I played around with a Vox VX50BA yesterday and came away very intrigued. I am really interested in seeing a higher powered amp with a front end loaded with some NuTubes. How cool would a hybrid Fender Rumble be? How about a 500watt lunchbox head loaded up with some legitimate tubyness at a sub $500 price point.
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Only VOX guitar amps.
Kind of a gimmick that the signal must travel through a "vacuum" in order to obtain some tone goal.
I don't think they worked out the microphonics on nutube.
Kind of a gimmick that the signal must travel through a "vacuum" in order to obtain some tone goal.
I don't think they worked out the microphonics on nutube.
- Aug 3, 2007
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There’s nothing nu under the sun.
Korg claims they can configure nutubes to work like power tubes, at least according to the English subtitles in the video explaining the technology. If that's true, then I'd love to see an all-tube bass head like an SVT shrunk down massively in size (and hopefully cost).
The irony:
Ibanez tube screamer, as popular and ubiquitous as it is - has no tubes
Ibanez Tube Screamer - Wikipedia
Now by, Adding a "tube" means this is now a tube emulation of a solid-state pedal.
Although I'm sure there is still plenty of SS in the signal path to buffer or boost the signal through the nutube.
This may help the Nutube model retain its SS roots.
The irony isn't actually new in itself, as all the classic rock players used SS fuzz pedals before any amp they had. Later model tube amps included an extra pre-amp stage, aka the 4th tube, to emulate the SS Fuzz box in the head itself. And thus popularize the "All Tube" marketing hype.
Hopefully they worked on the Nutube microphonics. The SS version isn't microphonic.
If they say they can do it, then why aren't they doing it?
There are prototypes of large guitar amps using nutubes so I assume they're working on it.
Actually, it looks like Vox just announced a 150 watt full nutube amp. This is similar to the prototype I saw a while back.
MVX150
MVX150
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I got to play a few of the small bass amp prototypes (don't remember the exact models). I'm in a band with a Korg engineer who is on the development team.
They sounded like small bass amps, but were nothing particularly special to my ears .. definitely not a major dose of "tube goodness" IMO.
They sounded like small bass amps, but were nothing particularly special to my ears .. definitely not a major dose of "tube goodness" IMO.
I'm sure the more technical amongst us can illuminate the "nu-tube" topic, but I was reading that these devices, VFD (Vacuum Florescent Displays) are basically the same as the what lights up the displays on our common household devices like mircowaves and alarm clocks and such. While they have the same (or similar) elements as a triode tube, they just don't seem to have the same audio impact. Of course this could just be the circuit designs that are being employed.
The use of VFD's in lieu of more usual audio tubes seems more like a parlor trick, or electronics kit project, rather than a serious MI amplifier solution.
Other than the lower voltages needed, I'm not sure what problem VFD's fix .. its not like there is some meaningful shortage of more traditional tubes.
The use of VFD's in lieu of more usual audio tubes seems more like a parlor trick, or electronics kit project, rather than a serious MI amplifier solution.
Other than the lower voltages needed, I'm not sure what problem VFD's fix .. its not like there is some meaningful shortage of more traditional tubes.
This is what I've suspected ever since I've heard about these non-tube tubes years ago. I've yet to play any of them, though, so unlike about 2/3 of TB membership, I won't go trash talking a product I've never tried till I try them.
I tried the little Korg nutube bass amp. I recall it had 50w and a single 8" speaker and sounded pretty much like what you would expect from such a small and modestly spec'd and priced amp.
Ampeg/Loud with its classic tube amps has nothing to fear from nutube technology from my (admittedly limited) experience with it. As always, this is IMO/IME
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