Rocktron Chameleon Manual Download
I'm pretty set on getting a Rocktron pre-amp after reading about them on this site (and listening to Vince's guitar sounds!).I need some help on deciding between the Black-Face Chameleon(like Rev and Vince use)and the Chameleon 2000 and would be very grateful for any advice on this matter.I've seen a black-face chameleon which is at about £105 at the moment which seems like a very good price.I don't know what I'm going to do about a power-amp at the moment. I want to use a Valve power-amp but the Mesa ones are just too costly over here.I'm not in a band at the moment so I'd only need something relatively small anyway. I can think about that one again anyway.So,should I get a older balck-face chameleon or wait and get a 2000 instead? Sorry for reviving a really old post but it still pops up in Google when searching on the Rocktron Chameleon.I've owned a Teal Chameleon On-line since 1996 and I also have a Chameleon 2000.
There is a lot of misinformation about the Chameleon 2000.The Chameleon 2000 was made in the USA up until 2000; after 2000 it was made in Korea (not China). Mine is a Korean made unit and I've never had an issue with it. I've seen a lot of posts that it is not reliable but when I ask 'what went wrong with your Chameleon 2000?' , the answer is 'oh, I don't have one. My friend has one and it crapped out on him'. If you do own a Chameleon 2000 and it died please post and explained what happened to it and the cost of repair.I have 11 guitar rack pre-amps. Here are the ones in my studio:I have others in my live rig.Chameleon 2000 in my simplified 4U head rig:My experience with the Chameleon 2000 is that it is as reliable as any other rack preamp.
Mine has never needed service but others have.The Chameleon 2000 is basically the same as the earlier units except it has simplified EQ settings and no balanced outputs. When I spoke with Rocktron and asked why no balance outputs they said 95% of the time the Chameleon units were used in racks with power amps and the balanced outputs were not used. So they eliminated them.I have use the balanced left output of my Chameleon On-Line to drive headphones which is a nice feature that the Chameleon 2000 does not have.If you need balanced outputs then the Chameleon 2000 is not for you - get a Chameleon blackface or teal On-Line unit instead.If you play primarily live with a power amp then do not ignore the Chameleon 2000. From my experience with it it is a solid unit.Here's a You Tube demo of the Chameleon 2000. It's not my video:After all these years I still like to use my Chameleon rigs. They are still very useful units.Tony.
Sorry for reviving a really old post but it still pops up in Google when searching on the Rocktron Chameleon.I've owned a Teal Chameleon On-line since 1996 and I also have a Chameleon 2000. There is a lot of misinformation about the Chameleon 2000.The Chameleon 2000 was made in the USA up until 2000; after 2000 it was made in Korea (not China). Mine is a Korean made unit and I've never had an issue with it. I've seen a lot of posts that it is not reliable but when I ask 'what went wrong with your Chameleon 2000?' , the answer is 'oh, I don't have one. My friend has one and it crapped out on him'.
If you do own a Chameleon 2000 and it died please post and explained what happened to it and the cost of repair.I have 11 guitar rack pre-amps. Here are the ones in my studio:I have others in my live rig.Chameleon 2000 in my simplified 4U head rig:My experience with the Chameleon 2000 is that it is as reliable as any other rack preamp. Mine has never needed service but others have.The Chameleon 2000 is basically the same as the earlier units except it has simplified EQ settings and no balanced outputs. When I spoke with Rocktron and asked why no balance outputs they said 95% of the time the Chameleon units were used in racks with power amps and the balanced outputs were not used.
So they eliminated them.I have use the balanced left output of my Chameleon On-Line to drive headphones which is a nice feature that the Chameleon 2000 does not have.If you need balanced outputs then the Chameleon 2000 is not for you - get a Chameleon blackface or teal On-Line unit instead.If you play primarily live with a power amp then do not ignore the Chameleon 2000. From my experience with it it is a solid unit.Here's a You Tube demo of the Chameleon 2000. It's not my video:After all these years I still like to use my Chameleon rigs. They are still very useful units.Tony. Click to expand.^exactly. Not ganging up on you tothemax lol, im just at a loss myself as to why its that drastic of a difference.
I think the most crucial part of making or breaking the chameleon's, either the black-teal- or 2000's is the power amps that are paired with them. The blue face online version i have sounds better with a PA with some color, like a V300 or 5150 efx return (thats my experience with them anyways lol)or just a flat PA. The 2000 on the other hand in my experience has to be paired with a PA with some color to the tone, or it sounds pretty thin to my ears.
Adew's thread about the Roland GP-8 got me thinkin.Arguably, the Chameleon was a staple piece of rack gear for a time, was VERY flexible, and had stereo XLR outs with speaker sim. In fact, I used to use mine that way, and house engineers always told me they love taking my signal that way, and that it sounded great.I had the requisite 80's refrigerator system, ADA MP-1, Quadraverb, BBE Sonic Maximizer, Digitech MEQ-14, Hush IIcx, etc. When I got tired of carrying that crap around, I bought a Chameleon and shrunk my rack down to 4 spaces.Power strip, Wireless, Chameleon, Marshall 8008, into 2 BLB sound 2x12 cabs. Wonderful, small and compact rig.
I will say though, I have some recordings of that rig, and I did NOT tweak it well. It wasn't the unit, it was definitely ME, lol.So, who had one? Come on, fess up!
Up until a few years ago, I used a Voodu Valve as my main pre for live gigs. Always liked the sounds from it but it was a bit of an art form to dial it in. I bought a blackface Chameleon for peanuts on e-Bay for a back up and it's a good unit.I hadn't used it for a while but I hooked it up with my GSP1101 a few months ago and I was surprised at how good it sounded. It more than held its own with the gsp in the tone stakes which was a surprise! Definitely worth getting one cheap as a back up unit. Just did a multi band gig and the guys in another band were sporting a rocktron utopia g300 for lead and the ryth guy used a voodu valve. Since they were openers they used their backup rigs (stage cramped).
They said their main rigs were a dar amp lead/ deizel einstein fullstack setup and they both used intellefex. They really liked the simplicity of the rocktron models.their sound was fantastic. I always loved the spacious effects of the rocktron units.pretty sure rocktron ported most of what the prophesy systems had in the utopia and vv series. Utopia was their idea of getting all that in a floor unit.
Rocktron Chameleon 2000 Manual
If you were a clean/blues/crunch/ lead preset type player they were plenty.cab emulation was odd though. I always found i liked the 10' speaker cab and used that resonance or reactance parameter which filled things up nicely and gave that thump.these might be good candidates to use with an epsi. Click to expand.I never owned the Chemeleon or the Piranha, but I did look at the latter before I ended up buying a Voodu Valve. Which I still have, and like. I have it running direct into a mixer at my teaching studio, and I have to say, as a Torpedo CAB user, the speaker sim outs on the VooDu Valve are surprisingly decent (and completely useable) considering when that tech had come out.I used to use an Intellifex, a Replifex, as well as a Prophesy, and I thought all these units were really good, solid units. I agree completely that for a time at least, Rocktron stuff was some of the best rackmount gear out there for guitarists. My how times have changed.