(
). It will start to flash. Press the Channel Select ( ) button (A, B, C, or D)
11
12
for the location where you want to store the sound. It will start to flash. Once
you’re finished staring at the flashing lights, press the Save button a second time.
The lights will stop flashing, and the sound is stored at the location you chose.
Doesn’t get much simpler than that. After the sound is stored, you can bring it
back any old time by simply pressing the button for the location where you stored
it. (See Chapter 6 to learn how to do all this with your feet on the Floor Board).
Note: If you decide that you don’t want to store the sound after you’ve got all the lights
blinking, pressing either theTapTempo or Manual buttons will exit the Save mode
(Save mode will also be canceled if you don’t press any buttons for 5 seconds after having
pressed Save).
OK, so you go over to a friend’s house who also had the good taste and intelligence
to buy a Flextone. He’s created this awesome sound that’s stored in the Channel A
location. You’ve got to have this sound so you can write the song that’s going to
make you rich, but your friend forgot to make a copy of the Sound Programmer’s
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CREATING & STORING SOUNDS: EDIT MODE
Sheet on the back of the Flextone manual and write down his settings. (Perhaps
we can learn a valuable lesson from this: always back up your work!) Do you have
to give up your dreams of rock and roll success and spend the rest of your life
flipping burgers? Luckily, we thought this one through in advance. We provided
you with a way to get those settings. Just press and hold the Save button on your
friend’s amp and turn one of the amp’s knobs. You’ll notice the Manual LED lights
up. Don’t worry, holding down the Save button won’t cause your settings to be
altered or cause Save mode to be entered. Instead, when the knob position exactly
matches the stored setting, the Manual LED will turn off. After you’ve done this
for every knob and noted theTapTempo speed, you can write down the settings on
the Programmer’s sheet, take it home, enter it in your own amp, and write the
anthem for a future (or past) generation. And be sure to thank us in the album’s
liner notes. To check that you’ve got everything just right, once the knobs are set,
you can also switch to Manual mode to see if the sound changes (it shouldn’t,
unless the Tap Tempo speed is different).
5 • 2
LED, by the way, means Light Emitting Diode. That's what all those things are
that light up on the Flextone and the optional Floor Board and FB4 foot
controllers. See? This whole guitar playing thing is educational.
EDIT MODE
Alright, so let’s say you’ve got that sound you saved in one of the Flextone’s handy
channel memories, and you want to add some more Bass. No problem. If the
channel’s not already selected with its button lit, press that button to recall the
sound. Now, grab the Bass knob and crank it up. The Save button lights up, letting
you know that you’ve made a change to your stored setup, and (if you like it better
that way) you should use the Save button to save it. This is what’s called Edit Mode
since you’ve done just that: edited a stored channel. To commit your edit to the
Flextone’s memory, press Save and then the button corresponding to the channel
you want to save to. But, if you don’t want to save your edit, that’s OK, too – just
ignore the Save button. If you decide not to save after pressing Save, you can touch
the Manual orTapTempo switch to abandon saving. Keep in mind that if you
switch to another channel without saving your edit, all your sound changes made
during that edit will be forgotten.
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CREATING & STORING SOUNDS: THE PRESET RESET BUTTON
THE PRESET RESET BUTTON
If, for any reason, or just for the sheer mad joy of it, you decide you need to reset
the Flextone to the factory channel memories, hold down all 4 channel buttons
(A, B, C, and D) and power up the amp.
Warning: This will erase ALL user sounds you might have created. So be sure and ask
yourself “Do I really want to do this?” If the answer is yes, go on ahead with your
bad self.
5 • 3
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THAT’S USING YOUR FEET: USING THE FLOOR BOARD WITH THE FLEXTONE
THAT’S USING YOUR FEET
You really get the most out of your Flextone with a foot controller. Two different
foot controllers can be used with your amp: Line 6’s Floor Board and FB4.
FLEXTONE HD OWNERS, LISTEN UP: After reading this chapter, be sure to
also spend a bit of time with Chapter 7, which covers all the important differences
between the HD and the Flextone combo amps, including foot control features.
USING THE FLOOR BOARD WITH THE FLEXTONE
Using the Floor Board with the Flextone lets you access many features of the amp
that are not available otherwise. This all-steel chassis, oh-so-stylish foot control
wonder gives you plenty of stuff: A volume pedal. A wah pedal with a Crybaby-
style toe-down on/off switch so you can kick the wah effect in and out. A built-in
chromatic digital guitar tuner. Stomp box-style on/off control of your Flextone’s
effects. Extra banks of channel storage, so you can store more of your own custom
setups in your Flextone. Plus, 16 additional preset channels already loaded with
monstrous tones programmed by the incredible tone mavens at Line 6 right after
they finished writing this manual.
6 • 1
If you haven’t already discovered the back panel foldout, get set for a surprise. If
you have, go ahead and jump to the next paragraph. Still here? Alright – flip to
the inside back cover of this manual. Hmm, looks like the cover is all folded up.
Unfold it, and hey, presto! It’s your very own Flextone road map. The idea is to
have this handy pictorial reference always opened out while you’re breezing
through this manual and becoming an expert on all things Flextone. The boxed
numbers throughout the following text refer to the fold out illustration.
Getting Connected
So, how’s that Floor Board work, exactly? Well, the very first thing is to plug it
into your Flextone with the handy cable that came with your Floor Board. We
recommend you turn the Flextone off first, but you do whatever you feel like – it’s
your amp! Then, plug in your guitar, turn on the Flextone (scared you, didn’t we?)
and just press that Volume Pedal on the far right side of the Floor Board (
the way forward so you can hear something.
) all
25
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THAT’S USING YOUR FEET: USING THE FLOOR BOARD WITH THE FLEXTONE
TWO MODES
The first thing to know is that the Floor Board has two Modes of operation:
Channel Select Mode, and Effect On/Off Mode. The Mode Select switch (
)
20
chooses which mode you’re in.
Mine Looks Funny: Your Floor Board may look a little different than the one illustrated
on the Flextone manual’s fold out back cover. Older Floor Boards have the label Select
Sound instead of Channel Select. We decided to change the name to Channel Select for
this mode, since that’s, in fact, what you do with it. We changed Sound A, B, C, D to
Channel A, B, C, and D, too. However the Floor Board’s decorated, it works the same.
1. CHANNEL SELECT MODE
Let’s start with Channel Select Mode. Note the line that traces from the Mode
Select switch (
) and points to the two LED arrows below. The top LED lights if
20
6 • 2
you’ve selected Effect On/Off, and the bottom LED lights if you’ve chosen Channel
Select mode. Give that Mode Select switch a kick if necessary, and get that lower
LED (Channel Select) lit.
