All-tube amp advantages?

[Engle]

I'm glad to read that "lower reliability" isn't necessarily an issue. I'm still planning on keeping a small class-D backup, just in case...

That's what I do

 

[LT131]

They are the primary reason chicks dig bassists so much. Awesome Buffness. They help us maintain the physique that is the envy of all other musicians worldwide.

 

[BogeyBass]

Tone dude its all tone that's the benefit.

Nothing ....nothing sounds like a Quad of 6L6 getting pounded into submission.

The less knobs, LEDs blinky things and other useless garbage the better. Just tubes ! fresh hot tubes and the smell of cooking wood and vinyl. Freaking sweet.

 

[ofajen]

Suggest you just sit down with an all tube head and your main bass and play it for awhile. Really listen to it. Notice how it responds differently than a SS amp does.

If you don't hear and/or feel a difference, or prefer it over (or as much as) solid state, don't worry about it.

If you do feel and/or hear a difference - and it works for you - get yourself one and be happy.

You can spin theories and quote engineering details until the cows come home and not be any closer to making an informed decision. Because it's all a matter of personal taste, the music you play, how you play it, what you play it with, plus how much you want to spend if you like an amp. And that goes for any amp.

So get out there and find one to try out. That's the only way you'll ever know what the advantages and disadvantages are - for you.

(For the record, the only solid state amps I ever liked as much as tube powered amps were those made by the defunct Acoustic Control Corp. back in the '70s. For the most part I prefer to use an all tube amp when I play.)

This. Words won't tell you. Quality time playing your bass into a tube amp will tell if it's the thing for you. It's the thing for me.

Otto

 

[Mr. Foxen]

Actually, very few "all tube" amps have a tube rectifier. Just sayin'.

Why would they? They are not very good.

 

[Mr. Foxen]

But you have to carry 100's of such amps, as they each have their own sound.

Just two. Never seen anyone having to carry that many, throw up a link to an example though, I'd be interested.

 

[Korladis]

Just two. Never seen anyone having to carry that many, throw up a link to an example though, I'd be interested.

I know the guitarist from Tool usually blends the sound of like three different amps, but that's the exception, not the rule.

In my experience, most people who use tube amps find one whose sounds (since almost all amps are capable of many different sounds) they like, and then just use that.

 

[Mr. Foxen]

I know the guitarist from Tool usually blends the sound of like three different amps, but that's the exception, not the rule.

In my experience, most people who use tube amps find one whose sounds (since almost all amps are capable of many different sounds) they like, and then just use that.

I took three to the studio, but the two I use live mostly sound like one big one on full, it's the varying the mix between them (rick style separate pickup outputs) that give the variation. Two very different sounding ones worked well in studio, bit unpredictable live. I could probably find a use for maybe four if someone else would carry them, but at a certain point, I realised most of the limitations I was fighting was in the limited range of the cabs.
Link Removed

Link Removed

 

[Sunset Shalom]

Why would they? They are not very good.

I have always loved the idea of a triple rec becouse you can use valve or silicon rectifiers or a blend of the two.

Also good and bad are subjective, they may not work for you in the set ups you have tried but they may be others favorites.

In theory you could make a tube rectifier using a ton of different tubes in different configurations for a ton of different results.

 

[40Hz]

An amp is every bit as much a musical instrument as the electric bass that plugs into it is.

 

[Mr. Foxen]

I have always loved the idea of a triple rec becouse you can use valve or silicon rectifiers or a blend of the two.

Also good and bad are subjective, they may not work for you in the set ups you have tried but they may be others favorites.

In theory you could make a tube rectifier using a ton of different tubes in different configurations for a ton of different results.

Pretty much all the variance between valve rectifiers can be achieved by inserting of various value resistors into the power supply path, exceptions tend to be where stuff to compensate for the variance from valve rectifiers are being compensated for. Power supply variation is very much more predictable than signal stuff, which is why valve rectification is a marketing issue.

