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Riding the tube

Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 by Steve Busby.

I frequently get asked about the benefits of a valve amp (like Sound City, Kustom or Traynor), to your sound as a guitarist. After spouting the usual “well it’s about the warmth of the tone you get” and “nothing sounds as good as a valve amp on the edge of breaking up”, it’s then a lot easier to do an A/B demo of a solid state amp versus a valve amp. The sound itself usually answers best.

The next question is: why is a valve amp louder than a solid state amp at the same RMS rating? Well it’s not! It may sound louder but that’s because the sound is richer. If the truth be known there are many great emulation amps on the market that get close to a valve sound and appear to be just as loud. Indeed if you want a REALLY clean sound then a solid state amp, like some of the Kustom amps might be the one to go for.

If you’re an effects lover, then you can get ‘your’ tone from a solid state amp with some tweaking anyway. But if you want to plug straight in and work with just a little reverb, it’s got to be valve.

Then there’s hybrid valve amps which have a 12AX7/ ECC83 valve (or two) in the pre-amp to overdrive the front end, and rely on solid state circuits to provide the ‘volume’; again this is a great alternative. Indeed most all-valve amps have pre-amp and power amp valves but use solid state technology in the rectifier to provide the overdrive.

So, do you need to buy a huge valve head and a separate 4 x 12 cabinet to get your sound?

No you don’t.

Increasingly you’ll find the professionals using small combos and either mic’ing them through the PA to get the volume, DI’ing them or connecting 2, 3 or more of them. Simply putting a combo on an amp stand actually boosts the audible volume from the amp, although you can lose some of the bass response which is gained from the floor/stage’s resonance. I saw a great solution to this which is a stand that tilts the combo skyward while retaining contact with the floor (at the back).

Something else that can have a huge impact on your sound is the valves used in the power circuit; whether they’re EL34s, EL84s, 6L6s or KT66s, KT88s, etc., they can all provide different types of warm overdrive to the power circuit and all have their own distinct tone and ‘attitude’.

For tonal reference:
Marshall uses ECC83s almost exclusively in the pre-amp and EL34s or EL84s in the power amp. Exceptions include the hand wired and Jimi Hendrix amps which use the more retro sounding KT66s in the power circuits.

Fender achieves its signature sound by mainly using 12AX7/12AY7 pre-amp valves and 6L6 type valves in the power amp.

Vox tends to use either 12AX7s or ECC83s in the pre-amp and EL34/84s in the power amp; when you see a Vox ‘all valve amps’ that generally means just that with EZ81s in the rectifier circuit.

Orange employs 12AX7s and EL84s in its great Tiny Terror amp, while in the Thunderverb range it uses a combination of 12AX7s/ ECC83s in the pre-amp and EL34s(50H) or KT88s (200H) in the power amp.

Something which people often overlook with amps is the quality of their speakers; make sure the speakers are the best you can afford; Jensens, Celestions and Eminence are all good bets.

I recently re-valved one of my own amps with cryogenically treated valves, which was a huge success. The science is that metal is made up of fibres, which when taken to low temperatures line up and conduct ‘better’. When brought back to ambient temps the fibres remain re-formatted, this leads to warm overdrive and less of the popping and hissing you can experience with cheaper (modern) valves. Watford Valves Limited is the only outlet I have found for these and I chose the Harma valves. Originally I was looking for NOS Mullard valves, when treated I believe the Harma valves are about the same. They definitely worked for me, anyway. BTW, look out for cryogenically treated strings too - they really sing.

If you’re interested in a low(er) cost valve amp, check out the re-launched Sound City range, I highly recommend it for value for money. The updated Sound City Head and Combos (20C, 30C and 40C) are all made in China so the price is relatively low. They have 2 Channels (Clean and Overdrive). The clean is excellent warm clean valve tone, while the overdrive channel soon gets into more contemporary high gain sounds.

Vox and Orange also produce good amps in this range.

Hybrid amps should fall into the entry level pricing (£130-250) and usually benefit from a huge array of built in amp emulation types and effects.

In the mid price bracket, Kustom amps (made in USA) are a good valve amp option. The Defender 50w Combo also has the benefit of being extremely light and sounds great; it has the ability to run EL84s or 6L6s in the power amp, so is very versatile. If you’re a metal freak, you’ll need an overdrive pedal, but it works great when driven like this.

The Line 6 Valve (in conjunction with Bogner) is a departure for this ‘emulation’ company into the valve market. Well worth a try though, Line 6 has retained its ability to emulate different valve amp types at the touch of a control.

The Coupe (36 & 72) amps really sound great. The 2 x 10 Coupe 36 combo is an outstanding amp which you can find for about £700 (RRP £899).

Of course Marshall and Fender have some really good amps in this range too, although they tend to fall in the upper price band if you’re going for signature or hand wired models.

Laney’s Lionheart range is also a strong player here too.

At the boutique end of things, well if you’re looking at this you probably don’t need me, but Mesa, Cornford, Bogner, etc. (and there are many) are very good, if not pricey! I recommend Traynor amps highly. They are made in Toronto and are some of the sweetest sounding amps available. Expect to pay around £550-£650 for the 15w combo and £700’ish for the YCV50Blue 50w combo. Both are loaded with great (single) Celestion drivers and sweet, carefully matched Mullard-esque valves. That’s boutique for a great price, they really give the more pricey boutique amps stiff competition!

So that’s a brief round-up of valve amps versus solid state, hybrids, the options, pricing and quality. I hope it has been at least helpful. Of course I haven’t mentioned huge numbers of great guitar amps by name. If you have a question regarding any of these or the amps I’ve mentioned, I’d be happy to help if I can.

Just bear in mind you don’t need to spend £1000+ to get a great valve sound.

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