Lexicon 284 User Manual

User Guide

All Tube Class "A" Stereo Recording Amplifier and Direct Source

Unpacking and Inspection

After unpacking the Signature 284, save all packing materials in case you ever need to ship the unit. Thoroughly
inspect the unit and packing materials for signs of damage. Report any shipment damage to the carrier at once;
report equipment malfunction to your dealer.

Acknowledgement

The Signature 284 All Tube Class "A" Stereo Recording Amplifier and Direct Source was designed by John McIntyre, and is custom­manufactured for Lexicon by Actodyne General Inc.

Copyright 1998 Lexicon Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Lexicon Inc. • 3 Oak Park • Bedford MA 01730-1441 USA • Tel: [phone] • Fax [phone] • www.lexicon.com

Lexicon Part # 070-12856

Introduction .....................................................................................1

Front Panel Controls........................................................................2

Power and Standby ................................................................................2

Guitar Input.............................................................................................2

Gain ..............................................................................................2

Getting the Feel of the Signature 284 ..............................................3

Tone Controls (Bass, Midrange, Treble and Presence) .........................3

Volume ..............................................................................................4

Getting the Tone You Want..............................................................5

Rear Panel Connections..................................................................6

Speaker Outputs.....................................................................................6

Slave Outputs .........................................................................................6

Recording Outputs..................................................................................6

Effects Loop............................................................................................7

Loop vs. Mixer Bus for Effects .........................................................7

Level Matching .................................................................................7

Stereo Loop Examples.....................................................................8

Dual Mono Effect..............................................................................9

Mono Loop Example ........................................................................9

Split Loop Examples ......................................................................10

Rear Panel Guitar Input........................................................................10

Contents

Applications ...................................................................................11

General Notes ......................................................................................11

Direct Recording...................................................................................11

Recording with Directs and Microphones .............................................11

Low Volume Live Setup........................................................................12

High Volume Live Direct .......................................................................12

High Volume Live Slave .......................................................................12

Example Settings..................................................................................13

Using the Signature 284 with non-Guitar Sources ...............................15

Power Amp for Tube Warmth.........................................................15

Harp ............................................................................................15

Keyboards ......................................................................................15

Vocals ............................................................................................16

Acoustic Guitar...............................................................................16

Digital Effects .................................................................................16

Re-Amping .....................................................................................16

Precautions and Maintenance ......................................................17

Specifications.................................................................................18

Limited Warranty

Lexicon Incorporated offers the following warranty on the Signature 284 Amplifier.

Duration of the Warranty

This warranty will remain in effect for one (1) year from the date of original purchase. Tubes provided with the
original unit are warranted to be free from defects for six (6) months from the date of original purchase.

Who May Enforce the Warranty

This warranty may be enforced by the original purchaser and subsequent owners during the warranty period,
so long as the original dated sales receipt or other proof of warranty coverage is presented when warranty
service is required.

What is Covered and What is Not Covered

Except as specified below, this warranty covers all defects in material and workmanship in this product. The
following are not covered by the warranty:

1. Damage resulting from:
A. Accident, misuse, abuse, or neglect.
B. Failure to follow instructions contained in your Owner's Manual.
C. Repair or attempted repair by anyone not authorized by Lexicon.
D. Failure to perform recommended periodic maintenance.
E. Causes other than product defects, including lack of skill, competence, or experience of user.

2. Damage occurring during any shipment of this product (claims must be presented to the carrier).

3. Damage to any unit which has been altered or on which the serial number has been defaced,
modified, or removed.

What We Will Pay For

We will pay all labor and material expenses for covered items. Payment of shipping charges is discussed in
the next section of this warranty.

How You Can Get Service

If your unit needs service, please write or telephone us and we will advise you where the unit should be taken
or sent. If you write us, include your name, complete address, daytime telephone number and description of
the problem(s). Please do not return your unit to the factory without our prior authorization.