 

[Mr. Foxen]

An amp is every bit as much a musical instrument as the electric bass that plugs into it is.

Amps are the 'electric' part of 'electric' bass.

 

[Interceptor]

I don't really care about weight in terms of gravity. I do care about the weight in terms of gravitas.

I'm a tube convert after a very long run with top quality solid state. For me it came down to thickness of tone. I'm at the point where I really don't give a hoot why I like the sound of tubes. I'd rather eat popcorn and be entertained as others debate that. I do know what I want to sound like, and I can get there effortlessly with tubes.

Oh, and getting 40 years out my amp? I really don't care about that either. I can't imagine the lowly 12AX7 and 6L6 being unobtainium in even that time frame. Plus, I don't have that many years of playing left in me anyways. No, I'm not grouchy. I'm super happy with my tone and have reached my end of the road in amplification with a tube amp.

 

[Mr. Foxen]

I can't imagine the lowly 12AX7 and 6L6 being unobtainium in even that time frame.

Trying to get hands on 10 year obsolete transistors is the fun.

 

[Interceptor]

RoHS made many a techs life miserable with all the semiconductors that went out of production.

 

[40Hz]

Amps are the 'electric' part of 'electric' bass.

Yup. They're only part of the instrument. Because for all intents and purposes, the instrument we call "The Bass" is made up of the bass guitar, the amp (and anything else electronic in the signal chain), and the player. All three elements have an audible effect on the sound that's ultimately heard.

My Ripper, played by me through my B-15N is a very different instrument than that same Ripper played by me going through my SWR SM-400 and Goliath II cab. It responds differently and sounds similar but still discernibly different.

And swap me for one of my friends who is also bassist - but use the same two rigs above - and that same Ripper sounds completely different again.

 

[BrickBatMansion]

I've got a bunch of amps/preamps/poweramps........... '75 SVT, 80's GK800, TC Elec, Tech 21 RBI etc......tried every combination imaginable.

If you want compliments, take the SVT.

The best tones ive gotten were from going out of the Gk pre into the SVT power into Ampeg 8x10. Incredible. As much razor blade as you want and still all of that "woof" underneath. Also the RBI into the SVT, but it was almost too much.
But it gets loud FAST.
For med clubs I just bi-amp the GK800..........lows into an Ampeg 8x10 and highs into an Ampeg V4 4x12guitar cab.
Soundman mic's both cabs........you have thick wooly carpet underneath and super tight mids and highs on top. Blend to taste.
At the end of the day, tube power rules.

 

[Bushrod Johnson]

At least for live performances, I don't think 99 & 94/100% of the audience can tell the difference.

 

[monsterthompson]

Amps are the 'electric' part of 'electric' bass.

Not to pick a fight or put too a fine point on it, but isn't electricity induced buy the movement of the metal string over the magnetic pickup? That electric signal is then fed into an electric "amplifier" which amplifies it (by drawing electricity from a socket or battery), but the initial signal must still be electric in order for the amplifier to amplify it, right? I know this is not my wheelhouse, so I'd like to better understand what I might be misunderstanding.

 

[Mr. Foxen]

Not to pick a fight or put too a fine point on it, but isn't electricity induced buy the movement of the metal string over the magnetic pickup? That electric signal is then fed into an electric "amplifier" which amplifies it (by drawing electricity from a socket or battery), but the initial signal must still be electric in order for the amplifier to amplify it, right? I know this is not my wheelhouse, so I'd like to better understand what I might be misunderstanding.

Needs to be plugged in to do it, the pickup doesn't do that stuff when open circuit. Bass is passive. Unless it's active, which kind of makes it a preamp. Bass amps do a bunch less osund shaping than electric guitar amps though, the bass is a more complete instrument in itself than the electric guitar, in terms on reliance on the amp for sound. Bass is much more a case of amp for volume, that guitar where it is timbre and volume.