How does the number of tubes effect an amp

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metalj

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How does the number of tubes effect an amp?

some amps are 20 watts with 4 power and 4 pre tubes.
some amps are 50 watts with 2 and 2.
some are 100 watts with the same tubes.

just wondering what do the tubes actually do or how do they effect the amps sound. Does more tubes equal better quality tone? or just different Tone??

thanks, i've always wondered.
 
Dunno. I want a 50 watter with 4 EL34s instead of 2 6L6s, but that's just because I am a geek.
 
IT seems to me the 6L6 are more ballsy in tone and the el34 is more chimy or brittle sounding.
 
You're asking a fairly vague design related question. The number of tubes and how it relates to the sound depends upon the over all amp layout. Some amps have final tubes in a parallel configuration. Sometimes you'll see driver stages set up the same way. Some amps will have more than one driver or input stage running them in a cascaded chain. You can have several input stages which can feed a descrete low gain channel and/or a high gain channel. Some amps use half of the input tube to go to a low gain channel and then use both halves of the same input tube to run the high gain channel. It really depends...there's not one solid answer to your question.
 
It totally depends on the tubes and how they are operated, so its not an easy question to answer.

The small tubes are preamp or 'driver tubes' In general they dont affect how loud the amp can go, but affect the level of gain. More tubes = more gain stages = greater pre-amp distortion. Also if the amp has more than one channel, or reverb, or tremolo you need preamp tubes to run these things.

One pair of 'large' power tubes(6L6, EL34) generally produce between 25-65W depending on how the circuit is designed. Four of these typically run 85-135W (again depending on the circuit).

Other power tubes types common are 6V6 (smaller round bottle) and EL84 which produce typically 18-22W or 10-15W per pair respectively.

Again, all of this is typical because you can design the circuit differently.
 
EL84's are low output power units, you'd need Yellow Jacket adapters to put them in say a Marshall or Mesa or just about anything else. They've got a small pin base. They do sound great though! I've got one set up right now in my univalve. I really like that tube...it gives up a great rockin' sound.
 
I guess this is the thread where peoples actual knowledge about tubes comes out. :D
 
punkin said:
EL84's do sound great though!
Click to expand...

Oh yeah. I had a VHT Pitbull 45 with those and that amp kicked serious ass. Those tubes didn't last as long as others, but didn't require biasing in that amp either. Kind of a tradeoff.
 
Outlaws said:
I guess this is the thread where peoples actual knowledge about tubes comes out. :D
Click to expand...

THD PLAYERS....UNITE!​

I just wish I could get an amp to play my 4CX10000 tubes :(​
 
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