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Vintage threads from the first ten years
| previous: Munk Well I have a Marshall 30 watt SS 1... -- 9/24/2004 2:15 PM |  |
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Re: What tube amp to build next?
 10/3/2004 5:00 PM |
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| Brutus | Re: What tube amp to build next? You can easily hear how class A sounds by taking any of your current amplifiers and reducing the bias into class A territory. I've done this many times and in general this happens: - The sound gets noticeably thicker. - The sound has less headroom and distorts quicker but in a pleasing way. - The midrange becomes more pronounced. - The highs roll off noticeably. - The tone gets smoother. - The tubes get noticeably hotter. You have to ask yourself if this is the tone you really want because class A amps in general are warmer and sound a little less agressive than class AB. If you like class A then I would recommend trying class A with a cathode biased final output section. To my ears cathode biased class A is smoother and sings better than fixed bias class A. Also, cathode biased output sections actually distort less than fixed bias (see RCA Radiotron Designers Handbook for details on why this is true). In other words, using cathode bias in the output stage will make the amp even warmer and a bit less aggressive. The VOX AC-30 and the Matchless Chieftain are two popular amps that use cathode biased class A operation. I believe that the fender 5e3 is pretty much of a class A amp cathode biased amp as well. Brutus |
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| Greg Simon Those amps your mentioned aren't Cl... -- 10/3/2004 7:45 PM Carl Gigun Brutus, |