If it is necessary to ship the product for service:

A. You must pay for any initial shipping charges, but if the necessary repairs are covered by the warranty,

we will pay the return shipping charges via a carrier of our choice to any destination within the United

States.
B. The unit should be packed securely, and we suggest that it be insured.
C. Do not include accessories such as power cords or manuals.

Whenever warranty service is required, a copy of the original dated sales receipt must be presented.

Limitation of Implied Warranties

Any implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, are
limited in duration to the length of this warranty.

Exclusion of Certain Damages

Lexicon's liability for any defective product is limited to repair or replacement of the product, at our option.
Lexicon shall not be liable for:

1. Damages based upon inconvenience, loss of use of the product, loss of time, interrupted operation,
commercial loss; or

2. Any other damages, whether incidental, consequential, or otherwise.

How State Law Relates to the Warranty

Some states do not allow limitation on how long an implied warranty lasts and/or do not allow the exclusion or
limitations of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations may not apply to you.

This warranty is not enforceable outside of North America. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and
you may also have other rights which vary from state to state.

Signature 284 User Guide

You know the moment — the one where the volume is cranked to the limit and
the guitar player looks as though his guitar might be playing him — as though
they're locked in some ritual combat in another zone entirely. Well, this trip
doesn't require illicit drugs, a rare coincidence of zodiac signs, or even the rush
of an audience — just you, your guitar and a fully cranked all-tube amp. If you've
been there, you know. If you've seen it but never felt it, hold onto whatever's
handy because the Signature 284 is your ticket to ride.

When a tube amp is turned way up, the amp’s power section is pushed beyond
the point where it's just making the preamp louder — the power tubes and
transformer begin to add their own characteristic distortion and dynamic
signatures to the sound.

This is where magic happens. The wide open amp becomes an expressive
extension of the guitar, responding to your playing. You can control the amount
of distortion and sustain simply by varying touch, or by making subtle adjust­ments to the guitar volume control. The bad news is that most tube amps are
incredibly loud when they're turned up to this point. Larger amps (over 15 Watts
or so) are so loud when you crank them up, that the loudness interferes with
recording — the guitar sounds great, but it’s bleeding into the drums, and the
vocal mics — and you can forget about playing that loud at home.

Introduction

The good news is that the Signature 284 was designed to solve this problem by
delivering the touch and tone of a cranked up amp — without the bone crushing
volume. It uses a low wattage power section — so when you crank it up to the
point where the magic happens, the volume level is relatively low. The stereo
power amp in the Signature 284 uses two EL 84s in a Class A configuration. Its
output power is rated at 3 Watts (RMS) per side. (Don’t be put-off by this
seemingly small number. For recording or practicing at home, this amp is plenty
loud — we measure >100dB SPL at 1 meter when used with our SB 210 cabinet.)

The low power design is the key to producing great sound at moderate volume
levels —but it takes more than that to make a great amp. Other features include:
high gain preamp (three 12AX7s), beautifully voiced tone controls, tube-driven
stereo effects loop, balanced recording outputs, speaker simulators, and built­in passive loads for silent recording.

While it is designed primarily for recording, the Signature 284 is a great stage
amp too. There are three ways to boost the volume: Mike the cabinet, use the
recording outputs as a direct feed to the PA, or use the slave outputs to drive a
larger power amp /guitar cabinet rig.

All of these applications, and more are described in this manual. Please take the
time to look it over to make the most of your investment. We think that this is a
great amp — and we hope you will too.

1

Front Panel Controls

Lexicon

Power and Standby

Guitar Input

Gain

(Pull for Boost)

As with any tube amp, you’ll get the longest life from the tubes by using the Power
and Standby controls properly.

The Standby switch should be in the standby position before turning the amp on
with the Power switch. After switching the Power on, allow the amp to warm up
for 30 seconds or so before switching Standby to On.

