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Post subject: many vs. few
Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:29 am
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thanks to all of you, I now feel comfortable biasing my new tube amp when I need too. I have also read a few articles from different websites, and now feel I have the ability.

my question is this- Is there an advantage to having a tube amp with more tubes in it? my new blackstar soloist has 2 pre-amp and 2 power tubes, and is a 60 watt amp. the classic 30 (another amp I was looking at) has 4 power tubes and is a 30 watt amp. the fender deluxe has even more tubes, vs. the hot rod deluxe that has only 4 tubes total I believe.

the only disadvantage that I can see is that there are more tubes to replace. do more tubes have any real effect on amp sound? I am just trying to learn more about tube amps, so any info is appreciated.


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Post subject: Re: many vs. few
Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:36 am
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Fender amps use tubes for reverb and vibrato circuits.
The blackstar use a digital reverb with no tremolo. Digital circuit is like a tubes circuit without the "warm" ( and more ) of real tubes.

Tubes amps with same function and power use ( almost the time ) same number of tubes


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Post subject: Re: many vs. few
Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 8:32 am
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Not all power tubes create the same level of power for a given circuit.

4 power tubes for 30 watts could very well be a quartet of EL84s where a quartet of 6L6s could be as much as 90 or 100 watts.

Other amp designs will use more or fewer preamp tubes. Sometimes an amp designed for a lot of gain will have a few more 12AX7s.

Some amps use tube rectifiers, some use solid state rectifiers and no tube.

Some amps use a tube to drive the reverb circuit but some do not use a tube.

Some amps use a tube to drive the Tremolo circuit but many do not use a tube here.

As to your question ... advantages to having more tubes?
I don't think I would concern myself with that.
Just pick an amp for how it sounds and it's rep for build quality and reliability.

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Post subject: Re: many vs. few
Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:19 am
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BMW-KTM wrote:
As to your question ... advantages to having more tubes?
I don't think I would concern myself with that.
Just pick an amp for how it sounds and it's rep for build quality and reliability.


+1

Sage advice indeed.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: many vs. few
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2016 5:16 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
BMW-KTM wrote:
As to your question ... advantages to having more tubes?
I don't think I would concern myself with that.
Just pick an amp for how it sounds and it's rep for build quality and reliability.


+1

Sage advice indeed.



Arjay


Yes, but his and your advice is biased. 8)

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Post subject: Re: many vs. few
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2016 7:24 pm
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HIO wrote:
Yes, but his and your advice is biased. 8)

Not necessarily so. I've owned lots of amps that had no bias adjustments.
:mrgreen:

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Post subject: Re: many vs. few
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 3:00 am
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This thread got me thinking about my 93 american blues deville converted to ptp by tube-tone.
It now has 4 preamp tubes (2 ax7's and 2 at7's).
I took it to an amp tech for a noise (turns out was a speaker)........and he did a scope analysis on the power output while troubleshooting and biasing.
What stood out to me was that with the tube driven reverb tank dialed to almost off, the power output was 45 watts at 2% distortion (on the clean channel at the loudest volume before distortion started to increase).
As the tube driven reverb was turned up, the distortion increased a LOT.
Audibly the reverb sounds great........but I was surprised how much another gain stage increases distortion.


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Post subject: Re: many vs. few
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:37 am
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ckmckool wrote:
Audibly the reverb sounds great........but I was surprised how much another gain stage increases distortion.


+1

That phenomena is most starkly evident when comparing a Princeton Reverb with its non-reverb counterpart. Driven into clipping, the PR produces a smoother, creamier, more saturated overdrive.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: many vs. few
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 7:32 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
ckmckool wrote:
Audibly the reverb sounds great........but I was surprised how much another gain stage increases distortion.


+1

That phenomena is most starkly evident when comparing a Princeton Reverb with its non-reverb counterpart. Driven into clipping, the PR produces a smoother, creamier, more saturated overdrive.

Arjay

It kinda makes me wonder (for those liking clean), if a more powerful tube should be used (if possible) to drive the reverb circuit.


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Post subject: Re: many vs. few
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:41 am
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Likely a lower-gain tube would provide a cleaner reverb signal.

Arjay

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