The Tube Amp Epiphany
Andrew Cockburn
Aug 1 2008, 02:03 PM
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I finally had a tube amp epiphany last night ...

Many of you are aware that I built my own tube amp (the AC.1) to try and get some tube tone and understand why they are supposedly so much better than digital modelers.

I have been playing with the AC.1 off and on for a while but never got a sound I even remotely liked, was starting to give up hope as I wanted both a bluesy sound and a high gain sound and this amp just didn't seem capable of either.

Anyway, it turns out that one of the things really turning me off was the bare bones dry amp sound - I had suspected this for a while. A second problem was that if you tried to mic it up and add effects, it was defeated anyway by the loudness of the amp and once again, you just got the horrible (to me ) dry sound.

Sooo, I saw a post somewhere about impulse responses of amp cabs. I use an attenuator that has a line out - tried it in the past and it sounds as fuzzy as hell, just not a nice sound, but if I take the line out into my DAW, add an impulse response for a cab, it starts to sound pretty good. Add a little delay, a smidge of reverb on top of that, and all of a sudden I started to get an awesome sound.

I was jamming to the 3/4 collaboration backing track, and all of a sudden I was starting to get a feel for this fabled pick sensitivity that everyone raves about - I was playing with the volume pot on my guitar to go from clean to distorted, and all of a sudden a whole new realm of expression opened up for me! I was amazed!

So now I have a great mellow bluesy sound out of the AC.1 which is what it was built for - I could probably get the same kind of feel by actually micing it up for real which I will try and do for comparison anyway ...

Next, I need to find a high gain sound that I like - maybe I can add a tubescreamer to get that, or maybe I will build a new amp, but I am now firmly on the road to tube tone!

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rockztar
Aug 1 2008, 02:08 PM
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sounds grat andrew=) when you get it miced plz make some recording

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Fran
Aug 1 2008, 03:24 PM
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Awesome Andrew, patience always pays off!, I bet the AC.1 will be a classic soon wink.gif

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JVM
Aug 1 2008, 03:27 PM
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Not to give into impulses, but... CLIPZ!

biggrin.gif

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Andrew Cockburn
Aug 1 2008, 03:40 PM
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QUOTE (JVM @ Aug 1 2008, 10:27 AM) *
Not to give into impulses, but... CLIPZ!

biggrin.gif


Ok, I'll try and record something soon with the impulse response, and I'll work on the micing for later ...

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Rooks
Aug 1 2008, 04:00 PM
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If you build your own tube amp more than once, you definately have too much spare time.

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Andrew Cockburn
Aug 1 2008, 04:10 PM
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QUOTE (Rooks @ Aug 1 2008, 11:00 AM) *
If you build your own tube amp more than once, you definately have too much spare time.


Very true - and I don't have the time for it now sad.gif

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Electric Guitars : Ibanez Jem7v, Line6 Variax 700, Fender Plus Strat with 57/62 Pickups, Line6 Variax 705 Bass
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Effects : Line6 Helix, Keeley Modded Boss DS1, Keeley Modded Boss BD2, Keeley 4 knob compressor, Keeley OxBlood
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Muris Varajic
Aug 1 2008, 04:56 PM
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Go Andrew!!! smile.gif

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