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Boss Nextone Special 1x12" 80-watt Combo Amp

80W 2-channel 1x12" Guitar Combo Amplifier with Tube Modeling, Onboard Effects, Line and Headphone Outputs, and USB
$949.99

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80 Watts of Next-Level Modeled Tube Tone

If seeing "modeled" and "tube" used in the same sentence is akin to sacrilege for you, you're not alone. But believe us: BOSS's first-generation Nextone amps have been consistent favorites among Sweetwater customers and our in-house players — especially those who don't want to drag their heirloom amps out to sooty bars every weekend. Now, BOSS's Nextone Special has even more classic tube-amp touches to offer discriminating tastes. Right on the front panel you'll find two fully independent footswitchable channels with their own dedicated 3-band EQs, British/American mid-shift switches, power tube emulation, input/output gain knobs, and customizable boosts. Not only that, but you also get three Tone Settings (presets) for recalling sophisticated user rigs on the fly. So, even if you're playing smooth SRV-style blues one night and rowdy EVH-esque rock covers the next, you've got all the tones right at your fingertips with the Nextone Special. All settings are accessible directly from the amp, so absolutely no menu diving is required. Two features that really separate the Nextone Special from other modeling amps are the reactive drive circuitry, which lets you customize each type of power tube right down to the electron level and save right into the amp, and the BOSS WAZA B12W speaker, which really delivers on that late-'50s/early-'60s "J" speaker sound in a big way. Both the tube emulation and speaker response are highly reactive in the BOSS Nextone Special to provide a touch response that's sure to make even the staunchest tube enthusiast crack a smile.

Nextone: the next stage in power tube modeling tech

From the focused punch of an American 6L6 to the juicy sag of a British EL84, power tubes play an important part in an amplifier's signature tone and response. And with the BOSS Nextone Special, capturing the magic of four major output tube types is as easy as twisting a dial. This 80-watt 1 x 12-inch combo features the latest iteration of BOSS's Tube Logic technology — the same building blocks from which BOSS's Katana and Blues Cube lines were built. In the Nextone Special, every choice of output tube re-voices the entire circuit to perform more like your favorite classics. Breakup and bias, sparkle and sag — every type imparts its own characteristics, giving you cranked-up tube glory at bedroom listening levels. Carefully matched preamp saturation complements each tube choice, giving you real-deal American blues and British browns from one capably compact gigging platform.

Reactive drive circuitry lets you customize tube characteristics

In lesser modeling amps, tube emulation is handled by a single chip on the PCB. But not the Nextone Special. This amp has four — that's right, four — dedicated chips to handle each of its four power tube types (6V6, 6L6, EL84, EL34). Not only does this give you next-level tube realism, but it also gives you the ability to customize the sag, compression, and saturation characteristics of each power tube type and save it right back into the amp.

Tube Logic power amp emulation

At Sweetwater, we love our tube amps. But they tend to be heavy and high maintenance — plus, most tube amps only give you one flavor of clean and crunch tones. The BOSS Nextone Special is an attractive option for the player who wants authentic tube tone without having to lug around a 60-pound tube combo. Four switchable power tube types and a wide gain range equip players for decades of transatlantic tube tones, from Van Morrison to Van Halen and beyond.

Two footswitchable channels with onboard FX

From chimey cleans and chunky rhythms to tube-fueled crunch tones and leads, the Nextone Special promises a wealth of tube-like textures. Fully independent gain and level controls, EQs, effects, and power tube emulation ensure that your chords and solos get the gravitas they deserve. Right onboard, you also get tap tempo delay and lush reverb with dedicated controls. Users can further explore FX types, including tremolo, within the free Nextone Editor software.

Wet and dry recording into your DAW

Nothing kills the mood like recording a great take and finding out the tone doesn't work for the song. Fortunately, with the Nextone Special, re-amping is just a click away. Record both your amp tone and your direct tone into your DAW simultaneously. If the tone doesn't work, or if you want to experiment, send that same performance back out to your amp, change the voicing, then re-record. Three selectable miked cab emulations and Air Feel settings let players further dial in their dream DI tone.

Vintage-voiced WAZA B12W speaker

Amp collectors are particularly fond of a blue-capped speaker used in late-'50s and early-'60s American amps. BOSS's WAZA B12W brings the rich bass, mellow midrange, and bell-like top end of this legendary speaker to the highly reactive tube-modeled circuitry of the Nextone Special. From cleans to leads, the WAZA B12W is able to give back every ounce of emotion you pour into the Nextone Special. Looking for top-tier tube-modeling tech to go? You'll get that and much more with the 2-channel BOSS Nextone Special amplifier.

