What do think are the standard features and componets a modern tube amp should have?

[purpleplexi]

Gain knob. That goes to 11.

 

[FleshOnGear]

I haven’t put a lot of thought into this because I’m still grabbing vintage amps and using outboard gear to do the attenuating and speaker simulating. I figure it could be very useful to a gigging guitarist to have that stuff built into an amp, but what if you want a totally different sound for another project? Are you going to buy another Swiss army amp? In this instance, maybe a modeling amp really is the best choice if you need that kind of functionality and don’t want to be stuck with 3-channels worth of tones. I say if you’re working with real tube amps, let the amp be the amp and do your attenuating and speaker simulation outboard.

 

[tallcoolone]

External bias pot and test points.... Gotta make it standard.

Amen!

 

[TonalEuphoria]

Why XLR out ? I prefer USB.

I should have added that. USB is a standard I believe needs to be to work with the IR and recording aspect. But that means both XLR direct out and usb connection.

Another two good example of this movement happening is the Revv series and the new Soldano Astro 20.

 

[Jethro Rocker]

Why XLR out ? I prefer USB.

For playing live. Run line out to a board. If it sounds good it saves micing it.

Hard to argue with this logic.
Keep the amp basic and serviceable.
20-50w (2 power tubes) is sufficient for me.
2 channels, 4/8/16 impedance choice, and a loop make add-ons easy, versatile, changeable and replaceable.
Complex, built-in stuff just adds to what can go wrong.

I agree.
Multi channel, clean to high gain (for me, 2 gainy channels or built in volume boost)
Loop
Separate eq where possible
I dont mind complexity, not many JVMs going down because of it.
Key being "modern" tube amp.

 

[JSJ900]

2 + channels
1,5, 40, 100 switchable watts
Stereo power-amp
Stereo fx loop
Another fx loop
Integrated noise gate
Plenty of speaker outs (4/8/16)
No stupid proprietary foot-switch - MIDI ready
Leopard tolex

 

[PelliX]

I should have added that. USB is a standard I believe needs to be to work with the IR and recording aspect. But that means both XLR direct out and usb connection.

XLR is (hopefully) balanced analog signal. USB in an amp has some drawbacks; 1) eventually, it will become outdated either by nature of the plug it uses, the bus spec or lack of driver support. Now, as it happens the generic USB sound device classes aren't going anywhere in the next decade likely, probably longer. 2) your "raw analog valve amp" now has to supply a very stable and relatively noise free low voltage to the chips for the USB interface. Somewhere in there you're going to need an ADC too to get the signal over the bus. Much like with emulated outputs, this will *often* result in a rather poor experience. 3) Such circuits run best cool and away from too much interference - not typical operating conditions in a valve amplifier, generally.

Personally, I would always prefer to keep an amp more 'barebones' and have one's "ADC needs" handled by external kit. Let's say you have your balanced/unbalanced XLR out - run that through an interface, et voila. If you don't like the sound of the interface or are forced to upgrade (for example if it fails in a bad way) you don't need to rip open the amp.

Agree on the test points and ideally an external controls for bias on fixed bias amps. Failing that, could we at least have that on the inside, please? On that note, HT and other fuses - you shouldn't have to pull a chassis to replace them [cough, DSL, SC, VOX, cough].

As for the integrated load - do you really want 20, 40, 100, maybe even 200W of resistors cooking in your amp? Not my thing.

Automatic bias setting.

What's automatic bias? Do you mean cathode biased?

 

[Nadir]

USB!
Reverb
FX loop
DI output

and again USB!

Gain knob. That goes to 11.

JCM900 goes to 20! ;-)

 

[knulp]

A 9 volt tap as there is on the new vht Chinese amp would be very handy

 

[Söulcaster]

I think the AFD100 leads the way here. Power scaling and auto bias should be incorporated into new tube amps,

Peace

 

[TonalEuphoria]

XLR is (hopefully) balanced analog signal. USB in an amp has some drawbacks; 1) eventually, it will become outdated either by nature of the plug it uses, the bus spec or lack of driver support. Now, as it happens the generic USB sound device classes aren't going anywhere in the next decade likely, probably longer. 2) your "raw analog valve amp" now has to supply a very stable and relatively noise free low voltage to the chips for the USB interface. Somewhere in there you're going to need an ADC too to get the signal over the bus. Much like with emulated outputs, this will *often* result in a rather poor experience. 3) Such circuits run best cool and away from too much interference - not typical operating conditions in a valve amplifier, generally.

Personally, I would always prefer to keep an amp more 'barebones' and have one's "ADC needs" handled by external kit. Let's say you have your balanced/unbalanced XLR out - run that through an interface, et voila. If you don't like the sound of the interface or are forced to upgrade (for example if it fails in a bad way) you don't need to rip open the amp.

Agree on the test points and ideally an external controls for bias on fixed bias amps. Failing that, could we at least have that on the inside, please? On that note, HT and other fuses - you shouldn't have to pull a chassis to replace them [cough, DSL, SC, VOX, cough].