Banks
HD OWNERS: Chapter 7 has additional important info on the HD user banks.
The two left-most stomp switches on the bottom row (
on your handy back
21
cover foldout Floor Board diagram) are labeled Bank Down and Bank Up. A Bank
is a section of the Flextone’s memory that holds four channel settings. The
Flextone combos have seven memory banks total: three User Banks, and four
Preset Banks. The User banks are where you store setups you make. These memory
locations come pre-loaded with some tasty little tones created at Line 6, but you
can change them into whatever you want, and store those changes back into one
of the User memory bank locations. In other words, User means, “use these
locations for whatever you want.” The Preset Banks are a more hard-wired kinda
thing. You can’t overwrite these setups – hopefully, they’re so good that you’ll
always want to have them handy as your standard tone reference.
When you’re using a Flextone without a Floor Board, by the way, you’re always in
User Bank 1. With the Floor Board, you’ve got a choice of User 1, 2, & 3, and
Preset 1, 2, 3, & 4. You know which Bank you’ve got because the Floor Board’s
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THAT’S USING YOUR FEET: USING THE FLOOR BOARD WITH THE FLEXTONE
display (
) will show you. To switch between your Preset and User Banks bring
22
your foot around to step on both of the Bank Select switches at the same time and
you’ll be transported instantly from one region of time-space to the other. Trippy,
huh?
Channel Select
So, now that we’ve got this whole Bank thing down, let’s move onto the other four
switches on the bottom row. These let you pick which of the four channels – A, B,
C, or D – you want to use in the bank you’ve selected. Pick your Bank ( 21 ), hit
one of the Channel Select switches (
), and you’re ready to roll.
23
Manual Mode
Hey, what about Manual Mode? Don’t worry – you can get there any time. Let’s
say you’re into a User or Preset Bank, and have a particular Channel selected. The
channel’s corresponding LED is lit above its Floor Board Channel Select switch,
right? OK, step on this switch a second time and hold it for at least a second.
Boom! You'll find yourself transported directly to Manual Mode. To get back out of
Manual Mode, use the Bank Up or Bank Down foot switches to go to a User Bank,
and then you can do that “both switches at once” dance to get into the realm of
the Preset Banks.
6 • 3
Editing and Saving Setups with the Floor Board
The basic story on editing setups is on Page 5•2 of this manual. With a Floor
Board you’ll find that the display ( 22) will show an E (for “Edited”) whenever
you’ve edited a channel, as opposed to U (User) or P (Preset). It will display an S
(Save) if you press the Save button on the Flextone in preparation for saving a
channel. When you decide you want to save an edited channel, you can select any
of the User Bank locations via the Floor Board as your destination. Here’s how:
1.
2.
3.
EDIT A CHANNEL’S SETUP TO YOUR LIKING.
PRESS THE SAVE BUTTON ON THE FLEXTONE.
PICK THE USER BANK YOU WANT TO STORE THE SETUP IN WITH THE
BANK UP AND BANK DOWN SWITCHES ON THE FLOOR BOARD.
4A. ON THE FLEXTONE, PICK THE CHANNEL MEMORY LOCATION (A, B, C, OR D) YOU
WANT TO SAVE THE SETUP TO WITHIN THE SELECTED BANK, AND
5.
PRESS THE SAVE BUTTON TO COMMIT THE SETUP TO THE FLEXTONE’S
MEMORY. OR,
4B. SKIP 4A AND 5, AND JUST KICK YOUR CHOSEN FLOOR BOARD CHANNEL SELECT
SWITCH TWICE TO SAVE THE SETUP INTO THAT CHANNEL.
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THAT’S USING YOUR FEET: USING THE FLOOR BOARD WITH THE FLEXTONE
TapTempo
Now, then, how about that handy Tap Tempo thing on your Flextone? Sure would
be nice to be able to change the speed of your effects without taking your hands off
your guitar, wouldn’t it? That’s what the TapTempo (
) foot switch is for. The
24
LED to the left of it (you’ve already probably been entranced by it as it pulses
away), flashes just like the Tap Tempo button on your Flextone to let you know
the speed of your effect. To change this speed, all you’ve got to do is tap on this
Tap Tempo switch.
Tuner
Well, TapTempo/Tuner switch, really(
). Hold that puppy down for a second
24
or more and – shazam! Instant digital chromatic tuner. All TubeTone and effects
processing are bypassed so you can hear those questionably-tuned strings clearly,
should you choose to do so. If you’d rather appear more professional, don’t worry;
the volume pedal still works. Play a note on your guitar and the Floor Board will
6 • 4
show you what it is in that handy display (
). Play that string again, give its
22
tuning key a spin, and the six LEDs above the bottom row of Floor Board switches
give you a light show. The idea is that the LEDs to the left light if you’re flat. The
LEDs to the right light if you’re sharp. And the two LEDs in the center will light
at the same time when you’ve got it just right. Give any one of the Floor Board’s
switches a stomp and the tuner disappears just as swiftly as it came and you’re right
back to Channel Select Mode. What if you want to tune to a different reference
than A=440Hz? When you’re in the tuner mode, turn the Mid knob on the
Flextone while watching the display on the Floor Board. Hey, it changes! You can
set the reference frequency anywhere from 435-445Hz. This setting is stored so
you don’t have to reset it every time you turn on the amp if you decide you want to
be different (or if that piano in your rehearsal room has decided to be different).
Wah Pedal
So how about thatWah pedal? It’s the one on the left (
). Get yourself planted
25
with your foot on there nice and comfortable. Now, press down with your toes, let
go, and do it again. You should see a little light turning on and off to the left of the
Wah pedal. When the light’s on, the wah’s on. When the light’s off, the wah’s off.
Neat. Incidentally, the Flextone Wah is modeled after a late 60’s Vox wah, with
plenty of “growl” in the heel back position. Now then, turn the wah light on,
switch to the Black Panel Amp Model, set your Drive to about 5, and do a little
fast rhythm playing while you rock back and forth to the beat on that wah pedal.
Hang a disco ball, unbutton your shirt to your navel (assuming you don’t have it
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THAT’S USING YOUR FEET: USING THE FLOOR BOARD WITH THE FLEXTONE
that way all the time), hang some gold chains around your neck, and get ready to
party! You can do subtle things with the wah pedal too, like turning it on just a
tiny bit and leaving it there, just barely caressing your sound. But then, that’s not
as much fun as playing the theme to “Shaft,” is it?
