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The Positive Grid Reactor amp celebrates decades of players using their hearts and minds to craft transcendent guitar tones while simultaneously deploying the company’s Amp Intelligence technology to unlock the future of sound creation.
“The incredible and innovative features on the Reactor are going to blow you away,” says guitarist and influencer Dre DiMura. “The tone is crazy responsive—very tube-like and dynamic—and it moves a ton of air with a bunch of tight, low-end power.”
Amp Intelligence is almost like Harry Potter magic for guitarists, as it can create tones from text prompts, conversational tweaks, audio clips and even uploaded images of rigs you want to emulate. Every aspect of the Reactor’s sound engine is designed to adapt to the performance environment (home, studio and stage) and respond to the player’s specific needs and tonal desires.
“Many guitar players have been chasing the ‘brown sound’ for decades,” says DiMura. “Reactor dialed it in perfectly in like 30 seconds after I simply described the tone. I was really blown away.”
DiMura is a fan of vintage, modded amps—like the British-style amplifiers and high-gain lead tones that rocked albums and stages in the 1980s and ’90s—and he became entranced by the Heat switch on the Reactor.
“It’s my favorite thing about the amp’s controls,” he reveals. “Heat lets you adjust the gain structure in the circuit, which closes that last 10% gap in the sound. Let’s say you're happy with a tone and don't want to make any other adjustments, but the sound just needs a little ‘something.’ Well, imagine being able to tweak a gain stage on a British amp. Heat allows you to push the sound a little bit—because more is more. But you can also use the Push/Smooth knob to control midrange—either tucking it back to sit beneath a vocal or lead line, or push it forward in the mix to get some extra heat when you need to be heard.”
DiMura also addresses the workflow of guitarists creating tracks with digital amps and DAWs in general.
“Dialing in a super-inspiring guitar sound using digital technology is obviously awesome,” he says. “But as a result, many guitarists have become used to hearing their guitar tone on FRFR speakers and studio monitors. That tends to feel playable, but it doesn’t quite respond in the way a real amp might. Reactor is making me fall in love with playing an amp again.”
If you’re interested in a Positive Grid practice amp, check out our demo of the Spark Mini.
For a personal run-through of which model might be best for your needs, reach out to a Guitar Center Gear Advisor or stop by your local Guitar Center store.