Can You Get By with a Pedal Amp? The UA Lion 68 Review
For those with TL:DR disease, the answer is YES. Thanks for stopping by.
For everyone else, let’s take a look at my review of the Universal Audio Lion 68 Super Lead Amp. Before we go further, my thanks to Will at The Arts Music Store for his personal stamp of approval of the pedal that he now uses live and in studio instead of a traditional amp, and to Daryl who arranged access to this device for review. It will not be going back to the store, because I bought it.
Is It An Amp, Really?
The answer is it depends. It is definitely a preamp and has some power amp like qualities although it cannot drive a speaker cabinet directly. Then again, it’s not designed to do so.
The Lion 68, like the other pedal amps from Universal Audio and other providers is an amp replacement that allows a direct connection to a PA, FRFR speaker system or an interface. The goal of the product is to sound and behave like the amp it ostensibly replaces. In this case, that’s a 1968 Marshall Super Lead, the amp that is more commonly known as a Plexi.
This is not the first pedal that is supposed to give Plexi like tones, but it does so without needing to be plugged into another guitar amp. That is the key point. This is an amp replacement, not an effects pedal. In fact, while you can plug it directly into an amp, you would then defeat the entire purpose of the design and will have paid too much.
I will dive deeper into the Lion 68 because there is a massive amount of capability on tap, but let me quickly note, that while the Plexi is its primary amp function, it also delivers the response of a 100 watt Marshall Super Bass amplifier (more players actually used these than many folks know) and a Variac and EQ modified Plexi simply called Brown that may have been used by a certain fellow named Van Halen.
Overview
If you have ever used a genuine Plexi or one of the many Marshall Super Lead variants with multiple inputs, you know that jumping the low and the high channels was a very common practice. You would then use the separate channel volumes in combination to give you a specific sound. While the Lion 68 is a one input amp (ok two, but for stereo in), those two virtual inputs exist and are jumped in the box. If you don’t want the sound of one or the other, just dial its volume down. Just like the real thing, These volume controls on the Lion 68 control the signal level into the amp and the output knob controls the signal strength coming out of the box, so yes you can drive the thing to the max and still output a level that is very low or loud enough to make you happy without peeling the paint off the walls or ending your life of being able to hear anything.
The tone stack is three physical knobs, bass, middle and treble, but presence is available as a secondary option on the middle control by flipping a toggle switch to ALT.
That same toggle enables a Room / Air capability in the bass knob and a Boost function in the treble knob. The learning curve is about a minute and then you are off to the races.
Above the bass knob is speaker/cabinet/microphone selector and above the treble knob is the amp model selector offering you the Super Lead, the Super Bass or the Brown.
CAVEAT - if you read the instructions, you will see that this, like other UA Amp pedals needs 9V and MINIMUM of 400 mA of power. Your cheap 9V supplies or daisy chains will not cut it. If you will use this, or any of the UA Amp pedals, make sure that you are using a higher end power supply that has isolated outputs and can deliver the required voltage and amperage. I have seen a bunch of whining where said whiner did not supply a proper power source. UA could address this by including a power supply with each pedal which would not add a lot to the cost and I think that they should. They should also spend a buck and include the USB-C cable needed to connect the pedal to the computer for firmware updates. Grrr.
For me, I use ONLY power supplies from CIOKS, either CIOKS DC7 units, some with CIOKS 8 or CIOKS 4 expanders, or as in this case a CIOKS SOL. Every 9v output on a CIOKS DC7 or SOL can deliver up to 660 mA on demand. There are CIOKS products that push less current on some of the 9V ports, the DC10 and the CIOKolate, but I do not own either, because I prefer not to artificially create unneeded restraints. The DC7 and SOL outputs are selectable for 9V/660mA, 12V/500mA, 15V/400mA and 18V/330mA. In addition to the standard centre negative connectors, the kits include a centre positive option and one that uses the smaller barrel connector employed by some pedals that don’t follow industry standards.
The Amps
I have taken the descriptions directly from the UA manual.
Bass - The cleaner, higher headroom Super Bass version of the '68 amp, running at 117 volts. The lack of a bright cap prevents this amp from getting overly bright or brittle. Designed with bass players in mind, but extremely popular with guitarists for its darker, mellower sound. A wonderful pedal platform and some nice dark crunch sounds when driven.
