Big Monster Valve Amps - what’s the king of them all?

[Sean]

What’s the highest power all-valve bass guitar specific monster out there?

We have the VBA400, Laney Tube 400, Mesa Strategy 8:88, Mesa 400+, Trace Elliott V8 and a Matamp 8 x KT88 one-off made for Julian Cope.

is there anything bigger?

What else is there that equals or crushes these leviathans? 

Edited December 16, 2017 by Sean

[bassmayhem]

The Phil Jones T500 should is a potential king...

http://www.guitaramplifierblueprinting.com/pjb.html

[Kevin Dean]

Ashdown CTM400.  Licked my Mesa 400 into next week .

[Sean]

3 hours ago, Kevin Dean said:

Ashdown CTM400.  Licked my Mesa 400 into next week .

Should that be BTA400? 

At £3,249 it makes the Laney Tube 400 look like an absolute bargain at £1399!  Great EQ on the Laney too.

[Sean]

9 hours ago, bassmayhem said:

The Phil Jones T500 should is a potential king...

http://www.guitaramplifierblueprinting.com/pjb.html

Awesome.

[disssa]

Hiwatt DR405

Mywatt 400

 

[chris_b]

Mesa Boogie rates the 400+ at 500 watts. I'm not sure mine was putting out anything like that!

With big valve amps I'm not sure there is anything usable above 200 watts.

Why isn't Ampeg's SVT in the list?

[scalpy]

The Aguilar 400w power amp always looked like bit of a monster. 

[bassmayhem]

200 watts or 400 watts, that means a gain(!) in output volume with 3 dB. Should you have - God forbid! - an 800 Watt tube amp you win another 3 dB. Not worth breaking your back for...

We did some shootout tests with an Ampeg SVT and the Ampeg mini solid state SVT some years ago: the little one played LOUDER but not prouder... 

[VTypeV4]

Personally I think it's the big Trace VTypes but I'm biased really!

http://www.chambonino.com/construct.html

And this is just nuts..

http://www.chambonino.com/construct/const9.html

[Dood]

Philips EL6471 might just take the biscuit but I wouldn't wanna take one to a gig!

[VTypeV4]

1 hour ago, dood said:

Philips EL6471 might just take the biscuit but I wouldn't wanna take one to a gig!

Awesome!!

[Passinwind]

The biggest one I've personally played through is this 2 X 500 watt build a friend of mine did:

 

 

 

 

 

[Dan Dare]

17 hours ago, VTypeV4 said:

Personally I think it's the big Trace VTypes but I'm biased really!

http://www.chambonino.com/construct.html

And this is just nuts..

http://www.chambonino.com/construct/const9.html

Wow. Supply rail at 2,500v? I'd make sure I had my transformers wound by someone who knew what they were doing.

[Dan Dare]

11 hours ago, dood said:

Philips EL6471 might just take the biscuit but I wouldn't wanna take one to a gig!

Here's 2 of them running stereo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRt8CoZT35k. It's pornography, I tell you.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Dan Dare

[Dood]

7 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

Here's 2 of them running stereo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRt8CoZT35k. It's pornography, I tell you.

I love the juxtaposition of two fiercely powerful valve amplifiers with HT's that could fry people instantly playing cabaret music.. 

[stevie]

5 hours ago, Passinwind said:

The biggest one I've personally played through is this 2 X 500 watt build a friend of mine did:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is a work of art. A pointless work of art IMO, but still a thing of wonder.

[Dan Dare]

1 hour ago, dood said:

I love the juxtaposition of two fiercely powerful valve amplifiers with HT's that could fry people instantly playing cabaret music.. 

And through rubbish Peavey speakers, too

[VTypeV4]

Valves the size of big coffee jars requiring kV of HT are really something quite magical - even the most hardcore 'lightweight / class D' stalwarts on the forum can surely appreciate the beauty of these thing however impractical they may be.

I love the glow of my 6L6 and KT88 / 6550 amps!

[Dan Dare]

5 minutes ago, VTypeV4 said:

Valves the size of big coffee jars requiring kV of HT are really something quite magical - even the most hardcore 'lightweight / class D' stalwarts on the forum can surely appreciate the beauty of these thing however impractical they may be.

I love the glow of my 6L6 and KT88 / 6550 amps!

Absolutely. Japanese audiophiles build some beautiful creations, such as this:

.

[VTypeV4]

Wow!

[Passinwind]

5 hours ago, VTypeV4 said:

Valves the size of big coffee jars requiring kV of HT are really something quite magical - even the most hardcore 'lightweight / class D' stalwarts on the forum can surely appreciate the beauty of these thing however impractical they may be.

I love the glow of my 6L6 and KT88 / 6550 amps!

Sure, I grew up working on tube stuff and have always greatly appreciated the aesthetics of Big Iron. And I love using them for guitar,  just not bass. Same as for so many other music production tools: great for others, not so much for myself. Vive la difference.

[Cuzzie]

Not played these, but have always wanted to.

should Verellen get an honourable mention here?

all the clips sound immense

http://verellenamplifiers.bigcartel.com/category/amplifiers-cabinets

[basshead56]

I love my VBA400!!! more power than I have sticks to shake at it 

Also my SVT is pretty badass.

[Sean]

On 18/12/2017 at 05:14, Passinwind said:

The biggest one I've personally played through is this 2 X 500 watt build a friend of mine did:

 

 

 

 

 

That’s absolute bonkers!

What’s the set up? Master/slave?