Mr. Foxen

All the best stuff about valve amp sound is in the power amp. Also the expensive heavy part is there. Luckily the part people buy is the word 'valve' hence prevalence of valve preamps.

It corrodes metals screwed into it, can be kind of bad for making things, iron goes black, brass greens and disintegrates. Think most of the problems are in other parts of the function and construction than 'tone'. Those need to be got right first. All those examples of making fine sounding electric instruments from wood from various other objects, the common factor is they are also objects that are made from fairly strong workable wood. Don't think it finishes in an especially nice to handle way either, might just be context though.

There is an extent to which not being in perfect pitch with whatever else can be expressive. Thing about expression is not everyone perceives it in the same way. Autotuning everything note perfect chucks the expression in a vocal out the window too. Someone can claim that being out of tune is part of their being expressive, if so, then maybe I don't like what they are expressing.

I used jobs like this, check the size though: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M3-BRASS-INSERTS-SCREW-IN-INSERT-FOR-PLASTIC-QTY-25-/330299021684?pt=UK_DIY_Material_Nails_Fixing_MJ&hash=item4ce75b1974"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4ce75b1974[/url] I might have some somewhere. Probably only countersunk allen key type screws though. Edit: not somewhere I can find easily.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1354305954' post='1884734'] I'm suggesting that break-in is not audible in the context of a speaker system. [/quote] [quote name='stevie' timestamp='1354309504' post='1884783'] I don't know what's audible and what's not audible in your speakers, Mr. Foxen. I've never heard them. [/quote] So by saying 'not audible', you are meaning not audible to you personally because you can't hear the system, rather than actually being audible to people hearing them? Or the rule only applies to stuff you've heard? Or "not audible in the context of a speaker system" only applies to speakers where it doesn't, and systems where it does they are 'a different animal'?

Playing it for ages makes for a fast neck.

They break in and the tone changes. But that isn't audible in my speaker system that includes guitar speakers?

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1354301118' post='1884680'] I think a lot of it has to do with the way the paper surround softens up over time, Mr. Foxen. [/quote] That is what break in is, yes. But you are asserting it doesn't happen?

Guitar speakers tend to sound loads different when broken it, guess due to low xmax and large influence of breakup on their sound. New V30s are horrible but broken in ones are lovely.

Old mouse mat is traditional. Washing up sponges work fine.

How loud do you need to be? Do you want any drive from the power section?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/gec-kt88-/330836148830?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Valves_Vacuum_Tubes&hash=item4d075f025e

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1353949549' post='1880133'] I've heard quite a few pro techs recommend JJ - and they certainly have a lot of valve amp users who agree. My Hiwatt is due a revalve & it's JJs for me, to replace GECs. [/quote] Look up Shuguang GEKT88, I have some, pretty close in construction to the GEC, and according to Chambonino, close in spec.

I went to Uni there, lived in the house overlooking Rummers. Was involved in music a lot there, is how I started playing bass.

http://hackaday.com/2012/11/22/mechbass-a-robotic-bass-guitar-that-sounds-fantastic/ Are there some duff notes, or is that how it goes?

Is it just parallel jacks with switching impedance? Really, the answer is no if its jacks, because you have a live end dangling about where it can short.

Where they are made has no bearing on their function.

Sounds like you need a neck shim so the bridge works. Or a proper setup.

I've used the 4x10, seemed fine, not sure if it is a whole different deal as was ported.

Pretty much quality control slipped because no-one that really cares buys valves any more. Making valves is basically banned in the EU and the US because of the necessary chemicals to make them. Economies of scale are a fair chunk of it, you can get good valves, aimed for the hifi lot and super expensive. Some valve manufacturers are on the way back up in quality, I think the old machines and tool they were using got worn enough that the Chinese have made new ones and the tolerances are back up, Shuguang power valves have been pretty good for me (and a few techs like Chambo and John Beer agree on their sites). The pre valves from them are pretty hit and miss still.

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1353853530' post='1878952'] Having all those pedals is a bit OCD I think, and having the signal buffered and re-amplified a few dozen times in the signal chain must cruisify the tone, surely a bass pod (or 2) could do everything that setup does ... [/quote] If the buffers are good, keeps the tone better than a bunch of cable and connections.

Not tried the 6550 specifically, but Shuguang power valves I have used (EL34b and KT88) have been good and very cheap. Trouble with the pre valves though.

Power compression is one of the the 'my rig was getting quieter so I turned it up some more, then there was a smell, so I turned it up more' thing that you hear often as a tech.

[quote name='BassPimp66' timestamp='1353833327' post='1878749'] What is meant here is: small amp wattage + big speaker wattage = DANGER for the amp. If you try to drive a 500W cabinet, with a 10 W amp, the amp may burn/explode/disintegrate trying to keep up. However, if you have bigger amp wattage , say 1000W amp, compared to 500W cabinet, that's fine. [/quote] That isn't what I mean. You can put a 10w amp into a 500w cab fine, you can put any amp into any cab fine. But the cab can't handle 500w thermal rating, because thermal ratings are not the place where amp power breaks cabs, the excursion limit is where bass guitar breaks cabs, and that is about a quarter to a half of the thermal rating in the passband of a cab, and less outside it, and it is easy to be outside it with silly eq. Thermal ratings of cab are pretty much meaningless, and should be ignored.

[quote name='jimi_1985' timestamp='1353761636' post='1878179'] Cool. I think I just like the assurance that I couldn't drive the cab too hard. Could you recommend any reasonably priced power amps? Thanks for the advice. [/quote] Doesn't really work like that. You can drive an amp too hard with an amp with a lower watt rating, because that isn't the thing that drives amps too hard.