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Why do we tube lovers love tubes?
- Thread starter JimmyM
- Start date
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
It is about distortion ... even at low volumes the tubes color/distort the sound slightly.
If you want an over the top distortion then tubes is not the way to go. Get a clean amp and run a good distortion pedal for that.
What I hate about tube amps is changing the tubes.
I've had a few tube amps, Fenders and others that worked fined with tubes 20-25 years old. I don't buy the "tubes are more expensive to maintain, need to be changed"
stuff. As long as you're not dropping them out of trucks, banging them around when they're hot, etc., and assuming you've got decent quality tubes to begin with and they're biased/adjusted correctly, there are not expensive maintenance issues. It's an easy goto for some hack techs but not good ones.
You're right Jimmy, it isn't exactly a fair comparison. And I will say that I liked the VT Bass, and it's definitely a good option if you want to pair it with a feather-weight micro-rig, but still get a bit of tubeyness. I'd actually like to try it in front a big tube amp, just for the overdrive it provides.
it's pretty sweet in front of an svt, no doubt!
ric, if you'll notice the date on that first post, you'll see that it was long before i understood what's doing in tube amps. but i still say that the cleanest sounding amp i've ever played is my svt.
I always feel like a fool when trying to describe why one piece of gear sounds better than another. It always comes off as b.s. subjective description. You know the drill "warm", "punchy", "full", etc. and so forth. I own, have owned and like the sound of many solid state bass amps, but there is a quality to a clean tube head that sounds "warm", "punchy" and "full" to my ear. It's not a sound that works perfect for every situation and I certainly appreciate the ease of taking my LMII to practice, but when I switch in between it and My Sound City B120 or the Traynor that I have used at our practice space there's an immediate and noticeable difference. I'm certainly not a man of absolutes, so I would never argue the merits of one over the other to anyone's taste, but I can't deny that most of the time a tube amp just sounds like it has more guts to me. It's the sound that kills reason and practicality and tempts me to gear excess.
I STILL Agree with what I posted on P.1 of this OLD thread. Tube POWER section helps me get MY Sound.
I, too, like the LMII/VT bass combo & this DOES work well & would no doubt be a superb rig if I wanted it as so......
Recently I grabbed a Mesa Walkabout Scout Combo- which is a Hybrid & the ONLY hybrid I've EVER actually liked!!! It, to me, gives me the closest sound to a "Vintage" type all tube rig. Even with a Neo driver, the li'l 12" Scout combo aint a lightweight, but WOW it does a great job of satisfying THIS old tube head!!!
Still, My '91 SVTII does it for me like NO other. No contest really!
AND- 'WHY' the FEEL- as mentioned.
The nuances of my touch -both hands- on the bass seems to be brought to life far more with a tube amp. And- feel- again- this time in the punch & 'girth'
of the all tube sound.
Seems I can have an all tube amp on about 1/2 the actual volume(dB) than when I use a S.S. amp & still the audience say the all tube amp is far punchier, thay can " feel it in their chests"
They say it sounds clearer.
All these comments came from NON MUSO audience members, when one set I used a S.S. amp, the next an all tube amp.
again.... My 2c
I, too, like the LMII/VT bass combo & this DOES work well & would no doubt be a superb rig if I wanted it as so......
Recently I grabbed a Mesa Walkabout Scout Combo- which is a Hybrid & the ONLY hybrid I've EVER actually liked!!! It, to me, gives me the closest sound to a "Vintage" type all tube rig. Even with a Neo driver, the li'l 12" Scout combo aint a lightweight, but WOW it does a great job of satisfying THIS old tube head!!!
Still, My '91 SVTII does it for me like NO other. No contest really!
AND- 'WHY' the FEEL- as mentioned.
The nuances of my touch -both hands- on the bass seems to be brought to life far more with a tube amp. And- feel- again- this time in the punch & 'girth'
of the all tube sound.Seems I can have an all tube amp on about 1/2 the actual volume(dB) than when I use a S.S. amp & still the audience say the all tube amp is far punchier, thay can " feel it in their chests"
They say it sounds clearer.
