You are indeed one hell of a guitar player and a very very gifted teacher (not just guitar). I'm so glad to see you making a living out of it, i love your videos to bits.
Okay that makes sense. So a bias pot would allow me to dial in what I want as far as power tubes operating. Thanks a lot! Really helpful videos, I watched the whole tube amps collection you have up. I appreciate it.
Bias basically describes how 'hot' the power tubes are operating, high bias causes the power tubes to overdrive more easily, but at the expense of nice clean tones, and low bias makes it hard to overdrive the power tubes, and results in more clean volume.
@Robb9096 A super reverb without a master volume is the exact opposite of what you want if you want good tone at low volumes. At ear splitting levels, they sound great. But without a master volume, you wont' get any dirt out of that amp without your ears ringing.
When you mention the Transformer after the Power tubes. Maybe you should mention that the Transformer is to step down the voltage and to match the speaker impedance. Without the transformer, the speaker could not use the signal. By the way, what type of guitar is that? Thanks
@Rotowibe Drive/Gain knobs control the input levels to the tubes (basically determining how over-driven they will be). Master volume (often called simply volume) determines over-all loudness of the already clean or over driven signal.
I had my video order mixed up when I responded to your other comment. The next video will address preamp vs power tube distortion, which is what I think you're experiencing.
Hey Anthony, these first two vids are great. Would you mind including something about the pros/cons of having a combo amp over a head/cabinet and vice versa? Thanks.
I like the idea of being able to keep the sound hot (thru the pre-amp gain) yet at the same not awake the household, thru the master volume. Nice. I'm wondering if the Fender Super Reverb (my choice) is going to provide that option. I've read tubes in the Super need to be replaced to match the true 60's sound. Agree? My choice is one made after consession with respect to weight, but probably worth carrying the extra in light of sound quality, unless Fender has a lighter model with equal sound?
@SiCF1ST I have been creating blues guitar lesson videos at StevieSnacks for over 4 years, and the past 2 years, it has been my full time job. While most people only watch the free lessons, enough people buy the premium ones to allow me to continue doing it full time.
@Anthony even if it gets a tad too techy here :), yes one common way to ADJUST bias is to measure the cathode current directly or via the voltage drop at a cathode resistor. Anyhow If one says high cathode current = high bias, that means lower negative voltage at the grid. The grid voltage is the cause, the cathode current the effect. BTW I love your guitar lessons :) Greetings from Germany
Yes, but tubes have a 'safe' operating range, so unless you know what you're doing, it's best to have the bias set by a tech even when there's a bias pot provided. Unless of course the bias pot it wired to only allow values inside the 'safe' range for the tubes.
At first I wasn't but I've done research and am now convinced that tubes are the way to go. I am still unwilling to sacrifice the advantages of transistors: weight, reliability, and most importantly, cost. It seems to me, however, that you could get the same effect by using tubes only for the front end using a tube-only effects pedal. That way the distortion is produced using tubes and then cleanly amplified by the transistor amp. This seems like a more cost (and weight) effective solution.
@ihaveaverybadcold Yes: I like the sound and security (reasonable price, dependability, etc) of the Fender Deluxe (still no master volume) I'm going with that and I'll use pedals for compression, distortion, etc. I've looked into the difference between the Fender Twin (solid state rectifyer) and the Super, Deluxe, etc with tube rectifyers. The jury is still out on whether or not the Twin. Eric Johnson, tone master, uses twin Twins as his basic amp choice. I
Is the headstock supposed to be a different color from the body? It's a little distracting. But seriously, this is a great video series. Very helpful. Thank you very much!
Hello just asking does the number of tubes in a preamp affect the tone ? And why I see preamps with many tubes and others with a single tube ? Thanks for the great qualitycontent
Take care with wordings like high/low bias, cause bias voltage is always negative. So high bias, like Anthony wrote, means less negative voltage at the grid e.g. -10,0 V instead of -12.5V.
the preamp part of the tone control. signal going into the amp goes though a tube to boost the signal, gets split up into 3 different signals and into 3 different tubes - cheaper tube amps use solid state op-amps for the preamp. then i would go to an FX loop if it had one. Then go to bigger gas filled tube. Well this is just one example of a tube amp.
