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What is it about old tube amps?



 
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sharring
Tiger



Joined: 04 Feb 2004

Posts: 812

Location: Texas
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 4:57 am    Post subject: What is it about old tube amps? Reply with quote
Guys, I have a confession to make. I secretly log on to E-bay and search under "tube amp", get 600 or more responses and look at old obscure cheap amps for a half hour. What is wrong with me? I love the sound of cheap tube amps like Silvertone, Valco, Supro, Magnatone and the like. Of course, they are not so cheap as they used to be! Anyway, the Lord has more than blessed me with the three old Fenders and the SWR I have. But there is something just so cool about the 40's, 50's and 60's amps. They almost always sound good and easily distort just by turning the volume up. An inspiring sound is important to me. Then all I have to worry about is note choice. And the styling/asethetics are cool-the tweed of the 40's and 50's, the space age look of the late 50's and 60's....very appealing to me. Yesterday I saw an old Kay with 26L6's and a single 15" alnico speaker for $200-how cool is that? Is there an Ampaholics Anonymous group somewhere? scott
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Steve
Bear Cub



Joined: 17 Feb 2004

Posts: 620

Location: Santa Cruz, CA
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 5:44 am    Post subject: Re: What is it about old tube amps? Reply with quote
sharring wrote:
...Ampaholics Anonymous group somewhere? scott



Denial is our friend!
I don't have any vintage tube amps right now, and have had good results with SOME modern solid state amps (like Tech 21), but every time I get a really good sound happening I notice it's a tube amp!
My present ride is a Traynor YCV-20, but only because it can out-Deluxe a Fender DRRI (had one).
A lot of great records were made on old cheap tube amps, especially by black musicians with no bread.
Very emotional sounding, those old Silvertones, etc. Mostly they were cheap copies of Fender circuits from the fifties.

No, there isn't an Ampoholics Anonymous, but there are several good amp pages that will keep you poor, but with great sounding gear! Cool
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sharring
Tiger



Joined: 04 Feb 2004

Posts: 812

Location: Texas
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Steve, I've heard nothing but great things about that Traynor. I want a EL84 amp next-maybe a early 60's Gibson Falcon or Explorer or something. But I need one like I need another hole in my head. My 68DR is so sweet now-got a P12N speaker and NOS tubes so it's just plain silly. Hey, are you happy with the speaker/tubes in the Traynor? A friend of mine told me that amp sound is 70% circut design, 25% speaker and 5% tubes and that's what I've been working off of. Be God's-scott
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Steve
Bear Cub



Joined: 17 Feb 2004

Posts: 620

Location: Santa Cruz, CA
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 5:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
sharring wrote:
...Hey, are you happy with the speaker/tubes in the Traynor? A friend of mine told me that amp sound is 70% circut design, 25% speaker and 5% tubes and that's what I've been working off of. Be God's-scott


I believe that's true. Those old Gibsons are Fender circuits but aluminum chassis vs steel (no biggie).
My Traynor was used, and has a Made-in-Italy Jensen Special Design (blue label: AlNiCo?) I dunno. New ones have Eminence, except the new WR which has a Celestion Greenback (25w).
I have no idea about the tubes. They're buried in there somewhere. Hard to see even. I guess there are 5. I can see the power tubes and the inverter. The others are somewhere.

Anyway it sounds great and seems well built. Cheap used, at $250 but new they are around $500 I think. For a bit more there's the YCV-40, with 2 X 6L6's.
The 20 is 15w but class "A" so pretty loud. I was playin' with a guy down at the local mission who had a HR Deville 60w and I was happy with my sound and could keep up no prob volume-wise.

I could be just as happy with an old Gibson Lark (Skylark? Champ-like), but the Traynor has some extra sounds and oomph when I need it. I used to use HUGE amps. Ampegs, et al.
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merlin
Newbie Alert



Joined: 12 Oct 2006

Posts: 1

Location: Silicon Valley
PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:59 pm    Post subject: Re: What is it about old tube amps? Reply with quote
sharring wrote:
Guys, I have a confession to make. I secretly log on to E-bay and search under "tube amp", get 600 or more responses and look at old obscure cheap amps for a half hour. What is wrong with me? I love the sound of cheap tube amps like Silvertone, Valco, Supro, Magnatone and the like. Of course, they are not so cheap as they used to be! Anyway, the Lord has more than blessed me with the three old Fenders and the SWR I have. But there is something just so cool about the 40's, 50's and 60's amps. They almost always sound good and easily distort just by turning the volume up. An inspiring sound is important to me. Then all I have to worry about is note choice. And the styling/asethetics are cool-the tweed of the 40's and 50's, the space age look of the late 50's and 60's....very appealing to me. Yesterday I saw an old Kay with 26L6's and a single 15" alnico speaker for $200-how cool is that? Is there an Ampaholics Anonymous group somewhere? scott





I have just picked up a quantity of Epiphone Value Junior amps for mod and re-sale. The stock VJ is a 5 watt head, and for 110 bucks, just not a bad way to go.

-g
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