NAM Just Went Hardware: Every Modeler Jumping On Board

For years, Neural Amp Modeler was the best-kept secret in the guitar world, but it came with a catch. You needed a computer to use it. Load up a DAW, fire up the plugin, dial in your tone, and hope your laptop didn't burst into flames during a live stream. Incredible sound, kind of a pain to actually use on stage or at rehearsal.

That just changed. Big time.

As of this week, NAM has officially gone hardware. And the list of manufacturers getting on board is growing so fast it's hard to keep up.

A2 Kicked the Door Wide Open

TONE3000 just launched Architecture 2 (A2), the next generation of Neural Amp Modeler, and the headline feature isn't just that it sounds better (it does, by a lot). It's that A2 runs on a $3 chip. Let that sink in for a second. The most accurate amp modeling technology ever created can now run on a piece of hardware that costs less than your morning coffee.

A2 comes in two flavors. A2-Full delivers better accuracy than the original NAM while using 30-40% less CPU. A2-Lite is built specifically for embedded devices like multi-fx pedals and amps, running at 50% CPU on a tiny ARM Cortex-M7 chip. To put that in perspective, a MacBook with an Apple M-series chip could theoretically run 200 A2-Lite models simultaneously. That's absurd. That's beautiful.

And because A2 is fully open source, any hardware or software company can build it into their products. No licensing fees. No walled gardens. Just pure, open tone. If you want to geek out on how A2 stacks up, TONE3000 ran the largest blind listening test in guitar history (over 1,000 participants and 100,000+ ratings), and A2 beat Neural DSP, ToneX, and Line 6 by a wide margin. The NAM captures you know and love just got a serious upgrade under the hood.

Blackstar Beam Mini: The First Amp with Native NAM

Blackstar didn't just dip a toe in. They cannonballed. The Blackstar Beam Mini is the world's first guitar amp with native NAM support, and it's available right now. You can load over 200,000 NAM captures from TONE3000 directly onto this thing.

Blackstar also released free official NAM captures of their Artisan Series, St. James 100, Series One 100 MK II, and TV-10 series on TONE3000. Free. Official. Studio-quality captures of amps that cost thousands of dollars, available for anyone to load onto a compact amp that fits in your backpack.

Here's the best part. Blackstar's Head of Product, Alex Gee, put it perfectly: "Rather than build a walled garden where Blackstar tones only work on Blackstar gear, we chose to partner with TONE3000 so you can take your tones anywhere." That's the kind of thinking this industry has needed for a long time. Load up some Six String Lab NAM captures alongside those official Blackstar tones and you've got a pocket-sized tone monster.

HeadRush Is Going Full NAM This Summer

This one is massive. HeadRush just announced that Prime, Core, and Flex Prime users will be able to load NAM captures directly onto their rigs this summer. No lossy conversion. No janky workarounds. Just drop in your favorite captures and play.

That "no lossy conversion" part is huge. Some hardware platforms that support NAM files convert them to a proprietary format first, which can subtly alter the tone. HeadRush is going full native. Your captures will sound exactly the way they're supposed to.

HeadRush's touchscreen and integrated Wi-Fi will also give you onboard access to TONE3000's library, so you can browse, download, and start playing with captures right from your pedalboard. No laptop required. If you're already rocking HeadRush clones from Six String Lab, adding our NAM captures to your HeadRush rig is about to get stupid easy.

The Full Hardware Roster (So Far)

Here's everyone who has officially announced A2 and native NAM support:

Blackstar: Already shipping the Beam Mini with native NAM. Loading captures is live right now.

HeadRush: Coming this summer with native NAM on Prime, Core, and Flex Prime. No conversion, no compromises.

Darkglass: On board with A2. If you play bass (or if you love that Darkglass grind on guitar, no judgment), NAM support on Darkglass hardware is coming.

Lava Music: Supporting A2. Their smart guitars with built-in effects processing just got a whole lot more interesting.

Chaos Audio and Dimehead are both in. And TONE3000 says dozens more major companies are announcing support later this year.

This isn't a handful of indie companies tinkering around the edges. These are established players in the guitar and bass world making a real commitment to open-source tone technology. The NAM ecosystem is about to explode, and your NAM capture library is about to become a lot more useful.

No More Walled Gardens

This is the part that should get you genuinely fired up. Right now, if you buy a NeuralDSP capture, it only works on your Quad Cortex. If you invest in Tonex captures, they only work in Tonex. Same deal with Kemper profiles. Your tones are locked in.

NAM files work like IRs or MIDI files. They're portable. Buy a NAM capture today, load it in your DAW, and then drop that same file onto your HeadRush when the update lands this summer. Switch to a Blackstar Beam Mini for travel gigs? Same captures. Some new pedal company announces NAM support next year? Your entire library comes with you.

That's the power of an open standard. Your tone investment grows with the ecosystem instead of being trapped behind one company's walls.

What This Means for Your Rig

If you're already running NAM captures in your DAW, congratulations. You're sitting on a library of tones that's about to work on a bunch of new hardware. Every capture you've grabbed from Six String Lab is about to become way more versatile.

If you've been rocking HeadRush clones or Tonex captures or Kemper profiles, NAM is absolutely worth paying attention to. The ecosystem is growing faster than any other capture platform, the sound quality with A2 is legitimately best-in-class (proven in the largest blind listening test in guitar history), and the open-source foundation means it's only going to keep getting better.

If you haven't tried NAM yet, there's never been a better time to jump in. Grab a free pack from Six String Lab and hear the difference for yourself. Whether you're running captures in your DAW right now or waiting for your HeadRush firmware update this summer, these tones are going to blow your mind.

The Future Is Open

NAM going hardware isn't just a cool feature update. It's a philosophical shift in how the guitar industry handles tone. Instead of every manufacturer building their own proprietary capture format and locking you in, we're moving toward an open standard that works everywhere. Better for players. Better for tone creators. Better for the entire guitar community.

The NAM captures you buy today will work on hardware that doesn't even exist yet. That's the kind of future worth getting excited about.

Ready to build your NAM library before the hardware wave hits? Check out Six String Lab's full NAM collection and grab a free pack to hear what all the fuss is about. Your tone is about to go everywhere you do.