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Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 14:36:54 +0200
From: "Xavier Lanusse Cazalé"
Subject: another preamp tube / gain question (longish)

Hi Y'all,

I'm sure that this has been somehow discussed here in the past but I can't
find in the archives the answer that would satisfy me. I don't want to start
another thread on this beat up topic so you can reply off list if you want:

It has been said many times over that putting 12AY7 or 12AT7 or 5751 preamp
tubes instead of 12AX7 can help making an amp harp friendly.
My understanding is that, on some tube amps, feedback can appear quite
early, leaving you with not much playability with the volume control.
Lower gain tubes help you turn the volume know higher without getting
feedback, BUT DOES IT ALLOW FOR OVERALL HIGHER VOLUME ?
On one hand you reduce gain and on the other you turn up the amp: do you end
up even ?

Besides the volume issue, would you consider the tone to be affected (I'm
not talking about brand related tone differences but tube type related
differences).

I guess I'm not very comfortable with the concept of gain.

Tone and gain-wise, a related question comes up in my mind when I think
about VCs on mic: Is it generally better to have the amp volume a little low
and the mic volume a little high or the other way around... is there any
general rule of thumb.
I own a bunch of mics and their output can vary quite a bit: when I have to
play at very low volume with acoustic bass, sax and drums, I usually use a
champ (stock tube setup) with volume around 3. I usually use my hottest mic
(turner CD with vintage CM element). My experience is that I need to keep
the mic volume around 50% to avoid stepping on the other guys and the sound
I get is quite muddy: the nice ~cut through~ overdrive sound isn't there
anymore. Should I use a lower output mic and turn the mic and amp volume up
?
How can I get the most overdriven sound for a given volume level ?
I noticed that my EV605 that has significantly lower output cuts through
better but sounds kinda trebly and thin when compared to my usual mic. I
didn't have the chance to try different combinations when playing with these
guys caus' it's at a jam and I don't have much time to fool around with a
dozen mics.

In the end it all boils down to 4 (or five) parameters:
mic output signal
mic VC
amp VC
amp preamp tube
(amp input #1 or #2)

What's your perfect tone equation as a function of these 4 variables ?

I'd like to experiment for a while with these concepts but as of know, I
live in an appartment and I'm afraid my neighbors might not understand my
quest for the perfect vibrolux reverb / mic setup (I think they can stand
the champ so far since they haven't complained...).

thanks in advance for the help and sorry for the long post.

Xavier

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