The native UAD Woodrow '55 Instrument Amp plug-in gives you the legendary American tweed tube amp sounds used by artists and producers for decades, from The Eagles to Chuck Berry to Neil Young.*

Based on our award-winning UAFX pedal,the Woodrow '55 plug-in packs sweet cleans, rich overdrive, and grungy distortion.

In this article

• Setting Input Levels
• Woodrow '55 Controls
• Woodrow '55 Boosts
• Woodrow '55 Speaker Cabinets

Setting Input Levels

Woodrow '55 is calibrated to provide the exact same tone and response as the original amp when used with Apollo and Volt interfaces. Simply connect your instrument to a Hi-Z input, set the channel's preamp gain to minimum, and leave the plug-in's IN control at its default Hi-Z (center) position. 

For optimum performance with other audio interfaces, follow the same guidelines.

Input level guidelines for best tone and response

1. Connect to your audio interface's Hi-Z instrument input
2. Set the audio interface channel's hardware preamp gain control to minimum
3. Set the plug-in's IN knob to its Hi-Z (center) position

Woodrow '55 tone shortcuts

Try these boost and speaker cabinet settings for classic tone pairings.

• JP12 + Stock – Stock factory pairing, start with the tone halfway up
• V30 + EP-III – Fat lead setting, turn up the boost and gain for fuzz-like qualities
• B-Man + KP-3K – Clean hi-fi sound with the gain set low

Factory and Artist presets offer many more great-sounding speaker cabinet and channel pairings. 

Woodrow '55 Controls

Tip: Option-click (macOS) or Alt-Click (Windows) to set most controls to their default values.

In

Adjusts the input level to the plug-in. Hover your mouse over the knob to see the HI-Z and LINE labels. 

The plug-in input level is calibrated so that a Hi-Z input without added preamp gain provides the proper operating levels when IN is set to the default center position (HI-Z). When using the plug-in on hotter signals (such as tracks that have already been preamplified), reduce the IN knob towards the minimum (LINE) setting. 

Reducing this knob can also help get cleaner tones when using hotter instrument signals, such as those produced by humbucking and/or active guitar pickups. You can also adjust the knob for more gain to get a range of creative tones. 

Tips

• Hover over the knob, then click the HI-Z or LINE labels to set the control to those values.
• The IN value doesn't change when you load different presets, so you can set the level once and freely browse presets without big volume changes.

Presets

Woodrow '55 includes a full range of presets designed to provide classic sounds. Woodrow '55 includes a preset browser that provides deep and comprehensive ways to browse and work with the presets. Click the preset bar (top center of plug-in) to select presets from the browser, or click the previous/next (< or >) buttons to cycle through presets.

Out

Adjusts the output level from the plug-in. When the Output volume is set at noon, the amp will be roughly the same level as the bypassed volume.

Boosts

Woodrow '55 includes three boosts: Stock, KP-3K, and EP-III. Two of the mods are classic boost circuits, and one is the stock amp with a clean "curve" boost. These boosts change the amp's character and the amount of available gain.

Click a Boost to select it, and use the Boost knob to add gain from these boosts. See [Woodrow '55 Boosts] for more details about the circuits.

• STOCK is the stock amp circuit, and the Boost knob increases mid-focused gain to the amp's input.
• KP-3K adds bright gain from the renowned preamp section of an 80's digital delay, made famous by The Edge.
• EP-III adds boost from the preamp section of an EP-III tape echo.

Boost

To enable the boost, click the button. Boost is enabled when the button is lit. To increase the amount of gain and the effect of the boost, rotate the Boost knob clockwise.

Speaker Cabinet

The speaker cabinet appears on the right of the Woodrow '55 plug-in. Click the cabinet name to choose a cab from the menu, or click the previous/next arrows (< and >) to cycle through the cabs and microphones. 

For details about the speakers, see [Woodrow '55 Speaker Cabinets].

Tone

Adjusts the amp's treble frequencies. The Tone control is interactive with the gain of the amp — as you turn up the Tone, the pedal's overdrive and distortion increase. Start with this around noon for a cleaner sound, and increase it for more gain and brightness.

Instrument Volume (INST VOL) and Mic Volume (MIC VOL)

Adjusts the amp's instrument and mic channel gain. The instrument channel is slightly brighter and more aggressive as you turn it up, and the mic channel is darker and cleaner, with more bottom end. As you increase one or both volume controls, the character of the amp changes, becoming more overdriven and compressed.

The available clean range of the volume controls has been slightly expanded, and the Output control provides extra makeup gain. All the gain of the original tweed amp is still there, but the ability to dial in clean sounds is improved — something that could be difficult to achieve on the original amp.

Woodrow's channels are automatically "jumped" or ganged together when you turn both volume controls up. To hear either the Instrument or Mic channel alone, turn the other volume control all the way down. 

Note: These are the "Volume" controls on the original amp. For clean "post-amp" volume adjustments, use the Output control.

Woodrow Inputs

Woodrow includes detailed modeling of the original amp's inputs. 

Click on an input pair to switch to it. Upper inputs have higher gain and grit, and lower inputs have less gain and are brighter. 

When either Volume is on 0, Woodrow behaves as if you are plugging in to only the input for the channel that is turned up. 

Tip: The Input setting is not global, and applies only to the current sound. Input settings are saved with a preset.

	Input Routing	Description
	High	More gain and thickness. When only one Volume is turned up, you get the sound of only that channel on the High input. When both Volumes are above 0, you get the combined sound from both inputs.
	Low	Cleaner, slightly brighter sound. When only one Volume is turned up, you get the sound of only that channel on the Low input. When both Volumes are above 0, you get the combined sound from both inputs.

On / Off

The On / Off switch bypasses the plug-in and reduces plug-in processing. 

Woodrow '55 Boosts

Woodrow '55 amp boosts are modeled from customizations and hardware that are commonly paired with the original amplifier. Each boost has a unique sound and effect. To increase the amount of gain and the effect of the boost, rotate the Boost knob clockwise. Enable or disable the boost with the button next to the Boost knob.

Woodrow '55 Speaker Cabinets

Each speaker, cabinet, and mic setting has a unique sound. Select speakers from the drop-down list or by pressing the previous/next (< or >) buttons.

*Product names used herein are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way affiliated with Universal Audio Inc. These name(s) are used solely to identify products studied in the creation of the sound models found in Woodrow '55 Instrument Amplifier. Use of artist names does not constitute official endorsement of Universal Audio software.