The ART Studio Pre or the old Peavey Tube Sweetener with the right pretubes made a difference. I've always gotten that extra tube sound (bubbly compressed harmonic hair) when putting a single tube betweem the guitar and volume pedal. Saturate too much, and its goodbye bass - but just the right amount and you can sweeten that up as well. This does something interesting to the midrange frequencies, and sweetens the high frequencies. The output tubes of an amplifier that is built for an instrument (as opposed to hi fi) generally saturate the output transformer in a similar way. This uses simulated magnetic tape heads which can be saturated to get a unique type of harmonic distortion. Perhaps my favorite piece of warming equipment is the Neve 5042 Tape simulator. The effect is very pleasing to the ear.Īs was mentioned earlier, different types of harmonic distortion create different sounds. To "warm" something up, you add harmonic distortion of some sort.
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There is magic in the marriage between a transformer and a discrete audio amplifier circuit. Some solid state designs are very capable of this sound - a Neve 1272 comes to mind. I consider warmth to be a detail in the low midrange. What does "warmth" mean, with regards to tone? Heck, I filled a coffee house with clean pedal steel sounds last week using my 12 watt '68 Princeton Reverb. I rarely need more than 25-40 watts of tube power to be happy at a gig. Tubes rule and they will for many years to come. A tube preamp or a tube buffer is often just the ticket for quite a few players.īut yes, I'm with Tim in that we both prefer the all- tube approach. That's where I'd argue that it's not ALL in the power amp. The Black Box completely fixes that, sweetens the highs, removes the harshness, enriches the midrange, allows a bright tone where the low strings are clear and vibrant, highs are silky smooth, yet the amp is still all solid state like before. Then they tame the high end and then the lows are dark and muddled. I get people saying that they struggle with getting their low strings nice and clear but then the high registers are harsh and icy. There are hundreds of Black Boxes out there because just simply adding that one tube up front is a game changer with the transistor combo amps. An all tube, boutique, affordable, dedicated pedal steel amp from the ground up.Ī lot of guys I've worked with over the years were and still are die-hard solid state amp guys, Webb, Evans, Peavey, etc. From what I've heard and what I know Tim is doing on the insides, I know it's killer. I nearly had a chance to play around with a Milkman here in town last month, but it wasn't in the cards. But for some gigs, where 4 6L6's or similar, 80 watts, isn't enough OR if a high power tube amp is too heavy, I use the Furlong SPLIT powered cab with a tube preamp. I've even modded the dry channel of that head to house my preamp circuit so I can just use the head sometimes. I use one of my preamps and then a 40 watt Bandmaster Reverb head for power. I usually gig with an ALL tube rig because I prefer it. But for those who need to compete on a loud stage and have plenty of headroom, I find it virtually impossible to beat the tubes up front and solid state power approach.īut I'm biased.
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Power tubes can help warm that up, but won't undo what you've created.įor those who don't need much power or loudness, then I do tend to recommend an ALL tube setup. If there are a bunch of transistor stages up front, then at some point you're stuck with something edgy and potentially sterile and cold sounding. The closer the pickup is to a tube, the better the dynamic and harmonic response, the feel, the touch, the musicality of the guitar signal itself. One motto I live by is that pickups love tubes. But for clean and controlled pedal steel tones, I find the hybrid setup is often ideal. Now I love tubes, and I totally love the sound of ALL tubes, pre and power. I've heard both, and it's pretty apparent.
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For pedal steel, I'd much prefer tube preamp into solid state power amp over the other way around. Much of what's created in the early preamp stages simply can't be undone with power tubes alone. Much of the signal gets etched in stone in those positions. I'm a firm believer that what happens up front, in the gain stages, is critical.