21–29 of 29 posts
In 2002, you could buy a PC motherboard with a sound section amplified by a dual-triode vacuum tube. You can still find them on eBay: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/aopentube/
What this article doesn't mention is why vacuum tubes are still used in guitar amplifiers: The "distorted guitar" sound common in rock music is a direct result of nonlinear characteristics of tube amps (both the tubes themselves and the coupling transformers necessary to connect an output tube to a speaker). Tubes exhibit "soft clipping" when pushed to their limits, which has the effect of producing the harmonic cont…
I’ve found that a really good proxy for how good an amp sounds is the number of line-items in he BOM. The fewer the better. A lot of the classic designs that sound good and still sell have exactly what they need to get the job done well and no more. It’s almost like all the major (and boutique) amp manufacturers took one of three or so amp designs and just threw components at the schematic until you couldn’t recogniz…
Ideally you would want each time to be fed with a noise free constant current supply. Having each tube on its own power supply would be incredibly expensive but sound awesome.
Buffering the output of each tube would prevent blocking Distortion, but would also be fairly expensive (although now we have mosfets that can handle 500+, so that might not be as bad).
Split audio path about, where the bass goes through cleanly and the treble is overdriven would also sound incredible, but be expensive.
Designs end up being about compromise: the above features will add $5-$35 to the bom per tube, and in the end, a lot of people just end up buying on brand.
My Laney Lionheart L5T has a really cool preamp that uses solid state surface mount components where they don't affect the signal. This drives the bom cost down but sounds incredible (fully buffered fx loop, fully buffered reverb tank).
What this article doesn't mention is why vacuum tubes are still used in guitar amplifiers: The "distorted guitar" sound common in rock music is a direct result of nonlinear characteristics of tube amps (both the tubes themselves and the coupling transformers necessary to connect an output tube to a speaker). Tubes exhibit "soft clipping" when pushed to their limits, which has the effect of producing the harmonic cont…
Not directly related to tubes, but see the enduring legacy and popularity of the Boss HM-2 distortion pedal in metal circles, very often employed with all the knobs turned to eleven for maximum crunch. It was used to great effect primarily by Swedish death metal bands such as Dismember, Entombed, At the Gates and their compatriots. The tone is rough and textured and just feels right for the genre, so much so that it is considered a clearly defining characteristic of that particular branch of death metal.
Just like tube amps, it's preferred because it's imperfect in just the right ways to produce an artistic result.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve found that a really good proxy for how good an amp sounds is the number of line-items in he BOM. The fewer the better. A lot of the classic designs that sound good and still sell have exactly what they need to get the job done well and no more. It’s almost like all the major (and boutique) amp manufacturers took one of three or so amp designs and just threw components at the schematic until you couldn’t recogniz…
There some truth to that, but not always. Ideally you would want each time to be fed with a noise free constant current supply. Having each tube on its own power supply would be incredibly expensive but sound awesome. Buffering the output of each tube would prevent blocking Distortion, but would also be fairly expensive (although now we have mosfets that can handle 500+, so that might not be as bad). Split audio path…
There's definitely room for "improving" guitar amplifiers; I personally think that many guitar players like classic sounds, buy on brand as you said, and the brands just try to reproduce classic designs with any deviations made for cost more than for any other reason.
High power RF transmitters are still a notable realm of tubes.
What this article doesn't mention is why vacuum tubes are still used in guitar amplifiers: The "distorted guitar" sound common in rock music is a direct result of nonlinear characteristics of tube amps (both the tubes themselves and the coupling transformers necessary to connect an output tube to a speaker). Tubes exhibit "soft clipping" when pushed to their limits, which has the effect of producing the harmonic cont…
Capacitors are also important: http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/3-Classi... Some old leaky "bumblebee" capacitor is worth $75 if it happens to be the .022 uF value found in certain guitar tone control circuits.
What this article doesn't mention is why vacuum tubes are still used in guitar amplifiers: The "distorted guitar" sound common in rock music is a direct result of nonlinear characteristics of tube amps (both the tubes themselves and the coupling transformers necessary to connect an output tube to a speaker). Tubes exhibit "soft clipping" when pushed to their limits, which has the effect of producing the harmonic cont…
Don't forget that transistors have a different and more loud background noise that vacuum tubes. I don't appreciate the difference but I know that some people could notice and appreciate the different kind of noise.