Valve Amp - who’s still using them?

[Sean]

On 11/07/2025 at 13:05, aniki said:

I don't have a thread for the board I'm afraid. It's evolved a bit since that photo:

It probably looks way more complicated than it is; considering most of the time I'm just playing clean bass!

Basically all the pedals at the back stay on. Everything is controlled via the six switches at the front.

-

The clean signal enters via a patch bay into the tuner and then compressor (always on).

The clean signal then goes through a looper with which I can add 'phaser / reverb' and / or delay.

This signal then goes to the ABYbaby which splits the signal into two. The switches select either output or both.

Output B goes straight to another patchbay through to my clean amp.

Output A goes to another looper. This has distortion / noise gate on the first loop and flanger on the second. Again, I can combine dirty with clean, dirty and flanger with clean etc.

The output from the looper then goes to another patchbay output to my dirty amp.

-

A lot of the time I'm playing guitar type parts with the clean channel and the phaser.

When things get heavy, I use unaffected clean channel combined with distorted dirty channel for ultimate planetary destruction...

I've delayed a bit in responding to this but there's been a lot going in in my head with how I can learn from it.  

I've already been in touch with Wub (if you know, you know) and I'm about 2 weeks away from a new fuzz.

Thank you very much for sharing that post. i loves a posh pedal board. 

Edited Thursday at 19:22 by Sean

[BassAdder60]

In my time I’ve owned and gigged an Ampeg SVT-CL ( very nice ) Ampeg V4 ( very nice ) Ashdown CTM 100 ( nice but odd EQ ) 

My last gigging amp ( same rock kind of bands ) were Eich T900 and it was as good sounding and a lot more practical of course. In the band mix I didn’t really hear enough difference to warrant a valve amp but they feel different to play for sure especially when cranked a bit.

Other issue is selling them later as it’s a limited market and heavy as hell for shipping ! 

[Bagman]

Ashdown CTM-300 is the best amplifier I have owned 

 

Thinking about the 400 BTA as well 

[W1_Pro]

I use an Ashdown Little Bastard with the 2x12" Ashdown cab they make for it. It works great for me, a particularly nice feature is not needing a crane to move it...😆

The band I use it with has an acoustic drumkit and two guitarists who insist on not using any backline (hip, I know but I just can't warm to it, probably my age), plus a singer who uses ears. Onstage volume is never too brutal.  Everything is put into the PA and both guitarists and I use wedges. The drumer also has an IEM setup. I get a nice breakup off the amp with plenty of bottom end. All in all, I'm a fan.😃

[BassmanPaul]

My speaker cabinets of choice are Acme B2 three way 2x10. They are a bit inefficient so require a lot of power for them to sing at their best. I se a 2KW capable Class D power amp but, loving tubes, I designed and built a two channel full tube pre-amp to drive it. Together they sound wonderful!

 

If I could procure a stereo tube power amp with 400W per channel I'd use it in a heartbeat - IF I could lift it! LOL

 

 

Edited Saturday at 21:17 by BassmanPaul

[Downunderwonder]

6 hours ago, BassmanPaul said:

stereo tube power amp with 400W

By my maths that is two 200w tube amos. Divide and conquer. 

[Woodinblack]

6 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

By my maths that is two 200w tube amos. Divide and conquer. 

that was 400W per channel. But what rating is this for the 2kw class D?

[BassmanPaul]

My power amp gives me 500W per channel driving a pair of 4Ω Acme B2 speaker cabinets. That's more than enough to push them to their best.

 

If I need to go full out I can add a second pair of B2 cabinets and run the amp at 2Ω which it is quite capable of doing. 

 

 

 

Edited 17 hours ago by BassmanPaul

[Pow_22]

I'm really toying with the idea of getting another valve amp.  Stage volume wise we are quite a sensible band and rely a lot on the PA to give the FOH volume.  I genuinely think i could probably get away with an Ashdown CTM30/Little Bastard but recently I've looked into an old Bassman 135 as I see you can run 1 x 8ohm cab off the extension output and they also have a line out for FOH.  In an ideal world id love to get my hand on one of those EBS T90's but can never find one