Those who made the trip to Guitar Summit in Germany at the weekend were treated to a much-hyped star making one of their first public appearances, as Line 6's all-singing, all-dancing new Helix Stadium amp modeller was on show, blowing minds with its AI-powered performance.
You need something to play it through if you want it to feel like a traditional amp, pushing air, lots of volume, real feedback. There is no shortage of quality FRFR Speakers on the market.
Line 6’s Powercab Plus was one of the first, and remains a superlative option. But you have options, with Line 6 expanding its Powercab active guitar speaker range with the Powercab CL, which offers multiple virtual speaker voicings for the first time.
“Unlike other Line 6 Powercab products, the CL is not an FRFR system, but is intended to provide the tonal equivalent of running your modeller or effects processor through a traditional guitar-voiced speaker,” says Line 6. “Combined with our patented speaker voicing technology, this allows you to approximate six classic speaker responses.”
The switchable speaker voicings that interact with the real speaker and are selected by six-way rotary dial.
These virtual speakers emulate classics of yore – and are given names such as Crisp, Vintage, Jetson, Essex, Green and Jarvis, which makes us think of the Iron Man movies, and Tony Stark’s AI assistant, but is really based on a Jensen P12Q alnico speaker, i.e. a Fender amp classic with a slightly scooped profile. An LED lights up to let you know which one is selected.
One giant leap for digital rigs? Perhaps. And yet the aesthetic is reassuringly familiar, as are the controls. The open-back cabinets are loaded with one or two 12” drivers. There is ample power, with the Powercab CL 212 packing 200-watts, the Powercab CL 112 100-watts.
Both are equipped with a 3-band EQ with dials for Low, Mid and High (boost/cut), and that all seems very welcoming to recent converts to electric guitar’s digital transformation.
As for the virtual speakers, Line 6 really are giving us classics.
Alongside the Jarvis’s Jensen emulation, we have a Roland JC120 combo (Crisp), a Jensen C12K (Jetson), a Celestion Alnico Blue (Essex) for that diamond grille cloth vibe, a Celestion G12M Greenback (Green) for your Marshall Plexi-style models, and the Celestion Vintage 30 (Vintage), because everyone loves or at least has loved one of them in a guitar amp at some point in their playing lives.
You can, however, choose to switch the virtual speakers off and run with the unfiltered response of the Powercab CL’s hardware speaker.
There is a balanced XLR output with ground lift and switchable IRs (six factory IRs, six user IRs), plus a MIDI input, USB for firmware updates and managing your IRs via the Powercab CL IR Loader app. The speaker voicings and EQ tone stack can be switched on or off when going direct.
The Powercab CL 112 is priced £427/$449, the CL 212 will set you back £538/$549. See Line 6 for more details.
