Why aren't you using tube amps?

[Gaolee]

I like how you describe sounds in colors. Kind of an aura thing, I guess?
I'm gonna post in the strings section and ask what is the best brand for blue-green juiciness !

Anyway, sounds like you're doing some cool and varied music with your gear. Thanks for elaborating!

Yeah, I'm one of those people. Sounds have colors. It's not so much an aura thing as factual. Oddly enough, colors don't have sounds.

 

[Frndmoretti]

1 - I live in a third world country and a tube amp + cabs cost more than a year of the biggest salary I've ever had, and salaries have been dropping.

2 - I weigh 140 pounds

3 - I'm my own roadie.

 

[Son of Wobble]

1 - I live in a third world country and a tube amp + cabs cost more than a year of the biggest salary I've ever had, and salaries have been dropping.

2 - I weigh 140 pounds

3 - I'm my own roadie.

You don't need a tube amp when you're 140 pounds, that's rock star enough!

 

[Frndmoretti]

I don't even have an amp. Decent ones are really expensive, there's the risk of being robbed and the house generally provides one you can use. Generally crappy.

I'll buy a Sansamp VT and plug it straight to the power or to the PA

 

[Frndmoretti]

You don't need a tube amp when you're 140 pounds, that's rock star enough!

I have the body of a Rockstar and the bank account of a high school burger flipper

 

[Ellery]

This. Trying to sell a Sunn (O))) Concert Bass to fund purchase of a Mesa Buster! 1x15, which is probably as big as I can go in tubiness. What are you using that comes close enough?

I'm using a GK 1001RB with a B3k in the pedal chain or an SWR 750x which has a tube in the pre. Either one I'm running into a Mesa Powerhouse 6x10. Using a 4 ohm cab totally opens the floodgates and volume is no problem. The SWR has better tone but the GK is louder.

My rig at a gig

• Ellery
• Nov 2, 2016

My rig at a gig. SWR 750x head, Mesa Powerhouse 6x10 cab, Cartin Martin compressor/limiter pedal.

GK 1001RB & Mesa Powerhouse 610

• Ellery
• Jul 28, 2016
• 1001rb

GK 1001RB & Mesa Powerhouse 610

 

[Son of Wobble]

Yeah, I'm one of those people. Sounds have colors. It's not so much an aura thing as factual. Oddly enough, colors don't have sounds.

Having never experienced the impressions you describe, I was inspired to have a look on Google and learned of "synesthesia."

Some individuals have a neurological condition called “sound-to-color synesthesia,” or “chromesthesia,” in which they effortlessly and spontaneously experience their own personal light show while hearing music and other sounds.

Some people with this ability consider it a distracting affliction, while others like yourself enjoy it as a "sixth sense."

Pretty cool than you can harness it for your playing!

 

[baxter_x]

I do have synesthesia too. I discovered back in 2007 on a TV broadcast, that it was actually not common at all! TO me, numbers, letters, music have colors.
Harpsichord sound tastes like steel. That last one is pretty annoying actually.That's the reason I hate this instrument.

 

[JW56789]

Years ago, I came THIS close to buying a new 400+ Mesa, then backed out when I looked at the cost of replacing all the tubes. Some things never change: I'm quite sure that a Strategy 8/88 sounds like 2 million bucks, but the idea that I'm shelling out 3 grand for a head, and then later ponying up $657 for 8 KT88's and 3 12AX7's just makes me nuts.

I'll add that I'm a complete electronic idiot, so I'd also have to pay someone to do the dirty work under the hood, more money still.

That's why SS or a tube front-end has always been my go-to, and probably always will be. Dang . . . . . .

 

[sigterm]

I like how you describe sounds in colors. Kind of an aura thing, I guess?
I'm gonna post in the strings section and ask what is the best brand for blue-green juiciness !

Anyway, sounds like you're doing some cool and varied music with your gear. Thanks for elaborating!

DR, obviously. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[73jbass]

In my 30+ years of bass playing, nobody has ever come up and told me I should be using a tube amp. So, yes, you are doing it for your own ego. Nobody cares what amp you use except you.

 

[eldorado2001]

My tube amp experience wasn’t all that great. I bought a Mesa Prodigy and liked its sound but no matter what cabinet I used it had a huge boost at 98hz, open G string frequency, that I couldn’t tame with the tone controls. I fought with it for a year or so and eventually traded it for an Ampeg SVT3-Pro. I like the way it sounds, and I use it with a pair of GK 115 Neos or a pair of 212 Neos. On some gigs I use my Hartke HA5500 instead. No other amp has done the 98hz thing.

 

[bassdrop]

Is it possible that you didn't properly use that amp's gain structure?

The amp was going from clean to thermal shutdown so I never suspected the gain setting.

 

[javi_bassist]

In my case, I fell in love with an Orange AD200. The problem is that, just the head, would cost me two months of my salary. I also love the Ampeg V4b and the Ashdown CTM, but I cannot afford them.

I could save money. But now it comes another problem: they are really heavy.

Ok, I can get help to move them. But then, I take it to my venue. I turn the amp on so the valves can warm up. And here it comes the sound guy- with his behringer DI- saying that I have to use the DI because the noise from the venue has to be below certain levels of db and he is used to work with this DI. And let's not talk about the "awesome" PA system...

Conclussion: playing the gigs that I play in small-medium venues, it's not worthy the effort to pay, mantain, carry and use a tube amp. All the guitarists in my bands have all tube amps. But a 15 or 30 watts tube guitar combo is enough for them. So, my Ashdown ABM (which is also really heavy, I admit it) can do the job for me

 

[JimmyM]

In my 30+ years of bass playing, nobody has ever come up and told me I should be using a tube amp. So, yes, you are doing it for your own ego. Nobody cares what amp you use except you.

The mere act of playing an instrument is something you do for your own ego, too. So we should all quit because we're only doing it for our own egos?

 

[baxter_x]

Nobody cares what amp you use except you.

Absolutely!

 

[baxter_x]

The mere act of playing an instrument is something you do for your own ego, too

I don't really agree with you. I play music and play bass as it's my passion. Not for my ego.

 

[JimmyM]

I don't really agree with you. I play music and play bass as it's my passion. Not for my ego.

OK, well I know lots of people who are very passionate about their tube amps. So why is your passion a passion and someone else's passion all about ego?

 

[Wulfensteiner]

In my 30+ years of bass playing, nobody has ever come up and told me I should be using a tube amp. So, yes, you are doing it for your own ego. Nobody cares what amp you use except you.

This guy KIND OF has a point. But he also kind of couldn't be more wrong. Playing music to placate your own ego? Hardly. Playing on the level that most of us do at this point, that would be a little sad. Unless you're doing it ironically. If so, carry on!

Seriously though, some of us play music because it's an escape from the grind of our lives. Some of us play music because we have something to say. Some of us play music for the sheer joy of performing? If your own ego is coming into play at any point, you're gonna have a baaaad tiiiime.

 

[73jbass]

I just think the whole tube amp thing is way overrated. If that's what you like, good for you.The last paid gig I played was done with a Fractal AX8. The soundman said my tone was fantastic. Nobody in the audience told me I should play through a tube amp.