Power Tube Saturation

[jonnymangia]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

I couldn't agree more. That's the thing that kept occurring to me as I read through all of the replies. It sounds as if the tubes are fine and the speaker is quality, so I would look to tweak preamp gain and overall EQ to get closer to what you're wanting to here.

Guys,

I tried this and when I rolled the preamp gain down, I lost alot of the distortion. I was left with some incredibly loud "grit" from the post amp that sounded like bad Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse.

[HamerPlyr]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

Sounds like you did just about everything within reason to get what you want out of the amp and it didn't produce what you're looking for. Sounds like it's time to go amp shopping to me.

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

Wouldn't it be nice to get power tube distortion in a pedal?

Unfortunately, in most vacuum tube pedals, the tube is merely used in "starved plate mode" as a clipping diode. This is not not true tube amplification and it's not going to give you power tube saturation.

Wouldn't it be nice to get a pedal that couples a 100% vacuum tube signal path with high plate voltage? This would allow the tubes to operate to their fullest potential and provide the most gain and the smoothest tone.

It never hurts to wish...

[HamerPlyr]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

That sounded distinctly like a hint. Surely, you'd never hear such a thing from a marketing guy, though...

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

it may be speaker distortion

just a thought, but what you described sounds like speaker distortion

[bryvincent]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

cranking a 30W amp through a single 30w speaker has a tendency not to sound good in my experience. the single speaker handles all the amp's power causing it to "fart" or distort. the speaker may even distort first before the power amp.
try it with a 2x12 or a 4x12 cab. if your amp gives out 30 watts, in a 2x12 , each speaker(similar) will get 15W. in a 4x12, 7.5W each

[Corbic]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

Wouldn't it be nice to get power tube distortion in a pedal?

Unfortunately, in most vacuum tube pedals, the tube is merely used in "starved plate mode" as a clipping diode. This is not not true tube amplification and it's not going to give you power tube saturation.

Wouldn't it be nice to get a pedal that couples a 100% vacuum tube signal path with high plate voltage? This would allow the tubes to operate to their fullest potential and provide the most gain and the smoothest tone.

It never hurts to wish...

I smell a new Seymour Duncan effect pedal

Or at least I hope so...

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

Don't read more into it. I'm just expressing what I think would be a cool idea.

Your marketing guy,

- Evan

[mnbaseball91]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

I think the point about speaker distortion is a very good one. There's a volume range on my Traynor after the power tubes start saturating but before the speaker starts getting overloaded that sounds phenominal. Anything past that and it isn't so hot. Similarly, the best tone I've ever gotten was (don't laugh at me) playing a fully cranked Fender HR Deville 410. The amp is 60 watts, the speakers in it were rated at 40 watts each. Great power tube saturation, very little speaker breakup. Speaker distortion has its place and I personally believe it's a big part of good tone, but I never liked the sound of a speaker that's being pushed to its limit. Plug that Peavey into a cab and then see what you think.

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

Don't read more into it. I'm just expressing what I think would be a cool idea.

Your marketing guy,

- Evan

and he's just expressing that you need to push for this as a new SFX pedal so you can get mailed flowers & candy

[jonnymangia]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

cranking a 30W amp through a single 30w speaker has a tendency not to sound good in my experience. the single speaker handles all the amp's power causing it to "fart" or distort. the speaker may even distort first before the power amp.
try it with a 2x12 or a 4x12 cab. if your amp gives out 30 watts, in a 2x12 , each speaker(similar) will get 15W. in a 4x12, 7.5W each

Thanks for the advice. Just to clarify (b/c all I've ever used are combos), if I got a cab, how would that work/connect with the combo amp/G12H30? Or would the G12H30 be out of the picture?

Jonny

PS - I am also going to throw new tubes in the amp. It currently has EL84 GT's.

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

if you have an extension speaker jack, well, what i would do is plug the g12h into the extension & run the main jack to like a 2x12 or 4x12, which you could also put g12h30's in. But, if the amp doesn't have some sort of adjustable impedance, you might have to buy 2 16 ohm speakers for the 2x12 & just not use the one in the amp. Not to say it'd never get used, just wouldn't when you gotta crank it

[JeffB]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

If I'm not mistake Soldano and Budda (and Mesa did) make tube pedals that operate/d at the high plate voltages they get in an amp?

Soldano's is like $400....

[JeffB]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

And yes, I think it would be wise to plug the C30 into a cab before wholly dismissing the amp...Avatar makes great cabs for reasonable prices.

When I was young and stupid(er), I couldn't figure out why my Marshall combo's sounded like @$$ at high volumes....once I got a cab, I got that tight sound..pushing a speaker is good....pushing it past the limit, not so good.

Those guys with the big SG tones weren't playing through a 1x12...even Clapton was using a 2x12 combo with his JTM/BB @ 30-ish watts. All those other classic sounds are marshall cabs...and back then they were 4x12s, TWO OF EM!...with 80-100 watts plus power handling for each cab .....as the power went up in the marshalls (from JTMs at 30 watts up to 100 watts in SLPs), the greenbacks got more powerful as well.

Speaker is the LAST thing in the chain, but ultimately it's what lets us hear the sounds...if it's not optimal, we don't hear optimal sound. Grab a POD XT and just listen to the massive difference the modeled speaker cabs make on one amp.....from greenback 20s, to 25s, to 75s, to V30s....then mix something like a tweed champ, and run it through say a 4x12 cab w/ 75s...the difference in sound is HUGE..same goes for the real thing.

[bryvincent]

Re: Power Tube Saturation

Thanks for the advice. Just to clarify (b/c all I've ever used are combos), if I got a cab, how would that work/connect with the combo amp/G12H30? Or would the G12H30 be out of the picture?

Jonny

PS - I am also going to throw new tubes in the amp. It currently has EL84 GT's.

ok, i went to the peavey site and read the manual for the classic 30. it says the extrernal speaker should have a minimum impedance of 16 ohms. so just plug in a 16 ohm cab and you're good to go. though the manual didn't say if the on-board speaker will still be operational or will be disconnected if the external speaker is connected. i suggest you read the manual. if you don't have it, you can download it at the peavey website.