What is "good" distortion is somewhat subjective. A couple hints: depending on how much "preamp" distortion you can get (not much with the bjr), the kind of (preamp and power) tubes, the OT transformer, the speaker and of course the guitar, you'll get very different tones. And as Stevie mentions, preamp and power tube distortions are really different beasts. Some prefer the first, some the other. So maybe the Bjr is just not the right amp for you ?
This probably sounds like a stupid question - because it kind of is. Lets say you have your Master volume set to noon, your pre-amp volume (gain) down to like 2 or something, but when you kick on an overdrive pedal with the volume at noon, your overall volume jumps to what sounds like the master wide open and the pre-amp volume at an 8 out of 10. Are you just hearing the solid state sound that the pedal is producing? Or is it also pushing the tubes harder? Use the Velvet Fuzz as an example because I have it and I know it gives a massive bump in volume at noon, at least on my amp run clean. Thanks Anthony! I remember watching these old clean cut videos in 2009, probably time to finally subscribe for a month and see how many lessons I can fit in as an old man.
That's actually a good question. So, your input volume (gain) is low. So we're limiting how much signal goes to the preamp. That means the preamp is running pretty clean. Whatever your normal signal is, when it hits the preamp, the preamp tubes are able to amplify it cleanly because we're keeping it small. Then, the master volume is reducing that signal again and passing it to the power tubes. (This isn't a perfect metaphor, but oh well). The power tubes probably aren't going to saturate very much because the signal coming into them is still fairly small, so the overall signal coming out of the power amp is probably still very clean. Then, you kick on the Velvet Fuzz. IF you set the volume of the velvet fuzz so that there's NO jump in overall volume, this means that your amp is still running clean, and you are hearing the natural sound of the pedal that's not being colored by added distortion from the tubes. BUT, if you raise the volume of the pedal such that you hear a big increase in volume, there are several things that are happening. You're feeding a much larger (fuzzy) signal to the preamp which may mean that the preamp tubes can no longer amplify it without reaching their saturation point. So they may be adding some coloration to the signal as they begin to compress and saturate. AND, because the signal coming out of the preamp is higher, the amount of signal hitting the power tubes will be higher. Because your volumes were set so that the power tubes were not saturating very much before, they still have quite a bit of headroom. As the signal from the preamp increases, the power tubes can amplify it cleanly (to a certain point) resulting in a big volume jump. Depending on how high you have the level set of the pedal, this MAY result in the power tubes saturating too. So, that's a long way of saying that the resulting sound is MOSTLY the sound of the fuzz pedal, with some possible coloration from the saturation of the preamp and power tubes because of the increase in volume from the pedal. I hope that makes sense!
@@Texasbluesalley It does, thanks for answering. So by finding unity volume through a clean amp (which is probably 9 o'clock on the VF or less, using the settings I described above on a Blues Jr.), you are really just hearing the effect of the pedal. Its when you set the level higher on the pedal that it may be pushing the pre-amp tubes harder and therefore the power tubes into saturation/distortion. I guess it depends on the pedal and your ears whether an effect sounds better through a fully clean amp or a distorted signal. Thanks again, this whole series was very interesting. Makes sense why people might want more clean headroom or less as well, depending on their rig and individual needs.
I like to think about Tube Amp vs AxeFX-esque devices as comparing a quality yamaha keyboard with a steinway piano patch to a real Steinway grand piano. Recorded, they may sound exactly the same, but given the choice, you use the Steinway every day of the week. Amp modellers synthetically reproduce the character of tube amplifier response. By definition, they cannot sound better than a real tube amplifier & for that reason, the tube amp will always reign supreme.
aaahaah! I've got the answer ... pedals! no need to depend on preamp gain when you have pedals! thanks. hey, hope you're not angry with me for the crack I made about your homemade guitar. lol. I know you have some pretty good axes. thanks again.
the fact that you aren't a youtube partner baffles me. anyways, I understand more what's going on, but I still don't get why I can't get good distortion from my blues junior
sorry, not trying to be anal...but the role of the output transformer ( 6:44 ) is to match the high output impedance of the power tubes to the low impedance of the speaker(s).
