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Favorite all tube amp?

#101
dont get me wrong, i am frimly in the ampeg house. But i was playing around in a guitar shop the other day and was messing about with a bassman 135. had it running thru an eden 2x15. it was stinking THUNDEROUS! at the price you find these guys going for IMHO these little guys are a steal. plenty of volume. nice tube tone. not to much scratch.
 
#104
tombowlus said:
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
Click to expand...

If maximum clean volume is a high priority, would you still list them in that order?
 
#105
f64 said:
In no particular order:
B-15
65 Bassman
70's Hiwatt 200 bass
Fender 300 Pro
Click to expand...

I adore the sound of my '64 Bassman as a practice/studio amp, and every guitarist who's played through it has fallen in love with it. Alas, it's strictly a low volume device. If I could achieve the same sound and presence @ ~300Watts I'd be ecstatic.
 
#108
Jazzdogg said:
I adore the sound of my '64 Bassman as a practice/studio amp, and every guitarist who's played through it has fallen in love with it. Alas, it's strictly a low volume device. If I could achieve the same sound and presence @ ~300Watts I'd be ecstatic.
Click to expand...

How about 435W? :D

2976227500_ffee2fbdba.jpg


My personal faves (love too many to just pick one...)

Showman + Dual Showman
70s SVT
70s V4-B
Sunn 2000S
B-15
Traynor YBA-1A
Fender 400PS

Love the sounds of vintage Hiwatt and Marshall, but have never owned one.
Would still like to get my hands on an SA200 and Reeves to try out too... especially the upcoming 400W Reeves!
 
#109
cripula said:
How about 435W? :D

2976227500_ffee2fbdba.jpg


My personal faves (love too many to just pick one...)

Showman + Dual Showman
70s SVT
70s V4-B
Sunn 2000S
B-15
Traynor YBA-1A
Fender 400PS

Love the sounds of vintage Hiwatt and Marshall, but have never owned one.
Would still like to get my hands on an SA200 and Reeves to try out too... especially the upcoming 400W Reeves!
Click to expand...

Oooooooohhh! :D Has anyone seen my back brace?

How's the clean headroom?
 
#114
V4

I'm so curious about the Sunn 2000s now! Just what I need, more GAS haha.

I love love my Ampeg V4. It's in the shop now getting outfitted with =C= 6550's. I'm also having them replace capacitors 3 & 7 from .01 microfarads to .1 -this will make my Ch.1 a V4B, something I picked up from these TB forums. I'm leaving Ch.2 [basically] as is because I love it as is (i know c7 affects both channels but I'm ok w that).
 
#116
Bunyo said:
Ok. So whats the difference between tube distortion and overdrive. I must tell that I dont use any pedals on it, but it can provide much of dirty sound if I want.
Click to expand...

I tend to think of a cranked preamp as distortion, and a cranked tube amp running the output hard as overdrive. Honestly there is so much misuse of both terms that they have essentially the same meaning in a musicians context.
For these amps the preamp overdrive/distortion sounds a bit "guitarish". Overdriving the power amp sounds a bit more natural to me.
Funny because I have often been accused of playing bass like its a guitar!
Of course my 6550 loaded bass 400 would sound different than a 6L6 loaded bass 400 or 400+ when brought to power amp overdrive. Though again, I am not sure if the output of the 400+ does overdrive. Maybe it just gets so crazy loud before you are even close to really clipping that nobody ever gets there?
I actually am a big fan of gain stagin my amp so that I get touch sensitive overdrive + distortion. Playing lightly it's loud and clean(ish). Whacking it really hard I get big grindy harmonics. The best part is when playing crescendoes and dimminuendoes, the overdrive goes through very gradual changes from the softest to the hardest. THAT is why I love tube amps!:bassist:
 
#118
cripula said:
How about 435W? :D

2976227500_ffee2fbdba.jpg


My personal faves (love too many to just pick one...)

Showman + Dual Showman
70s SVT
70s V4-B
Sunn 2000S
B-15
Traynor YBA-1A
Fender 400PS

Love the sounds of vintage Hiwatt and Marshall, but have never owned one.
Would still like to get my hands on an SA200 and Reeves to try out too... especially the upcoming 400W Reeves!
Click to expand...

I almost bought a 400ps last year but then I realized I didnt have enough cabs to make it happy! I also had read some maintenance horror stories about trying to find folks that can/will work on them. Still kicking myself on that one!
 

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