Volume Pedal
Not nearly as fun as the wah pedal, but arguably more useful (and it doesn’t
require you to have Very Large Hair to use it convincingly). Put your foot up on
that thing (
). It’s the one on the far right. Press the volume pedal forward with
25
your toes for loud, and back with your heel for quiet. The volume pedal is tapered
for a very musical swell. It starts out slow and then gets faster as you move your toe
down, very much like an Ernie Ball volume pedal.
Many guitarists used to switch potentiometers in their volume pedal if they
wanted to gradually swell an extremely overdriven tone. The Flextone is hip
enough to know about this. When you select a low gain Amp Type (to the left-
hand side of the 16-position switch) the Flextone automatically chooses the
normal volume pedal taper and sets up the volume pedal to control the guitar’s
volume before the preamp. Then, when you select a high-gain amp type, the
Flextone changes the taper and re-patches the volume pedal location to be post-
preamp, as this is the more valuable position for a volume pedal with this kind of
amplifier tone.
6 • 5
2. EFFECT ON/OFF MODE
Alright. So that wah pedal was pretty fun, but now you want to get down to some
business with the rest of your Flextone effects. This is where we get to light up that
top LED of the pair that the Mode Select switch points to. Press the Mode
Select switch (
) to get that LED lit.
20
Now, notice that the six stomp switches that we were using for the Channel Select
Mode also have an alternative set of labels. This top row reads Distortion, Drive,
EQ,Trem/Chorus, Delay, and Reverb (but you’re already seeing that on the
handy fold out illustration and on the Floor Board itself, right? OK, just
checking.... And you sent in your registration card, right? It always makes us really
happy to get those things).
The light above a stomp switch will be on if the Effect that it controls is on. The
light will be off if the effect it controls is off. There goes that easy to use
technology again.
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THAT’S USING YOUR FEET: USING THE FLOOR BOARD WITH THE FLEXTONE
Distortion
The Distortion on/off switch works kinda like a distortion pedal. With a
distortion pedal, you kick the Distortion on, and your sound is more distorted. You
kick it off, and your sound is less distorted. Same thing here. What this does in
actuality is increase the Drive of your Flextone. Distortion always can add more
Drive to your sound, even if the Drive ( 4 ) knob is already crammed up to max.
Thus, finally, you can get everything turned up louder than everything else.
Drive/Boost
Depending on when you buy your Floor Board, you may find that the Drive/Boost
switch is just labeled Drive instead. What gives? While the switch does control
Drive on our other Digital Guitar Amplification Systems, on the Flextone it is
actually setup to give you a Volume Boost. Our users asked us to put in this kind of
capability – an easy to use volume boost/cut control – so here it is. The idea is that
you can use this for a “lead boost” when you want to get a bit of extra volume and
jump out over the band, or a “rhythm cut” when you want to drop your volume
back a bit – like when you switch from lead to rhythm parts. With Drive/Boost on,
you’re getting the full, boosted volume. With Drive/Boost off, your volume is
backed off a bit. In light of all this good stuff, newer Floor Boards label this control
Drive/Boost. Of course, we fully expect that those “vintage” Floor Boards will be
highly prized in the future because of this.
6 • 6
EQ
The EQ on/off switch will kick in a presence boost of 3-6 dB, depending on which
amp model is chosen. The abbreviation “dB” stands for decibels, a measure of
sound volume. A “presence boost of 3-6 dB” is just a fancy way of saying your
sound gets a bit brighter. In keeping with our attention to amp tone detail, the
frequency range covered by the presence boost varies according to how the
original amp that we modeled had its presence circuitry set up.
Trem/Chorus
The Trem/Chorus on/off switch lets you kick your tremolo and pitch mangling
effects (it says chorus, but it’s really chorus, flanger, tremolo or rotary speaker) on
and off. Light on, effect on. Light off, effect off.
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THAT’S USING YOUR FEET: USING THE FLOOR BOARD WITH THE FLEXTONE
Delay
The Delay on/off switch turns your Delay effects on – light on. Or off – light off.
Reverb
Bet you can guess this one already. Light on – reverb-o-rama. Light off – bone dry.
Effect On/Off Settings StoredWith Programmed
Channels
OK, this part’s mostly for the people who fret about all the little details that make
other people think, “Wow, you’re way too concerned about all the little details!”
What happens if you turn some of these handy effects off and on and then you
save your setup into one of your User Channel memories? The effect on/off status
gets stored, too. Cool. Now, what happens when you decide to head over to your
friends’ house to show then how cool your Flextone is, and you jump on your bike,
and decide taking the Floor Board along is too much hassle, so you leave it behind,
pump the pedals while holding the Flextone on the handlebars with your chin,
strut into your friends’ place trying not to look like you’re out of breath, plug in
your Flextone, recall your FAVORITE setup from the handy channel select
buttons, go to play that incredibly classic-sounding Ultimate Tremolo setup that
you know is going to have your friends turning pale and quivery with envy, even if
they do think you're too concerned about all the little details, and then it hits you
– you turned the tremolo off from the Floor Board and stored the setup like that.
Feel foolish, don’t you? Let that be a lesson – never leave your Floor Board behind.
Especially when there are friends to impress. But we hate to see you suffer. So
6 • 7
here’s how to save your bacon: just grab the EffectTweak ( ) knob and give it a
8
spin. Magically, your tremolo is back to make you a hero once again. That’s
because a particular effect’s on/off status is overridden if you tweak that effect’s
setting. So tremolo/chorus on/off comes on when you move the Effect Tweak knob
to change your Tremolo, Chorus, Flanger, or Rotary Speaker setting. Ditto if it’s
Drive or Delay or Reverb. And the opposite is true for Distortion and the EQ
bump – these are automatically switched off if you tweak something related to
4
them. So if you move the Drive knob ( ), the Distortion turns off. Or if you
move the Bass, Mid, or Treble knob ( ), the EQ bump turns off. But only if the
5
Floor Board’s not connected. See? A bunch of little details. Getting a headache,
aren’t you? The important thing is, if you save channels with effects on or off and
then you don’t have your Floor Board, no worries – we’ve made sure it doesn’t
cause you problems. That’s it for the Floor Board section. Fun, wasn’t it?
