Joker Verox

Archive for March, 2010

and how do they sound different?

YES. tube amps are louder.

tube amps sound better than solid state amps mainly because they use vacuum tubes to power the amp and at the preamp section. unlike solid state amps which use transistors and diodes that drastically color your tone in a bad way, making it sound sterile and processed.

to the answerer below me: if you think a cheap amp would sound like a tube amp then you’re an amateur. solid state amps also have built in distortion, not just tube amps, and tube amps are actually better at both clean sounds and overdriven. you sir are very misinformed and uneducated about gear.

I have decided to extend my musical ability to the violin and have ordered an electric one to be delivered in the next couple of days. I was thinking that it is theoretically possible to get a good sound by putting a violin’s signal through a guitar effects pedal, such as chorus, Compress, Wah and even distortion. I have no reason to imagine why it wouldnt work, but anyone out there who’s tried it?

Yes, I’ve done it, and yes, it is possible, if you’re very careful to avoid feedback. Like the person said before me, any loud volume is going to make you screech no matter how you play, as is too much of any effect.

What type of violin did you buy? Some are going to work better than others in this situation. For example, a Fender electric violin is a fairly basic model and doesn’t have quite the capabilities(at least that I’ve found) to be suitable for gigging. However, on the other end of the spectrum, Zeta violins are more set up for an effect board, and you can buy whole packages with the violin and effect board included.

Also, initially learning to play violin is going to be pretty difficult if you try to jump right in to using effects. It might be best for you to rent an acoustic violin from your local music store for a while as you learn the basics of how to play. Even if you’re crossing over from another instrument, or several other instruments, it will be a challenge, and I think if you immediately try to work with an electric and effect board, you may hinder yourself rather than help yourself.

But, to answer your question, yes, you can do it. I’ve done it as frontwoman of a rock band with guitar, bass, and drums behind me.

My boyfriend plays an electric guitar and has a Crate G160XL amp currently. He mostly plays hard rock and metal. I’d like to buy him a new amp for Christmas since he’s had this one a while. Any suggestions? I tried doing my own research online but I really have no clue what to look for on this one. Thank you in advance for any input.

More wattage doesn’t necessarily mean louder or better tone, if that’s your goal. Unless he plans on powering a ton of speakers, wattage doesn’t tell you much about the amp itself. You have to look at the speakers being matched up to the amp and their decibel rating at a given wattage. A 25 watt amp with a speaker that puts out 95 dB at 25 Watts is just as loud and powerful as a 200 Watt amp with a speaker that puts out 95 dB at 200 Watts.

What you really want to pay attention to is the tone of the amp. My personal pick for playing hard rock would be a Mesa Boogie Double or Triple Rectifier. AMAZING amps!!! (although a bit pricey.) But you can’t go wrong an all tube Marshall, though. Randall and Orange also make some really good amps.

did the famed "black face" fender amps actually have a black grill cloth? I have never seen a fender amp with a black grill cloth except those cheap solid state ones. All of the vintage fender tube amps I’ve seen have all had a silver grill cloth

You would think it had to do with the grill cloth, but no.

It was the control panel that was black with white silk screened markings. The blackface amps came out in ‘64 and were discontinued in ‘67. There was a short reintroduction of the blackface control panel in 1981 that lasted about a year.

Just want to prove my friend wrong
I don’t mean a pickup that you put over the hole.

Yes they have less options such as distortion and overdrive. They have a very clean sound. Of course an acoustic-electric guitar would still work with an amp made for an electric guitar, but it won’t sound as good as if you get an amp specially made for an acoustic-electric.

I already have two tube amps in mind, one built with more of an American voice, and the other British. My main axe is an Epiphone Elitist Casino, which is FULLY hollow, for some who like to argue… Anyways, I want a nice warm, and crystal clear clean sound, so which would be my best bet in terms of achieving the "ultimate" clean sound?

American voiced amps tend to use 6L6 or 6v6 power tubes, and typically have strong bass response, slightly scooped EQ tendencies and plenty of headroom. British voiced amps commonly use EL34s/EL84s and are characterized by quick breakup, an overall looser sound and lots of mid range. I’ve always preferred Fender style cleans, which are definitely American voiced amps, but there are plenty of good EL34 powered amps that can produce great cleans. Above all, you really need to play both amps before you buy one, and see which one you like most.

I’m trying to research if i can make my own guitar effects, (clones) like the fuzz factory.I was just wondering do all guitar effects just use circuits? If yes can i just take a course in circuits, (though i already know a bit about them) to get more experience with them and to start making my own effects? If yes again could it be possible to make a effect (or take it out of the case of a commercial effect) and put it in my guitar?

