Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Valve amps question


dmccombe7
 Share

Recommended Posts

Are valve amps affected by heat and humidity and does that affect your tone.

Had problems getting my usual tone from the Handbox WB-100 last night.

Room was extremely warm, hot and sweaty if that makes any difference to an amp that runs hot with valves anyway.

It sounds ok on the vids that have appeared but sounded a bit odd and i had to cut the mids and treble a bit in an attempt to get a decent fuller sound.

Tried my Marlowe and my P bass and both had that odd tone as if it was being overly compressed. I do use a compressor but it sounded same with it off plus i only have the compressor just clipping the higher volume notes due to my enthusiastic playing on some bits of songs.

Maybe it was down to a lack of volume and i was trying compensate by playing harder and using EQ rather than turning up and leaving my EQ as normal ?

Dave

Edited by dmccombe7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The air itself could be responsible for tone changes, as it is through this medium hat the sound travels, and air density affects this, compounded by humidity changes. I doubt that the electronics of the amp would be affected (we use full-fat valve amps, and have done for decades with no such issues...). Just my tuppence-worth.

 

Douglas

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think @Dad3353 may have the answer here. Someone with better than my very old Grade E physics A level may be able to shed more light on this, but sound travels faster in hotter temperatures, and I'm pretty sure this would be more noticeable in the higher frequencies. You probably sounded great out front.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We notice the weather changes in our practice room. Always set up the same way.

 

But the biggest factor is soft furnishings. The other week the drummer bought his cases into the room and that massively altered the acoustics. 

 

Maybe in hot and humid weather people are wearing less clothes.  

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

It may effect the point at which the valves start to overdrive very marginally but as has been shown in many experiments, valves don't effect tone.

Could be the air density in the room.

That's interesting. Towards the end of the gig i tried turning the gain down just a notch and upped the master and it did improve so you might have answered the question Steve.

Dave

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, taunton-hobbit said:

Heat & humidity can affect loudspeakers, usually made out of paper (of some sort) - I've had this with my reggae sound rig.

 

😎

Didn't think of that. I had assumed it was the amp.

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...