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How much experience do you have...?

How much experience do you have with ALL TUBE (no emulations, no hybrids) amps?

  • I've done hundreds of gigs on all tube amps.

    Votes: 159 30.1%

  • I've done a handful of gigs on all tube amps.

    Votes: 130 24.6%

  • I've mucked around with tube amps a bit.

    Votes: 65 12.3%

  • I don't really have much experience with tube amps, maybe played some in the music store.

    Votes: 115 21.7%

  • I once inserted a carrot into the input of a tube amp.

    Votes: 60 11.3%
  • Total voters
    529
M

Mark Olson

Inactive
Mar 19, 2008
3,080
19
Michigan
soundcloud.com
#1
THIS IS NOT A VS. THREAD.

I just want to gauge how much experience with all tube amplifiers the average bass player has. ANSWER, and ANSWER HONESTLY. EMULATIONS DO NOT COUNT. HYBRIDS DO NOT COUNT. GUITAR GIGS DO NOT COUNT, BASS GIGS ONLY.

DON'T BOTHER TYPING A BUNCH OF JUNK ABOUT WHAT YOU PREFER. THAT'S NOT WHAT THIS THREAD IS ABOUT.
 
#6
Hundreds for me. I had a V-4B and an SVT-100 from '92-95, an SVT in '96-97, a 400+ and B-15N from '98-02, a a Musicman 100-B (tho it's a hybrid; SS pre & tube power section) from '02-'03, and a 400 from '03-08. I had a B-25 back in the '80's, but I never gigged with it. I did use my stereo chorus back then to power two smallish amps, one of them being a Fender Musicmaster bass amp.
 
#7
Perhaps two or three dozen gigs on tube amps. I prefer SS amps, so all my experience with gigging tube amps comes from using one provided as a backline or when sharing a bass amp at a multiple act gig.

I think that I fall somewhere between hundreds and a handful also.
 
#8
Well, the poll is still not very meaningful.

Everything I played from 1967-1973 was through a blackface Bassman tube amp. I also have been a radio/TV professional and used various kinds of tube equipment for years. I may be the only guy on TB who actually owns two tube testers!

Almost everything I've played since I took up the bass again in 1997 has been played through solid state amps. To me there's no meaningful difference in sound, but the solid state stuff is lighter and more easily portable.

So why does the poll matter? Plenty of us with grey hair have a lot of experience with tube amps, but that doesn't mean we prefer them.

And whether the "average bass player" ever shows up here is highly questionable. Perhaps your phrasing should be "average TB member"....
 
#9
eyeballkid said:
there should be an option between "a handful" and "hundreds"... thats where i fit.
Click to expand...

I agree. I've had well more than 'a handful' but I certainly haven't had multiple hundreds. You know, if you've done 50 or more gigs with a tube amp, I'm not sure adding another couple hundred are going to change your perception or usable knowledge base.
 
#10
Started in '71 with one Traynor YBA-1 head and a year later I got another one. (Wow...two heads!!) Played thru those for a few years and then in '78 bought a used '74 SVT. Used that thru '82. It sat for years until I used it again from '94 thru '96.

Those amps are now long gone. I've now got a GK MB115. It's plenty for my needs these days.
 
#12
danomite64 said:
Hundreds for me. I had a V-4B and an SVT-100 from '92-95, an SVT in '96-97, a 400+ and B-15N from '98-02, a a Musicman 100-B (tho it's a hybrid; SS pre & tube power section) from '02-'03, and a 400 from '03-08. I had a B-25 back in the '80's, but I never gigged with it. I did use my stereo chorus back then to power two smallish amps, one of them being a Fender Musicmaster bass amp.
Click to expand...

The old 12" combo Musicmaster Bass? I have a friend who uses one of those on guitar, those are neat little amps with some mods.
 
#13
Yeah, it's hard for me to fit into those poll answers, also - I have done hundreds on all-tube amps as a guitarist... I've done maybe a couple hundred on all-tube amps as a bassist - out of several thousand...

I voted "hundreds", but it's a pretty iffy answer...


- georgestrings
 
#14
Pilgrim said:
Well, the poll is still not very meaningful.

Everything I played from 1967-1973 was through a blackface Bassman tube amp. I also have been a radio/TV professional and used various kinds of tube equipment for years. I may be the only guy on TB who actually owns two tube testers!

Almost everything I've played since I took up the bass again in 1997 has been played through solid state amps. To me there's no meaningful difference in sound, but the solid state stuff is lighter and more easily portable.

So why does the poll matter? Plenty of us with grey hair have a lot of experience with tube amps, but that doesn't mean we prefer them.

And whether the "average bass player" ever shows up here is highly questionable. Perhaps your phrasing should be "average TB member"....
Click to expand...

I'm not asking and I don't care what people prefer. THIS IS NOT A VS. THREAD. And there is a meaningful difference in sound to some of us. I can't get the tone in my sig with solid state gear, and that's the tone I want, so I use tube. Meaningful difference.
 
#15
I'd fall somewhere between handfuls and hundreds in your "poll".

I'm a tube fan but I play SS stuff all the time too. Both have sound quality to a point where it doesn't matter to your audience. Tubes to me feel good to the player playing them. Responsiveness/dynamics/natural....all those buzzwords. Little extra sweetness that most people probably won't notice.

My biggest beef is when people start talking about the "reliability" of tubes like they break all the time or something. Hogwash to me. Played, and gigged regularly, heads (and tubes) that were 20+ years old and haven't had much done to them other than maybe wipe the beer and dirt off the top now and then.....fire up and sound good every time. Been through a good few SS heads in that time, not all due to failure but some. I still like them and'll probably get more so it is what it is. Nothing "feels" quite like an all tube head though.
 
#18
Mark Olson said:
Well maybe it would where back problems, etc. are concerned!
Click to expand...

Also not to mention with all of the talk of tube amp reliability flying around, that's something that's more likely to come into play over the course of hundreds of gigs, not dozens. I can do hundreds of gigs on one set of tubes, so if answering hundreds is iffy for you, then you don't know what you're talking about in terms of reliability.
 
#20
Ampeg svt, traynor 50 watt, fender bassman 50, 100, ampeg tube power amp, Mesa d 180, 400, 400+, old earth, sunn 200, Marshall jcm800 bass, Aguilar db 359, a few old school ones I don't recall(50-70 watt bassman styles in Italy), probably a few morei don't remember.
I prefer solid state Detroit iron for super tight, deep sub effects( I do a lot of electronic music)
And prefer tubes for psych rock looping, effcts and feedback.
 

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