Overloud TH-U Made in Rock RodS MK IIb Amplifier and Cabinet Emulation Plug-In (Standalone)

The reference amplifier is a Mesa Boogie Mark IIb head, year 1980. This amplifier was owned by Jim Cregan and used extensively in both live performances and studio recordings with Rod Stewart between 1980 and 1986. The amp was acquired directly from Jim Cregan. The head is paired with a straight 4x12 cabinet, equipped with Celestion G12M 65W speakers, and a 2x12" Fender cabinet.

Made-In-Rock is an organization, which manages a vast collection of items related to the history of rock, including musical instruments, guitar and bass amplifiers and cabinets, effects, and clothing and stage items owned by legendary artists who made the history of rock, as well as magazines, posters, fliers, tickets, and books of that era. The purpose is to preserve those items and bring their knowledge to younger generations.

Also called schematic-assisted capturing, Overloud’s Fluid Capturing is an innovative amp-simulation process that combines the advantages of both modeling and capturing techniques. An amp capture is a super-realistic but static picture of the amp sampled with a particular knob setting and operating level.

A single capture cannot replicate the amp tone of all the knob settings. Instead, a modeled amp reacts like the original, at all dynamic ranges and knob positions. However, tone may not 100% match a particular sample, due to component tolerances, tube conditions, servicing history and customizations. With Fluid Capturing, Overloud both models the amp and samples it with many settings. Putting together these data points allows them to create a digital model, which is flexible like a modeled amp and realistic like a captured amp.

The THU RodS Mk IIb is an extremely versatile model that faithfully recreates both the clean and lead channels of the original amplifier, along with its iconic integrated 5-band graphic EQ. The clean channel delivers creamy, warm tones with a harmonically rich low end and can be pushed into a smooth, mild crunch. The high end ranges from soft and rounded to pristine and articulate, depending on the pull-switch configuration.

The lead channel reproduces the legendary Mark IIb high-gain circuit, with tone shaping driven by the pull switches and the classic three-knob gain-staging architecture (Volume, Drive, and Master), allowing for precise control over saturation and dynamics.

The TH-U RodS pack also includes the emulation of the original straight 4x12" cabinet equipped with Celestion G12M 65W speakers and a Fender 2x12" cabinet occasionally used during Rod Stewart’s live performances. Both cabinets were captured using 18 microphones with high-resolution nonlinear IRs.

Thanks to Overloud Fluid Convolution, you can position up to four microphones in a full 3D space around the cabinet and blend them with custom IRs. The AIR option further enhances realism, adding a deep and immersive listening experience.