I Have a 1981 Fender super reverb, Its 70 watt and has the pull out master volume. Let clear the air. This amp has got a bad rep for being one of the worst Fenders ever made. 70 watts gives your tons of overhead giving you those Sparkling clear Fender clean at higher level with out any break. Cons: you dont get decent breakup until as gr8bluesgtr mentioned ear splitting levels. Pros: Takes effect pedals very well. Pull out master volume helps give some distortion, but it pretty much awful.
Some of the clearest explanations on UA-cam of how these devices work. Thank you!
You are indeed one hell of a guitar player and a very very gifted teacher (not just guitar). I'm so glad to see you making a living out of it, i love your videos to bits.
I really appreciate that you share this knowledge for free. All the best!
These videos need to be re-uploaded so the generation buying their first REAL amp now could see them.
Okay that makes sense. So a bias pot would allow me to dial in what I want as far as power tubes operating. Thanks a lot! Really helpful videos, I watched the whole tube amps collection you have up. I appreciate it.
I absolutely love this series of videos!!! Thank you sooooooooooooooo much! Great viewing!
thank you. I'll make sure whatever Fender amp I buy does have a master volume. I won't forget. thank you. love your Eb lessons. you play well, indeed.
Great series so far Anthony. Look forward to the next installment!
Again, another great video. I gave it 5 stars like always.
Bias basically describes how 'hot' the power tubes are operating, high bias causes the power tubes to overdrive more easily, but at the expense of nice clean tones, and low bias makes it hard to overdrive the power tubes, and results in more clean volume.
@Robb9096 A super reverb without a master volume is the exact opposite of what you want if you want good tone at low volumes. At ear splitting levels, they sound great. But without a master volume, you wont' get any dirt out of that amp without your ears ringing.
When you mention the Transformer after the Power tubes. Maybe you should mention that the Transformer is to step down the voltage and to match the speaker impedance. Without the transformer, the speaker could not use the signal. By the way, what type of guitar is that?
Thanks
@Rotowibe Drive/Gain knobs control the input levels to the tubes (basically determining how over-driven they will be). Master volume (often called simply volume) determines over-all loudness of the already clean or over driven signal.
Very good explanation , as a technician myself I mat say that! Maybe taking some time about talking aboud solid state or tube rectifiers ?
I had my video order mixed up when I responded to your other comment. The next video will address preamp vs power tube distortion, which is what I think you're experiencing.
Hey Anthony, these first two vids are great. Would you mind including something about the pros/cons of having a combo amp over a head/cabinet and vice versa? Thanks.
I like the idea of being able to keep the sound hot (thru the pre-amp gain) yet at the same not awake the household, thru the master volume. Nice. I'm wondering if the Fender Super Reverb (my choice) is going to provide that option. I've read tubes in the Super need to be replaced to match the true 60's sound. Agree? My choice is one made after consession with respect to weight, but probably worth carrying the extra in light of sound quality, unless Fender has a lighter model with equal sound?
@SiCF1ST I have been creating blues guitar lesson videos at StevieSnacks for over 4 years, and the past 2 years, it has been my full time job. While most people only watch the free lessons, enough people buy the premium ones to allow me to continue doing it full time.
@Anthony
even if it gets a tad too techy here :), yes one common way to ADJUST bias is to measure the cathode current directly or via the voltage drop at a cathode resistor. Anyhow If one says high cathode current = high bias, that means lower negative voltage at the grid. The grid voltage is the cause, the cathode current the effect.
BTW I love your guitar lessons :)
Greetings from Germany
Thanks for the amp videos. Very interesting info about amps.
Brilliant work. You know your stuff brah and can back it up with playing.
