Klarinet Archive - Posting 000354.txt from 2004/09

From: "David C. Kumpf" <dkumpf@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] A bit off topic: vacuum tubes in amplifiers ??
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 08:14:01 -0400

Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:
> While my daughter was taking her first electric bass guitar
> lesson today, a fellow in the store told me that
> transistorized amplifiers cannot equal the range of response
> that an amplifier with vacuum tubes has.
>
> Is this true? Or is it more a matter of economcs (sufficient
> transistor circuits to equal old-time vacuum tubes would cost
> more than
> the average customer wants to pay). Or is it simply incorrect?

As Mark and Bill have indicated, this is simply incorrect.

I would add only that the trend for many years has been for MOST (but
certainly not all) bass players to use solid-state electronics, even going
so far as to use rack-mount amps, preamps, and other signal-processing
circuitry (e.g. equalizers) to precisely control the signal modifications.

Whereas MOST (again, certainly not all) guitarists tend to use tube
amplifiers for the warm series of overtones produced when those amps are
pushed into non-linear behavior. As Mark points out, there are solid-state
modeling amps that are extremely effective at reproducing such behavior.

Dave Kumpf
dkumpf@-----.com

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