Is it absurd that we re still using vacuum tubes in amps?

12
Justin from Queens wrote:It reminds me of a joke.

MIT held a banana designing contest.

It came down to the two finalists. The first guy gets up.

"After nearly one million man hours of design, testing and research, my team has finally crafted the perfect synthetic banana! The polymer coating is actually bruise sensitive! You drop it and it will turn brown, just like a banana! We've FINALLY been able to design it so that it will pretty consistently peel in four to five different size strips! It even snaps a little when you first breach it, just like a banana! The soy-based interior fruit substitute is either pliable or mushy, depending on how hard you press it, just like a banana..!"

This goes on for five minutes. The judges look over at the second guy as he steps up to the podium to present.

He stands there for a second and then holds up his design. "I have a banana I bought at the store."

<JOKE OVER>

Actually, it didn't remind me of that. I just made that joke up.

= Justin


:heart:
kerble is right.

Is it absurd that we re still using vacuum tubes in amps?

13
tarandfeathers wrote:I think the reason they've not been completely displaced by solid state devices is a combination of the fact that the 'tube sound' is so widely percieved to be THE sound of electric guitar, and that that sound is a result of so many variables in physical tube design that modelling it either through transistor design or digital means is a pretty thankless task.


This has much more to do with industry trends than it does with the nature of a tube amplifier. I read an interview with Greg Sage of the Wipers who said that in the 80's, everybody was selling their old tube amps to get solid state or digital technology, so you could get some really great sounding tube amps for really cheap.

The current industry trend is the opposite, and very hung up on "vintage" designs. People are much more interested in reissues of '52 Telecasters and old Bassman or Twin Reverb amps than of newer technologies. In some ways I can't blame them, but at some point newer technology should be able to do the job that all the older tech can and more. While at the moment people might not be buying that technology, I believe there is still effort to develop it, and the trends in demand will at some point migrate to something else.[/i]

Is it absurd that we re still using vacuum tubes in amps?

16
qbertsoul wrote: I read an interview with Greg Sage of the Wipers who said that in the 80's, everybody was selling their old tube amps to get solid state or digital technology, so you could get some really great sounding tube amps for really cheap.



In the '70s, certainly true from my experience. There was a music shop in Eau Claire WI when I went to college there, that was a Peavey dealer.

They had dozens of old Fender tweed amps, as well as old Ampegs that Country dudes in the area traded in for new Peaveys. They also had dozens of things like Country Gentlemans, Jazzmasters, various old Gibsons that were also traded in. There was a time when some people regarded tube gear as unreliable. And you certainly could get great tube gear for cheap in the '80s. Hardly anybody wanted Orange or Sunn, and Hiwatts could be had for cheap .

Is it absurd that we re still using vacuum tubes in amps?

18
ubercat wrote:I still use mostly iron for cooking. I only have a few bits of chantall for applications that I can't perform on iron. Also, I still haven't found a decent pie iron and loaf iron, so I have two pieces of (shudder) teflon.

Same deal with my V4bs.


That's a good point actually, carbon (blue) steel knives will always be better than stainless, even though they go rusty in a matter of hours if you don't keep them dry.

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