I've given up on all-tube

[misterwhizzy]

Edge of breakup with a boost pedal is exactly the sound I love. The pedal is full of op-amps and transistors and diodes, and I don't care. It sounds great. There aren't any solid-state amplification devices inside the amp, but it's not quite where I want without some help out front.

Discuss.

 

[jeremy]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

if it works for you, great! i frequently plug straight into the amp if i can turn up enough to get the goods. if not, i throw a dirt box in front to get me where i wanna be.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

Good cleanish tube amps always make my pedals sound good
Digital amps have been hit or miss in how they respond to a really hot signal like a blues driver with gain down/volume up
Transistor amps have been not bad with taking a lot of gain from a pedal but I don't like the sound when hit too hard by gain down/volume up approach

My Princeton Reverb and other tube fenders have been really good to crank up the amp volume and have the guitar volume really low to knock off some brightness from the pickups, this is really useful with a jazzmaster you can get much darker lower on the volume without even touching the tone knob cuz it's got 1 Meg pots

When I had a fender champion digital amp and same with the mustang, keeping the volume low sometimes caused some kinda digital sounding distortion and cutting out of my signal like it was trying to decide if it was receiving guitar signal or just noise/hum. Like I wasn't clearing a noise gate threshold or something

But I kinda want a tone master amp someday cuz I really love the longevity of old stock tubes but I am not rich and supplies of what I like just dry up and get more expensive when you do find them
And there's too many scam nos tubes on eBay from people who don't test tubes well/try to hide or flub useful tube strength related readings

So I like em tube amp still
Tubes in the preamp is what I like, those are the ones I'm saturating with the blues driver

 

[Demanic]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

I like digital into tube just fine.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

 

[misterwhizzy]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

The only digital stuff I have is in the effects loop, but the little bit of echo I use sounds good too. It's usually modeling analog stuff anyway.

 

[DankStar]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

Lately I’ve been making up a lot of riffs unplugged. I’ve got cork sniffers picketing in my yard.

Seriously tho, I agree. Something to be said for a tube amp and an OD pedal.

 

[JMP/HBE]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

Edge of breakup with a boost pedal is exactly the sound I love. The pedal is full of op-amps and transistors and diodes, and I don't care. It sounds great. There aren't any solid-state amplification devices inside the amp, but it's not quite where I want without some help out front.

Discuss.

Never use pedals ........ Never drill holes on a Marshall ... JJ tubes are fantastic ... Winged =C= are the best because they don't make them anymore ... yada yada yada.
These & other internet myths today on the price is right/


Pedals are tools in the toolbox.

I don't know any mechanic professional or otherwise that has just one wrench.
Conversely many mechanics have whole drawers full of specialty tools each designed for one specific task.
Having grown up playing in da 60's & 70's we always wanted more because we hardly had anything.

Now that we have 100's of thousands of gear choices suddenly were not suppose to use anything again ?
So much for Evolution.

Hendrix & Randy Rhoads used as much as they could and thats fine by me.

 

[Demanic]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

I have made a habit of doing what I'm not supposed to do.
Music wise, it probably won't kill me.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

 

[Aceman]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

If it sounds good, it is good.

There is no single formula. I watch the EVH tone chasers who are seeking this pup, or that tube and laugh. Had they REALLY focussed on the tone - they would have had it and been playing it.

Use whatever you want, make whatever sound you like.

 

[Mincer]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

I am the king of doing things unconventionally. Partially due to not having a big budget for most of my life as a musician, and partly because I have a pretty rebellious nature toward convention, too.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

Almost all my amps have enough gain that I’ve never needed a boost box in front. A couple times I’ve used a TS for a particular sound, but that’s it.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

I find the best tones I get come from the rigs with less control over it. The best live tone I ever had was from a AC30 with most of the knobs at noon, a Tubescreamer, and a Rat. Did my tone sound the best its ever been? Probably not, but at that show I was much more focused on expressive playing than I was on gear, or even hitting all the right notes for that matter.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

I just want to point out that boosting an amp sounds different than just turning the gain up. Also, most amps flub out on 10, but sound really good on 8. The Tube Screamer thing is real... a little less bass, a little more signal, a little more focused clipping...

With a good pedal you can get a more dynamic sound I think.

Anyway, if it sounds good it is good. One of my favorite tones is the Wampler Pinnacle into the Princeton Reverb. The tube amp rounds off some of the corners and gets the right “feel”, the pedal has an awesome tone with the right EQ...

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

I find the best tones I get come from the rigs with less control over it. The best live tone I ever had was from a AC30 with most of the knobs at noon, a Tubescreamer, and a Rat. Did my tone sound the best its ever been? Probably not, but at that show I was much more focused on expressive playing than I was on gear, or even hitting all the right notes for that matter.

I've owned a lot of amps, but the one amp that always had multiple people coming up after the show to ask about my tone for a rig rundown -was my AC15 by a wide margin -second was my Traynor.

And I don't play one now because I play in a 2 sometimes 3 guitar band now and the AC15 doesn't "sit" well with the other amps -and while my Deluxe Reverb does more and I think it sounds better in more contexts -the AC15 still has that magic one thing, that if you dial in -is amazing.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

I haven't owned a tube amp since the 1980s. I plugged into my current amp, loved to tone, and that was it.
I did not realize it was solid state until a few days later when I pulled the back plate off to see what kind of power tubes it had! I have played it heavily ever since with zero maintenance. Now a need then I plug into something at a shop just to try and plenty are nice but none sound as good to me for what I do.
If it sounds good it sounds good and I don't care how or why.

 

[JamesPaul]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

There is always the right tool for the job.

From a scheduled maintenance perspective, owning a tube amp is like owning a car while owning a solid state amp is like owning a clock radio.

-Me

 

[LLL]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

I just wire my guitar directly into any typical octal type powertube (soldered right to the pins), which then is wired directly into a 12" speaker.

What's that you ask? the powertube is powered by a 12V car battery.

Naturally.

And a pickup is a microphone essentially, so I removed all pickups and replaced them with the guts of an SM57, positioned
slightly angled under the strings.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz II]

Re: I've given up on all-tube

if it works for you, great! i frequently plug straight into the amp if i can turn up enough to get the goods. if not, i throw a dirt box in front to get me where i wanna be.

. . . i tend to do exactly the same.