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THAT’S USING YOUR FEET: USING THE FB4 WITH THE FLEXTONE
USING THE FB4 WITH THE FLEXTONE
The FB4 gives you basic control over channel switching on the Flextone. We
tried to make it as simple as possible. Turn off the Flextone. Connect the FB4 to
the Flextone with the thoughtfully-included connection cable. Turn on the
Flextone. Select Sound A, B, C, or D by pressing the appropriate button on the
FB4. The LED will light to indicate that the channel is selected. If you press and
hold down the button at the lit LED for about a second, your Flextone will switch
to Manual Mode. If you tap the button at the lit LED two (or more) times, it will
set the Tap Tempo speed. And finally, if you unplug the FB4 from your amp and
tap on one of its switches, nothing will happen.
Note: For those aware of the extra banks of sounds accessible via the Floor Board, you’ll
want to know that the FB4 is always selecting sounds from User Bank 1 – the same four
channels that are accessible from the Flextone itself.
6 • 8
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InsideYour Head: THE FLEXTONE HD
INSIDE YOUR HEAD
THE FLEXTONE HD
If you’re the proud owner of a Flextone HD, this chapter’s just for you. While the
Flextone HD is much like its combo amplifier brethren, there are important features
and functions that set the HD apart. They are detailed herein:
FRONT PANEL
If you look closely, you’ll notice that the illustration on the fold-out back cover of this
User Manual is basically exactly the same as the front panel of your Flextone HD. The
only difference is that the HD has a big light-up power switch on the front panel (the
combos have their power switches rear-mounted).
HEAT SINKS AND FANS
7•1
The rear panel of the Flextone HD is where you see the real difference between the
Flextone combos and your Flextone head. Because of the much higher power
capabilities of the HD, it includes large heat sinks and fans that are not found on the
Flextone combos.
THE HEAT SINKS CAN BE HOT (THAT’S THE WHOLE IDEA OF THEM – THEY DISSIPATE THE
HEAT THAT THE FLEXTONE HD GENERATES). BE CAREFUL TO KEEP AT LEAST 3 INCHES OF
CLEARANCE BETWEEN THE BACK OF THE FLEXTONE HD AND WHATEVER IS BEHIND IT. DO
NOT TOUCH THE HEAT SINKS WHILE THE FLEXTONE HD IS OPERATING OR WHILE IT IS
COOLING AFTER OPERATION.
FANS AND WHAT MAKES THEM GO
The Flextone HD’s back panel fans protect it from overheating when you are driving
the unit to its maximum power output levels, or using it in high temperature
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InsideYour Head: EFFECTS LOOP
environments (like that MTV Live gig you’re booked for in the Gobi Desert).
THE FLEXTONE HD COOLING FANS WILL NOT TURN ON UNTIL THE AMPLIFIER GETS HOT –
THIS IS NORMAL.
Excessive heat that turns on the fans can occur because of high output volume
settings, intense stage lighting, outdoor weather conditions, and other high-
performance factors. The cooling fans in the Flextone HD are specially designed to
turn on only when the temperature inside the amplifier rises above a predetermined
point. This insures that the fans do not produce unnecessary noise during recording
situations, or times when you’re playing at low volumes. Handy, huh?
7•2
EFFECTS LOOP
The Flextone HD Effects Loop allows you to hook up external effects and processors to
the HD. Send and Return are both stereo, on tip-ring-sleeve jacks, and you can choose
between Series and Parallel operation.
In case any of that sounds like a foreign language to you, we’ll take a second here to
hip you to some “effect loop application theory,” and details of hooking everything up.
Effects loops let you send sound out of a device (like the HD) to another device (like a
rack mount effects processor), and then loop it back again, feeding the now-processed
sound back into the thing that the unprocessed sound came from. Like when you want
to add an echo to your guitar sound, or maybe you want to compress it.
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InsideYour Head: EFFECTS LOOP
So, your HD creates the basic tone, and then that tone is sent out to the effects loop
for further “seasoning,” and finally the seasoned sound is returned back to the amp for
final output. In the HD, that seasoning can be applied in two ways: series or parallel...
SERIES VS. PARALLEL
In a series effects loop, all of your guitar signal goes out the “effect send” and into
whatever effect you may be using. The signal is processed by the effect, and then the
signal comes back into the “effect return” for final amplification and output. The effect
is “in series” (comes after) the sound generator (your amp). If you turn the output
volume of your effect to zero, you hear nothing, because all the sound is leaving the
amp and then the effect processor is giving nothing back.
Now, in a parallel effects loop, only a part of your tone goes out the “effect send” and
into whatever effect you may be using. It’s sort of like you’ve tapped a bit of the signal
off from the main flow, to send it elsewhere (just like a typical effect send on a mixing
board). But in the meantime, the main flow is still going, too, passing through the amp
uneffected. The effect unit processes its parallel signal, and returns it to the amp, where
it gets mixed back in with the uneffected signal.
7•3
Why have both? Some effects have to be in series to be effective. Compressors, for
instance, work by taking all of your signal and adjusting its volume as you play.
Similarly, noise reducers need to work on all the signal. Generally, you’d also use EQ
or “exciter” in a series loop.
Other effects can work with only a portion of the guitar signal – in parallel. Reverb,
for instance, or delay, can be driven with just a portion of the guitar signal. Same goes
for chorus.
One reason some people like to use parallel effect loops is that not all of their guitar
tone has to go through the effect box. This can be especially important if you are using
an old, low-resolution piece of gear that tends to suck out the warm details of your
tone. By using a parallel effect loop, you get to keep plenty of your pure, unadulterated
tone right inside the amp where it’s safe, and then just mix a bit of the processed sound
in on top for extra flavor.
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InsideYour Head: USING THE EFFECTS LOOP
USING THE EFFECTS LOOP
The back panel of the HD shows an illustration of part of the HD signal flow,
including the Effects Loop. As you can see, the series/parallel switch controls whether
(1) some sound flows directly through the amp, bypassing the effect loop (this would
be parallel), or (2) the direct path through the amp is interrupted, so all the guitar
signal flows through the effect (this would be series).
Note that the Master Volume control comes after the effects loop; you get the same
signal level flowing to your effect, no matter what Master Volume level you set.
7•4
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Run a cable from the HD effect send to the inputs of your effect unit. This HD’s
effect send gives you a stereo, TRS (tip, ring, sleeve) connection. You can use a mono
cable to connect to a mono input effect (in this case, the HD’s left signal will flow to
the effect). For a stereo effect device that has separate left and right input jacks, use an
“insert” cable – it’ll have a TRS connector on one end (that plugs into the HD effect
send), and will fan out to two mono connectors on the other end, (those plug into
your effect unit’s two inputs).
