starved plate tube design?

[crguti]

How well a starved plate tube design can simulated a 'real' tube design?

Is it true that a starved-plate designs are almost always solid-state preamps with a tube connected up in parallel so you can mix them to get a tooby sound?

[Nightburst]

Re: starved plate tube design?

Most of the time a tube is used in stead of clipping diodes for a more tubey feel/sound.
Some starved plate designs can sound really good, but it's mostly a gimmick. It won't work without the tube though so it definately has a function.
I got one pedal where a LED is placed behind the tube to fake more tube glow . But it's definately a good sounding pedal.

I guess a marshall valvestate works the same way? Thats an awful sounding amp.
So it's definately up to the design of the whole unit and not so much what the tube does for the circuit.

Nothing can substitute the real thing but in a few years digital modelers will come REALLY close.

[GuitarStv]

Re: starved plate tube design?

As I understand it, a starved plate design is running a tube below the (roughly) linear operating range of the tube being used (usually a 12AX7). This should theoretically introduce some kind of tube distortion, but wouldn't be the same character as power tubes being driven beyond their operating range.

In my listening experience these designs often just sound like low-pass filters, letting a somewhat coloured darker sound through.

[crguti]

Re: starved plate tube design?

...
In my listening experience these designs often just sound like high-pass filters, letting a somewhat coloured darker sound through.

a darker sound would mean low-pass filter IMO.

[GuitarStv]

Re: starved plate tube design?

a darker sound would mean low-pass filter IMO.

I misspoke(wrote?) . . . gimme a break, it's still before my mid-morning coffee! :P

[crusty philtrum]

Re: starved plate tube design?

Any starved-plate designs i've ever heard sounded horrible and definitely no better than a transistor version, in fact usually worse. I have no doubt it is usually done for economical reasons, and you get what you pay for. Also it is cashing in on being able to say an item has a tube in it, despite the fact that it has none of the magic that properly-operated tubes generate. Marketing BS and cr*p sound. Avoid at all costs unless you particularly like cr*p, in which case you'll be in heaven.

[Binnerscot]

Re: starved plate tube design?

Starved Plate = Gimmick.....It's not worth the effort to say any more.