Monday Lunch Report: 10 June 2013

My Monday lunch reports are actually weekend reports because that's when I do most of my guitar playing and tinkering. In addition to my usual degree of time displacement, I am including a bit of fantasy in my lunch report.

Saturday, I went to Tokyo's "Akihabara Electric Town." This is a actually an 'electronics' district where engineers, repairmen, hobbyists would go to get parts, kits, computer hardware as well as high-end or discounted home electronics and appliances. As the electronics industry evolves, so has the district expanded to cater to the needs of its clientele with shops for toy collectors, audiophiles, musicians, gamers, and anime/manga otaku. Thanks to the latter socially-challenged demographic, it's now more famous for maid-cafes than electronics. A result of this phenomenon is that Akihabara (aka "Akiba") has become extremely popular with foreign tourists, which could explain the appearance of the shop below:



For me, an afternoon in Akihabara isn't complete without a kebab from one of the various stands that have also proliferated in its back streets over the last five years. However three blocks away from Doner Kebab, I spotted the shop below, and actually felt a bit of regret snacking in between meals (but NOT guilt.) Over the last year, hotdogs/sausages have become one of my favourite foods. I think homesickness has a little do to with it, but cost-cutting, convenience and naturally the inevitable changing tastes we all experience over the course of our lives are factor. Today, I'll have to make due with Costco's massive Kirlkland brand hotdogs for lunch, until I can get back to Akiba.

Ok, enough about handheld mystery meat delivery devices. Let's talk about our favourite devices: guitars & amps. My primary objective in Akihabara was sourcing high-voltage capacitors for my Ibanez Valbee's power supply. Same as most electric guitarist, I've have volume issues with families and neighbours, and have spent hundreds of dollars on various solutions like smaller amps and modelling devices to get "the tone" with out the complaints.

The Valbee is one of those solutions. Over the last year, I also acquired a Smokey Amp, a Little Lanilei and a Vox VT20+. Without going into details, the hybrid Vox killed the "all-tube" Valbee and Little Lanilei as practice amps. When I say "kill" I mean it met my domestic needs far better than the other two. Unfortunately, I had to get rid of it as a cost cutting measure. Fortunately, these amps are so popular that I was able to sell it for nearly the same price new in less than a week.

On the other hand, I need to make sure that the other two are even functioning properly before auctioning them off. The Valbee has more hum that I think is acceptable. It's audible in all stages even when the guitar is not connected. Connecting a three-prong power cable into properly grounded mains doesn't solve the problem. So my electronic-engineer friend and repair guy both recommended replacing all the caps in the power supply. After months of procrastinating, I finally did that, primarily motivated by the loss of the VT20. Testing it with headphones, my efforts seemed to have no effect. So I poked around the insides with a pencil, and noticed two things:

First, some of the large caps were not soldered properly on the board. Nudging them with a pencil seemed to fix this...for now. Second, closing the the chassis had an effect on the level of noise, too. Fully reassembled, the noise seems significantly less than before, but still the amp is not as quiet as the handmade Little Lanilei (though I can feel a vibration like…er, a vibrator when I touch this one.) It also gets a lot noisier when I plug in my G&L now. So there's still room for improvement in the Valbee, and I think I will be keeping this as my main practice amp. I like the way it sounds a low volumes, especially after various other mods I've made to it, and might even get another one someday for comparison and playing in stereo!

However, I'd rather have spent all that time struggling to make this amp sound right playing my G&L. After spending all day soldering, I wanted to spend all night rocking, but still couldn't do this. My experience with these three little amps has pretty much solidified my position on the tube vs non-tube debate. Tubes are more unpredictable and therefore more fun, but in no way are they sonically superior to other technologies. Last week, I used a Roland JC-120 in a rehearsal studio, and the cleans killed the Little Lanilei, naturally. It was designed to stay clean, just like the Little Lanilei was designed to overdrive and distort. So in that respect, they killed or rather [i]complimented[/i ]each other. However, I always know what to expect from a Roland, yet never know what to expect from tubes.

The conventional conclusion many will draw from this comparison is that tubes are good for distortion and solid-state is good for cleans, but that's not the point I want to make because the best clean sound for me is still a Fender Twin, while the best distortion always seems to come from solid-state fuzz or overdrive. Even my Ibanez Valbee and Little Lanilei aren't really "all-tube." Both use op-amps for some…er, operation, and sound great. Plus recently, I'm discovering a lot of classic players who sounded great without tubes, like Eric Bell of Thin Lizzy and Frank Marino. My point is that tube amps are a pain in the the posterior.