To protect speakers and other audio equipment connected to the Signature 284
(as well as your ears), switch the amp to Standby before inserting a guitar cord
into the input jack. Do not switch out of Standby until all connections between
the guitar and the amp (stomp boxes, etc.) have been made.

Switch to Standby whenever the amp will be idle for more than a few minutes
(between sets, or when listening back to the mix). If the amp is not going to be
used for an extended period of time (more than an hour or so),switch to Standby
and turn Power off.

Guitar Input jacks are provided at both the front and rear. Select one of these for
your guitar input. (The rear panel input is provided as a convenience for custom
installations — the input at the front panel overides any input at the rear panel.)

This is the preamp input sensitivity control. It controls the amount of preamp
overdrive or distortion. For guitars with passive pickups, the cleanest tones can
be found at settings from 1-4. As the knob is turned past 4, the amount of
overdrive on your loudest notes will gradually increase.

The Gain knob is also a push/pull switch. Push the knob in for tones ranging from
clean to vintage blues. Pull the knob out for tones that cover the range from
vintage blues to modern, high gain distortion.

Throughout this manual, the drawings that represent the Gain control will be
shaded to show the knob pulled OUT, unshaded to show it pushed IN.

2

Signature 284 User Guide

Getting the Feel of the Signature 284
Like any classic tube amp, distortion is very dynamic in the Signature

284 — The amount of distortion is controlled by your playing style and
dynamics. To get a cleaner sound, play a little lighter instead of
changing the amp settings. To get more sizzle into a note or phrase, dig
in as you pick it.

If you’ve never had the experience of working with a single channel tube
amp before, the following may help you to get the hang of it. The basic
idea is to use your guitar’s volume control along with changes in your
playing style to pull in any tone from clean to mean.

1. Switch to your loudest pickup and turn your guitar volume up to 10.

2. Set the Left and Right Volume controls to "7".

3. Play, and turn up the Gain control until you’ve got the amount of
distortion or overdrive that fits your most aggressive style. (Pull out
the knob for High Gain if that's your thing.)

4. Now, turn your guitar volume down to about 7 and experiment with
varying your touch to get clean chords and lines. You’ll find that you
can cover the range of clean to bluesy overdrive just with touch.

5. Use the guitar volume control to “change channels.” Use 7 as a
clean/overdrive “rhythm channel” and 10 as an overdrive/distortion
“solo channel”.

Soon, you’ll find you can set and forget the amp — and just focus on
playing what you feel.

Front Panel Controls

The tone controls on the Signature 284 are very powerful — even small
adjustments can make big changes to the sound. There are no wrong settings.
Whatever sounds good is right!

Each control covers a different band of frequencies. Bass, Midrange, and Treble
are independent — changes made to one will not effect the others. The effect
of the Presence setting is dependent upon the amount of Treble. If Treble is set
to 0, Presence settings will have no effect. Increasing the Treble setting will
increase the amount of Presence. (Note that the opposite is not true — changes
to Presence have no effect on Treble.)

Here’s a quick way to hear what each control contributes to the overall tone:

1. Set each of the tone controls to 0 and play. You will hear no sound. Now, turn
Bass up and play. You will hear only the frequencies affected by the Bass
control.

2. Turn Bass back to 0, turn up Midrange, and play. Now you hear only the
frequencies controlled by Midrange. As Midrange controls the “meat” of
guitar tones, this control has the most effect on the character of the sound.

3. Now, turn Midrange to 0, turn up Treble, and play to hear the frequencies
affected by the Treble control.

4. Turn Treble to 0, turn up Presence and play. You won’t hear anything,
because the Presence control is dependent on the Treble control. Turn
Treble back up, turn up Presence and play. Now you will hear the glassy top
end added by this control.

Tone Controls

(Bass, Midrange,
Treble and Presence)

Neutral settings for the tone controls

Bass, Midrange and Treble=5

Presence=0.

3