New All Tube Bass Head

Hemisaurus · February 25, 2011, 12:23:55 PM

Blame Lumpy for turning me on to the fact that BestBuy do instruments and stuff.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Krank+-+Dirty+Valve+200W+Amplifier+Head/1228693.p?id=1218238313748&skuId=1228693

That's actually a picture of the D-800 which is a hybrid amp. I didn't even realise Krank were doing bass amps, though everything is all messed up, I think Best Buy are selling the product 2 months before Krank plan to ship it.

8 5881's to achieve only 200W seems overkill, as does 8 6550's for 300W, so perhaps this thing will have a lot of headroom. They say it's based on 70's amps, hopefully that's true and it can get properly dirty and not be another sad Peavey VB2/3 or Traynor YBA-200 way too clean amp.

Hemisaurus · February 25, 2011, 12:31:01 PM

Hey what do you know, it's two years old (NAMM 09) and I didn't notice, and they still haven't come out with the product? Where's that thread delete button?

VOLVO))) · February 25, 2011, 12:39:58 PM

want me to dump it?

Discö Rice · February 25, 2011, 12:40:50 PM

I dunno... I'm saving my pennies for a Peavey Classic 400.

Hemisaurus · February 25, 2011, 05:34:29 PM

Eh, you can dump it or leave it so I can bitch about sucky bass tube heads

Tried all 3 Mesa Boogies, 200, 400, 400+

Ampeg SVT and SVT Pro 2

Traynor YBA 200

Peavey VB 2 & 3

Something else I just can't think off.

Honourable mentions go to the Carvin X-100 and Bugera 333XL, if I had two of them, it might be loud enough.

Want to try a Meat Smoke, or build a Weber MOAB.

Wonder if Freightshaking Bob will let me try his Bugera 1960, could probably turn that into a Lemmy amp with a few cap mods

Hmm, thats got me thinking!

VOLVO))) · February 25, 2011, 09:03:59 PM

Leavin' it for epic Hemi-rants.

peyotepeddler · February 25, 2011, 10:34:03 PM

hey hemi, i'm curious why you don't dig the svt?

there are so many tones possible with that amp, from reggae, jazz, motown, rock, fuzzrock:), you name it!

Hemisaurus · February 25, 2011, 11:01:29 PM

It's a horrible piece of homogenized shit, it's an overpriced turd of an amp, with a terrible, horrible design and it doesn't do it for me atall.

It's like the bass equivalent of buying a Strat and a Marshall stack, no thought required, no soul involved.

I hate the multi-PCB design, I blame it for originating tubes on PCB, the over complications inbuilt into it, what's wrong with a quad of tubes and a simple turret board or basic PCB design?

I guess I'm not a fan of it, either as a musician, or a technician

Plus the 8x10, the most bass light design on the market, I think the girl from Jucifer uses them for mids.

Oh and odd numbers of tube pairs are a bad idea.

Discö Rice · February 25, 2011, 11:50:17 PM

So, is it just obsessive-compulsive hatred of odd numbers of pairs, or is there some logic?

Hemisaurus · February 26, 2011, 12:11:54 AM

The numbers of pairs affect the harmonic content of the amps output.

Pairs, quads and octets are pretty darn close. Sextets and dodecuplets, or whatever 12 are, are very wrong. I wonder if anyone has ever made a ten? Accordingly it should sound even worse than a six.

Do some googling read up on it, it's like a duh moment when you the harmonic graphing and the math makes sense.

Plus I really hate Ampeg and Crate, some Crate stuff sounds OK, but it's all a bitch to service, it's like the opposite of British vs. US motors, British amps, at least the classics that were made in the UK, very simple, lots of raw power, American amps, full of odd parts, and why the hell did they do it like that?, can run real nice at times, but when they break, it's gonna take forever to fix.

bass sic · February 26, 2011, 01:02:13 AM

I dunno, I kinda like my Ampeg. Just wondering Hemi, what would be/is your fav amp? I dont know if I want to hear this as it will prolly become my next obsession. Again, I love my Ampeg even if it is a no thought decision.

Lumpy · February 26, 2011, 01:26:36 AM

'70s SVTs are the witch's titties.

peyotepeddler · February 26, 2011, 11:54:01 AM

ha ha

at this point, i'm thinking i'm better off not knowing the innards of my svt:)

Hemisaurus · February 26, 2011, 07:51:42 PM

Quote from: bass sic on February 26, 2011, 01:02:13 AM
Just wondering Hemi, what would be/is your fav amp? I dont know if I want to hear this as it will prolly become my next obsession.

You'll be hard pressed to find it, as I haven't built it yet.

Think bog simple preamp, with two 12AX7's, one for the preamp and one for the phase splitter, a Baxandall tone stack (bass and treble), possibly a rotary switch tone control a la Gibson Basses and Orange Amps, negative feedback control, setting how much negative feedback is applied to the circuit, these controls will cover a fairly wide scale as in you can get into trouble going past 5, allowing for extreme gain, and tone shaping.

Quad of power tubes, probably KT-88's. I'm toying with the idea of maybe using 807's instead cause they look so damn cool.

Single folded piece of steel for the chassis and front panel in one, slides into supporting grooves in a wooden case. Possibly no rear panel, or small flange with jacks on it, or maybe I'll have the speaker outs on the front.

I've got stuff scratched on paper right now, though I need to decide on transformers and power tubes to finalize things. Whether I used KT-88's or 807's have to decide if I want to go crazy and put the plate voltage up around 700-750V, or keep it more reasonable in the 550-600V range, they'll live longer at the lower voltages. I almost bought an old SVT chassis to cannibalize for tranny's and tube sockets, but didn't have the cash.

Estimated time of shipping 2015, maybe?

Better keep loving the solid state for now.