overdriving a tube amp

[trevschultz]

I am new to the world of tubes. Specifically I have an ampeg V4 with a matching V4 412 cab which is loaded with eminence basslite s2012's. My question is, what is the proper way to overdrive my amp? Also how can I avoid overdriving it? I want to be able to have a clean tone at a fairly loud volume and I was wondering how I get that. Help a novice out.

[guroove]

There were different versions of the amp with different controls. If you are lucky enough to have a separate gain control from master volume, turn up the gain until you have the amount of overdrive you are happy with, then set the master volume for the volume you want.

To avoid over driving, turn the gain down and turn the master up to get to the volume you want. If you have the master volume pegged and you still can't get it clean, then you've reached the maximum clean volume on the amp and you have to ask other people to turn down, or use some kind of sound reinforcement (e.g. mic the amp) to get more volume.

[Dethrats]

Originally Posted by guroove

There were different versions of the amp with different controls. If you are lucky enough to have a separate gain control from master volume, turn up the gain until you have the amount of overdrive you are happy with, then set the master volume for the volume you want.

To avoid over driving, turn the gain down and turn the master up to get to the volume you want. If you have the master volume pegged and you still can't get it clean, then you've reached the maximum clean volume on the amp and you have to ask other people to turn down, or use some kind of sound reinforcement (e.g. mic the amp) to get more volume.

well said

/thread

[BassmanPaul]

You only have 100W to play with so it's not going to be earth shatteringly loud if you want clean.

[trevschultz]

Ok I see that. Will overdriving my amp damage anything?

[TomB]

V4's overdrive pretty gracefully, but pretty early on. I think that more of them do not have a master volume than do. If yours does not have one then that's the practical equivalent of running with the master wide open. These will typically begin to get gnarly around 11:00 or so. It won't hurt anything... in fact, if you're like a lot of us, you'll be hard pressed to find another rig that sounds as good. Enjoy your find! About the only way to hurt it is to improperly load up the output transformer. Make sure you set the switch on the back of the head to match your speaker load: 2,4, or 8 ohms, and don't run it without a load attached.

[JimmyM]

it won't hurt anything for sure, but it does cut down on tube life somewhat. i know a doom guy on here who fried out an entire set of svt tubes in 6 months. but he'd turn it up to 10 and crank the low end, too. if you just want a mild overdrive, it won't kill them nearly as quickly.