wahwah
GumbyLoveologist
Re: Just What are "Cleans" and which amps get them
They were all great tube manufacturers in their day, especially during the Golden Era in the 50's and early 60's. The trade embargo in the 60's between the US and UK meant that when Jim Marshall and Ken Bran were developing the first Marshalls, based of course on the Fender Bassman circuit, they couldn't get access to RCA's anyway, and instead used the local product, Mullards from the Blackburn plant. The frequency range of Mullards is not as broad as the old RCA black plates, which leads to their pronounced midrange, which then of course became an essential part of the Marshall sound. Driving Mullards in the front of an amp would lead to the pushed mid overdrive that has become synonymous with Marshall, and is also part of the reason why they are not known for their clean sounds, especially with humbuckers or higher output pickups generally.
Philips, Siemens, Valvo, Amperex and Telefunken preamp tubes are better known for their use in audio equipment other than guitar amps, since Holland and Germany were not as prolific in their production of popular guitar amps as the US and England. You would find Telefunkens in old Neumann tube mics, and Philips in domestic audio equipment, and of course every tube manufacturer on the planet had contracts with their local military. It wasn't until the major US and UK plants started shutting down with the advent of the transistor that these other brands started to be preferable in guitar amps to the Eastern Bloc tubes which were always considered to be of inferior quality. As a result, those brands are not considered as being part of the signature sound of the better known amp brands.
Having said all of that, you can certainly pull a great clean sound from the tube brands mentioned. The old RCA's are hard to beat because they were the tubes that the early Fenders were designed around, just as these days, amps are designed around 25c Chinese and Russian tubes and therefore vintage tubes often won't make an appreciable difference in those amps. In the right amp, the high headroom and broad frequency response of the RCA black plates makes for spectacular clean sounds.
Cheers..................................wahwah
They were all great tube manufacturers in their day, especially during the Golden Era in the 50's and early 60's. The trade embargo in the 60's between the US and UK meant that when Jim Marshall and Ken Bran were developing the first Marshalls, based of course on the Fender Bassman circuit, they couldn't get access to RCA's anyway, and instead used the local product, Mullards from the Blackburn plant. The frequency range of Mullards is not as broad as the old RCA black plates, which leads to their pronounced midrange, which then of course became an essential part of the Marshall sound. Driving Mullards in the front of an amp would lead to the pushed mid overdrive that has become synonymous with Marshall, and is also part of the reason why they are not known for their clean sounds, especially with humbuckers or higher output pickups generally.
Philips, Siemens, Valvo, Amperex and Telefunken preamp tubes are better known for their use in audio equipment other than guitar amps, since Holland and Germany were not as prolific in their production of popular guitar amps as the US and England. You would find Telefunkens in old Neumann tube mics, and Philips in domestic audio equipment, and of course every tube manufacturer on the planet had contracts with their local military. It wasn't until the major US and UK plants started shutting down with the advent of the transistor that these other brands started to be preferable in guitar amps to the Eastern Bloc tubes which were always considered to be of inferior quality. As a result, those brands are not considered as being part of the signature sound of the better known amp brands.
Having said all of that, you can certainly pull a great clean sound from the tube brands mentioned. The old RCA's are hard to beat because they were the tubes that the early Fenders were designed around, just as these days, amps are designed around 25c Chinese and Russian tubes and therefore vintage tubes often won't make an appreciable difference in those amps. In the right amp, the high headroom and broad frequency response of the RCA black plates makes for spectacular clean sounds.
Cheers..................................wahwah
