Amplifier Worship - IT'S A SERIES OF TUBES - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No More Drake > Musician's Lounge > Amplifier Worship - IT'S A SERIES OF TUBES

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

It probably just needs a tube replaced, likely a preamp if it's hissing. If your Tech just shrugged his shoulders when he turned it on and it was hissing you probably need a new Tech while you're at it.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2019 05:38

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 13:41

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Dang It Bhabhi! posted:

But but... has he seen the tweaks Fender made for U2's The Edge Signature Deluxe Reverb?

I hope they removed the ground switch with the specific intention of electrocuting him.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2020 06:05

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Dang It Bhabhi! posted:

So after using KT88s in a JCM 800 clone I tried JJ E34Ls and it went from boomy and loud to tight and thick. Muuuch better. Oh well sometimes we learn the hard way. To be clear since I run a load box at home I keep the amp in the sweet spot at about 1 o’clock so it does push the output section a bit.

KT88s were like twice as loud/had insane headroom, though.

Even 900s sound good with EL34s up in them guts.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2020 22:17

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Thumposaurus posted:

Getting the cabinets upholstered in the old tuck-n-roll would cost more than the circuit inside.

This is true for all guitar poo poo though, the circuitry is universally the cheapest bit

# ¿ May 6, 2021 00:28

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Captain Apollo posted:

Kinda following in the post above me, I have 15 guitars but I’ve never really spent money on amps.

I’m a relatively well off guy, and I want to blow about 2-3 grand to get two or 3 good amps.

I’m thinking I want the quintessential models from Vox, Fender, and Marshall.

Help me out? I don’t want big amps, but small gigs and bedroom applicable models. I want tube amps.

So Vox, ac15 with alnico?

What about for Fender or Marshall?

For Marshall I can recommend the studio series heads they put out recently ish. There's a plexi (60s classic rock) a JCM 800 (80's rock through hardcore/metal with a bit of a push) and a silver jubilee (slightly more modern/shreddy). Half the physical size of standard Marshall heads, 20 watts with a low power mode.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2021 07:18

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

H13 posted:

So I've noticed that Vox Ac30 heads are super cheap. As in less than 500 Australian Dollarydoos used.

I have no idea if I'm a Vox guy, but...why wouldn't I want The Beatles\Queen amp for the price of an expensive pedal?

Is there a reason why they're so cheap? What am I missing here? Do they sound like rear end? Are they prone to spontaneous combustion?

I picked up a brand new ac15 head for less than half the rrp ($500kiwi worthless dollars)and it sounds glorious.

The dealer said they're super hard to sell because they retail for about the price of a combo and everyone associates vox with combos anyway.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2021 08:27

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Pokey Araya posted:

I think you're over thinking it. Most speakers and amps are rated very conservatively. Don't look at the numbers, trust your ears, if it feels and sounds like your speakers are gonna blow up, they probably are. If keep turning your amp up and, you're not getting enough volume, it feels hot enough to fry an egg, your amp if probably being gonna blow up first.

In the end, all of it can be fixed and replaced. Most things sound the best on the edge of destruction, the key is knowing when you're close, and dialing back 10 percent.

Also I will say about the my advice, I've blown up about 20 amps, and 30+ speakers, but I also push everything that touches my hands to the absolute limit it was ever designed for, I'm sure you will barely scratch the limit of what you come across. Not a dig at you, just don't worry about the ratings, and make your equipment sing! If you kill it, it usually is about $200 and you're back in business.

This is extraordinarily stupid in a surprisingly broad number of ways.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2022 10:59

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Pokey Araya posted:

Edit: He's what I told him in another thread, more specific for you.
Weber makes awesome speakers, and a whole range of high power ones.

https://www.tedweber.com/speakers/high-power-series/12-models-5/ceramic-5/

And the Tone Cvlt series made for drop tunings.

https://www.tedweber.com/speakers/tonecvlt/12-models-9/

I play guitar in Open A and I use 6x12's most the time, an Orange 2x12 and 4x12, same Celestion v30''s you have, and they work for me.

My bass cab has been through a ton of speakers, it has 6, and I've dragged it through in every state in the USA, minus Hawaii and Alaska. Any by my last count I think I've played 600+ concerts with it. I've owned about 50 amps, and played just about every one of them at literally full blast, for hours at a time. I've worked front of house, monitors, designed and programed light shows, set up entire PA's, backlines, and been stage manager at multiple festivals. I helped record 10 live albums, worked on 20 studio albums, and written 3, in the last 2 years. I earn my living working in a recording studio at the moment.

But yeah, what are yalls credentials?

Apart from designed recording studios, PA's, and live sound systems for a living, my main credential is playing loud, angular, obnoxious music with extremely destructive stage performances for twenty years without so much as blowing a tube. I've thrown combos off stages and jumped on them, then used them again the next night without an issue. Doing the damage you're doing is a result of basic technical incompetence.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2022 06:14

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

It's even funnier now that it's obvious you know literally all you have to do is match impedance and wattage.

