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Favorite all tube amp?

#41
Grooveman1961 said:
I thought that I had gotten over my own tube amp G.A.S., but after reading this thread......

My favorite is the vb2 right now.

Do the Sunn's have an active tone control, or or passive/cut only like fender?

Were Sunn's the ones that used Dynaco hi-fi transformers?
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Early Sunn's (like my '70 200S) were based on the "Dynaco Mark II 60 watt tube kit"... I don't know if the tone stack is active (boost), but there is plenty of control in it!

-robert
 
#44
Foz said:
Get an SVT - its a rite of passage - even if you don't become Jimmy and never use anything else you are not a real man until you have fathered a son, gone fishing with a dynamite and gigged with an SVT. There are other amps, but that's just the way it is.
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Everyone should try the svt thing at least once. So far I've used an SVT 2 pro, and modern 8x10, but I've decided that I have got to go all the way, so I'm in the middle of refurbing two 70's straight backs, to go with a 76 head so I can have the authentic experience, at least once.
 
#45
My favorite tub amp tone wise black face fender dual showman what a sound IMOM of corse just not nuff wattage for most of the live stuff I do , but recording best i ever had, not cheep if ya find a good one God bless Gig ON !!
 
#46
Foz said:
Get an SVT - its a rite of passage - even if you don't become Jimmy and never use anything else you are not a real man until you have fathered a son, gone fishing with a dynamite and gigged with an SVT. There are other amps, but that's just the way it is.
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i wish i never used anything else! man, that would be so great...but flying does me in for that. a lot of crappy rentals in my history ;)
 
#47
It is just about impossible to choose a favorite, as there are so many killer all-tube heads which I consider to be in the "different flavors of awesome" category. I do love my Mesa/Boogie tube heads, and I do love my vintage Amegs, but if I had to pick a list of my "favorites among the favorites," I would have to narrow it down to the following three:

Sadowsky SA200
Reeves C225
Trace Elliot V8
 
#48
My favorite tube amp is my Carvin 50watt. It's plenty loud for the gigs I do. I am amazed by the "tube" sound. My P-Bass sounds fantastic through my GB NEO-X 2x12. I've played 30 years and finally got that tube goodness I have heard so much about. It's also the first and only tube amp I have ever owned, so I may not know what the heck I am talking about.:hmm:
 
#49
JimB52 said:
I love the tone of the old Marshall Super Bass amps, and I love the sound and versatility and raw power of the Sunn 300T, rebranded as the Fender Bassman 300 Pro.
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You and me both. So much so, I built my own Superbass.

100w Superbass with White Tolex and a "high headroom transformer" (Whatever that actually is, Weber!) and then i have MY Favorite All tube amp. ;)
 
#54
Grooveman1961 said:
There is a traynor out there, Super Custom Special I think. Anyone have experience or opinion on this one?

It's an el34 head in the 200 watt range....
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No, the YBA3 "Custom special" is a 4 EL34/6CA7 amp that is about 130-150 watts
The YBA3a "SUPER-custom special" is 4 6KG6A television tubes that outputs something like 250 watts. Of course Traynor watts are to ordinary mortal tube watts what tube watts are to solid state watts. So thats actually more like one million watts when the rubber hits the asphalt.
Never played one, but have lusted after that model ever since I found out about it.
There is some rumor that Ampeg borrowed some of the YBA3a for their Super Valve Technology amps. Not sure how true that is, totally different tubes. But the YBA3a was a year earlier!

About the SVTs. I have tried and tried to like the SVT but it never works for me. I dont know if it's the cabinets, the tone stack or my basses but I can never get the mid right on an SVT. Could also be that my friends dont bother to keep their SVTs in very good shape. But it's hard to stomach paying out over a grand for a Head when I havent had a positive experience with one yet.
In the meantime I'll stick to old Traynors and not quite as old, but still discontinued Mesa heads.
(do we have to start a petition for Boogie to get back in the tube bass head biz?)
 
#55
JimmyM said:
it's a transformer that's overspec'ed so it doesn't break up as early as the transformer for a guitar amp.
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I understand that part completely.

But what i didnt get was the actual technical difference between the "high headroom" and "Lower headroom" transformers. They even cost the same.

It was very much a learning experience, and i tried to learn as much as i could.
 
#56
Calaverasgrande said:
No, the YBA3 "Custom special" is a 4 EL34/6CA7 amp that is about 130-150 watts
The YBA3a "SUPER-custom special" is 46KG6A television tubes that outputs something like 250 watts. Of course Traynor watts are to ordinary mortal tube watts what tube watts are to solid state watts. So thats actually more like one million watts when the rubber hits the asphalt.
Never played one, but have lusted after that model ever since I found out about it.
There is some rumor that Ampeg borrowed some of the YBA3a for their Super Valve Technology amps. Not sure how true that is, totally different tubes. But the YBA3a was a year earlier!
Click to expand...

Great. Just what I needed to hear. Just when I thought I was satisfied. Okay...so where am I gonna find one of these...and a 2000s?

All jest aside, thanks for the info on the traynors.
 
#57
KramerBassFan said:
I understand that part completely.

But what i didnt get was the actual technical difference between the "high headroom" and "Lower headroom" transformers. They even cost the same.

It was very much a learning experience, and i tried to learn as much as i could.
Click to expand...

my guess would be more iron in the core, allowing more peak signal before "core saturation". Fire up the googler...output transformer core saturation.
 

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