Mic pre to DI to interface?

[Byron Dickens]

57 minutes ago, JohnnyV said:

a new 12ax7 might be worth the $40

? Highway robbery!

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Byron Dickens

[T Boog]

58 minutes ago, rsinger said:

If you like the sound that's what's important. IIRC the Chandler Tube Driver used a starved plate design and David Gilmour, Eric Johnson and others used it. The sounds the thing.

Agreed. Btw, I'm a huge EJ fan. And although Ive never owned a Tube Driver, I used to own 2 ADA MP1's and they sounded outstanding. No one could ever convince me that the tubes did nothing in there. It's still the best sound Ive ever had at really low volume... Full of harmonics & sustain. Like the Tube Driver, the MP1 has produced some killer sounding tracks.

[Byron Dickens]

59 minutes ago, JohnnyV said:

Anybody have recommendations for decent quality tubes? I'm out of touch with that.

There's no reason to spend stupid money on tubes because there ain't a dime's worth of difference. That's what people find out when they bother to apply the scientific method to actually testing them instead of voodoo marketing claims and expectation bias.

[T Boog]

2 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

There's no reason to spend stupid money on tubes because there ain't a dime's worth of difference. That's what people find out when they bother to apply the scientific method to actually testing them instead of voodoo marketing claims and expectation bias.

Well, I've watched many tube comparison vids on YouTube and IMO, there is subtle differences but I agree that it's way overblown (much like tone woods). In a blind test, I doubt many people could rate tubes by their price point.

 

[rsinger]

40 minutes ago, T-Boog said:

Agreed. Btw, I'm a huge EJ fan. And although Ive never owned a Tube Driver, I used to own 2 ADA MP1's and they sounded outstanding. No one could ever convince me that the tubes did nothing in there. It's still the best sound Ive ever had at really low volume... Full of harmonics & sustain. Like the Tube Driver, the MP1 has produced some killer sounding tracks.

I don't understand. I still have an ADA MP-1. It's not a starved plated design. The tubes get 200v. My point is that the transformer for the tubes on a preamp doesn't have to be large. I'm not an ee, but I think the big iron on guitar amps is an output transformer to power the speakers. You don't have that on a preamp. FWIW. 

[T Boog]

2 minutes ago, rsinger said:

I don't understand. I still have an ADA MP-1. It's not a starved plated design. The tubes get 200v. My point is that the transformer for the tubes on a preamp doesn't have to be large. I'm not an ee, but I think the big iron on guitar amps is an output transformer to power the speakers. You don't have that on a preamp. FWIW. 

Ah, my bad. I never knew how the MP1's circuitry worked. I just knew they sounded amazing(and that was thru an old Peavey solid state PA). That said, I def agree with ur earlier post that the sound is all that matters.

I still own a couple nice sounding tube amps but I've been using a cheap JOYO American Sound pedal(Tech 21 Blonde rip off) to record. It sounds as good as any Fender tube amp I've ever played. If it sounds good to me, I careless about name brand, tech specs, tube type, etc. Cheers!

[John Vere]

I think because of the new interest in Tube stuff in the last decade that tubes are now obviously a common item available all over the internet and music stores. It wasn’t like that in the 90’s. For a while it was only Russian made as we were told tubes are not used in North America anymore so not worth maintaining the special equipment needed.  
In the 70’s you could still find a tube tester and a large inventory in small local general stores.  RCA was a common brand. Older Cars still had tube radios. Electohome stereos etc. 
Then in the 80’s they were much harder to find as consumers all had solid state audio now.  
In the past I had a tube amp repair shop that’s 100 km away service my Fender Princeton and that sort of died on me a few years ago and I still haven’t gotten around to fixing it. I use my Blackstar ID 15 TV now as well as the 1964 Gibson Skylark which tested out good but that’s been 10 years ago. It only uses 3?tubes so it’s almost cheaper to just replace them than pay the tech to service it. 

I think the Princeton needs a new output transformer. 
I miss it but it was used hard for 10 year after the overhaul and started acting up.  The overhaul cost $600 back in 1994. So this why I went with the Blackstar. Dependability.  

Anyhow I’m going to order a tube for the Art and see what happens. What the heck. 

[T Boog]

14 minutes ago, JohnnyV said:

Anyhow I’m going to order a tube for the Art and see what happens. What the heck. 

Awesome John. Please comment back on ur experience with it.

Also, I feel u on the amp tech thing. All 3 of my local music instrument stores are now shut down and the amp techs they worked with don't do repairs anymore. They seem to be somewhat of a dying breed.

 

Btw, what year is ur Princeton John?

[John Vere]

3 hours ago, T-Boog said:

Btw, what year is ur Princeton John?

1972. The upgrade was he used the Tremolo tube as an extra pre amp so I have an input gain as well as the standard volume. So it can go to 11 on the pre amp and the output can be toned down. I also put a Celestion Vintage 30 in it.

The range of  Fender Twin clean to Marshall distortion is all there and at the perfect stage volume.  It is the best Blues tone ever.  I’ve done hundreds of gigs with it with nothing but a delay pedal. I miss it. The Skylark only has one sound which is cool but not what I always want. The Tremolo is very good.  But I also have a Mooer Trelicopter pedal. 

Theres lots of videos about fixing these old amps and my son is an electrician/ technician so we will take it on as a rainy day project. 

Edited July 24, 2023 by JohnnyV

[T Boog]

2 minutes ago, JohnnyV said:

1972. The upgrade was he used the Tremolo tube as an extra pre amp so I have an input gain as well as the standard volume. So it can go to 11 on the pre amp and the output can be toned down. I also put a Celestion Vintage 30 in it.

Theres lots of videos about fixing these old amps and my son is an electrician/ technician so we will take it on as a rainy day project. 

1972, very cool. I'm sure you'll get it up & running again. I like the gain mod & v30 too. (I get the feeling that amp is a screamer)