Thanks Anthony, from a guy who's played digital modeling amps for about ten years and is trying figure out "real" amps.
@spdscherge Yeah I should have been more specific. Isn't bias typically measured in terms of urrent though, not voltage?
that was excellent,I was hoping for some clarification on the difference from a knob that says gain to the master vol. knob?
You're rig sounds killer!
Excellent ! Thankyou Anthony.
Yes, but tubes have a 'safe' operating range, so unless you know what you're doing, it's best to have the bias set by a tech even when there's a bias pot provided. Unless of course the bias pot it wired to only allow values inside the 'safe' range for the tubes.
At first I wasn't but I've done research and am now convinced that tubes are the way to go. I am still unwilling to sacrifice the advantages of transistors: weight, reliability, and most importantly, cost. It seems to me, however, that you could get the same effect by using tubes only for the front end using a tube-only effects pedal. That way the distortion is produced using tubes and then cleanly amplified by the transistor amp. This seems like a more cost (and weight) effective solution.
Awesome teachings man! About time i Learned about this stuff...Cwl Brah!
So far ...........wonderful content. Great explanations. Editing was still a bit obnoxious, but obviously needed, apparently.
Very true.
@ihaveaverybadcold Yes: I like the sound and security (reasonable price, dependability, etc) of the Fender Deluxe (still no master volume) I'm going with that and I'll use pedals for compression, distortion, etc. I've looked into the difference between the Fender Twin (solid state rectifyer) and the Super, Deluxe, etc with tube rectifyers. The jury is still out on whether or not the Twin. Eric Johnson, tone master, uses twin Twins as his basic amp choice. I
Is the headstock supposed to be a different color from the body? It's a little distracting. But seriously, this is a great video series. Very helpful. Thank you very much!
Hello just asking does the number of tubes in a preamp affect the tone ? And why I see preamps with many tubes and others with a single tube ?
Thanks for the great qualitycontent
Wow, you have a VERY nice job!
Take care with wordings like high/low bias, cause bias voltage is always negative. So high bias, like Anthony wrote, means less negative voltage at the grid e.g. -10,0 V instead of -12.5V.
@1luckystiff wow thanks dude that was really helpful! do tube rectifiers fail easier than solid state?
That guitar. I love it. What is it?
What does it mean to have a soild state rectifier vs a tube rectifier?
the preamp part of the tone control. signal going into the amp goes though a tube to boost the signal, gets split up into 3 different signals and into 3 different tubes - cheaper tube amps use solid state op-amps for the preamp. then i would go to an FX loop if it had one. Then go to bigger gas filled tube. Well this is just one example of a tube amp.
What is "good" distortion is somewhat subjective. A couple hints: depending on how much "preamp" distortion you can get (not much with the bjr), the kind of (preamp and power) tubes, the OT transformer, the speaker and of course the guitar, you'll get very different tones. And as Stevie mentions, preamp and power tube distortions are really different beasts. Some prefer the first, some the other. So maybe the Bjr is just not the right amp for you ?
This probably sounds like a stupid question - because it kind of is. Lets say you have your Master volume set to noon, your pre-amp volume (gain) down to like 2 or something, but when you kick on an overdrive pedal with the volume at noon, your overall volume jumps to what sounds like the master wide open and the pre-amp volume at an 8 out of 10. Are you just hearing the solid state sound that the pedal is producing? Or is it also pushing the tubes harder? Use the Velvet Fuzz as an example because I have it and I know it gives a massive bump in volume at noon, at least on my amp run clean. Thanks Anthony! I remember watching these old clean cut videos in 2009, probably time to finally subscribe for a month and see how many lessons I can fit in as an old man.
That's actually a good question. So, your input volume (gain) is low. So we're limiting how much signal goes to the preamp. That means the preamp is running pretty clean. Whatever your normal signal is, when it hits the preamp, the preamp tubes are able to amplify it cleanly because we're keeping it small. Then, the master volume is reducing that signal again and passing it to the power tubes. (This isn't a perfect metaphor, but oh well). The power tubes probably aren't going to saturate very much because the signal coming into them is still fairly small, so the overall signal coming out of the power amp is probably still very clean.
