Tech 21 Marty Friedman Signature SansAmp - Guitar Pre-amp Pedal

UNDER THE HOOD: CRACKING THE CODE

As a staunch proponent of analog, Andrew Barta has never had the desire to venture into digital designs. The inventor of the SansAmp tube amplifier emulation technology, which debuted in 1989, Barta has remained loyal to the analog domain. That is, until now. 

According to Barta, "To me, the main drawback of a digital modeler is the feel and the sound quality. It lacks dynamics and responsiveness. It sounds one-dimensional and it isn't touch-sensitive, so the nuances of your playing style get lost. It limits your ability to change the tone by using your volume knob, picking lighter or harder. No matter how hard you hit the strings, the result is mostly the same. There's no headroom and it doesn't breathe. You are forced go to a different patch for a different tone. Ultimately, you have to conform to the device and play in a different way. So your artistic expression suffers. Artists have told me it's like being in a cage. You have to wrestle harder to squeeze out the results and their fingers get really tired.

"Whatever device you're using, be it an amp or SansAmp or modeler, it's really a part of your instrument. Your instrument actually consists of the entire signal chain, not just the guitar. Digital is just a numeric translation and isn't capable of preserving the individual personality of the guitar you use. The output is pretty much the same whether it's a Fender or Gibson or Ric."

Just as the original SansAmp was a personal mission to encapsulate tube amplifier sounds in a compact, portable pedal, Barta has long been on a quest to do the same in the digital domain. Never one to jump on a bandwagon, Barta wouldn't "go digital" until he found a way to replicate the dynamics, responsiveness and fluidity of its analog counterpart.

After many years, Barta "cracked the code." This happened to coincide with the opportunity to collaborate with Marty Friedman. The result is the Marty Friedman Signature SansAmp.

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