All these comments came from NON MUSO audience members, when one set I used a S.S. amp, the next an all tube amp.
again.... My 2c
you know rod, i said this once on here when i first started using my svt again and people reacted like i was nuts, but the truth is audiences are way more sophisticated than they used to be and can actually hear bass a lot better than they used to be able to when i first started in the 70's. better home stereos and music that features bass a lot more are the reasons.
and yet, musicians love to think of themselves as geniuses and treat audiences as if they're morons. yes, there are some audience members who are morons, but they're certainly not the norm. for every audience member who's a moron, there's one who's as sophisticated as anyone up on that stage. most people fall into a happy medium between the two, though, and while they can't tell an svt from a hartke kickback, they can tell when the mix is bad. and they can tell when you have disdain for them. so treat your audiences with respect and as if they're smarter than you, and you won't have any problems.
i would take issue with the last two. yes, when running in the red, compression is involved, but the truth is my svt is the least compressed-sounding amp i've ever played when it's clean. i get a level of response to touch that i can only dream about when using a ss rig.
and as for the psychological affinity, only people who don't like tube amps believe that.
you noticed, eh? hey, i have all respect for a good ss rig as well, but yes, i am a tube lover. you should see what i do with them at homeHaha, Jimmy is a "tube lover".
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
i have yet to find a way to capture the feel and sound of a 100% tube bass amp any other way than by using a 100% tube circuit (and i've been around the block trying it more than a few times).
IMO, they are still the most touch-sensitive, unveiled, fat, full, dynamic, and pure method to amplify an electric bass.
IMO, they are still the most touch-sensitive, unveiled, fat, full, dynamic, and pure method to amplify an electric bass.
I like the weight. I wouldn't feel like I've gotten a proper workout in exchange for my free beer if I didn't lift an 85lb SVT onto a 165lb 810 before and after every show... Tubes make me feel like more of a man and less of a lazy sod.
Honestly, they just sound better. Smoother, warmer, whatever adjective you'd like to use... I just like them more. I played solid states for a long damn time and only in the last few years had the chance of buying tube amps and it's a pretty damn big difference.
Honestly, they just sound better. Smoother, warmer, whatever adjective you'd like to use... I just like them more. I played solid states for a long damn time and only in the last few years had the chance of buying tube amps and it's a pretty damn big difference.
Exactly. Personally I have to have tubes in my preamps. Even with the gain set clean, I just feel tubes give you a more "lively" feel. For my sound, I pretty much always set the gain so that I'm always teetering on the edge of the sound breaking up. That let's me back off my attack a bit and keep things cleaner, for say the verses, or I can dig in hard and go into a little distortion for the chorus or guitar solo. If I'm rocking, I have to have some tube grit in there...end of story.
I always see post where people talk about a solid state amp sounding "tubey", but I just don't get that at all. Sure, a solid state amp can be warm and full sounding, but I've never played an all solid state amp that gives me the liveliness and response of tubes.
I'd like to add something to the discussion. Some people are saying that it is the dynamics, the sensitivity to right hand technique, that leads them to tube amps and I agree. I also think that it is important to use single-coil pickups to be able to access that dynamics. It's not that it isn't available for humbucker users. It's just limited because of the compression of the dual coils.
Gale
Gale
tru dat. however, as someone who HAS done exactly that, i'm describing tone and not that lively feel that you're talking about. like the vt...of course it doesn't have that lively feel of an svt, but it will cop the tones you can get out of an svt/810 rig. therefore, i call it a "tubey" sounding ss pedal. not a 100% accurate description, but for lack of a better term, that's what i use.
That hasn't been my experience. The best I've ever sounded live was playing my Stingrays through my Mesa/Boogie 400+ with the Deisel 4-10. I do know the 'magic' for me is the tube power section. I've had several tube preamps that didn't quite do it for me, and a few Musicman heads that were totally awesome for me.
