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New Head: Valkyrie from Baer Amps... Thoughts?

#83
emjazz said:
...because I'd personally use it at times more as an effect for high gain. Most of the time I'd play the amp with a clean tone, but it would be great to be able to use the amps tube tone as an overdrive. It'd be nice option for the amp.
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i'll be totally honest here...unless the head also has channel switching with separate volume and tone controls for each channel, it's very difficult to change an amp over from clean to dirty during a gig. i nearly got my band canned for doing it when i almost blew the pa out. not pretty. od and dist is best achieved through pedals for live work. also, tubes aren't just for dirt. they do amazing things to clean sounds, too.
 
#84
JimmyM said:
i'll be totally honest here...unless the head also has channel switching with separate volume and tone controls for each channel, it's very difficult to change an amp over from clean to dirty during a gig. i nearly got my band canned for doing it when i almost blew the pa out. not pretty. od and dist is best achieved through pedals for live work.
Click to expand...

Ah contraire! One of the coolest things on the head I tried,
was the overdrive feature. Kind of a dual band sort of thing.
It effects the lower frequencies less. Its very musical. I would
actually use it even though I rarely use overdrive.
 
#85
JimmyM said:
i'll be totally honest here...unless the head also has channel switching with separate volume and tone controls for each channel, it's very difficult to change an amp over from clean to dirty during a gig. i nearly got my band canned for doing it when i almost blew the pa out. not pretty. od and dist is best achieved through pedals for live work. also, tubes aren't just for dirt. they do amazing things to clean sounds, too.
Click to expand...

Jimmy, I hear what you're saying, but I used to do it with my Ashdown. Yes, a dedicated volume would be cool for sure, but it can work without it....and I agree, tubes aren't just for dirt.
 
#87
B String said:
Ah contraire! One of the coolest things on the head I tried,
was the overdrive feature. Kind of a dual band sort of thing.
It effects the lower frequencies less. Its very musical. I would
actually use it even though I rarely use overdrive.
Click to expand...
believe me, i'm not saying that overdrive from an amp is a bad thing at all. but it does make life easier if you're able to pop quickly from clean to od and back without adjusting gain stages or tones. i've got the king daddy of overdrivable bass amps but i can't switch back and forth on a gig so i use a pedal.

just my opinion, though. that's all...just an honest man trying to make his way through the harsh world ;)
 
#88
JimmyM said:
believe me, i'm not saying that overdrive from an amp is a bad thing at all. but it does make life easier if you're able to pop quickly from clean to od and back without adjusting gain stages or tones. i've got the king daddy of overdrivable bass amps but i can't switch back and forth on a gig so i use a pedal.

just my opinion, though. that's all...just an honest man trying to make his way through the harsh world ;)
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Before you pass judgement on any part of this amp, please
either try it out for yourself, or check out the reviews when
the amp is available. I think its a worthwhile piece of gear.

My opinions are coming from a using a prototype in a controled
environment.
 
#89
b, i'm not making any judgments on roger's amps at all. i happen to like roger quite well from my interactions with him on here, and advance word on the valkyrie is fantastic, and not just from you ;) all i'm saying is that i'd rather use a pedal for od instead of trying to get it out of the amp itself unless the amp provides you with trouble free switching back and forth, or unless you like a little overdrive at all times. and considering that not many amps have that ability anyway, i seriously doubt it would be a deal breaker to all but a handful of folks. certainly wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.

now the wife, she's a deal breaker :D
 
#91
I am going to agree with Jimmy on this one. Overdrive on a bass amp is almost useless if not footswitchable. And even then it usually requires much different EQ than clean bass tone. The upper mid that sounds great on a clean tone becomes fizzy and annoying on an overdriven tone. Conversely, the round eq that sounds good on an overdriven bass part will sound tubby and indistinct on a clean part. It's quite a balancing act. I usually go for a tight clean tone and try and crank back the filter on a pedal if it has one. I like the RAT and the DBA Fuzz War for this.
 
#92
emjazz said:
Question: Will you be able to switch the tube tone in and out with a footswitch? I don't see that that's possible on the web site. That would be a drag. It'd be great if you offered an external footswitch for the tube tone in/out and the mute switch.
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You are correct in that the tube section is not controlled by the footswitch. IMO, a switchable tube section is best accomplished by a 2 channel preamp with separate gain and tone controls. For the occasional distortion effect, I feel this is best achieved by using a dedicated distortion pedal. There are so many great pedals available for this purpose that I didn't feel like we would be really be bringing anything new to the party by adding a lot of extra circuitry and offering this function directly on the amp. The design goal for the tube section was simply to offer a richer, more complex tube sound than is available with the typical single 12AX7 hybrid designs. If you are a player that has the need to use tube for some songs and solid state for others, then switching between the two becomes a very simple process once you become familiar with the amp. Takes me just a few seconds to switch back and forth.

Honestly, the main idea for the amplifier came from reading the countless "Tube vs Solid State" threads I was seeing here on TalkBass. Me, I'm a tube guy all the way, but the thought was "why not put both formats in one package?" One product that appeals to both sides of the debate. Let there be peace! :D
 
#99
R Baer said:
I absolutely would like to do an all tube amp if we can find a way to get it to market without costing $2500.
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It shouldnt be too hard if you make a simple head without feature bloat. All the tube heads that to me seem like mistakes are the ones that try and "improve" on what already works.
4 band eq, gain, master. Graphic eq is silly on a tube head. Ditto for comps and all that other stuff.
auto bias is nice, but the lack of bias led never stopped me from buying a mesa.
 
#100
Calaverasgrande said:
It shouldnt be too hard if you make a simple head without feature bloat. All the tube heads that to me seem like mistakes are the ones that try and "improve" on what already works.
4 band eq, gain, master. Graphic eq is silly on a tube head. Ditto for comps and all that other stuff.
auto bias is nice, but the lack of bias led never stopped me from buying a mesa.
Click to expand...
the big cost of tube amps isn't in the features but the transformers, according to everyone i know who builds them. you have to buy in pretty big quantities to get a deal.
 

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