Are tubes

[MCI2424]

Excuse me but I believe I was discussing tube amps, solid state amps and related information. But if you wish I will certainly avoid your threads.
VP

I think tube amps are for heavy metal. All the rest use transistor if I remember my history. Sorta like analog vs digital. Tubes are analog and transistors are digital.

 

[Kingofpain678]

About the actual topic at hand...

I agree with the sentiment that both clean and distorted tones are greatly affected by tubes. After owning a solid-state Fender Princeton Chorus for 10 or 15 years and an all-tube Traynor Custom Valve for about 6 years, I've worked up a pretty good comparison between SS and tube amps. The clean channel on my tube amp has way more "punch", which I would say is another word for "wide dynamic range" or "high headroom" maybe. There is such a huge difference between a lightly plucked note and a pounded 6-string barre chord.

The same goes for the crunch channel on my Traynor, where lighter distortion settings yield a very wide dynamic range and thus more "punch". It's not as punchy as the clean channel due to the natural compression in the gain staging. But, as the laws of gain staging dictate, the dynamic range decreases very steeply as I overdrive each gain stage by increasing gain/volume. Then the nice compression of tube distortion replaces the punchiness.

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Tadpui again"

 

[mshilarious]

Well, now that we understand that "tube amp" is shorthand for a circuit topology, I will add that people don't want clean amps, tube or transistor. Going back some years to my RAGE! project, I ended up with a two-channel amp, one very very clean fast opamp, and one single-ended triode into triode. The opamp channel was clear as a bell. The tube channel was never free of distortion, but it did sound nice.

I'm reminded my band's audition for the high school talent show. Regrettably, we auditioned with Stairway. The music teacher (choir director) said she liked the tune, but there was too much distortion in the guitar. Of course, he was using his "clean" channel.

Guitarists don't want truly clean channels.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Aside from VP's always-entertaining cock-measuring...

Personally, I think tubes are MORE important for cleans, at least if you're into clean tones with a little bit of grit and breakup to them. Think SRV playing Little Wing.

 

[Tadpui]

Aside from VP's always-entertaining cock-measuring...

Personally, I think tubes are MORE important for cleans, at least if you're into clean tones with a little bit of grit and breakup to them. Think SRV playing Little Wing.

Definitely. Squeaky clean ends up sounding sterile and lifeless, like playing through a keyboard amp or directly into a PA, or playing through a Hi-Fi stereo.

A little bit of breakup on a clean channel is a good thing IMO as well. The very slight compression is a pleasant thing. Kinda funny how I can describe a clean channel as both punchy and compressed, but with a tube amp, it just kinda works out that way.

 

[mshilarious]

To be honest if I was to make them up. I'd do it one of two ways. Either setup a pin router template or more likely. Take a length of 1 3/4" square, bore a 3/8 hole down the centre and turn the 40mm on a lathe. Slice it into whatever thickness I required. A lot would depend on how many and what grain orientation was required. I can knock some up if you want. PM me.

I keep PMs turned off, but you can hit me at music at naiant dot com. Prob looking for 50-100 per run.