Amen brother. I was converted myself about 3 years ago. I still love SS for reasons. But tubes is where it's at for me now. I now understand why people have cooz'd over tubes all these years. I get it.
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Finally, tubes!!!
- Thread starter RiZzBot
- Start date
Amen brother. I was converted myself about 3 years ago. I still love SS for reasons. But tubes is where it's at for me now. I now understand why people have cooz'd over tubes all these years. I get it.
Hullabaloojah! Same with me, but color me more of a dumbass as I went through 4 decades plus of ss before I got my first tube head 4 years ago, in my case a Bassman 100T. All of those years I was messing with all manner of preamps and overdrives and distortion pedals to try to achieve this sound I had in my head. Got the tube amp, plugged straight in to it, played for about a minutes, and went, "Oh, there it is". I don't care if at 63 I'm now lugging around an almost 60 pound 100 watt head, I'm finally getting the sound I always wanted.
Tubes sound great. SVTs, Mesa 400, even the peavey tube amps sound good. I don't use tube amps for gigging anymore. I have a sans amp RBI and a Darkglass b7k ultra and a 9lbs 1500w crown. I don't feel the PA systems I play through really justify lugging one. But in the studio where you can really hear the difference I absolutely use tube gear. One of my reamped tracks on our new album is a Avalon and we took the mix of all the bass channels and ran them through an old school la2a. Which warmed up and smoothed everything out.
i almost always use a mesa boogie d180, because ampeg categorically refuses to make a light 200 watt tube head for me to try out and sunn 2000s heads no longer go for 200 bucks like they did in the 90s
Sometimes I feel that way about live gigs, but then when I go SS for the PA feed, I always notice that tubey thing missing. Doesn't stop me from doing it now and then, but I do notice the difference. Fortunately, I can be fine with as little as 50w, and Ampeg's making a 50-watter again
I used to be able to make it happen with a B-15 but we expanded and changed our focus a little with more emphasis on R&B than we used to have, so a B-15 is a little too little to stay clean these days.
Yeah were just too darn loud for me to pull off using a smaller tube amp onstage. Even the 100w Ampeg gets too saturated trying to get enough volume with it.Sometimes I feel that way about live gigs, but then when I go SS for the PA feed, I always notice that tubey thing missing. Doesn't stop me from doing it now and then, but I do notice the difference. Fortunately, I can be fine with as little as 50w, and Ampeg's making a 50-watter again
Sure - Lots of variables so I painted with a pretty broad brush there, but I believe if there is the one thing tubes offer that SS circuits don't, that's the one that impacts sound and "feel" the most; the natural round, phat compression.
I started out with 100w of tube amp n a 2x15 cab.
Back in the 70s .
In the late 90's a salesman talked me into a SVT3PRO... Heck... I was so unknowing that I THOUGHT 450w would be "YUUUUUGE".. how wrong I was.
I'm back with 100w and 300w all tube amps.
The difference. ...
Punch. warmth. thickness. TONE solidity PLEASURE!
I don't care about the weight (altho Ampeg's reissue V4B is only 40lb or something and my 300w Super Bassman is 65lbs . .. so, imo,not that heavy. But still, for gigs with poor access I'll take my 3.8lb Aguilar Tone Hammer 500
Back in the 70s .
In the late 90's a salesman talked me into a SVT3PRO... Heck... I was so unknowing that I THOUGHT 450w would be "YUUUUUGE".. how wrong I was.
I'm back with 100w and 300w all tube amps.
The difference. ...
Punch. warmth. thickness. TONE solidity PLEASURE!
I don't care about the weight (altho Ampeg's reissue V4B is only 40lb or something and my 300w Super Bassman is 65lbs . .. so, imo,not that heavy. But still, for gigs with poor access I'll take my 3.8lb Aguilar Tone Hammer 500
I keep telling you all but nobody ever listens to me...no, you have to hear it for yourself. Pfft. Everybody's lives would be way higher quality if they just listened to me and do whatever I say.
Enjoy the new awesome tone journey
Actually, a whole bunch of us have listened to you Jimmy. You have infected us all with blissful tone. Now I'm saving for my Reddi...
