Year: 2015

Much has been written and said on this, and what I have to say is by no means authoritative, but I thought I’d write a quick summary of the various info I’ve found while reading:

1) Soft vs. Hard Clipping
The number one reason why tube amps seem to be perceived louder in volume for the same wattage seems to be soft vs. hard clipping. When companies rate amps for power that rate the wattage where the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the power section is below a certain threshold. This is generally not for the amp as a whole, but the specification of the power tubes or transistors in the current configuration and supply voltages.

Now the difference between tubes and solid state is that after that threshold tubes have soft clipping and solid state has hard clipping. As illustrated in the figures below, tube amps will still get louder above their rated power, while having less noticeable, and even desirable distortion and compression. Solid state in contrast will hard clip and sound nasty, and not be any louder.

Modified from here

Now it is true that you can achieve soft clipping with various solid state components, but that will be limiting the total volume of the system, not pushing it above the rated specification for the power amplifier transistors.

2) Tube Amp Variations
Adding to the confusion there also seem to be variation in how loud two tube amps with the same power tubes or power rating can be. This can be down to a large number of factors, power tube supply voltage, transformer efficiency, speaker sensitivity, or technologies like Mesa/Boogie’s Dyna-Watt. Phillip McKnight has an excellent video showing different perceived volumes from similar wattage amps, and even how a higher rated solid state amp doesn’t sound as loud.

3) Logarithmic Volume Controls
A third possible reason for differences his how the volume controls are configured. Some solid state amps may tend to have linear volume controls, meaning the volume increases evenly over the entire sweep of the volume pot. Some tube amps may tend to have logarithmic volume controls, meaning the volume increases more at the beginning of a potentiometer’s sweep. This means a tube amp on 2/10 or 3/10 may be really loud, and still feel like it has a lot more volume to give, when in practice you may almost be at half volume. Of course if it goes to 11 it must be even louder!

Further reading:
http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/tube-amps-louder-than-solid-state-amps-of-same/

http://www.geofex.com/tubeampfaq/beginner_tube_amps.htm

There’s a link on reddit that shows how to get Rocksmith working on a Mac without the real tone cable:
https://www.reddit.com/r/rocksmith/comments/1zf2im/playing_without_realtone_cable_in_mac_os_x/

I’ve got screenshots of how to do it, but after doing it the sound produced is pitch and distortion artefacts and is basically unplayable. I tried with both the built in audio interface and my Presonus Audiobox USB, and neither worked. Some people have managed to get it to work though, so maybe some interfaces work better than others. I did however, managed to get the Rocksmith cable to work recording into both my Mac and iPad:

I installed a USB hub in my pedalboard because I was sick of having to remove pedals to get to the the USB sockets on the pedals. The hub I used is non-powered, I’m not sure if some other pedals might require a powered one. I got some cheap short right angle USB cables off eBay to make the wiring really neat.

This video shows it working with:
– TC Alter Ego V2 (Flashback / Toneprint Software)
– Neunaber Slate (Pedal Customizer Software)
– Fishman Aura Spectrum DI (Aura Gallery Software)

Just got Jon Press Guitars to route a 5-way switch for my Michael Kelly Hybrid Special. Makes it much easier to access the coil tapping options of the Catwhisker S-Bucker and made me realise that apart from on traditional Gibson instruments, all humbucker guitars should come with a 5-way switch rather than 3 position and separate coil tap switches. There is now an unused switch that I’ll probably remove and find a cover for.

Here’s the wiring. The S-Bucker has quite a different coil tap setup.

Just a quick list because I was bored and thinking about it. I’ve owned a Diago Little Smasher and EHX Caliber 22.

