"Loaded Tube" sound

T

tdowning

New member
One Guitarist in the band, has an all tube Fender Amp, and He has said that he likes that "Loaded Tube" sound. I don't have the best ears in the world, but here is the problem:

How do we get that "Loaded Tube" sound W/O annoying the very cranky neighbors. My first thought was to calculate the resistance needed to half the wattage output, and plug that into one of the parallel Speaker outs, (I realize that would take a fair amount of resistance, adding resistors in parallel,) and then mic one or both of the 12' speakers in the cabinet. (I have an AKG Emotion Drum Mic pack, with two D440's and the manual shows them being used as Mics on guitar amps.

Would that work? currently we are DIing the pedal into the mixer and into ProTools. Should I add the amp into the picture later? (Play guitar from Protools, into amp, and record to another track.)

Also, there is a switch on the back that says 4 Ohm, 8 Ohm, 16 Ohm. what does that do. presently we have it set on 16 Ohm
 
What amp is it? I have some Fender amp tricks up my sleeve, but they are dependant on the exact models.

H2H
 
Lemme get back to you

I'll take a look, figure out what model it is, and get back to you tonight or tomorrow
 
The powerbreak is a modern version of the old Radio Shack VariAc that Van Halen used to achieve his famous "brown sound".Eddie sagged the voltage from 110 down to 85-90.
WARNING!
This technology EATS power tubes for breakfast and is NOT RECOMMENDED unless you work in a tube factory or have unlimited funds.
The old fashioned way is to build an insulated box with mic and speaker sealed inside.This way you can crank the amp even in an apt at night.
The point is that tube amp tone comes from cranked output tubes,not grainy 12AX7s.

Tom
 
BETTER OPTIONS

People have been thinking about this for some time now. And there have been some good ideas lately. I have much to share....I'm waiting to find out what amp we're talking about first.

H2H
 
Just got back from practice

Guitarist says it is a Fender Twin 100W all tube, has 2x12 speakers, (I assume that's where the twin comes in)

Anyway, thoughts that we passed around included DI'ing the stereo FX pedal into ProTools, and feeding out one channel at a time to the Mic'ed cab. The question remains, How do we load the tubes, without blowing an eardrum?
 
OK then.....the Twin

There are two words often used to describe the Fender Twin, LOUD and CLEAN. You see statements like "Lots of headroom", "Clean volume without breakup"...stuf like that associated with the Twin. It is probably the hardest amp to try to use at low levels.

He should have a switch (dpendign on which Twin) on the back to move from 100-50-25 watts. The first thing you want to do is to set it to 25 watts, so you have less power to deal with. If you're looking for a muddier tone, you may want to experiment with different preamp tubes. They're cheap and you can just plug and go. He could also think about having the power tubes set to run on a hotter bias, this will forfeit some of the aforementioned headroom, and let it get dirtier quicker.

Also, I'm not sure if this will work on your Twin or not, it does on some models. Turn the EQ all to ZERO. If there is no sound coming from the amp, start turning the volume and gain up slowly. If this works on your amp, you will still have no volume. Once the gain and volume are at high levels, like 8-10, turn up the bass and mid a TINY bit at a time and listen to the amp. This works on Fender amps with true active EQ (which SOME of the Twins have) and really soaks the tubes with power and leads to a great sound.


A couple things you could look into.

There is a tube manufacturer who now makes 1 watt power tubes that are a direct replacement for 6L6, 6V6, or EL84 power tubes. They are MADE for use in recording, they are low power so tube saturation happens at a low volume level. You also do not have to re-bias the amp to use them. Look in this months Guitar Player, there's an ad for them in there.

As far as a power soak, the best working one out there is the THD Hotplate. It seems to be much better sounding than the Marshall product. I played a THD Univalve, which has the Hotplate built in, and it really worked well.

Hope it works out for you!

H2H
 
Darby said you'd know about is

Yep, I assume that the 4-8-16 Ohm switch is the one you mentioned to set output to 100-50-25 watts, (The math seems correct to me, I am assuming that the resistance of the speaker pair is 4 ohm, and there are resisters in a serial circuit accessed with the switch to effectively raise the resistance of the speakers. I will be printing this thread out and taking it to practice next wed.

(Generally on Wed. we set up in the garage, like we are playing a live gig. I will Mic his cabinet and see what I can get, using Mic placement, and whatnot

BTW, When Darby went amp shopping he wanted something that would be suitable for small club gigs and be capable of putting out a loud and clean signal. (If he wants distortion, He has a multi-fx pedal for that...

Thanks again.
 
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