Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Non-tube amp discussion to discuss music, girls, life, etc.

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drew
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by drew »

martin manning wrote: Wed Nov 01, 2017 10:47 am Class D is super efficient and super lightweight.
I just bought one of these (for half off the list price): http://www.ti.com/tool/tpa3255evm?eloqu ... rce=Eloqua

To answer the OP question, when you consider how younger audiences increasingly seem perfectly content with "concerts" consisting of lip-syncing dance acts, rappers making noise over pre-recorded tracks, or just some fist waving idiot pushing "play" on a Macbook, I think the prospects for not just tube amp use, but for live music performance in general, are not particularly encouraging.
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M Fowler
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by M Fowler »

The trouble with the Class D amp module is the power supply is way larger so it takes up a lot of room.

Those ICE power/amp modules are the way to go.
andyhardy
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

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ampmike
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by ampmike »

Saw the Outlaws couple weeks ago.They were awesome.Their main picker not Hue I forget his name,He used a kemper.A kid on line called Jim Hill from Nashville does a bunch of free vidios.Smokin little punk can wail on a Tele,he does a vidio on the topic Of the Kemper,He takes a stangray and programs it into the Kemper.He dicusses mostly the pros to this equipment on the road.Mikey
Custom Built Amps for Sale!http://faithamps.weebly.com/
Mark
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by Mark »

I think it also depends on the relationship you have with your equipment. Is there equipment you get attached to because it works for you or could you turn up and play any guitar and amp combination?

The other thing is I have used Pod farm and it offers a lot of sounds, I don't find that I change between tones much it's pretty much set and forget for me.

I've heard good things about the Kemper, but I'd hate to have problems with it. You'd be pretty much stuffed. The repairs would consist of replacing PCB's it's not economical to work extensively on that sort of gear.
Yours Sincerely

Mark Abbott
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norburybrook
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by norburybrook »

I posted some pics last week of a session I was doing at Mark Kopflers studio using my #102 rig. I was one of Two guitarists and Terry Johnson the other player(a fine top London Session player) was using a Kemper.

I had invited a friend of mine down to watch the session and he is a very keen eared guitarst who's been eric Clapton's guitarsist, Robert Palmer, Van Morrison, etc so he know's his guitar sounds.

He told me afterwards he could hear the difference instantly between my 'real' sounds as he called it and the Kemper, this was despite the fact the kemper was being used powered through a 2x12 cab and then mic'd. My partner who was also on the session as a backing singer also said she could hear the difference.

I have a freind who is on tour with jamiraqui at the moment and he sounds amazing with his Kemper, as do a lot of folk.

For me, I love my tube amps and have an 'emotional' connection with them, I also think the Kemper is amazing but I don't have the same connection with it.



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Colossal
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

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roberto
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by roberto »

I have to say that, while all of us here wish tube amps will last forever, it's IMHO quite obvious that in the following years/decades the diffusion of the profiles and the increase of calculus power of the microchips will permit to have systems that are more realistic than the kemper, with the dimensions and weight of a small stompbox (some, quite simple, came out this year).

We will continue to use tube amps, but for sure the mass will go with those units (the units that I've seen costs less than a retube).
On a pro level, I've seen alot of players that use kemper and fractal. No need to have multiple amps onstage, no need to have a ton of old rack units, no need to have a carpet of stompboxes or to change the settings of the stomp boxes on the fly, no need to remike the amp every day, to check all stompboxes and connection and power supplies when someing happens, etc...

It's sad, but that is the most probablesvenario.
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norburybrook
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by norburybrook »

Here's an interesting personal thing that's happened over the last 4 weeks. I built a lovely 100w JM sig/Wonderland amp this year. As a kemper owner I\ decided to profile it for myself, but then thought why not do it properly and make a profile pack to sell. So I profiled the amp fully, using the same mic combination that JM used for continuum album, vintage U67, SM57 and a ribbon. I took photos and made a nice read me document and then hit the Kemper forums to promote my pack.


Since releasing the profiles for sale, the revenue from the selling the profile packs has more than paid for the JM amp :D so kemper owners need good amps to be profiled in the first place so there is still a need for good tube amps even for those guys.

Right I'm going to profile my Rocket now...... :D



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roberto
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by roberto »

norburybrook wrote: Wed Nov 01, 2017 10:26 am http://www.dvmark.it/product-detail/dv-raw-dawg-eg/
interesting amp, valve pre and digital power
Quite possible the Biggest, cleanest, badest Loudest guitar sound I'd ever heard, except for standing on stage next to SRV. It was awesome, he used pedals for OD and grit but man, what a sound, MASSIVE, FULL CLEAN great dynamics , I was knocked out.
Yes, those amps are designed by another important and hystorical italian brand: Markbass (Alain Caron, Marcus Miller, Stuart Hamm), who has been one of the first brands to introduce D class power amps with tube preamps.
I know that Gregg Howe is currently using these amps. Current production is reliable and quite cheap, while first issues had alot of troubles (I've seen many of them with the typical issues of the amps produced in China).

I did something similar around 10 years ago, I'm sure I already talked about it here. It was a fender like preamp, with a modified eq between the two gain stages, and an IRF820 as a source follower after the second gain stage, plus a 250 W class D power amp and an SMPS power supply (while the preamp has a classic toroidal PT). It was initially designed as a bass amp, then a friend of mine bought one of my amps and asked me if that small light amp could be used to power a second cab for his highly detuned seven string guitar. He is now constantly using that amp live together with the all tube amp. It's a great combo.
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roberto
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by roberto »

norburybrook wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:23 pm Since releasing the profiles for sale, the revenue from the selling the profile packs has more than paid for the JM amp :D
Can I? How well can be sold a profile of a quite unusual amp well miked and processed?
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drew
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by drew »

Looks like the Milkman is hedging his bets: https://www.guitarworld.com/.amp/gear/m ... ts-new-amp
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martin manning
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by martin manning »

drew wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 2:51 am Looks like the Milkman is hedging his bets: https://www.guitarworld.com/.amp/gear/m ... ts-new-amp
Still a tube amp, just using a SMPS.
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pompeiisneaks
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by pompeiisneaks »

Well it's not using power amp tubes, its a class D SS output stage... so part tube.

~Phil
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martin manning
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Re: Are tube amps living on borrowed time?

Post by martin manning »

But that's just nit-pickin' innit?
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