Poly Effects' smart new Ample 56-Amps-in-a-box device delivers the same potent and richly detailed IR-infused experience as first witnessed on its Verbs pedal

In my usual way I’ve poured over the Ample manual several times, and distilled the essentials down into a graphical visual format. This is my most detailed Poly Effects visual to-date with a lot of fine details - including all the Cab variants in the margins.

Same as with the ’Verbs’ - this is an IR-infused approach (specifically Neural Amp Modelling) - where those Classic Amps have been expertly captured and profiled - and rendered in simple but richly textured stereo format. You don’t get a whole load of IR options - in terms of Mic Placement or the ability to have multiple options of Cabs for each Preset. Instead, and like the Verbs pedal - these are all pretty much on-rails takes of those format - super richly profiled and detailed, but where the core character is retained throughout. And then you have some further tone-shaping to adjust those to your preferences.

Controls - AMP Types : Clean / Crunch / Destroy / Classic USA / Classic UK / Gen X / Bass, Presets : 1-8 per Category [Hold Number for Preset, Hold Again to Save] [Tap lit number for Secondary Params], Ample Triode Logo : Triple-tap for L/R Amp Channel Split, Hold for Fine Mode, Gain [LED Luminance], Volume [Boost Level], Bass [Mids], Treble [Room Reverb], ’A’ Boost Footswitch - Hold for Next Category / Set List, ’B’ Bypass Footswitch - Hold for Next Preset.

Rear Ports - TRS Stereo In, MIDI In & Out, USB-C for Updates / Set Lists / Presets, Power : 9V DC [-] 500mA, TRS Stereo Out.

You get 7 parameters to tweak for each preset - Gain, Volume, Bass, and Treble as primary params, and then Boost Level, Mids and Room Reverb correspondingly as secondary params. Separately you can control the Luminance of the LED/s via secondary function on then Gain control. These are the same touch-screen controls with sliders as before - which have as much as 4096 steps of resolution, while it doesn’t always feel that way. It depends on your own fingers and degree of conductance. I seem to run a little cold - and occasionally my touch has zero impact. For my friend Henry Kaiser it’s the opposite - he has wizard-like electrostatic fingers which cause such displays to go haywire - so he can’t use these kinds of pedals at all. For me - I like that you can scroll through Categories and Presets by holding down the respective footswitches - that helps me a lot. While the user experience can be frustrating on occasion - where my touch just doesn’t seem to have any impact!

Generally though it’s a fairly simple and intuitive interface. And if you’ve used either of the previous Flat V or Verbs devices - then this should very much be second nature - in particular the Verbs - which is very similar in its control topology and methodology. All those 3 devices are priced the same - at $399, and I have and love the first two of those. And will undoubtedly have the Ample on the board at some stage! I’ll see how generous Loki is feeling after he reads my article!

Fractal Audio recently launched its VP4 Virtual Pedalboard - which would be the perfect Multi-FX companion for this Ample Unit - those 2 together will give you a full rig! I feel there is much to love about Loki’s approach here - and of course the fact that it gives you access to 56 of the best loved classic amps of all time. I’m definitely looking forward as much to just exploring the differences of those different types, and see how they compare to my other experience of the same.

This is a fairly unique approach to Modelling Amp, and quite differently structure to most else that is out there at the moment. I feel that the Ample is overall a little more rounded than the Verbs - I had a couple of niggles with the Verbs, and it seems like Loki has come up with some smart solutions for some of my previous challenges. The Verbs has an incredibly long startup cycle, which occassionally fails to resolve, and you need to power up the device a second time - fairly minor niggles, but might be majorly annoying for some.

I still have some challenges with these devices, but feel that their advantages vastly outnumber the deficiencies. I will definitely be getting one of these for the collection, where I still need to decide where I place it on the board - so it may be something for early next year - we shall see - definitely want one though! And to get the most of it you have to run it in stereo!

I see these are already in stock at Andertons - for £399, and of course $399 on the Poly Effects Webstore - this is definitely happening - it’s just a question of when. I have a number of priorities ahead of this in the queue, including the Walrus Audio Mako II M1. So this one could happen as early as next month!