Ask Tallkien Thread

Discussion in 'Guitar Gear Talk Forum' started by laneymaney, May 14, 2007.

  1. Nouman011

    Nouman011 New Member

    I bet they carry li'l pocket PA's with them everywhere, so they can talk to each other. Regular hearing aids would probably not be sufficient.
     
  2. Iraqita_EP

    Iraqita_EP New Member

    i havnt decided nethng yet.....................most prob will hav to wait for a year or sumtn................just wanted to know the opinions................
    is the combo versatile??coz im into loads of diff genres
     
  3. tallkien

    tallkien DIY GURU

    I haven't heard of a JCM 800 combo. Look, I'll say it again. 50 tube watts >= about 150 SS watts. And with a 4x12, probably a whole lot more.

    A tube amp only sounds good when you open it up. If you're buying it for home It's like buying a ferrari and driving it in your basement parking lot. The only thing it'll amount to in the end is a fancy piece of furniture you can brag to your friends about. If that's what you want go ahead, buy it, but if your in the habbit of asking your parents for ferraris I suppose this is just the amp for you.

    It is a great amp but do YOU really need it?
     
  4. Iraqita_EP

    Iraqita_EP New Member

    not as of now....................but yes i can see me needing it in the near future...................and if i do get it..........ill have to pay more than half of the share
     
  5. tallkien

    tallkien DIY GURU

    Just so you know, most composers I know buy preamps or 5 watt tube amps for composing/recording. But if you feel you are on your way to becoming a mega rock star who can order a sound engineer to use your amps over his then this is the amp for you, best of luck with it.
     
  6. thehundredthone

    thehundredthone Well-Known Member

    I'd love to try a tube preamp/amp someday, maybe a Bogner if it's a preamp.
     
  7. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    Dude Talkien.
    Few queries:

    1. Can ya build recording tube pre-amps. Recording pre-amps have some speaker emulation built-in which filter some amount of hi-end fizziness, so that you can directly record it.
    2. Won't a small t00b power amp unit (say 10W) give similar poweramp crunch as large power amp (say 50W)? In effect, its only the saturation thats making the overdriven tone. Ofcourse I am not trying to make those two sound equal in volume. What i mean is the level of overdrive in smaller power amp is equal to the level of overdrive in bigger amp. - Such a small power amp can be used in practice room settings too.
    3. What about combo amp? Pre-amp + Power-amp + Emulated Line-out for Direct recording + 12" Speaker (1 would do - Mark I and Mark IIc+ were single speaker beasts)
    4. :) Can ya make some improvisations in the circuitry to make your amp sound like Bogner Uberschall or ya know similar thick sounding amps ... :grin:
     
  8. tallkien

    tallkien DIY GURU

    1.`I've built a hybrid that sounds great and has all the features you're talking about. Check out the "Stack In A Box" project at www.paia.com.

    There is an all tube circuit that I have my eye on building at some point. This one doesn't have speaker emulation but Doug Hoffman describes his rig in some detail and gets some truly amazing results. He uses Guitar Rig software to emulate the speaker cab. I like the quality of his recordings. What's more you can sound like any amp/cab. Check it out here https://www.el34world.com/schematics.htm#Mods

    2. That is the whole idea behind the Marshall 18w. This amp has only one preamp stage. All the crunch comes from the power tubes. To drive a 50w Plexi into poweramp distortion you need to live on a farm house, whereas the 18 gives you that in your room, or a small club gig which is why its so sought after. There are countless variations of this amp form Orange, Trainwreck etc

    3. From what I hear most recording studios have their own 5 watt amps for recording, If you want to mic a box. We are sadly conditioned to hear a 10 watt stranger or marshall mg and think that any 5-10 watt amp will sound like that. A 5 watt tube amp in studio can sound exactly like a 100w head live, you can use the same speaker rig.

    In fact this is exactly reflected in the new design paradigm at ax84. Instead of designing whole amps, they're offering different preamps and poweramps.
    So say a plexi type preamp can be mated to a 2, 5, 20 or 50watt power stage, your choice.

    4. My high octane sounds thick or thin depending on the power tube I'm using. Every powertube sounds different. The EL84 can sound very nasal on its own but once you multiply them they are thick crunchy, high gain tubes. The EL34 is its Marshally big brother used in all famous big Marshalls. These are typically high Mid emphasis.
    Fenders are characterized by clear glassy sounds of the 6V6,6L6 etc. These are more Top/Bottom emphasized
    Apart from that any amp can be tweaked to satisfaction. A lot of guys have replaced the power sections of their big Marshalls with lower output poweramps just so they can dime it.

    Other than that passive components can be tweaked for thickness/brightness/gain/fizz etc. on practically any amp
    A hi octane preamp hot-rodded plus a 50watt EL34 would sound like the Ubershall. It's actually nothing but a marshall with a higher gain preamp.
     
  9. alpha1

    alpha1 I BLUES!

    cool.
    This looks promising.

    Especially in India, where you don't even get Boss pedals that easily ... LOL

    Hey one more question.
    What makes Mesa sound so nasal, and Marshall sound like an open roar in comparison?
    Is it because of difference in t00bs that amplify/attenuate certain frequencies ... or is it because there is some cort of eq built into it (in the pre-amp stages) where again certain frequencies are killed/boosted.

    Or is it because the final EQ section of both center at different frequencies.


    Its really fascinating to see that even though all are primarily overdrive/distortion ... thye have such a characteristic tone like Diezel has that trucky tone, Soldano has that sizzling sharp tone, mesa has nasal, marshall is like woof woof roar roar ...
     
  10. tallkien

    tallkien DIY GURU

    Mesa's are typically higher gain preamps than Marshalls.
    Preamp distortion=fizzy, nasal. Poweramp crunch=growl,bark.

    Then it really comes down to personal tastes of these manufacturers. The designs are all basically the same except for a few component differences. Considering the fact that even the transformer can hugely affect the sound, you can have identical circuits using different brand components sound like two different manufacturers.

    Mostly the difference between say a Soldano or Mesa would be some component values. An Uberschall is a Marshall with one extra gain stage :)
     

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