Thank you!


Close! I'm saying particularly that it's the feel of the guitar interacting with tube microphonics and the signal chain, and to a lesser degree, everything else in the room, a physical sympathetic loop of sound that creates a physical sympathetic resonance that facilitates a much more fluid and creative playing state, a simulation not built into SS but doable in SS with an element/sensor built into SS that feels what a tube would feel, the electrical characteristics of this fed into the signal picture changing the SS signal from squarish to roundish to get the sympathetic vibration going.


If you will recall from a previous post, that's why the sensor would have parameters that can be adjusted to dial in the flavor of a particular size/resonance tube. All tubes will have a harmonic resonance that can be established and used as the basis for the sensitivity and adjustment of the sensor. Since we can do dimensional computer engineering, we can design a sensor that acts like a hollow, electrically filled tube vibrating with other amp materials, maybe a sensor the same shape but smaller, then amplified, who knows, it's just in the concept state of design.

pickle boots made a good point...it's like puttin' tickle in the pickle, sympathetic room vibrations that effects how a guitar feels and reacts. You get the sympathetic effect of a tube effect on an acoustic guitar, it's like holding a big tube with strings attached to it, yo! A good acoustic always puts tickle in my pickle and I can go liquid on an acoustic that's got good sympathetic vibrations too.

Good questions!

Cheers mate!

Well here's a reference anyway,this guy knows his stuff and has lots of interesting info on his site...look at #6...
http://tone-lizard.com/Biasing.htm

welp, I'm ah gonna take this info over to another amp manufacturer's site!

Have fun!

No the 12ax7 is not identical to the ecc83. There is a matter of 1.5mm height on the glass.

You really ought stop making things up and have a bit of a read up before you make such assumptions as to which valves are microphonic and which are not. It's got nothing to do with type and everything to do with quality and design.
The fact that I mentioned one particular valve, probably the most sought after preamp valve in the history of electronic amplification has utterly escaped you oh expert.

Wow, this thread really flew off in a strange direction. There are to many unfamiliar terms, subjective arguments, and overall variables to nail down really what this is all about.

That being said, I have given it some thought. For a completely clean signal (sound) I can't see one being better than the other. Given both have high quality components. The goal being reproduce the original sound at a higher volume without introducing artifacts.

Used as an instrument I think things begin to change. A slightly distorted sound (barley audible distortion) through a tube is produced naturally. A smooth cornered square is produced that contains the entire dynamic of the signal. This can be set so that the signal is normal during soft picking then when picked harder it becomes relatively more square. It could even sound clean but will contain this organic effect. The difference is the way SS amps approach this, SS amps clip the signal at top and bottom thus lowering the dynamic potential and producing a square with slightly sharper corners. In order to reach the same square by clipping, the corners will be sharper - (not as smooth/natural sounding and less room for dynamic response). This is all measurable. A trained ear could probably hear the clipping produced in a run of the mill SS amp.

As far a vibrations produced in or around the tubes having an impact on the tone, I'm not to sure? I can understand the thought process, but I believe what I described above is more responsible for any audible difference.

Many tube amps will clip hard with very little of the compression that "rounds the cut off", AKA soft-clipping. Believe it or not the late '50s 5F6 Fender Bassman clips hard.

I've not seen any SS devices that demonstrate what is referred to as soft clipping. That doesn't mean that they're not out there - I'm just not aware of any.

In experiments I did in school I saw BJT devices invert the over driven portion of a signal. That was weird. Wish I had output that signal to a speaker. I suspect it wouldn't be musically pleasant at all.