Then, you kick on the Velvet Fuzz. IF you set the volume of the velvet fuzz so that there's NO jump in overall volume, this means that your amp is still running clean, and you are hearing the natural sound of the pedal that's not being colored by added distortion from the tubes.
BUT, if you raise the volume of the pedal such that you hear a big increase in volume, there are several things that are happening. You're feeding a much larger (fuzzy) signal to the preamp which may mean that the preamp tubes can no longer amplify it without reaching their saturation point. So they may be adding some coloration to the signal as they begin to compress and saturate. AND, because the signal coming out of the preamp is higher, the amount of signal hitting the power tubes will be higher. Because your volumes were set so that the power tubes were not saturating very much before, they still have quite a bit of headroom. As the signal from the preamp increases, the power tubes can amplify it cleanly (to a certain point) resulting in a big volume jump. Depending on how high you have the level set of the pedal, this MAY result in the power tubes saturating too.
So, that's a long way of saying that the resulting sound is MOSTLY the sound of the fuzz pedal, with some possible coloration from the saturation of the preamp and power tubes because of the increase in volume from the pedal.
I hope that makes sense!
@@Texasbluesalley It does, thanks for answering. So by finding unity volume through a clean amp (which is probably 9 o'clock on the VF or less, using the settings I described above on a Blues Jr.), you are really just hearing the effect of the pedal. Its when you set the level higher on the pedal that it may be pushing the pre-amp tubes harder and therefore the power tubes into saturation/distortion. I guess it depends on the pedal and your ears whether an effect sounds better through a fully clean amp or a distorted signal. Thanks again, this whole series was very interesting. Makes sense why people might want more clean headroom or less as well, depending on their rig and individual needs.
Good Stuff!
what does biasing refer to? i'm saving to buy a classic 30 w/ a bias pot installed, what does that do?
very informative. thanks a lot.
So great .......
what kind of guitar do you use?
can you explain rectifiers PLEASE!!!!
thank you!!!
What guitar is that? e.e
great!!
I like to think about Tube Amp vs AxeFX-esque devices as comparing a quality yamaha keyboard with a steinway piano patch to a real Steinway grand piano. Recorded, they may sound exactly the same, but given the choice, you use the Steinway every day of the week. Amp modellers synthetically reproduce the character of tube amplifier response. By definition, they cannot sound better than a real tube amplifier & for that reason, the tube amp will always reign supreme.
i build my own tube ampliviers
you know why
they are so much more easy to understand
and they just work
LONG LIVE TUBES
aaahaah! I've got the answer ... pedals! no need to depend on preamp gain when you have pedals! thanks. hey, hope you're not angry with me for the crack I made about your homemade guitar. lol. I know you have some pretty good axes. thanks again.
5 Stars
That would be essentially impossible.
the beggining song is pretty much the same as your most recent "funk" lesson lol
the fact that you aren't a youtube partner baffles me.
anyways, I understand more what's going on, but I still don't get why I can't get good distortion from my blues junior
sorry, not trying to be anal...but the role of the output transformer ( 6:44 ) is to match the high output impedance of the power tubes to the low impedance of the speaker(s).
I Have a 1981 Fender super reverb, Its 70 watt and has the pull out master volume. Let clear the air. This amp has got a bad rep for being one of the worst Fenders ever made. 70 watts gives your tons of overhead giving you those Sparkling clear Fender clean at higher level with out any break.
Cons: you dont get decent breakup until as gr8bluesgtr mentioned ear splitting levels.
Pros: Takes effect pedals very well.
Pull out master volume helps give some distortion, but it pretty much awful.
No, but I've modded (and subsequently ruined) several :-)
@BMXplease11 I don't smoke.
Ur knobs maybe?
Would it be juvenile to admit I liked your comment so I could be like number 69?
I feel like in the middle of lecture
Excellent info and i have learned something ........many thanks
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