From: dbk@cs.umd.edu (Dan Kozak)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar
Subject: Why tubes? (was Re: Building effects units for guitars)
Summary: not a flame
Date: 28 Sep 92 21:14:58 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

In article <2039@gvgspd.GVG.TEK.COM> mrk@gvgspd.GVG.TEK.COM (Michael R. Kesti) writes:
>In article <1992Sep9.021513.23393@u.washington.edu>
>                   insomnia@carson.u.washington.edu (Ryan Klemmer) writes:
>>Ask any guitar player what kind of amplifier they would use and most would
>>say tube.  Why?  Because they have a certain sound that semiconductor
>>devices just can't produce.

>It would appear that Ryan is very good a regurgitating generalizations
>that he has heard.  It may be true that it is more difficult to design
>a solid state amplifier that makes "that certain sound", but it can be
>done.

And certainly the manufacturers (and the reviewers) have claimed time
and again that they have achieved "that certain sound" with solid
state and yet for some crazy reason people continue to desire tube
gear. :-) Could it be that it really does sound different?  I won't
argue that it isn't theoretically possible to completely emulate the
sound (and feel, see below) of tube gear with solid state devices, but
I will argue that no one has done it yet.

I often read the reviews of equipment in Guitar Player and the like
and see the reviewers fall all over themselves to proclaim that this
or that effects box or amp or whatever really sounds like a vintage
Fender/Marshall/Vox/etc. and then I hear it and it sounds _nothing_
like the claim but is JAFB (just another fuzz box :-).  Even it the
case of modern tube gear this is often the case--the claim is made
that the Real Tube or the Boogie or what-have-you can sound "just
like" an old Marshall--bunk!  These pieces of equipment have sounds of
their own which are often quite nice (I own a Boogie .22 myself), and
while some of them can do superficial impressions of vintage gear,
I've never heard anything that could have served as a true
replacement.

For one thing, I suspect that few of the reviewers involved are very
familar (i.e. have owned and gigged for long periods) with a) real
vintage gear, b) anything that isn't using a master volume system.
IMHO, the sound of controlled and intentional overdrive (thence to the
master volume) whether created via an overdrive pedal or the amp's
preamp, tube or solid state, has nothing in common with real live tube
power stage distortion, where the output tubes, transformer and
speaker system are all interacting to color the sound.  This is where
the "feel" of a tube amp comes into play--the dynamics of playing can
control the tone in a quite subtle way--unlike the "fuzz box type"
effect where dynamics nearly cease to exist (nothing against this,
mind you, both have their applications, but they are not at all the
same).  For me anyway, this responsiveness to the playing makes a tube
amp the right choice, I'm sure others have different priorities.  This
is not an arugment for tubes or against solid state, simple a
recognition that at this point in time certain effects possible via
tube gear has not been duplicated via solid state (and probably vice
versa, but I know tube gear better).

>Reasons that one would want to try include improved reliability,
>lighter weight, and reduced power consumption.

While my own experience is heavily weighted towards tube gear, I've
never understood the "reliability" argument.  Since I've worked around
far more tube amps than transistor, if their failure rates were even
the same I should have seen far more tube amp failures.  Yet the
opposite is true, I've seen more gigs stopped because of the failure
of solid state gear than tube.  More importantly, the failure modes of
tube amps tend to start with them making odd noises or not sounding
right and then build up to total collapse, allowing one to make it
thru the gig, or (if you learn a little bit about the technical side)
take appropriate action (popping a spare tube in is possitively
simplistic compared to diagnosing, let alone repairing, solid state
gear).  Solid state failure modes are in my experience of the "poof!
no more amp" variety, not a very pleasant occurance when you're sound
checking in Raliegh on a Saturday night.  :-)

#dan

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Newsgroups: alt.guitar