This is like going into AI for car advice and having some dude back up their terrible advice by going "just use the accelerator instead of the brake, there's no rules here it's all about feel man. I've crashed my car like 400 times so I'm pretty much a rally driver".

Giving advice you objectively know is unhelpful and stupid because "everybody knows that poo poo already" is arrogant, condescending and a loving dick move.

You don't know where someone else is on their journey or where their knowledge gaps are.

No one thinks you're a legend for deliberately being a dumbass. gently caress unless there is fire involved blown amps don't even look cool to the audience, you're just quieter or silent for at least ten minutes if you have a backup

# ¿ Feb 9, 2022 20:26

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

First port of call would be checking the tubes, likely a preamp valve needs replacing

# ¿ Feb 18, 2022 20:03

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

stoopidmunkey posted:

Just had to post my luck. Just yesterday, both of my amps have decided they need new tubes. I found what I needed from a seller on eBay but dude’s in Ukraine so the shipping might take a while. Does this count as helping the war effort?

Get multiples while you can

# ¿ Mar 18, 2022 23:38

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

JamesKPolk posted:

dumb question - can I damage an amplifier by playing a eurorack level signal into it? I can't think of why (like its just gonna distort, right?) but I'd rather ask first than finding out this is the secret to releasing the magic smoke

its a 90s fender solid state combo if that matters for some reason

Does it have an FX loop? Most of those 90s fenders have line level FX loops so it should work fine in there.

# ¿ May 11, 2022 05:28

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Kvlt! posted:

100 Watt tube head for a bedroom rig - NO ATTENUATOR - or you're a poser

Literally doing this now but it has a master volume so I'm cheating

# ¿ Aug 24, 2022 04:11

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

The Marshall studio series is exactly what you want, comes in three flavours depending on your tonal preference. Studio vintage is Plexi style, lowest gain, 60's vibe. The studio classic is JCM 800 style, does classic rock through reasonably hi gain, and the Jubilee is more modern, higher gain again.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2022 21:09

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Splinter posted:

What kinda amp/PA setup should I be looking at if I want to run a laptop w/ Live and amp sim plugins rather than an actual amp when playing in a band setting. Garage w/ a live drummer is the max volume I'd be looking for, and portability is preferred (and we don't always have the drummer so sometimes we'll be playing at even lower volumes). Been feeling like experimenting with the tone and looping flexibility of a software setup when playing with other musicians. Also would just be nice to be able to get Tone at lower volumes when I don't want to turn my '65 DRRI up loud enough to get to its sweet spot. I know I could accomplish the latter by just picking up a cheapish modelling amp, but I do already have some nice amp plugins and there's still the looping aspect. I assume there's some all-in-one sort of solution for this where I could just run straight from my audio interface to the speaker (rather than getting a separate rack mount power amp + PA speaker or something like that), but I'm not sure where to start looking. Since the amp sims will cover all the guitar amp part of the signal (including cabinet sim), I'm assuming any sort of general PA speaker should be fine, yes?

You want a powered FRFR speaker. They're designed for this exact situation, albeit usually with a Kemper/axe fx etc. There's an absolute ton of options.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2022 00:40

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Gorgar posted:

I suspect I'm the only one left in the thread that still uses big tube amps. EL34s, 6L6s, 6550s. I've tried the little tube amps but I just don't like the sound of a little tube being pushed. Big tubes have a sort of a heft to them that I really like.

I run a JCM800 and an AD30. Big tubes ain't dead.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2024 02:24

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Hell yeah

# ¿ Jan 12, 2024 22:12

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Yeah modellers are literally for blues lawyers with jacked backs to take to an open mic night and butcher little wing (the Stevie version, not the Jimi. You know why).

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 02:41

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

I can't get Bluetooth to successfully stream music from my phone to my headphones for more than an hour, why the hell would I trust that as part of my signal chain? I'm looking at you, UA audio.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:23

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Dang It Bhabhi! posted:

Bluetooth as it currently exists, including the supposed "low-latency" codecs, have no business being apart of a musical instrument signal chain. UA does this? I've never heard of anyone trying and succeeding at that.

Sorry should have been clearer - it's not part of the audio path, it's part of the control system. Rather than spend the money on knobs/screens etc heaps of the control parameters for their pedals are gated behind a Bluetooth connection to a phone app.

A number of digital / modeller companies do this and we already know it's a stupid untenable idea because there are thousands of istomp pedals sitting in rubbish dumps around the world after an iPhone update made them unusable.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:58

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Remember the iStomp? The one that ended up being completely unusable after an iOs update? It's that but on the block chain.

# ¿ May 4, 2024 04:43

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 13:41

Kingo Ligma: Aug 24, 2019; Ask me about calling people racist because I failed geography.

Armacham posted:

My tech posted a good write up with pictures of my 69 Bassman

Tell your tech that they loving rule for, on top of all the actual interesting info, using the up to date "black panel" terminology rather than the embarassing as gently caress old name.

# ¿ May 6, 2024 21:45

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No More Drake > Musician's Lounge > Amplifier Worship - IT'S A SERIES OF TUBES