Happy Jack Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Yesterday afternoon I was A/B-ing a Matamp GT100 head (old school, all valve, 100W) against a Demeter VTBP-201S preamp into a big (1000W) Digam Powersoft unit. Same bass, same cab, same fingers, everything set more-or-less flat. As you'd expect, both rigs sounded great. But the Matamp sounded indefinably better, it filled the room better with lush bass, my ears (and not just mine) felt better for it. Was it warm? Did it have heft? Dunno. But I know which rig I take to gigs ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1428407165' post='2740947'] Well that's the problem. It's very hard to describe 'heft'. I only experience it with valve amps. I also call it the 'all-valve bounce'. [/quote] They don't bounce, they make expensive crashing noises... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Tauzero, I did read it, and it's interesting, but doesn't really define what the "valve sound" or "heft" is, or what it's actually doing to the sound wave. Some are compressing, others are not, and yet there's some mysterious factor which all all-valve amps have which SS amps don't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 (edited) [quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1428413569' post='2741028'] ...there's some mysterious factor which all all-valve amps have which SS amps don't [/quote] Yes! There's magic in them glowing bottles, I tells ya! Edited April 7, 2015 by discreet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Hmmmm ... perhaps if I added a rectifier ... [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/Valve_zps329a2c58.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/Valve_zps329a2c58.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 I wouldn't suggest that it's [i]impossible [/i]to emulate, but there are, as far as my thin science goes, many factors involved. Compression has already been mentioned, either from the valve or from the power supply, but there's also the question of harmoniques (odd, even..?), non-linearity, speaker damping and probably a few more. I've never been one for distorted bass; I'm always wanting 'headroom', and find that with 200w of KT88 Hiwatt, I have that headroom. I didn't find the same with a Hartle 3500 (which wasn't bad at all, just much less 'heft' than the Hiwatt...). A different story still if one wants to go further into the murky waters of guitar distortion, where the o/p valves are pushed much harder. Getting that from an SS amp is difficult without going to great lengths; it's much simpler to just use a valve amp and push it, I reckon. A low-powered amp isn't that delicate nor heavy (Fender Deluxe..? There are many others...). It's not something I'd even attempt to 'imitate'. If that's the sound wanted, use the tool that gives it, no..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VTypeV4 Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 I'm a lover of all valve amplifiers for bass guitar and whilst I'm not a fan of terms such as 'bounce' or 'heft', I will concede there is a certain 'something' about the way they feel and sound. With regards to the O/P question about transformers, didn't the original transistor amplifiers of the '60s require coupling / output transformers to better match the load? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padawanguz Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 JohnK at the US makes a pedal called Transboost http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Transboost.html check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pbassred Posted April 11, 2015 Author Share Posted April 11, 2015 well padawanguz, "transformer saturation does seem like what I originally meant. I never intended to suggest that ALL of a tube sound is the transformer. Only that some of it could be added in. It looks like John K got there first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 You can build your own too: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/an-inexpensive-audio-transformer-with-diy-boost-project.1113802/page-17#post-17125268 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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