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Thunderbird Club

#67,891
Chucky Stiletti said:
With guitarists it's all about the tone of a tube in it's overdriven (non linear region) state. What happens is that the original signal gets softly (ideally) compressed and in changing it's waveform shape, harmonics get added or removed from the original signal. This is the reason guitarists like to piddle with tubes and like to come up with their own unique voicings. In effect, what you are really doing is tuning the amp as an instrument much like you would a guitar by changing pickups, strings, etc. For bass (and there are a number of very heated threads on TB about this) in my opinion, many players like a slight amount of overdrive in their tube amps (others don't, hence the Tube vs SS discussions) but in the end we bass players really seek ample power and headroom. This will come from the circuit design considerations of the amplifier and although the tube selection will make a slight difference it is not paramount to the overall sound as it is with guitar amplification. This is why we don't play with tubes the way guitarists do.
Make sense?
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Yes, thanks. Your attention to the technical side of things does support some of my anecdotal observations. I was reading up on those Traynor heads that the Duke and Kat own. They come with KT88 power tubes, which I had never heard of before. I am more familiar with 6L6, 6V6 and EL84s - the different tubes that are supposed to be related to the American or British flavor of guitar amps. Upon further reading, I learned a little more about common bass power tubes, such as 6550s and EL34s. It is interesting stuff.

To your point, it does seem akin to treating the guitar amp like a second instrument. I also think that guitar players tinker more because the market offers them more to tinker with, in terms of tubes and speaker offerings. For example, you see much greater variety within and between guitar speaker brands compared to bass speakers/drivers, across the different sizes.
 
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#67,892
@Dr_Feelgoood212, this might be a nice ride for you and TBird.

_DSF0140.JPG
 
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#67,894
Larry V said:
My childhood friend from NY still has his dad's '59(?) that he's working hard to restore. I remember that car so well... we called it the Batmobile.

Here's a recent pic of it.

View attachment 2922939
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I kinda want one of those. You don't so much drive them as herd them or steer them like a harbor pilot trying to get an overloaded freighter into a narrow port. They are not built for driving enjoyment. But, they look so outrageously great that it's easy to overlook the lousy dynamics and worse fuel economy. Plus, you can fit just about everything you own into one.
 
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#67,896
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