BOSS Nextone Special 80-Watt Combo Amplifier Features:

  • 2-channel, 80-watt 1 x 12-inch combo guitar amp
  • Fully independent clean and lead channels
  • 3 Tone Settings (presets) for sophisticated set recall
  • 4 switchable power amp tube types: 6V6, 6L6, EL84, and EL34
  • Reactive drive circuitry lets you re-voice each power tube type in the virtual domain
  • Carefully matched preamp saturation yields swampy American blues to raucous British browns
  • Extra Headroom switch (clean channel only) is great for pedal users
  • WAZA B12W 12-inch speaker is voiced after a beloved blue-capped American amp speaker
  • Deep diving and preset loading available via the free Nextone Editor software
  • Capture wet and dry tones simultaneously into your DAW via USB — great for re-amping
  • Effects loop positions pedals wherever you choose
  • Streamlined interface — 1 knob per parameter or function
  • Lush reverb, tap delay, and tube-inspired tremolo right onboard
  • Compatible with standard BOSS footswitches, the GA-FC foot controller, and MIDI

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Tech Specs

  • Type: Solid State
  • Number of Channels: 2
  • Total Power: 80W
  • Speaker Size: 1 x 12" Custom Waza B12W
  • Reverb: Yes
  • Effects: Boost, Delay
  • EQ: 3-band EQ
  • Inputs: 1 x 1/4"
  • Outputs: 1 x XLR, 3 x 1/4" (8/16 ohms), 1 x 1/4"
  • Effects Loop: Yes
  • MIDI I/O: In
  • USB: 1 x Type B
  • Headphones: 1 x 1/4"
  • Footswitch I/O: 2 x 1/4" (channel, boost)
  • Footswitch Included: No
  • Computer Connectivity: USB
  • Construction Material: Black Tolex
  • Power Source: Standard IEC AC cable
  • Height: 20.9"
  • Width: 24.5"
  • Depth: 9.7"
  • Weight: 39.7 lbs.
  • Manufacturer Part Number: NEX-SPL

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5/5

Initial review

So far I have had the Nextone Special amp from Boss through Sweetwater for about 2 weeks now. I pre-ordered the nextone special with the help of my sales engineer Brenton Evan's, whom spoke with me several times within the matter of a few weeks to help me pick out a new amp and to make sure I was enjoying it. I am upgrading amps from a decade or so old amp that I have had since I began getting interested in playing which is the Fender Frontman 15R. Obviously the scale of the nextone blows the Fender away. I am not here to compare the two. I am here to say that so far I like the amp. Sweetwater delivered in a timely manner and has great customer service as always. I will do another review in the future after I have had much more time experimenting with the amp. So far I love it and I love how you can use either volume or master to either get an overdriven pre amp sound or an overdriven amp sound. I have hooked it up to the computer once or twice but haven't spent as much time with the settings as I should yet. So far the amp sounds great and I hope it last many many years without fault. I play primarily an American standard Tele and it made my guitar come to life. One sad thing with the old Fender 15R I honestly couldn't hear a difference between my 3 pickup selections and now it is night and day difference. Last thing I didn't understand what reviews and descriptions of an amp meant when it said dynamic well now I know. Without changing any knobs or adjusting the volume the amp responds to your playing very well I can play light and beautiful sounds on the same settings as when I start playing harder rock and the amp dramatically changes tone with your playing style. So far very please will try to update review in half a year to a year. Thank you Brenton Evan's and thank you Sweetwater.
Music background: Novice
Rated 5/5

Awesome sounding and looking, versatile, reliable, USB update-able, genius design