For the return, do the same thing. Generally, you’ll want to use another “insert” cable,
with the two mono connectors plugged into your effect’s left and right outputs, and
the TRS connector plugged into the HD’s effect return. If you use a mono cable for the
return, you will get the looped signal on only one side. If the effect loop is set for series
operation, that means only the left channel of your HD will be heard. In that case,
you’ll need to use a mono-to-stereo adapter on the mono cable from the effect, to feed
both the effect return channels of the HD.
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InsideYour Head: DIRECT OUTPUTS
SETTING EFFECT LEVELS
The amount of effect you hear is controlled by the output volume of your effect. You
want to turn it up enough to get a good healthy signal into the HD for amplification,
but not so much that it distorts.
If you’re using the effect loop in parallel, be sure to set the mix of
your processor to 100% wet (so that it puts out only effected sound,
with no uneffected “direct” signal mixed in), and then use the processor’s
output level (not the mix control) to set just how much of the effect you
want to hear along with your un-effected guitar signal. Running in parallel with the
mix at less than 100% will cause what engineers call “comb filtering” and
most other people would call “lame tone.”
7•5
DIRECT OUTPUTS
Also located on the rear panel are the Direct Outputs on balanced XLR connections.
These are specially designed outputs that feature a built-in speaker cabinet simulator
to emulate the sound of mic’d speaker cabinets, so you can record “direct” without
sacrificing the great tone of a mic’d cabinet moving air. These outputs can be used
with or without speaker cabinets connected to the amp, and sound great for both
recording and live applications. For live setups, these direct outs save you from having
to mic your cabinet. Just plug in here and go!
DIRECT OUTPUT LEVEL
The Direct Outputs are located pre-master volume control – you get the same output
level, no matter what Master Volume level you set.The outputs are not line level.
Think of them as outputs from two “virtual microphones” in front of your amp – only
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InsideYour Head: DIRECT OUTPUTS
if you crank up the HD’s Master Volume you don’t blow Mr. Sound Man away since
the direct outs are independent of Master Volume. Do whatever you would do with a
microphone output in your recording or live setup – run into your preamp and then to
tape. Or plug into the mic snake at the club to feed a couple of the house PA’s mic
inputs. You’ll get the sound of microphones in front of your cabinet, but with the
added advantage of no feedback, perfect tone at any cabinet volume (including
silence), and a simple setup that sounds great no matter what sound disasters the room
you’re playing or recording in might have. When the Flextone HD is turned on,
the direct outs can put out a load pop; be sure to lower your monitor levels
– and tell the person running the sound board to lower theirs!
TAKE A LOAD OFF
Running the Flextone HD without a load (that means without speakers
attached) is no problem (this is something you don’t want to do with a
tube-based amplifier). You do not need to have speakers connected to the
amplifier in order to use the balanced Direct Outputs. So, for instance, you
can run without speakers for recording situations when you don’t need to drive a
cabinet, or live direct-to-the-house setups where you don’t need the HD to drive any
7•6
speaker cabinets on-stage.
MONO/STEREO DETAIL
When using only the Left/Mono speaker output, the effects will be switched to mono.
This also effects the Direct Outputs – they switch to mono, too (meaning the exact
same thing comes out both jacks). If both left and right speaker outputs are in use, or
neither are connected, the effects and direct outputs will be in stereo. Which leads us
to a handy tip: to get stereo direct outputs or effect send while running a mono cabinet
setup, plug an extra 1/4" ‘dummy cable’ (it doesn’t have to plug into anything else)
into the right speaker output from the HD to force the HD to run stereo.
FEELING UNBALANCED?
When running the Flextone HD’s Direct Outputs into unbalanced line inputs, use a
cable that has a female XLR connector on the HD side, and a 1/4" mono (tip-sleeve,
but no ring) connector on the line input side. For the XLR connector, leave pin 3 not
connected, and wire pin 2 of the XLR connector to the tip of the 1/4" connector, with
pin 1 of the XLR connector wired to the sleeve (fortunately, this is the standard wiring
configuration for off-the-shelf XLR to 1/4" adapters).
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InsideYour Head:
FLOOR BOARD, MORE MEMORIES, & MIDI
The Floor Board is the powerful, customized foot controller from Line 6 designed to be
the perfect companion for your Flextone HD. You can read all about it, and its little
brother the FB4, in the main Flextone User Manual. In comparison to the Flextone
combos, here are a couple of new capabilities the HD brings you in foot control land.
MORE MEMORY
7•7
While the Flextone combos have three user banks for storing your custom setups, your
Flextone HD has an expanded memory that lets you save 9 User banks. You also still
get the same four Preset banks as the Flextone combos. The Preset memory Banks and
User Banks 1-3 have the same programmed sounds as the Flextone combos. User
Banks 4-6, and 7-9, just repeat the same programmed sounds at Banks 1-3, and you can
replace any of these User channel memories with your own custom sounds that you
program. Check the Floor Board section (Chapter 6) of the main Flextone Manual
for the scoop on memory, banks, and all that.
MIDI OUT
MIDI out on a guitar amp? What gives?
We’ve included a simple MIDI output in case you would like to send MIDI program
changes to your external effect devices when you change channels on the HD. That
way, when you stomp on the Floor Board, or press one of the Channel switches on the
HD, your MIDI effect device can follow along with the changes without your even
having to think about it. They key to it all is the MIDI Program Change message....
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InsideYour Head: FLOOR BOARD, MORE MEMORIES, & MIDI
MIDI PROGRAM CHANGE & FLEXTONE CHANNELS
A MIDI program change command is sent on MIDI Channel 1 when you select a
channel from the HD front panel, the FB4 foot controller, or the Floor Board foot
controller. Store effect setups into your effect processor at specific memory locations
that match up with the Flextone HD’s channel memories, and then you can switch
both the HD’s channels and your MIDI effect setups at the same time with just one
button or foot switch press. The table on the following page shows you which program
change numbers are sent, and how they correspond to the Flextone HD memory
locations.
So, here’s what you do: connect a MIDI cable from the HD’s MIDI Out to your MIDI
gear’s MIDI In. For now, don’t plug in a foot controller at all, or if you do have one
connected, make sure you have User Bank 1 selected (User Bank 1 is the four channels
that you can access from the Flextone HD front panel with no foot controller
attached). Now, let’s say you want to have a certain effect always come up on your
effect processor every time you choose channel A on your Flextone HD. Just program
that effect setup into your MIDI gear’s memory location 01, and now every time you
call up channel A, your MIDI gear will pull up the right effect for you.
7•8
THINGS TO REMEMBER WITH MIDI
If you’re having trouble, make sure your MIDI gear is set to receive program changes
on MIDI channel 1, and that the Flextone HD MIDI Out is connected to your other
gear’s MIDI In. Also, check to see if your gear treats the first memory location as zero
or one. If your gear treats the first memory as zero, you may have to add one to the
program number listed in the table.
