Upside down tubes?

[Hank Grizzly]

I was about to embark on the construction of A tube amp ( a 5E3) when my friend told me that the tubes in Fender (and other) amps are upside down because it sounds better, whereas I thought that surely it's just to save space as allot of amps are pointing up, and I swear tubes are supposed to be that way up.
So which is it? Would an amps sound change if the tubes are inverted?

 

[SlyFoxx]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Wow. I thought I'd heard it all until now. Guess I better turn my Marshall upside down now!

The short answer is...no.

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Upside down tubes?

I have no idea but I do know that some of the REALLY old amps like little combos from the 30s and early 40s had tubes sticking straight up. The chassis was on the bottom.

I have no idea if this tone thing is true or not but I don't think it really matters. Almost all the songs we listen to have tubes pointing down and there's some great stuff out there!

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Well, you can safely tell you friend that his theory is bunk.

 

[lex666]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Is a light bulb any brighter when turned upside down? :scratchch

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Upside down tubes?

i had a guy try and tell me this at the shop one time, that putting your Marshall amp upside down will give you more distortion and a harmonically rich tone

i smiled and nodded while thinking about what kind of effect gravity would have on the subatomic level that electricity operates at.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Placebo effect is a powerful thing.

 

[trevorus]

Re: Upside down tubes?

What will really trip you out is when you listen on your head, all you can hear is your friends laughing at you.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Upside down tubes?

The tubes with the socket up don't sound "better", or "worse", just different.

They give you the distinctive Australian sound.

 

[J Moose]

Re: Upside down tubes?

No...

But sometimes, say... often... you'll see people hang tube microphones upside down and the reason for that is heat dispatation. Better to have all that rise out of the mic and away from the capsule.

The same could more or less be said for any tube gear... the tube doesn't care what angle its at so long as the heat from it doesn't fry anything nearby. Or fry itself.

 

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Upside down tubes?

They're called vacuum tubes because they sound better in a vacuum. In fact the Darkness recorded their hit record Permission To Land in space. That's why they have a spaceship on the cover of the album. Listen closely, and you'll hear some of the best guitar tones ever recorded. I just hope your audio equipment is good enough to reproduce it. Solid-state playback devices won't cut it.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Rock....!

In......!

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

 

[guitarded]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Given heat rises... I think I would prefer the sockets at the bottom.

 

[metlking]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Actually, it's not the amp that sounds better upside-down......

It's the guitar:

 

[some_dude]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Amps sound better when oriented east-west than they do north-south. Reason being is to do with the earth's rotation in relation to it's magnetic field.

Solar ionization is why your amp tends to sound better at night than it does during the day.

 

[Jessie's ghost]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Pass the dutchie from the left-hand side…

 

[Stratman]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Yea, and VOX amps sound British because tubes are on the side….


LOL

 

[SamusChief]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Actually, it's not the amp that sounds better upside-down......

It's the guitar:

sig'd.

 

[oilpit]

Re: Upside down tubes?

I bet you Eric Johnson can hear a huge difference...

 

[Brown Note]

Re: Upside down tubes?

Yea, and VOX amps sound British because tubes are on the side….


LOL

Lets not forget that the britons also use *valves* instead of tubes.