	Quilter Microblock 45	45 Watt
	Baroni Mini Amp 50	50 Watt
	Electro Harmonix Magnium 44/Caliber 22	44 Watt
	Traynor DH25H	25 Watt
	Diago Little Smasher	5 Watt
	Bluguitar Amp1	100 Watt
	Ethos Overdrive/Clean Amp	30 Watt
	Quilter Toneblock/Quilter 101 Mini Head	200 Watt
	ZT Amps Lunchbox	200 Watt
	Orange Micro Terror/Micro Dark	20 Watt
	Create PowerBlock (Discontinued)	150 Watt
	Randall RG13	1 Watt
	Taurus Stomphead	70 Watt
	Hotone Mojo Attack	75 Watt
	Stomp Amp Brown	30 Watt
	DV Mark Micro 50	50 Watt
	Seymour Ducan PowerStage 170	170 Watt

Just recently did this is a common mod for that people do for the Blues Jr. On a Blues Jr. III it’s replacing R25 with a 25K pot. It’s basically an implementation of the Blues Deluxe presence control on the Blues Jr. Billm uses a shielded cable when he wires it in, so that’s what I did. Makes quite a special amp with the other Billm mods, a Warehouse Guitar Speakers ET-65 and salt and pepper vintage grill cloth.

Ok, so not quite, it’s actually an EHX Soul Food/Wampler Euphoria Clone/JOYO Sweet Baby, so take it with a pinch of salt. I wanted something to pair with my Lovepedal Eternity Clone (tube screamer, with more gain and high end). I didn’t have time to do a comparison video, and it was more I just wanted to write down my thoughts on these much hyped pedals for myself as much as anybody else.

EHX Soul Food
This is the Electro Harmonix’s affordable version of the Klon Centaur, one of the pedals to start the “transparent” overdrive craze. I’ve never played a Klon, but from the Soul Food, I see why people say it’s transparent. It feels transparent, which is hard to explain, but some pedals feel “in the way”, maybe its too much compression or too much mids and high end roll off, but the Soul Food doesn’t have that feel. EQ wise though it’s not that transparent. The high end is transparent, the mids have a slight emphasis that gives it a vocal quality and sings on the high B/E strings, and has quite a bit of bass roll off. Gain wise, low gain is definitely where this really shines, but because of the mid range I liked it better with front single coils than front humbucker, and the bass roll off made my bridge humbucker sound thin. I see why people like it, it does a similar job to a tube screamer pushing a overdriven amp, though different and more refined. On my limited size board though, it wasn’t versatile enough for me.

Wampler Euphoria Clone
I built my clone using a high quality kit from Fuzz Dog Pedal Parts. Yes it’s a clone, but despite being a clone it’s one of the pedals that I’ve owned that has sounded most like the demos when I played it person. In my opinion, this pedal is much more transparent EQ wise than the clone, it really has a very flat frequency response. The clipping options and large usable gain range give a wide range of tones, though they are all grittier than the Soul Food. The bass control I found didn’t really cut any bass, but can boost as well as add fuzz, making this one of the most versatile overdrive pedals around. The transparency makes it work well with humbuckers and single coils, although some more mids would help for single coil solos. This is what I’m sticking with along with my Lovepedal Eternity clone.

JOYO Sweet Baby
Like the Soul Food, this is supposed to be pretty close to it’s original, The Mad Professor Sweet Honey. It really does have a sweet high end and was very dynamic in response to picking. It didn’t have enough gain for me though, and with the dynamics I had to go rear humbucker and hit pretty hard to get much dirt. It had more bass but less high end compared to the Klon. The sweet attack worked better at taming single coils. I could see how it would work really well for certain situations, but similar tones can be achieved rolling off the tone (or even volume knob) or a mellow front humbucker, and I found it not as versatile for more aggressive tones. I also installed a WGS ET-65 speaker in my Blues Jr, which gave it a sweeter high end, so having an overdrive leaning that way as well was overkill.

Lovepedal Eternity Clone
I like a tube screamer-like pedal for basic drive and a slight mid range hump. I chose the Eternity clone for more gain and it seems to have more complex sounding harmonics than a standard tube screamer. It has too a lot of gain though and is very bright, so I changed the tone control value. I also added a bass boost switch, great for low volume practice or fatter power chords. I also added an asymmetric/symmetric clipping switch to switch between Eternity and Eternity Boost circuits. The Eternity drive does have a mid boost, but not as much and at a different frequency than a tube screamer.