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Why do we tube lovers love tubes?

#441
I used to play metal through a SS head and even though I had the rig sounding smooth and sweet (a mate commenting it was the sexiest rig he has ever heard), I wasnt happy with it. It just wasnt the tone that I was looking for.
then I played through a mates Ampeg SVT classic and I fell in love with the sound, as well as the variety of tone. Could get any tone I wanted through the SVT classic with the tweak of the EQ and my bass. So now I am looking to get a tube head.
Weight doesnt really bother me that much for the head, my speaker cab weighs 150lbs :S

Cheers,
Jordan
 
#442
JimmyM said:
i've yet to hear it, bob.
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I've never seen lead turned into gold - but it's been done.

I've yet to hear a modeler that sounds indistinguishable - but I guarantee not only CAN it currently be done, in a few years it'll be cheap and common... because the only real bottleneck long term is processing power (see Moore's Law) and programming.



JimmyM said:
no way you can plug into a vt or line 6 or even heavy duty computer plugins like guitar rig and amplitube and get that same feeling like plugging into an svt. and i say that as a big fan of the vt and guitar rig.
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I'm not sure that is true with some of the real high end stuff, but I have barely fooled with most of it.
 
#443
JimmyM said:
that's what i was referring to. i honestly believe i could tell the difference between an svt and a vt pedal/power amp if i had my back turned and didn't peek and had no idea what i was plugged into. now once it gets fed into the pa and i'm listening to someone else play, that's be another story. but as the player, i honestly believe i could tell every time.
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I think you could with a VT pedal too.

Now, with a big expensive computer based modeler like one of the studio engines or the Fractal Audio stuff... it might be a little different.
 
#444
aborgman said:
...


I'm not sure that is true with some of the real high end stuff, but I have barely fooled with most of it.
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I have! I've used everything from Line6 POD's to AmpFarm plug-ins to Amplitube models to SansAmp technology into poweramps. I've never felt anything remotely close to the feeling and response that a good tube amp produces.

There's lots of digital modelers that sound very convincing on playback, though! The latest models from Line6 are really good and the Amplitube SVX Ampeg emulation is pretty great!

Still, playing through software into studio monitors or headphones is nothing like playing through an actual amp. Sticking a VT into an SS rig doesn't feel the same either!
 
#452
it's always been pretty obvious to me.
even when using my tube UA 6176 or Avalon VT737Sp with a SS power amp, there's a very noticeable difference as compared to using them with my SVT's tube power section.

i can get the overall tone to be very similar, but the response isn't (to me), and i've A/B'd them countless times.
 
#459
aborgman said:
That just because we haven't seen/heard something, and just because it is difficult to do - doesn't mean it CAN'T be done.
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i'm not saying that making/designing a SS exactly equivalent to a tube amp will never be done or couldn't be in the future, but it's so much easier just to buy a tube amp that does everything that i want since they're so plentiful. and i've haven't played thru a SS one yet that accomplishes it.

i'm not putting down SS amps at all, and i own quite a few of them that i really like that have great tone and response, but every time i A/B them with my tube amps, the SS ones are just missing a very special something. to me, 100% tube amps just sound more seamless, natural, transparent, and less congested, and it has nothing to do with their brightness, mids, or low end.

i just finished working on a McGohan 50 watt tube amp for a fellow talkbass member, and it does the same thing as all of my other ones. and his Ampeg B25B head that i just went thru has the same characteristics but with a different tone.
 
#460
JimmyM said:
Link Removed

sorry, that ain't qualifying for me.
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I suggest you look into:

Synthesis of the Elements in Stars; William Alfred Fowler, Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, and Fred Hoyle

Energy dependence of 209Bi fragmentation in relativistic nuclear collisions. Phys. Rev. C 1981, 23, 1044-1046; K. Aleklett, D. J. Morrissey, W. Loveland, P. L. McGaughey, and G. T. Seaborg


Seaborg is generally credited with being the first in 1980, but others claim a Soviet physicist managed it in 1972.

I mean - we first transmuted platinum to gold in 1948 at Oakridge,
 

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