What's your experience been with non-tube tech? Have you every played a great solid-state or modelling amp? Can you think of any other dirty players who get their tone that way? Or are tubes still the only tone that will do for you?

Prior to the Valbee "cap job," I put the Keystone pickups back in my Legacy, but couldn't get the Fender TBX pot to work for some reason. So I took it out, and decided to go with standard tone controls. It's hard to imagine my Legacy without a bass-cut control, but the Keystones aren't very bassy pickups (nor the 6" speakers in my practice amps) so it doesn't really have as much effect anyway. So for today's G&L topic:

G&L PTB vs Fender TBX circuits. How do they compare with each other and different pickups?

try some really good tube amps and you'll change your mind. i have not played a great or even a good modeling amp. i have played a few good solid state ones. the lab 5, a randall stack around 22-23 years ago, but that was for high gain metal. there are a few tech 21 ss amps that sound good. but for really good cleans and overdriven tones a good tube amp can not be beat. tube amps are also not much of a pain if you buy a good one. try a two rock studio (or crs) and you'll see what good tube amps sound like. they also sound just as good at low volume levels.

Louis, I want to believe. The Studio Pro looks very intriguing, and available in the shops here so I can give one a try.

BTW, before I picked up the Little Lanilei and Valbee, I was skeptical about the Vox VT based on my experience with the Roland VG-88, Line6, Korg, etc. However, if I had gotten the Vox first, I probably never would have bothered with the other two hybrid tube amps. Prior to these, I had a Tech 21 Trademark 60 which I really liked, but not as much as this. The only reason I even considered it was because a guy I met who used to worked for Ibanez recommended it, saying the new Vox modelling represents a significan leap forward. Then again, even those amps still use a 12AX7 to simulate power amp distortion, and that's not a gimmick. You can hear the difference.

Can't say I have played any of the amps you have listed there, only heard of the Vox. Modelling isn't my thing though as I really, really hate wandering through menus and the like. I may look into something digital for recording, in the future, but my amp, which is made of a series of tubes, has no issues. Nothing serious has ever occurred with it in the 3-4 years (forget) I have been using it. The pre could use a retube but that is not surprising, starting to get a bit of crackle. The only time I opt for solid state, is when I am looking for bass amps. Tube bass amps are a bit ridiculous overall, too huge.

Used to play with a guy who did well enough using a Vetta II though, so I guess it can be done. As far as Fuzzes go, they are far from the best distortion, at least in my books. Still rocking, but have too many limitations.

GB, I like the early report!

You mentioned kebobs. I'm thinking they may be what I cal kabobs. I made some over the weekend on the grill and they were great. We love them and they are healthy.

As for tube amps, the great ones are great and the not so great are difficult to make great. I had a low end Bogner that was a bust. I made it better by switching pre amp tubes but it was never a good amp. I have a Fender Cyber Twin II which has pre amp tubes and it does about anything a person wants to but as Kyle mentioned, they are a pain to program. I do like tube amps for clean but I think that the speaker is a big factor regardless of the type of amp. I have a little 5 watt Valve Train tube amp which is really sweet. If one were too mic it, it would do the job very well. I don't take it out because of the flamed paint on it. -- Darwin

I don't take it out because of the flamed paint on it. -- Darwin

Yeah, aesthetic is really important, isn't it! To me the Little Lanilei and Valbee especially look really nice, and that actually had a large effect on my decision to purchase. Specifically, I didn't think my wife would object to having another amp in the house if it was cute and non threatening, and up to a point this strategy worked. Another female friend commented that the amp would make a cute handbag. Indeed, when I carried it on the train, I got a lot of curious looks.

Sorry to heard about the Bogner, Darwin. That's supposed to be one of the better brands. My experience with the 5W Valbee has been similar. I trusted the brand, but the they really cut corners on this amp -- figuratively AND literally.

I don't take it out because of the flamed paint on it. -- Darwin

Yeah, aesthetic is really important, isn't it! To me the Little Lanilei and Valbee especially look really nice, and that actually had a large effect on my decision to purchase. Specifically, I didn't think my wife would object to having another amp in the house if it was cute and non threatening, and up to a point this strategy worked. Another female friend commented that the amp would make a cute handbag. Indeed, when I carried it on the train, I got a lot of curious looks.