MIDI CONTINUOUS CONTROL
Two MIDI controllers are sent when the Flextone HD is used with the Floor Board.
Controller 4 (Wah) and Controller 7 (Volume) messages are sent when the pedals on
the Floor Board are moved. Note that Controller 4 is sent even when the WAH pedal
is switched to OFF, so you can use this pedal as a controller for other settings on your
effects if you like.
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InsideYour Head: FLOOR BOARD, MORE MEMORIES, & MIDI
MIDI Program Changes & Flextone Channels – Visual Aid
MIDI
Program
MIDI
Program
MIDI
Program
HD Channel
HD Channel
HD Channel
User Bank 1
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
User Bank 2
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
User Bank 3
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
User Bank 4
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
User Bank 5
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
User Bank 6
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
User Bank 7
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
User Bank 8
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
User Bank 9
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
Preset Bank 1
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
Preset Bank 2
Channel A
01
02
03
04
21
22
23
24
37
38
39
40
05
06
07
08
25
26
27
28
41
42
43
44
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
Preset Bank 3
Channel A
09
10
11
12
29
30
31
32
45
46
47
48
Channel B
7•9
Channel C
Channel D
Preset Bank 4
Channel A
Channel B
Channel C
Channel D
13
14
15
16
33
34
35
36
49
50
51
52
17
18
19
20
Manual
53
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InsideYour Head: CABINET HOOK-UPS
CABINET HOOK-UPS
In addition to all of the cool stuff like TubeTone modeling, awesome Direct Outs, and
great effects, the Flextone HD offers unmatched versatility and flexibility for powering
almost any type of speaker cabinet(s). The type and number of speaker cabs you
choose is up to you. Most likely, the cabinets you choose will depend on the situations
you play in – some gigs require more of the closed back grind and thump, while other
gigs will work better with the classic sound of open back speaker cabinets. Either way,
the Flextone HD has got you covered.
First, some speaker cabinet basics:
•
•
Be sure to turn the amplifier off when connecting or disconnecting speaker
cables and cabinets. (This protects both the amplifier and the speakers.)
Only use heavy gauge, unshielded cables for hooking up speaker cabinets.
(Do not use standard guitar cables to connect your speaker cabinets, as
they will degrade your sound. )
7•10
VOLUME LEVELS
When using your Flextone guitar amplification system, be sure to
exercise some common sense about volume levels.The Flextone HD is
a high-powered head designed to drive up to four 4x12" cabinets per
side. So obviously it’s got enough juice to spare that you could fry the
speakers of most setups if you really tried.
WARNING SIGNS
If you see the speakers practically jump out through the speaker grille, and they’re
making rude noises, back off on the Flextone HD’s Master Volume a wee bit to get
things back into the realm of reasonable operational levels (note that, for Line 6
speaker cabinets, we’ve included some recommended maximum volume settings with
the hook-up diagrams that follow in this manual). Also understand that Line 6 can
not be liable for replacement of speakers damaged by abuse. So, feel free to crank it up,
but do it with a bit of sense.
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InsideYour Head: CABINET HOOK-UPS
FLEXTONE HD POWER OUTPUT:
The Flextone HD power output varies according to the ohm rating of the speaker
cabinet combinations you hook up to it.
4 ohm cabinet = 150 watts per side / 300 watts total stereo
8 ohm cabinet = 100 watts per side / 200 watts total stereo
16 ohm cabinet = 60 watts per side / 120 watts total stereo
As you can see from the list above, the lower the ohms (load), the more power
produced by the amplifier. That’s because speaker setups with lower ohm ratings allow
more power to flow. So, in general, lower ohms = more volume available to rock your
world with. The total surface area of the speakers involved makes a big difference, too.
More surface area (in other words, bigger speakers, or more speakers) means more air
can be moved, and, once again, that means more volume to do your voodoo with.
Unlike a tube amp, whose tone changes with different ohm loads, the Flextone HD
retains the same great tone at any power level or load. This gives you the maximum
versatility in choosing cabinet setups, and switching amongst different cabinet setups
for different situations, without having your tone suffer.
7•11
The illustrations at the end of this booklet illustrate a number of common speaker
cabinet configurations you might use with your Flextone HD. The two parallel outputs
on each HD channel give it lots of versatility for driving most any type of guitar
speaker cabinet setup you’re likely to come across.
CARRYING A LOAD
Operating the Flextone HD without a load (that means without speakers
attached) is OK! You do not need to have speakers connected to the
amplifier in order to use the balanced Direct Outputs (you wouldn’t want
to run a tube amplifier without a load).
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InsideYour Head: CABINET HOOK-UPS
MONO/STEREO DETAIL
Remember that when you use only the Left/Mono speaker output, the effects switch to
mono. This also effects the Direct Outputs – they switch to mono, too (ya get the
exact same thing on both jacks). If both left and right speaker outputs are in use, or
neither are connected, the effects and direct outputs will be in stereo. Leading us to
repeat our handy tip: to get stereo direct outputs or effect send while running a mono
cabinet setup, plug an extra 1/4" ‘dummy cable’ (it doesn’t have to plug into anything
else) into the right speaker output from the HD to force it to run stereo.
CABINET CHOICES
When it comes to cabinet setups, there are of course plenty of options, but we’ve tried
to focus in on the most likely ones. If what you need is extreme portability, or you
don’t need much volume, you may use one or two of Line 6’s 1-12" speaker cabinets,
the Flextone Cab. More typically, you’ll probably choose one or more of Line 6’s 2-12"
stereo speaker cabinets, the Flextone Cab 212S. Or, you may go with a 4x12" setup.
The drawings on the following pages show you how to make the hookups, and the
7•12
power ratings of each setup. We’ve shown a typical 4x12" stereo speaker cabinet; your
equipment may differ slightly, but these illustrations should give you most of the detail
you need to figure out how to make things work.
OPEN-BACK / CLOSED-BACK EMULATION
Being one of these modern day technological wonders and all that, we’ve tried to put a
few little refinements into the Flextone Series amplifiers to make them more flexible
than the old technology amps that came before them. One of the things we’ve
included in your HD is a closed-back emulator for open-back cabinets. This lets you
get the sound of a closed-back cabinet even when using open-back cabinets. So, if you
use a big multi-stack closed-back cabinet setup on stage, but then you want to use a
little open-back cabinet (like the 1-12" Flextone Cab) for monitoring when you’re
recording in the studio with the Flextone HD’s direct outputs, you can get the same
cabinet tone with both setups.
