More tube amp pondering.

J

Jouni

New member
Good evening everyone.


Now.. I want to have MY dream amp. Which is pretty difficult if you don't know what to look for...

Firstly, many high-gain amps feature 4 or 5 preamptubes, some only three.. What's the deal on that?....

Then, the question that arose to my mind on the other thread I just posted in.. Do I really want the "rubberbandness" of a driven powerstage, or as a metalhead, should I go for the "tighter" oversized powersection... Just can't decide..

Pedal vs preamp distortion? ..a can of worms. Best sound I currently have is a tupe preamp running into a clean amp's input.. One manufacturer that makes tube-distortions, has added a clean amp to production. As I asked why not a distorted preamp, I got a shady reply that a separately powered preamp added to a clean amp is better... He could just have an agenda of his own ofcourse.. Anyone care take sides one way or the other???
 
I reckon you should let your ears do the deciding. (if you can discern the amp noise from the ringing in your ears!)

Really, I mean go and plug in to a few amps and see what it does for you. If you like the sound, who cares if it's got 4 tubes or 5 int he preamp stage?

FM
 
I do a lot of work with a pretty prominent metal Producer/Engineer. The big contenders in his studio are the Peavey 5150, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Engl Powerball, Marshall Jcm 900/800. Often more than not... one amp will be blended with another for those super thick, tight punchy sounds.
As of late I have been preferring Engl for most of my metal sounds. I love how tight the response is. Granted I play a lot of busy arppegiated stuff but it is my favorite out of all the high gain amps I have owned.
 
Jouni said:
. Best sound I currently have is a tupe preamp running into a clean amp's input.
Click to expand...

Running a preamp through another preamp probably isn't helping your tone too terribly much. Instead, try running the tube preamp into your clean amps FX loop return/input. basically FX send/FX return are actually code for Preamp out/poweramp in.

More tubes in a preamp basically means more gain stages, This will give more or less distortion based on how they are setup.
 
sometimes there are 12AX7s performing other functions, like phase inversion or tremolo, while others are doing the preamp work - that can mean more preamp-"looking" tubes.

Ever since we got our group buy "neve-inspired" microphone/instrument preamps, I've been wanting to try a nice clean solid state preamp with a tube power stage -- I guess that would be a MusicMan amp?
 
I reckon you should get as many tubes as you can...

Then your amp will emit lots of lovely warmth for you and your family to huddle round on those cold, cold Finnish nights... :eek:

But seriously...

Actually, I'm not sure I have a serious answer for you on this one... good luck!
 
How much Money you got?

Check out Mesa. Mesa Makes good stuff
Carvin makes very nice tube amps also
Krank would be on the list as well

In the budget tube amp range I was pretty impressed with Bulgera which is basically a glorified Behringer but still had some really good settings.
 
the money....

..Depends, now, a few hundred euros, in 4-5 months a couple of thousand.

I should get a grip of myself, travel to the only City in Finland and try out some amps... Damn, such a chore, I'm lazy.
But having the amp made, also interests me... But describing the wanted tone to anyone is mighty hard.
 
The best thing to do is play a bunch of amps. The second best thing would be to figure out who's guitar tone is most like the one that you want, find out what they use and get that.

I know that everyone wants a unique tone and doesn't want to be seen as stealing someone elses, but there are really only a few catagories of tone. All electic guitar tones fit into one of those catagories.

The number of preamp tubes doesn't mean much unless you know how the amp is designed. One is usually a phase inverter, so that doesn't count. One might be driving a reverb unit, etc... If the amp has more than one channel, some preamp tubes could be used for channel 1 and the others be used for preamp 2, etc...
 
Jouni said:
..Depends, now, a few hundred euros, in 4-5 months a couple of thousand.

I should get a grip of myself, travel to the only City in Finland and try out some amps... Damn, such a chore, I'm lazy.
But having the amp made, also interests me... But describing the wanted tone to anyone is mighty hard.
Click to expand...

I suggest waiting four or five months then then go play through as many amps as you can.
 
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