Lead - The higher gain, brighter Super Lead '68 amp running at 110 volts. The Super Lead amp includes a "bright cap" which increases high end. Our Super Lead model includes the most common modification which removes the bright cap completely (via the UAFX Control app). We've modified the stock bright cap to 100 pF, as used in the earlier JTM 45 amp, for jangly highs without the harshness of the original cap value of 5000 pF. More gain, more saturation, and a whole lot brighter than the Super Bass; for your classic late '60s and '70s rock tones, push Volume I and Volume II. Use Volume I for brightness, edge, and tight gain, and Volume II to bring in bottom end girth and balance out the high end.
Brown - The Super Lead amp, Variac'd down to 90 volts for more sag and thickness, then biased high for aggressive attack and bounce with more sustain and compression. By default the bright cap is removed; you can enable it in UAFX Control for dynamic edginess. Darker, thicker, and more gain. Can get very heavy, with loose, saturated gain at higher Volume settings. Great for leads, rhythms, and very loose and fat cleans on lower Volume settings.
What Does the Boost Do?
I will start with what UA has to say. The boost is based around the effect of putting a Maestro EP-III Echoplex preamp in front of the amp.
Lion's Boost knob adds color and gain from multiple elements with a single control. The Boost elements work together to create harmonic density. As always, use your ears to find the sweet spot.
Turn the Boost knob above minimum to engage the EP-III preamp, adding color and warmth. Increase Boost towards the 10 o'clock position to add clean gain and push the amp's front end. Past 10 o'clock, the midrange boost curve from a graphic EQ pedal adds thick character.
When the Boost is turned all the way down, there is no effect on amp color and gain.
In my own playing, I find that small changes to the boost setting can make a sizeable difference in tone. For what I like, it’s like salt, a little goes a long way, but you get to decide for yourself.
The Speaker - Cabinet - Microphone Options
There are three options built into the Lion 68 on receipt, but by registering the pedal, you can download and install three more at no cost.
I will list them out here. The factory defaults light up red, and the downloaded additions light up green.
Switch Up Red - Celestion 25 watt Greenbacks in a Marshall 1968 4x12 cabinet miked with a Shure SM57 dynamic microphone and a Beyerdynamic 160 ribbon microphone
Switch Middle Red - Celestion Vintage 30s in a Marshall 1968 4x12 cabinet miked with a Shure SM57 dynamic microphone and a Royer 121 ribbon microphone
Switch Down Red - 2 Celestion Greenbacks and 2 JBL-120F speakers in a Marshall 4x12 cabinet with a Shure SM57 dynamic microphone on each of the two speaker types
Switch Up Green - Electro-Voice EVM 12K in a 1x12 cabinet with an AKG 414 condenser microphone
Switch Middle Green - Celestion 65 watt speakers in a ported custom 2x12 cabinet using a Sennheiser 421 condenser microphone and a Royer 121 ribbon microphone
Switch Down Green - Celestion Vintage 30s in a Marshall 4x12 cabinet with an AKG 414 microphone
NO LIGHT - this option available by toggling through the options disables the cabinet / speaker / microphone IRs completely, and is designed if you want to run the unit into a separate power amp and from there into guitar cabinets.
Summarizing the Options
So if we summarize this pedal we have the sound of three different amplifiers of basically similar design each giving you the choice of six different cabinet/speaker/microphone options as well as one of just the preamp, a total of 21 different sound options before considering the settings of volume and the tone stack.
The Microphones
We know that different speakers have different sounds. We know that the same speaker in different cabinets sounds different. What many players are less familiar with is the impact of the microphone on the sound. Recording engineers and producers understand this but for many of us who miked cabinets while playing live, most all the time there was one mike and it was (and still is) the reliable and ever dependable Shure SM57. I have several in my own microphone locker.
Where this UA device really excels is the virtual microphone locker that includes IRs built with very expensive microphones. While you can buy a Shure SM57 for just over $100, a Beyerdynamic 160 is about $1075 CAD MAP for one microphone. A Royer 121 sells for $2059 CAD MAP. An AKG 414 sells for $1799 CAD MAP and a Sennheiser 421 sells for $559 CAD MAP. That’s an awful lot of money dedicated to microphones to record guitar cabinets, and the IRs come already built in the UA Lion 68.