By default, the Closed-back emulator is switched off. You activate it by holding down
the Channel B button on the Flextone HD front panel as you power up. Now your
open-back cabinet will be driven with an extra-beefy sound to duplicate the closed-
back experience. To turn off the closed-back emulator, power up again, but this time
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InsideYour Head: CABINET HOOK-UPS
hold down the Channel A button on the HD, and the emulator is switched off. Once
you’ve turned it on, the emulator will stay on until you clear it with another power up
while holding the button, so don’t forget to switch it off when you get back to the
mondo stack stage setup again!
When you first turn on the Flextone HD, it will flash the Channel A or Channel B
light briefly to let you know which kind of cabinet it’s expecting to get plugged into:
Channel A will flash briefly for closed-back, Channel B flashes briefly for open-back.
REWIRING 16 OHM CABINETS
If you’ve got a 4x12", 16 ohm cabinet that you’d like to use with the HD, you’ll find
that most setups will work better – giving you more volume – with a 4 ohm cabinet.
You can convert your 16 ohm cabinet to 4 ohm by rewiring the speaker connections
inside the cabinet. The two illustrations below show the signal flow between the four
speakers and the cabinet’s input jack in each setup. Line 6 doesn’t recommend that
you do this yourself, unless you’re an experienced soldering iron jockey, but if you’ve
got the know how – or you know someone who does – here’s a drawing you may need:
7•13
Typical 16 OhmWiring Setup
4 OhmWiring Setup
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HD: CABINET HOOK-UP DRAWINGS
7• 14
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HD: CABINET HOOK-UP DRAWINGS
7•15
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HD: CABINET HOOK-UP DRAWINGS
7• 16
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HD: CABINET HOOK-UP DRAWINGS
7•17
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HD: CABINET HOOK-UP DRAWINGS
7• 18
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HD: CABINET HOOK-UP DRAWINGS
7•19
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HD: CABINET HOOK-UP DRAWINGS
7• 20
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THIS PAGE SHOULD BE LEFT BLANK; DO NOT PRINT THIS TEXT
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A1
APPENDIX A: AMP MODELS
Please note that Fender, Marshall, Vox, Boogie, Soldano, Peavey, Roland, Matchless, Arbiter, ADA, Leslie,
and other amplifier model designations, and effects, are all trademarks of their respective owners, which are in
no way associated or affiliated with Line 6. These marks and names are used solely for the purpose of describing
certain amplifier tones produced using Line 6’s TubeTone modeling technology. The TubeTone modeling
technology provides the Flextone Series of Digital Guitar Systems with a wide variety of sounds and effects
modeled after some of the most popular sounds of the classic amps and effects mentioned here.
TubeTone
Amp Model Name
Volume
Pedal
Based On
Reverb
Jazz Clean
‘87 Roland JC-120
Pre
Spring
Room
Spring
Spring
Spring
Room
Room
Room
Room
Room
Room
Spring
Room
Room
Room
SmallTweed
Tweed Blues
Black Panel
‘52 Fender Deluxe
Pre
‘59 Fender Bassman
Pre
‘65 Fender Deluxe
Pre
Modern Class A
Brit Blues
‘96 Matchless Chieftain
‘65 Marshall JTM-45
Pre
Pre
Brit Classic
‘68 Marshall Plexi 50 watt
‘90 Marshall JCM-800
‘94 Mesa Boogie Dual RectifierTremoverb
‘89 Soldano SLO
Pre
Brit Hi Gain
Rectified
Post
Post
Post
Pre
Modern Hi Gain
Flextone Clean
Flextone Crunch
Flextone Drive
Flextone Layer
Fuzz
21st Century Clean
Thick Grindage
Pre
Industrial Strength OD
Mondo Clean meets Psychotic Drive
‘60’s Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face
Post
Post
Post
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A2
APPENDIX B: EFFECT PARAMETERS
Effect
Tap
Tweak
Notes
Bypass
n/a
n/a
n/a
Turns off the effects.
Compressor
Ratio
There are 5 Compressor ratios: 1.4:1, 2:1, 3:1, 6:1, and
:1. Higher settings “squeeze” your volume more.
Tremolo
Tremolo
Speed
Depth
The tremolo was designed with the characteristic Fender
tremolo shape.
Chorus 1
Chorus 2
Chorus Speed Depth
Square wave LFO, “rack” type chorus setup; subtler than
Chorus 2.
Chorus Speed Depth
Sine wave LFO, approximately 10% feedback; emulates an
old Roland CE-1 for classic stomp box-type sound.
Flanger 1
Flanger 2
Flanger Speed
Flanger Speed
Feedback
Light flange.
Feedback
Depth
Heavier flange; inverted, and with deeper range.
This emulates a classic spinning speaker, a la the Leslie.
Rotary Speaker Rotary Speed
Delay
Delay Length
Delay Speed
Delay Level Very quick delays will have no repeats for better slapback.
Delay/
Compressor
Compres-
sion Ratio
There are 5 Compressor ratios: 1.4:1, 2:1, 3:1, 6:1, and
:1. Higher settings “squeeze” your volume more.
Delay/Tremolo
Tremolo
Speed
Delay Level The delay speed is set for a short slapback (100 ms).
Delay/
Chorus 1
Delay Speed
Delay Level Chorus 1 uses a Square wave LFO, no feedback. This is
the “rack” type chorus setup.
Delay/
Chorus 2
Delay Speed
Delay Level Chorus 2 uses a Sine wave LFO, approximately 10% feed-
back. This emulates an old Roland CE-1 for classic stomp
box chorus sound.
Delay/Flanger 1 Delay Speed
Delay/Flanger 2 Delay Speed
Delay Level Light flange.
Delay Level Heavier flange; inverted, and with deeper range.
Delay/Swell
Delay Speed
Swell
Attack
Speed
Automatic volume pedal swells... Swell is a slow ramp-up,
or swell of volume when you play each note.
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A3
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?
The Flextone DesignTeam:
While it's true that the whole staff at Line 6 ends up making an important contribution to most every
project that we do here, the following folks were most responsible for the main design effort on the
Flextone:
ENGINEERING
Michel Doidic
Erik Von Ploennies
Eric Brooking
Curtis Senffner
Kevin Duca
Thien Phan
Grant Kraus
Marcus Ryle
MARKETING/ART
Patrick O'Connor
Albert Cox
Jack Sonni
SOUND DEVELOPMENT
Curtis Senffner
Greg Westall
Curtis Taylor
Jeff Slingluff
Eric Brooking
George Van Wagner
BETA TEST*
Brian Swerdfeger
Zeke Zirngiebel
* You must have an odd last name to be a Beta tester for Line 6. And it helps if you really want to be an engineer when you grow up as well....