Sorry to heard about the Bogner, Darwin. That's supposed to be one of the better brands. My experience with the 5W Valbee has been similar. I trusted the brand, but the they really cut corners on this amp -- figuratively AND literally.

there is really no low end bogner, the alchemist that had a bogner name on it was made by line 6. it was sold at gc. i have a feeling darwin had that one. a very crappy amp.

Louis, that was it.! -- Darwin

I love a doner kebab, one of the best meat-and-bread dishes ever.

Valves all the way. They aren't that much hassle, and if your amp doesn't require re-biasing then they're no more trouble than having to change a lightbulb every now and then. There are some good SS amps out there, the Transtube Peavey's are excellent value, as are the new Kustom amps. I use a Catalinbread RAH for my dirty sound and like it well enough. If I had the option I'd like to use my amp, which sounds much better than the pedal, but it's a single channel thing that I set for a good clean sound. I'm yet to see or try a class D guitar amp, but the ones I've heard for bass (Mark Bass) have been very good. Could be interesting if someone gets it right.

For quiet practice there is always the Korg Pandora. I used one for years, and the sound is surprisingly good but they do have limited control over some parameters and yeah, they're a hassle to program.

LOVE the Pandora series. I've had five of them. The guitar synth is one of my secret weapons. The PX5's amp models sounded better (and probably what they use in the Vox amps) and was easier to use than it predecessors, but I'm too familiar with the PX4 to switch. For cleans, I noticed the sound was a lot better in bypass mode that with the amp models. So my clean patch is just the Exciter/Enhancer and maybe a cabinet model. I also use the cab sim and reverb following the Valbee's headphone out. The Vox VT20 made the Pandora almost completely redundant, though.

There's no doubt that some of the most iconic recorded electric guitar sounds come from a set of tubes being worked hard. Vox, Marshall, Fender come to mind. I especially like the idea of small wattage tube amps that you can crank up to reasonable volume levels to get some tube goodness happening. I just don't have one yet.

My lounge room practice amp is a Roland Cube 30 solid state modelling amp. Does it faithfully recreate the sounds of all the modelled amps? Nope. Do all the amp models sound good? Definitely nope. The rectifier model flat out sux.

Can you coax good sounds out it? Definitely yes. Which is the main reason I keep it. I don't know what a Fender Bassman is meant to sound like, but the Bassman model sounds magnificent. For some reason my G&L guitars sound much better through this amp than my other guitars. I can't work it out.

I was hoping someone would chime in with a PTB vs. TBX vs. Fender standard tone controls comparison. I have S-type guitars with each of these tone control systems. Through my Vox AC15 and Fender Blues Jr I'd rate the sound of each as follows:

The standard tone wiring is about the same as the TBX (both guitars have 'vintage' output pickups). I only ever use the treble cut feature of the TBX. The bass cut sounds rubbish IMO.

Standard / TBX wiring is more 'open' and 'natural' sounding than PTB. My PTB guitars are a Legacy and an S-500. To my ears the PTB is very bright and shrill. Cutting the treble sucks the life out of the sound though. My TBX strat has Legacy pickups in it, and they sound far richer than my Legacy with PTB wiring and the same stock Legacy pickups. The exception to this rule is through the lowly Roland Cube 30 where the PTB guitars sound beautiful, balanced and detailed. I've read some of Bill Lawrence's articles on capacitive loading and impedance matching and I think the PTB observations are probably explained by this. I can't understand enough detail in what he's saying enough to fix anything though!

I used a Sunn Solos II solid state amp for more than 20 years, and I think it is one of the finest SS amps I've ever played. But inthe '90s I got back into tube amps...going thru several vintage Fenders and Marshalls before finding Mesa. My first was a Mark III, then a DC-3, and I've been a Mesa user ever since. If I were to try a new SS amp, I would probably get a Peavey. I've heard some really good demos of their Transtube models.

One trick with SS...I boosted the input with a DOD FX-10 preamp into my SUNN. That seems to make most SS amps sound a little better.

I like to practice on what I gig with, so I use the Mesas around the house and don't have a practice amp per se...the advantage of living in a house.

I haven't used the TBX in a long time, but the PTB is the best for me. Hard to argue with Clapton's tone, though.

Bill

There's no doubt that some of the most iconic recorded electric guitar sounds come from a set of tubes being worked hard.

