Hybrid hotness! Rediscovering my Randall T2HL

[Inflames626]

How about Rivera? I seem to remember the Mick Thomson sig model being well regarded.

I think Revv has almost as dumb a name as Krank and almost the same fanboy hipster following. Never heard of them until Fricker started mentioning them and now everyone has their Revv swag. "Look at me. I'm in the YouTube musician content creator clique too!"

[Inflames626]

I don't get the gain stage thing and how that translates to actual gain. I mean my little Laboga the Beast 30 Plus head stresses that it is all-tube and uses no SS circuitry whatsoever & it's got an unholy amount of gain on tap. But uses just 2 12AX7's in the preamp. I've played amps with 6 12AX7 preamp tubes that did'nt sound as gainy..


Now keep in mind that it's kinda loose/spongy w/o a boost. (he way I like things) cuz of the 4 EL84's in the output.. I actually love the compression this amp has..it's kinda soft/spongy/smooth feeling but it grinds like hell too & never sounds over-saturated or congested. It's great for rhythm playing but also insanely good for soloing/tapping..but yeah gobs of gain from 2 preamp tubes...

Ryan Bruce demo...I know someone was bellyaching about his stuff on here but....he makes it sound like it actually sounds so...

I was bellyaching about Fluff, not because his content is bad but because his playing is generic.

[El Dunco]

Recto's gain knob becomes unusable after past 1:30-2:00-ish. At that point, unboosted, I don't think that's nearly enoug gain for Death Metal.

I solved that by switching the gain pot from 250k to 1M and changing the capacitor. More useable gain across the sweep, more musical and less mushy as it starts to max out.

[Phantasmagoria]

I was bellyaching about Fluff, not because his content is bad but because his playing is generic.

Haha..did'nt even know it was you, and I could'nt really care less about who bellyaches about whom or why. I don't have favorites, usually just check out as many demo's as I can if I'm interested in a piece of gear..

[Inflames626]

Haha..did'nt even know it was you, and I could'nt really care less about who bellyaches about whom or why. I don't have favorites, usually just check out as many demo's as I can if I'm interested in a piece of gear..

YouTube content creators dress up their videos so much now I don't really trust what I hear. Or they record it on their smartphones like it's 2005 and no one has yet figured out how to make proper content as opposed to home videos. I don't trust either approach.

I don't really like Fluff because I consider his playing lazy. Everything is a drop tuned chuggy riff. Same with Keith Merrow. Why would I want the signature Schecter guitar of a YouTube content creator? It feels very cut rate and generic.

[Phantasmagoria]

Youtubers are the rockstars of today

[Inflames626]

Youtubers are the rockstars of today

Wish there was a dislike button because it's the sad truth. :/

[Rex_Rocker]

I don't get the gain stage thing and how that translates to actual gain. I mean my little Laboga the Beast 30 Plus head stresses that it is all-tube and uses no SS circuitry whatsoever & it's got an unholy amount of gain on tap. But uses just 2 12AX7's in the preamp. I've played amps with 6 12AX7 preamp tubes that did'nt sound as gainy..

Generally, more tubes = more gain. But it also depends on understanding what each tube is doing in the chain. Tone stack drivers, phase inverters, and FX loop drivers don't usually contritubute to distortion (unless you're driving a Plexi or some other grandpa's amp). Some amps also have dedicated tubes for separate channels, so they don't stack up for gain. It also depends on the internal voltages. Lower voltages means more distortion, and higher voltage means more headroom, generally speaking.

A Krank has 4 preamp tubes. 1 more than a JCM800. But the extra tube buffers the FX loop, so it's really not contributing any gain. A Recto has one more tube. A 5150 has the same amount of tubes as a Recto, but the FX loop is not tube-buffered, so it uses more tubes for gain. A 5150III has like 7947857495749574975947594 tubes, LOL.

And Fluff's demo of the Laboga amp sounds cool, but not sure I'd dig an amp without a mid knob and a presence knob for myself.

Also, if it just has 2 preamp tubes, and it's class A/B, there is no way there is no solid state hocus pocus going on at some point. Either the tone stack is SS, the PI is SS, or something in the gain stage is SS. There is just no possible way of it being 100% all-tube in the traditional sense and having only 2 preamp tubes while being class A/B. Maybe it's class A? But I doubt it.

The 5150III LBX, for example, has a solid state tone-stack driver. The gain is all-tube, but the tone stack driver does not work the same way as the 50W or the 100W works being driven by a tube.

The Peavey MH stuff has a SS phase inverter.

Keep in mind, that's not bad. And if were to have a SS component, I'd rather have it in the tone stack driver where it matters the least, IMO.

*EDIT* just checked the site, and they state "all tube preamp". Most consider the phase inverter part of the poweramp, so my guess is the PI is solid state. Not that it's bad tho. If it works, it works. Certainly doesn't sound bad from that demo.

[Rex_Rocker]

Just checked the manual. I'm super confused. It states:

V2 – 12AX7 preamp tube. It's next stage of the preamplifier. First half of this tube amplifies the signal, adding quite a bit of distortion, but only for the drive channel and the second half is the inverter. Between those two stages the Effects Loop is located.

The phase inverter cannot be one half of a tube. It needs to be both because one half handles the positive half of the waveform, and the other half handles the negative part. That's why it's called an "inverter". That is in a Class A/B amp. One power tube or one pair of power tubes amplifies each part of the waveform. That's why they sell "balanced" phase inverter tubes. So that both parts of the signal get amplified equally, and that doesn't incur in unwanted poweramp crossover distortion which sounds like ****.

I haven't looked a lot into Class A amps, but AFAIK, those don't need a phase inverter at all because all power tubes amplify all the waveform.

Also, that confirms the tone stack is solid state.

[Phantasmagoria]

So it's still all that gain from just 2 12AX7's? I'm guessing the tone stack isn't adding gain. tbh I could'nt care less how an amp get's it's gain as long as there's plenty of it & it sounds good. I was just surprised to hear as much gain as the Laboga has supposedly coming from just the 2 preamp tubes.

The other 30W Laboga The Beast I have (the "Classic" version) is more in line w/ what I'd expect from 2 pre tubes...pretty much JCM 800 levels

[Rex_Rocker]

So it's still all that gain from just 2 12AX7's?

Can't say for sure. But the manual does state they have 3 halves of the 4 stages 2 12AX7's cascading for gain, which is about the same as Kranks do.

My Rev Jr. wasn't super high-gain, TBH. More gain than an 800 for sure, but still could use a boost.

Yeah, I have no problem with some solid state components inside of the amp. My 5150III LBX sounded incredible, yet it did have a solid state tone stack.