Guitar effects are based from circuits of some kind. It’s a good idea to start by cloning effects when starting down the road of homebrewing your own pedals… that way you have an idea what you want, and you know more or less what you want to achieve, and how to get there.

Distortion pedals specifically are a great place to start – the Tubescreamer, for instance, is only about a dozen components, not counting the power supply, enclosure, jacks, switches, knobs, etc of course. Many of the most popular distortion pedals are relatively simple circuits with relatively low component counts, ie, Big Muff, Fuzz Face, etc.

You can take a course in circuits, certainly, but I should warn you that the knowledge won’t be 100% applicable. Audio electronics seems to be something of a subdiscipline in its own right, and once you’re talking about effects you end up in situations where you might intentionally want to break the rules… for instance, good engineering practice might suggest one value of bypass capacitor (see first link), but that doesn’t take into account the function that capacitors play in terms of filtering your signal… there are times that you want a smaller cap than may be normally considered, and there are times where a larger cap may be warranted.

Also, some engineering practices may run contrary to the point of a circuit’s intent… for instance, I found a document describing how to design a JFET preamp for a radio circuit. While it showed both a design with the source resistor both bypassed and non-bypassed by a cap, it mentioned that even though you lose some gain, it may be best to *not* bypass the resistor (ie leave the cap out), since it can introduce noise or hiss into the circuit. In practice, this isn’t an issue with guitar pedals (at least not in the same way), especially distortion pedals where in general you’re going to *want* more gain.

(sorry, hope that wasn’t too technical)

I strongly urge you to hit up the DIY sites and forums, and spend a lot of time reading and asking questions. Many DIY sites have build reports, scanned PCB’s, schematics, vero stripboard layouts, and some even offer components and full kits for sale.

It is possible to put some effects directly into your guitar, yes, but because there isn’t a lot of space in the guitar’s cavity, it isn’t commonly done except with preamp and/or EQ circuits. Remember, you’ve got to fit a battery in there too…

Speaking of which, a preamp is a great first project to get started on. I would suggest a buffer… it’s simple, very few parts, and gets you used to the whole idea. It’s kind’ve a subtle effect, but when you put one onboard it can make a very big difference in your tone. Um, third and fourth links down talk about buffers.

The idea there is that guitar pickups have a high output impedance. This isn’t good – high impedances are more likely to suffer from tone loss (loss of treble especially) and noise. A buffer converts that high impedance to low output impedance… which means that your cables and certain pedals will no longer suck your tone! A great mod, especially if you don’t like to spend tons of money on expensive cables and/or have long cable runs.

I’ve included a number of links, the last few are some great sites, some with stores attached where you can order kits or parts pretty easily. Most also have forums attached as well, places where you can learn a ton!

I would suggest starting with JFET-based circuits… they’re simple, cheap, pretty standard, and can sound very good. Runoffgroove has a number of *very* cool projects that use this component, the fetzer valve link below has a lot of good design information, for instance.

Google "dr boogey" for a great mesa boogie "recto" clone pedal, or any of the variations of the Shaka pedal for MOSFET based circuits.

Creating delay, modulation, etc type pedals ain’t easy… work up to those.

If you want to go that direction, consider the Epiphone Valve Jr. It’s a cheap tube amp (available as a head or combo) that is a great platform for modification and tweaking… a good start to getting familiar with building your own amps.

Alternatively, google "Matsumins valve caster" and see if you can find the 63 page (!!!) topic on diystompboxes.com. It’s all about using tubes run at low voltages for overdrive/distortion pedals. Really cool stuff, that’s where I’m heading towards now…

Good luck!

Saul

Well I’m not an electrician or anything, but i was just curious about this since I noticed it.

I have a Fender 212R guitar amp, which is supposedly 100 Watts. Well I looked on the back by where the power cable plugs in and it said Input Power 360 W

So my question is, what happens to the other 260 watts here?

a. Input watts are different than output watts.

b. Thats a solid-state amplifier and is essentially a glorified stereo amplifier.

c. Buy a tube amp. 30W will knock your socks off.

which company makes better tube amps? better solid amps?

If it’s serious gigging amps (cabs with heads or whatever) you’re looking for, I’d go with Marshalls, but I’d get the Fender if you’re looking for just like a practice amp or whatever.

im thinkin about getting a semi acoustic guitar but i dont want to have to buy another amp. is the sound going to be alot different if i play the semi-acoustic on the amps i already have (line 6 spider II 75 watt / Roland Cube 30) or does having an amp designed specifically for semi-acoustic really matter?

There are amps that are better for acoustic/electrics. But what you have will work fine