I have this amp. I play this amp. The number and feature set of the knobs make perfect sense for efficient and effective control of your sound. Two independent channels. That's what I want and need. Other cheap amps give you 1 1/2 channels, which is frustrating. This is what I want, two independent channels. EL84, EL34, 6L6, 6V6 selectable per channel. I can put my favorite settings in memory. I can select British or American tone stacks per channel. I can select 6L6 tubes on Channel 1 for Fender Harmonic Clean and I can select EL34 tubes on channel 2 for Sizzling Crunch. I can have Reverb & Delay set just right for the clean channel and I can set Reverb & Delay just right for the Overdrive Channel. I can set the power scaling in the sweet spot at 0.5w for bedroom practice or 80w for stage playing a full band with drums. The amp is built solid. The Waza speaker is a super performer with rich harmonics, body, bloom and power. IR out for recording. FX loop. Everything can be controlled by the front panel in seconds. There is a great 6 button footswitch for instant changes. There is an editor app so if I want to go into great detail for settings on my computer with a big screen I can do that in my leisure time. This is a well thought out amp that I have been waiting for for years. I started using the Blues Cube Hot Class A/B amp years ago that sounds great. But it is a very limited one channel amp with minimal footswitch control. I have tube amps but the Boss Nextone Special can be 4 different amps in one song. It can be a clean Fender, a crunch Marshall, a singing Mesa Boogie, a jangly Vox. The Special performs like a superstar. The price is fantastic too. Update-able, good looking, functional, reliable. The best amp I have ever used. Been playing on stage and in my bedroom for 50 years. This is the kind of amp I would get two of. This is the future of amplification. Energy efficient operation, not a hog, like a tube amp. Class A/B power. Not Class D like cheap digital amps. I have a Fender Class A tube amp, the Hand Wired '57 Custom Champ. Champ output 5 watts, takes 30 watts from the wall. My Fender Tone Master Deluxe Class D emulates a 22 watt Class A/B tube amp but takes 100 watts from the wall. The Special is Class A/B 80 watts taking 85 watts from the wall. The Special has the most desirable output configuration for a power tube-like sound and feel. The problem with Class D is that it is sterile clean. A lot of trickery is involved to get it to respond like a Class A/B tube-like amp. The Hot and the Special are the desired type of amplification for tube-like sag, compression and pleasurable overdrive. It is more difficult to get pleasurable overdrive from the Tone Master. Fender had to have update mods to address this issue. The original firmware for the Tone Master had that rizzy transistor sound with the Bright Capacitor in the Bright Channel where the Reverb and Tremolo is when overdriven. The mod works great. Kudos to Fender for continuing to support their products and listen to players. The Special already has that mod built in. Kudos to Boss for their research & development and listening to players like Eric Johnson.
Music background: 50 years on stage (80w) playing and in bedroom (0.5w) practicing
Rated 4.5/5

High Quality, Premium Sound

I purchased this amp because I was looking for something I could play in my apartment without having to worry about disturbing the neighbors. I am a professional guitarist and didn't want to settle on something with so-so quality. I also hate presets and had no interest in a modeling amp with tons of onboard effects – I wanted to use my all-boss pedalboard.

The Nextone Special appealed to me because it was advertised to have tube-like quality without having to crank the gain. I have enjoyed countless BOSS products (pedals, backpacks, cases, cables) and trust in the quality and integrity of the brand. Still, I was dubious that this amp would not just be another solid state delivering less-than-tube-like results.

Now that I own this amp, I can confidently say that it delivers an exceptionally high-quality tone at all volume levels. I think it is best appreciated as its own beast, rather than being compared to a tube amp. The clean sounds are crisp and dynamic, and the tube settings are fun to play around with for a discerning tone-nerd like me. I will confess I don't use the distortion channel on this thing very much, since it's really a pedal platform for me.

If you're OK with owning a solid state amp and want something that's versatile, high-quality and a little bit off the beaten path, I would highly recommend the Boss Nextone Special. It is a great addition to any home studio, musical man cave or high-end gear arsenal.
Music background: Professional performing and recording guitarist, Music Educator
Rated 4/5

Smarter Than Me!

Both channels sound pretty darn good
Amp/Tube selection tones are right on the money
Headphones sound good through it
I must admit that at my age (this old rocker got it for himself for his sixty first birthday) I would like to see a more informative instruction manual because I'm just not that intuitive anymore. But hey there's a ton of videos out there for the amp and that's where I got 98% of the instructions I needed to operate this really cool tone machine.

Very versatile, very worth it, very nice. It's the perfect companion for my Blues Cube Artist.
Music background: A Puttering Guitar Hack since 1971
Rated 5/5

Incredibly Versatile Amp!!!

If you want an amp that you can go from home practicing to gigs with ease and give you tubelike performance I highly recommend looking at this amp. It may look intimidating at first with all the knobs and controls on the front panel but they are very intuitive and give you the option to shape your tone without having to hook it up to a computer. However, I recommend giving the Nextone Editor a try because it opens up a whole new level of control with expanded EQ controls on both the preamp and power amp stages, different effect controls over reverb, vibrato and delay, and the ability to save different patches you can switch in and out to change the amp). The power amp selection gives this amp the ability to simulate a 6V6, 6L6, EL84 and EL34 and do a great job of giving you the realistic feel of each type of amp. I wouldn't say it gives you an absolute copy of a particular Fender or Marshall amp because to me because this amp has its own unique sound and feel but you definitely can get the sparkly cleans of a Fender, chime of a Vox or the sweet power of a Marshall. It has a very nice, tube-like distortion and excels at everything from edge of breakup to a Marshall Plexi drive. I don't know if it would go into heavy metal/doom metal levels of distortion but this amp is an excellent pedal platform so you could definitely get it there with the right pedals. The built-in attenuator is outstanding for when you want to go from bedroom practicing quit to full throttle gig volumes. You can set up your tone and there is no loss or degredation of your sound from the .5 watt to the full 80 watts. In summary if you are looking for a highly versatile amp that can handle just about any situation with beautiful tube-like goodness I'd give this amp on your short list to check out.
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