UAFX Control
In addition to the knobs on the unit, even more functionality is available through the UAFX app that runs on your smartphone or tablet. You pair your device over Bluetooth to the Lion 68.
While the unit will hold one preset at a time, with UAFAX control, you can make many presets and send whichever one you want to be active on the Preset footswitch.
You can also control the input which is jumped by default in the box but via the app you can control if the inputs are jumped at all and if they are, how they are jumped.
It would be a loss to use this pedal without downloading and installing the UAFX Control app. That app also can be used to control all UAFX pedals. But there is a caution below.
The app also allows for enabling a noise gate in the Lion 68 as well as ghost notes at the cost of some noise and the ability to control the state of the bright cap via a slider toggle.
Be aware that the app has received very poor reviews, and I have found it to be very unreliable and have had to delete the pedal and the bluetooth connection and reconnect on multiple occasions just to get to my preferred presets. I don’t think that the pedal has anything to do with this, because the app gets crappy reviews for all the UA pedals that use it. Which is a real shame considering that the pedals are so good and the other UA software like their plugins and the LUNA DAW are superb.
Specifications
The following specs are taken from the Lion owner’s manual. Pay specific attention to the power requirements which are 9 volts and minimum 400mA current. For my testing and for all my pedals I only use CIOKS power supplies, and for these tests, a CIOKS SOL 5 permanently installed at the recording desk.
Example Sounds
For these examples, I used my Jimmy Page #1 Signature, bridge pickup plugged directly into the Lion 68 which was then plugged straight into a UA Apollo with the audio recorded in UA LUNA. There are three sets of the same really basic riff. The first uses the amp in the Lead (Marshall Super Lead) position and runs through all 6 speaker/cabinet/microphone options. The second uses the Bass position (Marshall Super Bass) and again runs through the 6 speaker/cabinet/microphone options. The final set uses the Brown position (Modified Marshall Super Lead with Variac) and runs through the 6 speaker/cabinet/microphone options again. There are very audible differences which says that you do have a lot of flexibility in this pedal.
The pedal settings had Volume 1 at 1 o'clock , Volume 2 at 3 o'clock, Output at 1 o'clock, with Bass, Middle and Treble at just past noon. Presence was at 2 o’clock, Boost was at 8 o’clock, and Room was at about 9 o'clock.
Note that in order to get the additional speaker/cabinet/microphones, I had to register the pedal and that meant doing the right thing and buying it.
Additional Thoughts
If you want to use the Lion 68 in conjunction with your existing guitar amp and that amp as an effects loop, the manual includes the instructions to use the four cable method to have the Lion be available through the effects loop. I did not test this capability in this review.
I heard some people complain that the Lion 68 had no effects loop. Respectfully, as it has no power amp, it does not need one. You can put other effects in front of the Lion such as compressors, drives, fuzzes and put your modulation, delays and reverbs after the Lion on your board, and then take the final output to the desk, the PA or the FRFR speakers. As many higher end effects offer stereo capabilities, the fact that the Lion supports both stereo in and stereo out is a bonus, and that is how I choose to use it with other UA effects pedals, or stereo effects from other vendors.
Another option that I share, with thanks to the excellent video presented by Corey Congilio, is to disable the speaker/cabinet/microphone options in the Lion 68 and route the outputs to the inputs on the UA OX Stomp, which instead of using IRs uses UA’s proprietary dynamic speaker modelling. This system takes things into account like age and wear on the speaker and does produce some really excellent tones, but I think that many will find dropping another $549 CAD MAP on another box to be a bit over the top.
Wrapping Up
I have bought, sold, tried and played through more promised Plexi sounds than I care to admit. Most of them have left me feeling meh. I do have an early 70’s 100 watt Custom Super Lead Mark II with a pair of 4x12 cabs, but I have to use an attenuator with it because to get it to sound “right” the amp will break glass as it is really really loud. The Lion 68 comes the closest in sound to my own Marshall CSL MII which while great is not the same as a Model 1959 Super Lead Plexi. In that respect, the Lion 68 is the Marshall Plexi that I can use every day.
If you decide to get one, please consider getting yours from The Arts Music Store as they help support the channel and please support the channel yourself by becoming a member on Patreon. Send in questions or post comments, I read and respond to all. Thanks as always. I’m Ross Chevalier and we will speak again soon.
