Description
Jackson Ampworks Britain 4.0
Brad jackson is the genius behind the beautiful amp design of the Britain 4.0.
This boutique amp has been used by Robbie McIntosh, who plays with John Mayer as well as renowned guitarists like Nigel Hendroff and Allen Hinds.
It’s an ambitious design with two channels that you can blend together. Channel one lands somewhere in between a Marshall and a Matchless and channel 2 is essentially the clean channel, and it is more like a VOX AC30.
Being able to blend the channels with this amp is a wonderful tonal option.
The other equally effective tone shaper on this amp is the fact that it has four power settings that drastically affect the way the response, the headroom and how the app starts to over drive.
There’s a 50 W EL 34 setting a 25 W EL 34 setting a 22 W EL 84 that is also switchable to 12 W.
All in an amazing 14 inch wide design.
There’s not a lot of clean headroom on this amp, but that’s not what this amp is all about.
Even with the 50 W setting, the amp is always sitting on the edge of breaking up and this amp sounds amazing when you hit it with boost pedals.
I’m not an expert on the particulars of the design, but it truly is a work of art! There isn’t a lot of low and thump that you might find in a Marshall, but there is a lot of definition in these profiles and they cut through the mix.
This amp definitely has its own flavour. It’s not quite a Marshall. It’s not quite a matchless, it’s not quite a vox ……..it occupies its own tonal space and that’s a great thing.
I profiled this amp with five different speaker cabinets. a 2 x 12 eminence loaded Buddha cab, a Dr Z 2 x 12 ZR cab, a Mesa 4 x 12 and a 2 x 12 loaded with green backs as well as a 2 x 12 loaded with Celestion G 1265s so there are ton of options here.
My favourite of the bunch is the Budda Cab.
BRITAIN 4.0 Profiles
1. BRITAIN (mostly CH.1 marshall channel) for P90’s
(with EMINANCE cab 57/57)
-nice rock/hard rock/crisp PWR chords/GREAT WORSHIP TONES
-Lots of good Gretsch options too.
BRITAIN P90 0e
BRITAIN P90 1e
BRITAIN P90 2e
BRITAIN P90 3e
BRITAIN P90 4e
BRITAIN P90 5e
BRITAIN P90 LD 1e
BRITAIN P90 LD 4e
2. BRITAIN (mostly CH.1 marshall channel) for HB’s
(with EMINANCE cab 57/57)
-nice rock/hard rock
BRITAIN HB 0e
***BRITAIN HB 1e (great rock tone…big open PWR chords)
BRITAIN HB 2e …a nice chuggy Marshall type thing
BRITAIN HB 3e (nice big PWR chords)
BRITAIN HB 4e
BRITAIN HB LD 1e
BRITAIN HB LD 4e
3. BRITAIN (with Mesa cab sm57/sm57/121)
(good for p90 and HB)
Britain PHB 1v nice basic LP tone/nice BLUES-jazzy neck LP tone)
Britain PHB 2v
Britain PHB 3v
Britain PHB 4v
Britain PHB 5v nice
Britain PHB 6v
Britain PHB 7v
Britain PHB 8v
Britain PHB 9v (nice with solo pure boost)
4. Britain w/greenbacks-(sm57/sm57/121)
(good p90 and some strat)
Britain P90 1gr (so so)
Britain P90 2gr
Britain P90 3gr
Britain P90 4gr (nice)
Britain P90 5gr
Britain P90 6gr
Britain P90 7gr
Britain P90 8gr (has boost for solo)
5. Britain w/G12-65’s (this is mostly the Marshall Channel)
(sounds nice with strat, P90 and HB)
-a little less sizzle (warmer) with the G12-65s
-some of these are so so.
Britain STR 1g (sounds nice with strat, P90 and LP)
Britain STR 2g
Britain STR 3g
Britain STR 4g
Britain STR 5g
Britain STR 6g
Britain HB 7g
6. BRITAIN 4.0 (with Z cab for Strat)
(Good for Strat)
Britain STR 3bg
Britain STR 4bg
Britain STR 5bg
Britain STR 6bg
Britain STR 7bg
7. BRITAIN 4.0 (with Z cab for Tele)
Britain T 3bg
Britain T 4bg
Britain T 5bg
Britain T 6bg
Britain T 7bg
8. BRITAIN 4.0 (with Z cab for Gretsch)
(Good for Gretsch)
Britain Gret 3bg Lite drive
Britain Gret 4bg
Britain Gret 5bg
Britain Gret 6bg
Britain Gret 7bg