I was hoping someone would chime in with a PTB vs. TBX vs. Fender standard tone controls comparison.

The standard tone wiring is about the same as the TBX (both guitars have 'vintage' output pickups). I only ever use the treble cut feature of the TBX. The bass cut sounds rubbish IMO.

Standard / TBX wiring is more 'open' and 'natural' sounding than PTB. My PTB guitars are a Legacy and an S-500. To my ears the PTB is very bright and shrill. Cutting the treble sucks the life out of the sound though. My TBX strat has Legacy pickups in it, and they sound far richer than my Legacy with PTB wiring and the same stock Legacy pickups. The exception to this rule is through the lowly Roland Cube 30 where the PTB guitars sound beautiful, balanced and detailed. I've read some of Bill Lawrence's articles on capacitive loading and impedance matching and I think the PTB observations are probably explained by this. I can't understand enough detail in what he's saying enough to fix anything though!

Thanks for chiming in with the detailed evaluation, Philby!
My experience has been very much the opposite. My Legacy had the Seymour Duncan pickups in it, and I could roll of the treble a little bit on the bridge for leads,all the way on the neck pickup for jazz, or roll of the bass a little on position four for funk. More recently, I'd roll the bass off on the neck pickup with an overdrive pedal like the Nobels ODR (but a Tubescreamer should make the bass cut redundant, I think.) The sound was always remarkable with the original circuit through any amp, direct or even cheap stereos.
However it didn't really work with the brighter Keystone pickups, so I tried the wiring recommended on Bill Lawrence's site. Later, I added the TBX to get the bass-cut on the neck pickup only for Texas-blues, and keep separate tone settings with a larger capacitor on the bridge pickup for more of a David Gilmour 80s rock guitar solo sound. To me, the TBX sounded thin and unnatural, compared to the PTB. For some reason, I could only get the treble-side of the TBX working this time, so I just gave up on it, and decided to try building a TS-clone instead.

One final word on solid-state amps: Recently I've been listening to early Thin Lizzy's first album, and assumed that Eric Bell was using some sort of British tube amp, but it turns out it was solid-state!

I used a Sunn Solos II solid state amp for more than 20 years, and I think it is one of the finest SS amps I've ever played. But inthe '90s I got back into tube amps...going thru several vintage Fenders and Marshalls before finding Mesa. My first was a Mark III, then a DC-3, and I've been a Mesa user ever since.

I was a Crate boy for my first 10 years with the electric guitar, and can't say I ever liked or hated the sound, but then again I didn't know any better. A Mesa/Boogie Studio.22 was the first proper amp I ever had, and I later upgraded to an F-50 for a while, but it was just too loud and noisy at home and on the gig so I sold it. For cleans, the best solid-state amp I played was probably a Polytone, but I'm also a big fan of Roland JC and old-orange Cube amps. I found that these amps will actually do a pleasant lo-gain overdrive, but for smooth sustain at high gain, nothing beats a Boogie.

I used a Sunn Solos II solid state amp for more than 20 years, and I think it is one of the finest SS amps I've ever played. But inthe '90s I got back into tube amps...going thru several vintage Fenders and Marshalls before finding Mesa. My first was a Mark III, then a DC-3, and I've been a Mesa user ever since.

I was a Crate boy for my first 10 years with the electric guitar, and can't say I ever liked or hated the sound, but then again I didn't know any better. A Mesa/Boogie Studio.22 was the first proper amp I ever had, and I later upgraded to an F-50 for a while, but it was just too loud and noisy at home and on the gig so I sold it. For cleans, the best solid-state amp I played was probably a Polytone, but I'm also a big fan of Roland JC and old-orange Cube amps. I found that these amps will actually do a pleasant lo-gain overdrive, but for smooth sustain at high gain, nothing beats a Boogie.

i can name at least 2 dozen amps that beat the boogie for smooth sustain at high gain. do they have a custom reverb signature amp where you saw the studio pro two rock?

I haven't tried the Two-Rock yet so I can't comment, but the features of new Boogie Express Express Plus are drool inducing. I love the Boogie EQ.

What I did see on Two-Rock's site that I've never seen in Mesa/Boogie literature is serious commitment to clean tones and pedal-friendliness. Seems like both companies are trying to deliver a wide variety of tones, but where Boogie does it with dozens of switches, Two-Rock seems to be trying to simplify for the stupid and lazy like me. Hopefully I'll give the Tomo Fujita signature a test drive this weekend.