Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

[Dills]

Ive always wanted to know how you get that nice smooth creamy warm cranked tube sound with a tube amp that everyone talks about. Which knobs do you turn up to work the tubes and get a that tone.

I use a Peavey Classic 50 there are 2 master volumes and a pre and a post. Which knobs do you need to crank?

The problem is you can’t crank the master volume for the overdrive channel because it makes the clean channel extremely loud, and the channels become uneven. If you know a way let me know.

 

[7th Hell]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

Try cranking the PRE on the clean channel. If that's not enough, try it on the OD channel. You want the PRE set high, and the POST set lower (to control overall volume).

 

[Rich_T]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

i would have said the only way to do it is crank the post. then balance the volume as best you can with the pre.

with two channel amps its harder, maybe try a tube overdrive pedal on a cranked clean channel.

 

[Ken]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

"True" tube overdrive is in the power section. The only way to get overdrive out of the power section is to saturate the tubes, which means high volumes.

A good alternative for tube-tone at bedroom levels is to place an attenuator between the output and the speakers. This may be a bit more difficult on a combo such as your Classic 50, but it is certainly not impossible.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

Yup....that kind of distortion comes from the power tubes, which means cranking the master volume. The pre-amp gain is typically a slightly buzzy type of distortion. I'm not famalier with your amp's controls, but I would crank the post knob and the master bolume knob, and then adjust your channel volume and pre-gain to where it sounds best to you.

 

[msplines]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

If you have a 50 watter, then the sound you want is at the upper end of the power amp stage, so it will be very LOUD!!!!! when you overdrive the valves. You will need an attenuator such as the THD or Weber to do it without blowing the windows out. yup, it's the master volume that has to be cranked (not necessarily on 10, but way round the clock.

 

[Dills]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

Whats an attentuator ive never heard of it before? How much do they cost?

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

vox makes a 10 watt combo that has something like...i dunno i think its something from a car stereo, anyhoo, look into it, cuz i think that amp is on overdrive all the time, then again i don't know if you WANT to be on overdrive all the time, but ya

 

[Dills]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

I have a vox pahtfinder 15r with extension speaker and lineout what do you mean by the vox pathfinder 10 being like an attenutator ?

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

I'm talking about the vox brain may special

 

[Bludave]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

I learned from a very cloe friend many years ago the best way to set up your amp is turn everything all the way up, then turn down what you don't like. Try it it works pretty well!

 

[Wattage]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

I learned from a very cloe friend many years ago the best way to set up your amp is turn everything all the way up, then turn down what you don't like. Try it it works pretty well!

I think I know that guy! :laugh2:

Those little Vox Brian May's are solid state not tube. If you want that kind tone at bedroom levels look at old Fender Champs, Gibson LP Jr. amps and 5 to 10wt amps in general.

 

[sanrafael]

Re: Cranked tube sound, how do you get it?

Yup....that kind of distortion comes from the power tubes, which means cranking the master volume. The pre-amp gain is typically a slightly buzzy type of distortion. I'm not famalier with your amp's controls, but I would crank the post knob and the master bolume knob, and then adjust your channel volume and pre-gain to where it sounds best to you.

Some of it has to come from the output tubes for sure, but it can come from the triode stage right before the output stage as well (also after the master volume). This is the so-called "phase splitter", which drives the output tubes out of phase so that the outputs add in the push-pull circuit using the output transformer. Some Marshalls are set up so that the phase splitter overloads a lot while the output tubes overload a more moderate amount. I do not know exactly why, but I guess it is details like this that determine the sound of an amplifier.