Plus, we all took turns making the coffee and riffing.
Any similarities to other amplifiers is, of course, intended.
The Flextone Manual was brought to you by:
Writing, Drawing & General Mucking About
Writing of More Words & Brewing of More Coffee
Patrick O’Connor
George Van Wagner
Manual Design & GraphicalTweezing
AndYet MoreText & Much Guitar Riffing
Curtis Taylor
Greg Westall
Fact-Checking & Being Helpful
Marcus Ryle
Thanks for buying your Flextone. Hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or comments, our diligent support
staff can be contacted at (310) 390-5956 (weekdays, 8am-6pm PacificTime), via our website: http://www.line6.com,
or via email: [email protected]. To ensure that your support experience is a pleasant one, we recommend taking
some notes for yourself before you call.That way, you’ll remember to ask everything you want to ask the first time,
and be able to get back to Flextone-ing ASAP.
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Flextone Manual Rev E; bookfile Page 63 Tuesday, September 8, 1998 10:31 AM
INDEX
#
Compressor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-•1, A•2
Creating & Storing Sounds . . 5•1, 6•3
16 Ohm Cabinets with HD . . . . . .7•13
A
D
Amp Models . . . . . . . . . .1•4, 3•1, A•1
Delay . . . . . . . . . . . 4•2, 4•4, 6•5, A•2
Delay/Chorus 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•4
Delay/Chorus 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•4
Delay/Compressor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•4
Delay on/off switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6•7
Delay/Flanger 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•4
Delay/Flanger 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•4
Delay/Swell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•4
Delay/Tremolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•4
Direct Output for combos. . . . . . . . 2•4
Direct Outputs for HD. . . . . . . . 7•5
Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6•6
Drive/Boost switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6•6
Drive Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•1
B
Bank Down Switch. . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•2
Bank Up Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•2
Banks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•2
with HD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7•7
Bass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•1
Black Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3•2, A•1
Brit Blues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3•3, A•1
Brit Class A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3•3, A•1
Brit Classic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3•3, A•1
Brit Hi Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3•4, A•1
Bypass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A•2
C
E
Cabinet Hookup for HD. . . . . . . . .7•10
Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7•14
Closed-back cabinet
Edit Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5•2
Editing and Saving Sounds With
The Floor Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6•3
Effect On/Off Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 6•5
Effect On/Off Settings Stored
With Programmed Sounds. . . . . 6•7
Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A•2
Effects Select Knob. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•2
Effects Send/Return . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•4
Effect Send/Return for HD . . . . 7•2
Effect Tweak . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•2, A•2
EQ on/off switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6•6
Extension Cabinet (for Plus) . . . . . 2•4
tone emulation with HD . . . . . .7•12
Channel . . . . . . . . . 2•2, 5•1, 6•2, 6•8
Channel Select . . . . . . . 2•3, 5•1, 6•2
Channel Volume Control . . . . . . . .2•2
Chorus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4•2, A•2
Chorus 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A•2
Chorus 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A•2
Closed-back cabinet
tone emulation with HD . . . . . .7•12
Combined Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4•4
i 1
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Flextone Manual Index - Replacement for Page 64 for Rev F - Monday, September 21, 1998 12:59 PM
F
M
Fans (Flextone HD). . . . . . . . . . . .7•1
FB4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•8
Flanger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•2, A•2
Flanger 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A•2
Flanger 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A•2
Flextone Cab (1-12"). . . . . . . . . . .2•6
Cab (1-12") for HD. . 7•11, 7•12
Flextone Cab 212S (2-12") . . . . . .2•6
Cab 212S hookup
to HD. . . . . . . . . 7•12, 7•15 & 16
Flextone Clean . . . . . . . . . . 3•5, A•1
Flextone Crunch . . . . . . . . . 3•5, A•1
Flextone Duo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•5
Flextone Drive. . . . . . . . . . . 3•5, A•1
Flextone Flavors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•6
Flextone Layer . . . . . . . . . . . 3•5, A•1
Flextone Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•5
Foot Pedal Connector . . . . . . . . . .2•4
Flextone Signature Sounds . . . . . .3•5
Floor Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•1
Foot Pedal Connector . . . . . . . . . .2•4
Fuzz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3•6, A•1
Manual Mode . . . .2•3, 5•1, 5•2, 6•3
Master Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•1
Memory for all Flextones . . . . . . . 5•1
Details for HD . . . . . . . . . . . . 7•7
Mid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•1
MIDI (for Flextone HD). . . . . . . . 7•7
Program Changes Chart. . . . . 7•9
Mode Select (Floor Board). . 6•2, 6•5
Model Select Knob. . . . . . . . . . . . 2•1
Modeled Amps . . . . . . . . . . 3•1, A•1
Modern Class A . . . . . . . . . 3•2, A•1
Modern Hi Gain. . . . . . . . . 3•4, A•1
N
Noise Gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•3
P
Power Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•4
Power Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•4
Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•2, 6•6
Preset Reset Button . . . . . . . . . . . 5•3
R
H
Rectified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3•4, A•1
Remote Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•4
Return for Combos . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•4
Return for HD . . . . . . . . . . . . 7•2
Reverb Level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•2
Reverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4•1, A•1
Rotary Speaker . . . . . . . . . . 4•2, A•2
Headphone/Direct Out . . . . . . . . .2•4
Heat Sinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7•1
I
Input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•1
J
Jazz Clean. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3•1, A•1
i 2
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Flextone Manual Rev E; bookfile Page 65 Tuesday, September 8, 1998 10:31 AM
S
Save Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2•3, 5•1
Send for combos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•4
Send for HD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7•2
Series/Parallel for HD. . . . . . . . . . . .7•2
16 Ohm Cabinets . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7•13
Small Tweed . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3•1, A•1
Speaker cabinet hookup for HD. . .7•10
Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7•14
Closed-back cabinet
tone emulation with HD . . . . . .7•12
T
Tap Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . 2•3, 5•2, 6•4
Tap Tempo/Tuner switch. . . . . . . . .6•4
Tone Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•1
Treble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2•1
Tremolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4•1, A•2
TubeTone Modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . .1•3
Tuner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•4
Tweed Blues . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3•2, A•1
V
Volume Pedal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•5
MIDI Control of Volume . . . . . .7•8
W
Wah Pedal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6•4
MIDI Control of Volume . . . . . .7•8
i 3
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