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Why aren't you using tube amps?

#201
Mosfed said:
I have a 5 watt Fender Vibrolux that is so freaking loud on guitar I need lots of watts to keep up on bass.
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Yep. I traded off my 35 watt Fender combo a while back and whatever I build next will have at least one <10 watt mode. I also am planning on doing at least one ~100 watt DIY tube bass head this year, code name Everything You Know Is Wrong. My basic concept is warm gooey-ness at low volume, moving to cleaner and cleaner as volume goes up. Yeah, I'm not much of a rocker, needless to say.
 
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#203
Price, the Mesa Boogie Prodigy is over 2K, I can get a equally powered TC Electronic BH800 for $600, same with Ampeg Portaflex. They actually kind of cool and a lot of people are using them. I like TC electronics vertical stacking and a big tube amps just seems like overkill. It's the same reason I wouldn't want a JCM800 stack.
 
#204
Passinwind said:
Yep. I traded off my 35 watt Fender combo a while back and whatever I build next will have at least one <10 watt mode. I also am planning on doing at least one ~100 watt DIY tube bass head this year, code name Everything You Know Is Wrong. My basic concept is warm gooey-ness at low volume, moving to cleaner and cleaner as volume goes up. Yeah, I'm not much of a rocker, needless to say.
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Love it. It’s not the first of your amps that I would drool over.
 
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#205
theretheyare said:
For me, tube sound is about clean tone, not distortion. To get as close as possible and remain mobile at the same time, I am using an Arkham Abyss tube preamp into a small footprint Baby Sumo transistor poweramp.

I am very happy with it. It is portable, and gets very close to my ideal pre+power full tube tone ideal, and certainly much closer than any of the microtube-variations I have tried. (Markbass etc). I also like it much better than the Ampeg PF 20/50 T, for example.
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+1 on the Arkham!

I'm using the Arkham Zephyr tube preamp into a QSC RMX2450a "lead sled" power amp. That power amp isn't light (44 pounds), but it's a featherweight compared to the 85 pound SVT's I used to have, and the QSC brings the girth! :thumbsup:
 
#206
I have both, and greatly prefer tubes. But there are several good reasons why people might not want to go that route.
Weight, power, maintenance are the big 3 that spring to mind. My Ampeg V4B is all the power I really need. And I could probably cover most things with my PF-50. That said, I'll often grab my Quilter BB, for the ease of transport. It comes close enough tone wise that I do not feel that I am compromising anything by using it.
 
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#207
Two-Spirit said:
Price, the Mesa Boogie Prodigy is over 2K, I can get a equally powered TC Electronic BH800 for $600, same with Ampeg Portaflex. They actually kind of cool and a lot of people are using them. I like TC electronics vertical stacking and a big tube amps just seems like overkill. It's the same reason I wouldn't want a JCM800 stack.
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250 watts tube is not equally powered to 800 watts solid state. The Mesa is virtually double the power. A 300 watt SVT-CL/VR is like 2000 watts solid state. Not what I'd call the same.

I get why you prefer the TC, you're just way off with the "equally powered" claim.

There's a reason I have a class D AND a tube amp. One is good for most things and the other is good for everything. It's not considered overkill if you actually use it.

Tube amps don't have to be 85 pounds and 300 watts either. There are smaller/lighter/less expensive options.
 
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#208
The Bass Clef said:
I have a nice all tube amp and a nice class D micro, both for gigging. If load in/set up time is tight, space on stage (or in the car is limited), it’s long walk from the car to the venue, I’m on a small indoor stage where I don’t need much volume anyways, or just feeling particularly lazy that day, I take the micro.

If I’m playing a big stage, outdoors, have time and space, load in is easy, I usually take the tube.
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This.....exactly!
 
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#209
JoeWPgh said:
I have both, and greatly prefer tubes. But there are several good reasons why people might not want to go that route.
Weight, power, maintenance are the big 3 that spring to mind. My Ampeg V4B is all the power I really need. And I could probably cover most things with my PF-50. That said, I'll often grab my Quilter BB, for the ease of transport. It comes close enough tone wise that I do not feel that I am compromising anything by using it.
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This, even more so because I agree wholeheartedly about the Quilter BB. It sounds so good that I really don't mind giving the Fender Bassman a break. As well as my back.
 
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#210
I have two tube amps and neither of them are near the 85 pounds of an SVT. I understand not wanting to play a tube head due to all of the reasons listed but since switching over many years ago it is very hard to even consider going back. I'd rather put in the efforts to keep up with maintenance and work a smidge harder at load in and load out. Why? Because the tone is more inspiring.
 
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#214
RickyWoo said:
The "if you can afford it" mentality toward tube amps is kinda silly. If you can save up to buy a solid state, why can't you save up under twice as long? I don't buy it.
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Totally true. I just don't understand why everyone isn't driving Ferrari's. If you can save up to buy a Shelby Mustang, why can't you save up twice as long.
 
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#215
RickyWoo said:
A 300 watt SVT-CL/VR is like 2000 watts solid state.
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Maybe if you're comparing an SVT to one of Ampeg's SS or hybrid amps - but from actual experience, my Streamliner 900 can literally drown out an SVT, if both are in the same cabs - same thing with a G-K 1001 RB-II, and both of them are well under 1,000 watts...

I can also state from experience that a Mesa M-pulse 600 is louder than an SVT, at "only" 600 watts - meet the SVT killer:
 
#216
I do one gig where I need an amp - the other 90 percent of the time, my pedalboard is my amp. On that one gig, I need full bandwidth (so it can't be a small combo), but I don't need any real volume to speak of. Tube amps sound different when pushed - when they're near their power limits At low volumes, tube and transistor amps sound the same, assuming you've got the same eq. That one gig, I don't ever need anything more than to keep up with an acoustic piano, so the more expensive, heavier, less reliable tube amp wouldn't sound any better in that case. If I had a regular rock gig where I used an amp, sure, I'd think about a tube amp, but at this time, no need.
 
#218
Monique goes easily 3/4 of the way to bringing power tube sound. I love the harmonically rich and clean tube sound of Sunn 2000s, Hiwatt and McIntosh. So no weight issues.

I like my grit from touch. I love that tubes push back. But new tech delivers amps that can reproduce pre sound hugely!

One of my arms is longer from carrying Marshall Majors and Sunn 2000s as a “yout.” :)
 

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