Presented by BOSS WAZA CRAFT First Amplifier

The Wisdom of the Past Dictates the Future

The vintage Marshall JTM 45 amplifier circuitry was based on the popular 1959 Fender “Tweed” Bassman 5F6A circuit. Today, both are legendary amplifiers, each providing their own unique tone. As the first-generation amplifiers evolved, component and cosmetic changes often took place; therefore there are a few different variations of these early amplifiers. The Marshall amp had evolved to 100-watt amp heads such as the “Plexi.” The power tube is 6L6 for the Fender, but for the Marshall, four EL34s with a parallel push-pull design are used to meet the demand of musicians for more output. As a result, the EL34 sound has been established as the rock sound. Almost all stack amps have been tuned based on the basic circuitry of the early stack amp, including the new BOSS Waza Amp, which promises to carry on the legacy.

The Ideal Rock Sound Continues to Evolve

The representative hard rock sound of the ‘70s and ‘80s is known as the “brown sound.” What then, is the “Waza Brown Sound?” In developing the new Waza Amp, BOSS has been able to achieve the chewy sustain of the rich tube distortion, while at the same time achieving high clarity with a dynamic response to the picking nuances of the player. In addition, a chunky clean sound can be achieved just by turning down the guitar volume. The sustain of the lead sound is sweet, and the elastic rhythm sound has such high clarity that each note of a chord can be heard. The dynamic sound change reflected by a player’s picking emotion emphasizes the sound presence in a band ensemble. To produce the Waza Brown Sound, BOSS engineers devoted much time and effort in finding the perfect setting combinations, such as tweaking the AC power voltage and experimenting with various configurations while driving speaker and custom load boxes.

Persistent Ingenuity for Greater Expression

Through their circuitry tuning innovations and expertise, BOSS engineers have made specialized fine adjustments to achieve the ideal brown sound. Historically, there have been many masterpiece stack amps with complex overtone changes created by adding different distortions in each stage of serially connected multiple tubes. By adjusting the balance of each stage, the basic distortion is created. However, the basic sound is not expressive enough. Fine adjustments with the interaction of each stage of distortion and many other factors are very important. Not only that, by adjusting how much the interactive factors respond to a picking attack, and by controlling how the distortions of each stage vary as the sound sustains, a truly expressive sound can be created. Based on the accumulated expertise of BOSS regarding distortion and Roland with in Tube Logic, the “Waza Brown Sound” not only means the sound is “brown,” but that the expressiveness is also “brown.”

Devotion to the “Waza Musical Voice”

The speaker used with the early Marshall stack is often cited as the best-sounding speaker. Even though its power handling capacity is only 20 watts, we have learned through the process of developing the BOSS Waza Amp that its smooth high end and clarity is still attractive to many musicians. In testing numerous other speakers, BOSS has found that there is no other speaker more suitable for the brown sound than the landmark speaker of the early stack amp. However, the limitation of power-handling capacity posed a critical problem for BOSS engineers, especially for the 2 x 12” cabinet configuration. In their struggle for perfection, they found the sound pressure to be simply not enough. Due to the experience and innovation of the legendary BOSS R&D division, Waza Craftsmanship engineers were able to develop a speaker with the original ‘70s brown sound, yet with 100 watts of power-handling capacity. The Waza cabinet comes in two formats: 4 x 12” and 2 x 12”. The closed-back cabinet is carefully designed in combination with the new speaker to provide a strong presence in the ensemble, with a dense sound pressure and full-face resonance.

Meticulous Architecture Dedicated to Precise Hardware Control

The power amp section is composed of a discrete solid-state amp. Two power transformers are also incorporated to stably achieve 150-watt output (more than the 100-watt output of conventional tube amp heads) while driving the typical 4 x 12” cabinet impedance of 16 ohms. The 150-watt capability provides very large headroom for a clean sound. This unmatched design makes the transformer section strongly resistant to heat. This was achieved through BOSS’ comprehensive and vigorous torture tests. In the Waza Amp, two transformer sections have been dedicated separately to the preamp and the power amp. This is specifically designed to produce a more vivid sound by precisely controlling the interaction between the preamp and the power amp. The transformer separation avoids an unintended link between the power amp and the preamp sections through the transformer section. As a result, noise is drastically reduced for an amp with this much output and the sound presence is greatly increased.