https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 06:52:54 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/paged/2/#post-173179 Sun, 23 Apr 2006 06:55:47 +0000 Live Sound Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/paged/2/#post-173179 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/paged/2/#post-173178 Sun, 23 Apr 2006 06:52:35 +0000
Guitars that rule the world.

Joe]]> Live Sound forrok_star https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/paged/2/#post-173178 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/paged/2/#post-173065 Sat, 22 Apr 2006 20:19:37 +0000
The key to getting great sounds out of small amps is running them through good speakers, which aren't always small. Lots of otherwise good little amps have gotten a bad rep from being played through crummy little cheap speakers. Even in the cheap little speakers line, improvements can be made. One of my favorite amps is a little Electar Tube 10, a somewhat Champ-like little amp with a Fender-like 3 range tone stack, a 6L6 plugged in in place of the 6V6 (but the voltages and bias resistor are what Fender used with the 6V6), and an 8" speaker closed up in a too-small closed back combo cab with port holes in the baffle board. Way too boomy and muddy on the bottom end as it came, but putting a Jensen MOD in it toned down the bottom end just enough, enhanced the treble, boosted the overall apparent volume and really improved it all around. And the 8" 20W MOD only costs something like $18 plus shipping from lots of dealers. I love stuff that works great and is cheap to boot! Weber's Ceramic 8 has often been recommended for these amps, with similar results. (The stock speaker in the Epiphone Valve Junior has been said to be one that's also sold by Weber, and I love its sound in that little open cab. It's surprisingly loud, too.) Plugging most little amps into a big cab will improve what you hear out of them markedly.

Recently I was rereading the audio amplification chapters of Ghirardi's "Radio Physics Course," the third impression put out in 1933 of a book first released in 1931. It's mostly late '20s to 1930 technology. It's interesting to see how perceptions of power levels differed from now. About 1.5W was considered plenty for a room at full volume, a 3W push-pull amp was a very high powered one for home use, a 10W amp was sufficient for an auditorium, and a 50W amp (which filled a large cabinet) was for "dance halls, skating rinks, and stadium use."

Of course, speakers were generally far more efficient then. A 5% efficient speaker was considered mediocre, and few guitar amp speakers nowadays approach that. A 5W amp with a very efficient speaker can easily put out more real volume than a 100W amp with an inefficient one. Efficient speakers tend to have rather peaky response curves, and hi-fi enthusiasts don't like that, so less efficient speakers with flatter response were developed, and amps got more powerful to drive them. Now we need inefficient speakers (and attenuators) to let us crank up the big amps without making the ceiling fall down.]]> Live Sound Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/paged/2/#post-173065 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/paged/2/#post-173025 Sat, 22 Apr 2006 10:58:23 +0000
Joe]]> Live Sound forrok_star https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/paged/2/#post-173025 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172955 Fri, 21 Apr 2006 16:08:18 +0000 Live Sound Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172955 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172925 Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:32:22 +0000
Some tubes break up earlier than others, some have a tighter overdrive when driven hard. Some tubes sound hard and some sound soft (if that would be the word for it). After spending some time playing with different amps that have different tubes in them you'll know which ones (meaning tubes) you'll like. How all the pieces put into the amp come together is what makes the different amps sound the way they do. I have a number of small custom and home built amps that only push 1 to 2 watts flat out, but connected to half open cabinet with 2x12 celestions you'd think they were big than that. An for tone their amazing.

joe]]> Live Sound forrok_star https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172925 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172906 Fri, 21 Apr 2006 06:03:22 +0000 Live Sound Doug_C https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172906 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172901 Fri, 21 Apr 2006 05:29:01 +0000
Mojo Amp Kits]]> Live Sound Wes Inman https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172901 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172899 Fri, 21 Apr 2006 05:24:05 +0000
I agree with Ricochet for the most part, but not completely. I retubed both my HRD and Marshall DSL401 with tubes from JJ and was very happy with the subtle changes they made
in tone. They tightened up the Drive channels on my HRD nicely, and now my DSL401 just
sounds incredible, MUCH better than before. But the tubes in the Marshall were old and may have been going, I don't know.

And at the very least you have a spare set of tubes, which is important when you gig. I always carry the originals with me just in case. So I am glad I retubed for that alone.

Even this new Celestion I dropped in my HRD did not change the tone drastically. But it is different. I can go up more on Bass now without the low end howling or farting out. It did give my HRD a little more of a Rock tone than before. But it is subtle. I like the new speaker more than the stock Eminence. The other guys in the band said the amp sounded a little different as well.

I did a little side by side testing when I put the new speaker in. I ran the Marshall's Greenback speaker off my HRD. It sounded like my HRD. Then I ran the Marshall's DI out into the Power Amp In on the HRD (the Marshall does not have a Pre-Amp out like the HRD). I thought it would make my HRD sound like the Marshall, but it didn't. It still sounded like the HRD. So, from this I would say the Power section of the HRD has a lot to do with the tone.

We are getting away from daphnebluestrat questions.

Have you looked at the tube amp kits at Torres? They have quite a variety, maybe just what you are looking for.

Torres Amp Kits

Not having ever built an amp, and not being that knowledgeable, I cannot answer your questions. I would send your questions off to Torres, I bet they could give you all the info you are looking for.

They have a real nice Champ kit. That sounds a lot like what you are describing, check it out.

Hope this helps,

Wes]]> Live Sound Wes Inman https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172899 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172895 Fri, 21 Apr 2006 04:54:44 +0000 Live Sound Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/tubes/#post-172895