Just Played Through My First Ever All Valve Rig!

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='phil.i.stein' post='1092805' date='Jan 17 2011, 05:34 PM']predictive text ? [/quote]

Yes! Santa bought me an iPod touch which explains why I'm trolling so much and the freakin predictive spelling! Luckily I only have it connected at home as I would be on every thread all day! Does anyone have a fonera hub installed to get the free wi-fi out and about?

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='Protium' post='1092946' date='Jan 17 2011, 07:04 PM']Indeed, I can only just fit the Schroeder in my car (which is not a cavernous BMW btw )[/quote]

[sshorepunk]

for many years I played an EBS TD650, with 2 4x10 cabs, used to use just one cab at smaller gigs. This was and is a great rig!
Then I tried the valve thing, first of all a Fender bassman head thru a 4x10, it sounded great and the comments from the rest of the band that night, prompted a bit more digging
The obvious choice for that tone was a Mesa head, but I was lucky and ended up with a Matamp GT200 and 2 matamp 4x10's
It's a heavy rig, the amp can be a killer, but 2 arms underneath it moves it around

The tone is superb, valve amps seem to bring out so much more of the bass!
Then there is the volume thing. my band can be loud and it wasn't uncommon to be running the TD650 between 1/2 and 3/4 volume, I ran it thru the eq section, but had it set pretty flat most of the time, with a the drive up a bit
The GT200 hasn't been above 1/2 way yet, I shudder to think whatr it does beyond that, it's just f'in loud, very loud, loads of headroom and loud!

Tony

Edited January 20, 2011 by sshorepunk

[dan670844]

This is just my opinion of course, but maybe the reason is the frequency response of a valve job is that much better at the low end of the scale. They can really push some energy into the into the 60-200hz range, but with a great deal of definition, I have been studying this a bit and have been looking into the frequency response of the output transformers / valves (with nf) used in the Orange / Hiwatt / Matamp / Laney / Ashdown the frequency response is almost flat right the way down at 15hz all the way up to 10khz, that is mental! loads of power, to push a good amount of air, no spikes no bumps, no need to use DSP to iron out oddities. You can do this with Mosfet, I have a QSC that is pretty good, but to get the equivalent low end power with the clarity you have to spend double of what these units are and you have to go for a system which has serious watts (mine has about 1800 watts) these units are also even heavier than these valve jobs and on reflection I don't think they sound so good at the bottom end.
I have always been disappointed the class D stuff although I have not tried the Orange effort, I have tried SWR, Genz, and some others, the lightweight is cool, but for me, from what I am used to (Trace Elliot, Ashdown, Ampeg... a long time ago!! ) they really have a nice tone, but they really have no dynamic range and low end push, as a consequence to me they have always sounded flat and lifeless .

I think if you are going to go valve 200 watts is more than enough, 400 watts is nuclear! If you don't believe try one they are loud, very loud

We are spoiled in the UK we have got these great heads from these UK manufacturers (never thought I would say that again) and we also have Celestion. Their Orange label and Green label drivers are lightweight and they sound really fantastic, in my opinion most neo stuff does not. Then we have Barefaced, something different / lightweight that sounds really good, Wizard pickups nice handwound jobs from Wales. On the bass side we have Wal and various other cool planks. So if you are a Bass player and British it is looking good.


Now if we could only start making Shoes again that would be awesome (hate that word) the Chinese are very clever, when they invade, it will be easy to suppress the population with no shoes........



[quote name='Musicman20' post='1092313' date='Jan 17 2011, 11:45 AM']I still dont know the full reasoning why a tube amp sounds 'louder' and seems to have more volume on tap, but Ive seen huge bands play very very large stages with the AD200b Mk3 and two cabinets. It seemed a lot of the bands I listen to are ex-Ampeg users and have switched to Orange due to the recent 'problems' with Ampeg. I think Ampeg are pulling themselves out of it, but in the UK, its a no brainer, as the Orange gear (well the high end of the catalogue) is hand made in the UK and comes with a 3 year warranty.

I agree anyway, the 200 watts (or whatever the true rating) is incredibly loud.

One thing to note, tube amps are their FULL wattage no matter what cabinet/ohmage. So at 8 ohms its 200W and at 4 ohms its 200W.

When you start pushing that gain, it gets quite dirty, but in a very pleasing way...and it seems to get incredibly loud to the point where I have lots of volume left on tap.

The amp you are thinking of is the Bass Terror, which is a hybrid 500 watt light weight amp. Very good price, very light, and can capture the vibe of the bigger AD200b quite well, but obviously it will never have that full girth or tube push. Its close though.

Personally, if you dont want the bigger AD200b Mk3, try the Bass Terror 500 with a few cabinets. The Smart Power SP212 is one punchy little fella! Or, try it with the traditional Orange OBC115 or 410, or try another brand as well.

Hope this helps. I had the same reaction when I played mine for the first time. Like 'woah.....this is it!'.[/quote]

Edited January 20, 2011 by dan670844

[derrenleepoole]

I'm still smitten by the whole experience of my first valve rig. It's heartening to know that the Little Bastard 30 is only about £320 ish new (I think?)! I'm seriously thinking about this one as my first valve purchase. I quite often do small pub gigs, and my band isn't very loud. This could be the one to go for as a 'feeler' for the whole tube vibe. From what I've read, this very modest head delivers quite a punch, and I think would work well in our band setting. I could always mic up the cab if I need to be slightly louder. I'm thinking that I could get the head and a decent cab all in for just about £500, more than achievable I think. Anyone got thoughts on the LB30 head, just out of curiosity?

Edited January 21, 2011 by derrenleepoole