Understanding Tube Amps: Why Tube Amps?
The first video in a series of gear lessons I’ll be doing called “Understanding Tube Amps.” In this first installment, I do my best to explain why tube amps are considered by most to be better than solid state (transistor) amps.
December 8th, 2010 at 8:39 am
I got a pretty good answer from Anthony – so I thought I would drop it in.
I have only my equipment to deal with and not a huge budget to mess around with sound discovery – so here is what happened. I have the Peavey 410 stacked on top of the Peavey ext. with the 15″. I like picking bass strings when I play so I split my guitar output between my Peavey set-up and a S/S 65 watt Kustom bass amp. I don’t have the Kustom volume up too much and moved the Peavey more toward treble side with some extra pre-amp overdrive and minimal reverb.
OK I love what I am getting all this stuff but if I gig around with friends, it means dragging around an extra 60 lb amp in my little Chevy Cavalier (I know, I should have started with a 30 watt tube Peavey or small Fender and a small bass amp).
My question is this. Can I get this set-up effect out of just the Peavey by somehow bass capping the line between the 410 and the 15″ extension cab. or do I need the bass amp circuitry?
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Hello,
Thank you very much. It was a very helpful video. I really appreciate you putting lessons on the internet! I want to buy a tube amp between 500 and 600 euros. The Blues Junior is €529. Do you think i should take that one?
Thanks,
Matthijs
Anthony Stauffer reply on October 25th, 2010 3:05 pm:
I think it’s an excellent amp for the price.
October 9th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
I have a question with my amp. i have a 1972 0r 1973 Fender Twin Reverb with a master volume that pulls out. i play throughthe vibrato number one input jack. I was told bby a friend to crank up the master volume to 10 (its pushed in) and then run the volume of the amp with the volume on the vibrato channel. It sounds great clean at around 2 but when i go to around 3 or so it starts to sound distorted with the pedals i use. i want to get a clear sound with my pedals even at a higher volume. I use a maxon 808, ibanez ts9 tube screamer, a dunlop cry baby, a voodoo lab octavia, voodoo lab univibe and a choruss pedal.
thank
john cortez
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Or what are your thoughts on the
FENDER SUPER 112 Combo
Anthony Stauffer reply on March 22nd, 2010 2:08 pm:
Hi Joel,
I assume that you’re referring to the Super Sonic 112. It’s a very interesting amp. My impressions of it are that it’s a bit more flexible than some of the other amps from Fender. The clean channel has 2 different ‘modes’ but I found the amount of treble difference to be very disconcerting between those two modes.
Also the gain channel has a good amount of available distortion and for preamp distortion, it’s probably as good as any other Fender amp, the amp in general is more powerful than what I need so power tube distortion isn’t really a factor.
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Hello again Anthony, I wanted to get your professional opinion on the:
FENDER SUPER 112 TUBE AMP
Have you played through one, if so what did you think, and would they make a good blues amp?
December 28th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Thanks for your free lessons.
You’re so far ahead of me with your lessons…
I’m an amature with such little hope of catching up.
I like that white, western, Jimi Hendrix sound.
Why you play your brothers’ guitar, instead of a real Strat?
December 26th, 2009 at 12:28 am
What about hybrid amps? How do they compare with traditional tube amps & the performance of a solid state amp?
Anthony Stauffer reply on December 28th, 2009 4:24 pm:
I’ll try to address that in an upcoming video.