This weekend my amp sounded like 50 growling monsters..what?

[panama]

So, I am relatively new to the world of tubey goodness. As you can see in my sig I have a VB2. Maybe this phenomenon is common.

On Sunday my band was jamming on an original song and during a particular part of the song I was digging into each note pretty hard and suddenly my amp sounded like an pack of insane growling monsters yelling at me - in a good way. It was like it had 50 different little voices coming from it. I wasn't on drugs...I promise.

Can anyone tell me what happened here?! At the time I was standing about 12 feet from it. Maybe I need to stand further away from my amp to hear this stuff?

[christw]

Do you mean it was distorting? A lot of us like some good overdrive, especially tube amp overdrive.

[panama]

Yep. I had just never heard it like that. It was otherworldly.

[christw]

Try turning up the gain a bit. Same effect with less work.

[panama]

I dunno...I usually play with the gain dimed on my clean channel and it has never sounded like this.

[Mr. Foxen]

You got power tube drive, you can only get that from cranking the master and hitting it hard. After hearing it, preamp drive will never satisfy. course, it might be doing that because something is going wrong, rather than you being louder, like your power supply is sagging due to dying capacitor or rectifier.

[bassist4dalord]

What were you using before you got the VB-2?

[panama]

LOL well I suppose anything is possible, but the amp is still functioning well.

So, I should dial down my gain and turn up my master to achieve this more easily? I don't wanna keep my gain dimed and turn up the master because I'll kill my band mates.

[panama]

Originally Posted by bassist4dalord

What were you using before you got the VB-2?

Ampeg SVT-450 aka B2RE

[christw]

Have you tried to match that sound on the dirty channel?

It could just be preamp clipping if you dug in with your gain maxed out. Or it could be power amp clipping if you guys were REALLY loud. Who am I to tell without listening?

[panama]

Originally Posted by christw

Have you tried to match that sound on the dirty channel?

It could just be preamp clipping if you dug in with your gain maxed out. Or it could be power amp clipping if you guys were REALLY loud. Who am I to tell without listening?

I have not played much with the dirty channel much. The overdrive is gives is not the best, but I should play around with it. We were playing loud but not insane.

Also it was somewhat fleeting. It was there when the song required me to dig and and then it was gone.

[christw]

Here's a way to find out (if you have spare ear protection):

Mimick the settings and playing you were doing and then turn up the master a wee bit more. If it gets more distorted (or sounds like 100 monsters this time) you were probably driving your power tubes to their max. If it's just a louder reproduction of 50 monsters, you're clipping your preamp. A clean boost like an MXR Micro amp would give you a little extra drive on the clean channel in this case but I recommend tweaking the OD channel from top to bottom.

[coreyfyfe]

Originally Posted by panama

So, I should dial down my gain and turn up my master to achieve this more easily? I don't wanna keep my gain dimed and turn up the master because I'll kill my band mates.

If you want pure powertube distortion you can do that, turn down the pre-amp gain and crank the master. You'll definitely heat your power tubes more and potentially shorten their lifespan, but if that's the sound you want you can certainly try that.

[KramerBassFan]

Originally Posted by coreyfyfe

If you want pure powertube distortion you can do that, turn down the pre-amp gain and crank the master. You'll definitely heat your power tubes more and potentially shorten their lifespan, but if that's the sound you want you can certainly try that.

Do tell - why will it shorten their life?

[father of fires]

I don't think cranking the master will do much with out the preamp being turned up as well. The signal feeding the power tubes may not be hot enough to overdrive them. I would start with the master on max then turn the gain up until you get the tone you're after.

[coreyfyfe]

Originally Posted by KramerBassFan

Do tell - why will it shorten their life?

As far as I understand it, more current = more heat, and if not properly ventilated, more heat will shorted life. The geofex link below also talks about excessive cathode current shortening life, but I'm not going to pretend I understand that enough to make a connection

http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic...b5d8ae531fd39f
http://www.geofex.com/tubeampfaq/TUBEFAQ.htm#tubelife

[panama]

Thanks for the tips guys. Before messing with my OD channel I am going to dime my master and then dial in the gain until I'm at the volume we need and see how that works.

if I shorten the tube life that's ok..it's worth it to have that sound.

[coreyfyfe]

Honestly I don't know if it will make of any difference in life, just putting out some speculation as I've read it. Either way it will probably sound thunderous. Let us know how it goes.

[Mr. Foxen]

Fairly sure the master volume is at the end of the preamp stage anyway, you have to hit the power section with more signal to clip them, so cranking the master and cutting the gain won't do much for you except give you a nice clean sound. Killing volumes is sort of necessary to do that trick, it is why low powered valve amps are popular with drive obsessed guitarists. I reckon that amp has too much juice for attenuator tricks too.

[panama]

So what you're saying is turn everything up to 11?