April 29th, 2010 | 
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http://www.oldtonezone.com – In the 4th video of this series, I spend some time illustrating with sound and graphics, what happens when you vary the different volume levels in your signal chain. It’s a very simple look at a 3 part signal chain: guitar – preamp tube – power tube, and you should understand after watching this video how those 3 things work together to create different kinds of distortion.
Duration : 0:10:3
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@pleximanic …
@pleximanic Zebrawood over Basswood.
That guitar sound …
That guitar sound like it is really lightweight ,great sounding very resonant guitar!
Is it a Swamp ash body or Alder or some other kind of wood like maybe paulownia?
great video, really …
great video, really informative – the whole series deserves much more attention
I think I’d want …
I think I’d want power tube distortion in all genres of music even metal… why wouldn’t you?
great video, this …
great video, this really spelled it out for me, helped a lot.
by the way, do you have a video lesson that includes the long lick you play near the 7:44 mark?
This is a great …
This is a great video on the topic. But it’s worth pointing out that there are other considerations based on the type of amp, the type of guitar, input gear etc. For example… on a Blues Jr, a bit of power tube breakup is great. If you’re playing something more “rock” or “metal” that power tube breakup can often sound flabby and mushy. There’s also output transformer saturation to be considered–power tubes not distorting, but amp sounding extremely full, etc. Lots to think about.
Preamp tubes can …
Preamp tubes can live for years. Power tubes… Well, depends on the tubes, the amp, and how loud and how often you use it. Current production is far from what you could get until the 60s, so expect to have to replace them after about a few thousand hours. Dying tubes will sound dull and lifeless, but the degradation happens slowly so you don’t always spot it right away. Anyway – have your amp serviced once a year by a competent tech and you should be fine.
wrt/ ‘buckers VS SC …
wrt/ ‘buckers VS SC : “more output level” = “louder”. Take 2 SC and wire’em in series (cf the 4way switch mod on Teles) and you’ll have a noticeable boost . Can’t tell much about your Schecter – don’t know what pups it have, but they are obviously hotter than your strat’s !-)
Thanks buddy! …
Thanks buddy! That’s a great explanation! I’m aware of the differences in the pups, but I’m more curios about the tube amp’s reaction to the different kinds. For example, my Schecter distorts a lot quicker than my Strat. Also the buckers are louder than the SC’s… I guess what I’m asking is what makes the amp react that way and what causes the difference in signal?
awesome explanation!
awesome explanation!
(…) wrt/ pups: ” …
(…) wrt/ pups: “cold/hot” is about the output level of the pup. One way to increase this level is to add more wounds (at the expense of dynamic and clarity), so usually a “hot” pup is also an overwound one. Humbuckers are pups with 2 coils connected in series, so the output level is (for similar magnets / winding) bigger than single coils, but here again there’s a loss in clarity and dynamic. You’ll find more in depth explanations on the net on these topics.
A boost is a ( …
A boost is a (usually solid state) preamp, so what goes into the amp’s input stage is already enough to drive the input stage into distortion. What Steve didn’t cover is that not all signals require the same amount of power – bass needs a lot, treble much much less – so you often have the bottom end clipping while the hi stay cleaner – far from perfect. The canonical recipe with clean boosts is to use a treble boost, which will only amplify the hi ends so they start clipping before the bass.
Awesome vids …
Awesome vids Anthony,
Can you please talk about what happens when you use a clean boost pedal to “cook” your tube amp? Also can you talk about how tubes respond differently to different pickups (i.e. single coil/humbucker, cold/hot, softwound/overwound)?? I hope it’s not too much to ask
Thanks!
It is ‘big’ …
It is ‘big’ relative to what the preamp tubes can handle without distorting. Kind of like a mouse looks big to an ant.
Isn’t the signal …
Isn’t the signal from a guitar very weak? About 1/8th volt? You say on here the guitar signal is big.
Wow that was really …
Wow that was really helpful. I never quite understood this stuff before.
The B-52s should be …
The B-52s should be retubed, preferably with JJs or other wellmade low noise tubes. Also, they tend to be very dodgy on reliability. That being said, I enjoy mine and it is the most amp you can get for your money with cascading gain. Clean channel is ‘country clean’ but will not give you any decent ‘in-between’ tones. Weird combo.
Great explanation . …
Great explanation … love this series!
This makes a lot of …
This makes a lot of sense why the large 50+ watt tube amps are so hard to get the tone I want. They sound terrible unless you crank the volume up to a point which everyone complains is too loud. I’m glad this reinforces my need for a smaller amp.
nice lesson dude.
nice lesson dude.
The head is however …
The head is however unscathed, or so it appears.And, p.s. I understand what you mean about the muddiness of the distortion. I bought this beast of an amp not too long ago, now I would like to upgrade to the B-52 ATX-100 tube version of it to further improve my sound.
@gr8bluesgtr My B- …
@gr8bluesgtr My B-52 LS series Half stack gets terribly noisy hum and feedback at a moderately low distortion level (Master Vol 3,CH-2 Gain 10, CH Gain-2 Vol 3 “no contour”, OD Vol 3, OD Bass 4, Treble 5, Mid 3, Epiphone Les Paul Standard Vol 10, Tone 10)
Now I’m not sure as to why it does this, but I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that while I was moving my amp it feel backwards while the head was still plugged in, slightly jarring the socket into the cabinet.
Tops. 5 stars.
…
Tops. 5 stars.
How does the pre-amp and power tubes work on an amp with only one volume control?
Great job. Love …
Great job. Love the graphics! Thank you.
@spiderman98266 If …
@spiderman98266 If I were to keep it running at the volume it were at when I demonstrated the master volume all the way up, yes, it would hurt my ears.