As for the integrated load - do you really want 20, 40, 100, maybe even 200W of resistors cooking in your amp? Not my thing.



What's automatic bias? Do you mean cathode biased?

There's nothing we can do about the USB plug eventually becoming outdated. That's just the way it is. Eventually, barring a complete collapse of modern society and advancement in that direction, everything eventually becomes out of date. But I would say looking at the direction for newer amps and newer amp buyers it should be a standard. I don't think the newer amp with modern features applies to guys like yourself who like barebones or don't care about the modern features and/or other aspects mentioned. As there are more than enough great sounding amps out there now to fill those needs. Those aren't a modern amp I think and there is a huge amount of them that have already been built and on the used market. It only comes down to which one suits you capability and tone wise. The direction new tube amps should and can be going is the thing. I know I would love to see the legacy builders make some more modern option filled versions of some of the classic amps. Like Marshall taking the SC20H and put in a balanced XLR out with a built in IR loader and USB interface where suites like Two Notes plugin controller can be used. I would even like a rack version too.

 

[PelliX]

Like Marshall taking the SC20H and put in a balanced XLR out with a built in IR loader and USB interface like Two Notes where one can use their plugin controller suite. I would even like a rack version too.

You know, I'm 100% with you here on everything but the USB interface!

Quite honestly, I think it's a little lame to put speaker simulation on the DI of a "Studio" series amp. Just a straight DI would really be an improvement.

 

[anitoli]

6100's have a balance XLR output and yes it does sound good it still does not replace a microphone.

 

[TonalEuphoria]

You know, I'm 100% with you here on everything but the USB interface!

Quite honestly, I think it's a little lame to put speaker simulation on the DI of a "Studio" series amp. Just a straight DI would really be an improvement.

The name is just marketing. But for what it is, a 20 watt version JCM800 with built in attenuator is a much more useful amp for lots of players these days. I do think you need the option to turn the IR off to use whatever IR you may want when recording without needing to load it, but the IR loader and selector is an important feature for running live to the PA. And there is nothing stopping a player from bringing a cab too and miking. How much nicer for the overall tone running to the PA with two channels of different speaker/mic sounds.

 

[Gunner64]

External bias pot and test points.... Gotta make it standard.

Just like the 2555x. That set up is awesome.

 

[nortiks]

The most useful feature for me would be all pots are midi controllable digital pots and channel switching also midi controllable, along with any tone shaping toggle switches on the panel.

Just an FYI on digital pot technology, those chips are actually just resistor arrays that have circuitry that will connect and disconnect resistors as needed to accomplish a pot position and most (iirc) have 128 positions. So the signal path is just resistors and the solid state switching for the resistors. I've not worked with them (yet) but my understanding is the SQ is not degraded compared to a standard pot. Equipping an amp with these and midi would put it on par with amp sims in terms of automation of tone settings, while retaining pure tube tone.

 

[PelliX]

The most useful feature for me would be all pots are midi controllable digital pots and channel switching also midi controllable, along with any tone shaping toggle switches on the panel.

Absolutely, though if they ever implemented it the most cost-effective way would be rotary encoders and op-amps. My personal fav, although even more expensive would be motorized pots.

everything Pennixs says should be collected and make a bible ou of it....such an "expert"

Your feeble attempt at sarcasm is obscured by your trolling and poor spelling. Remember, you're accusing someone of knowing more than you do, while you've helped confirm this often enough in the past, Bob.

 

[anitoli]

Your feeble attempt at sarcasm is obscured by your trolling and poor spelling. Remember, you're accusing someone of knowing more than you do, while you've helped confirm this often enough in the past, Bob.

That's good.

 

[december]

3 channels with dedicated gain, volume, bass, mids, treble, and presence for each, with multiple voicings for each.
Power amp EQ with resonance, presence, and most importantly, a mid cut. And master volume.
4, 8, or 16 ohm switch with parallel speaker outputs.
Parallel and series FX loops.

You won't find these features on any low wattage amps. Which is dumb because we usually want low wattage amps for the low wattage, not the lack of features.
All four 20W tube amps I had were wack. Severely lacking in features, shared EQ for both channels, so it's impossible to switch between clean and dirty without having to dial in the whole amp again. One didn't even have a gain knob for clean (looking at you, Revv). They all had really wonky unbalanced mids, tubby/boxy/muddy low-mids and bass, and fizz.
My 3 channel 100W 4x6L6GC amp can get just as quiet as the 20W amps, and much louder. Quiet enough thru a 4x12 to play after midnight in an apartment, and loud enough to drive a full stack at an outdoor gig. And it doesn't sound any worse at low volume than the 20W amps do. But at moderate volume it sounds so much better. Thicker, more defined midrange. Cuts thru a mix so much better. It's an old cheap 100W amp, so it can get a bit boxy and fizzy, but it's still so much better than the four 20W amps, 3 of which cost more than the 100W.
3 channels with dedicated controls, all the controls, for each channel, and 6 voicings for each channel, and 3 band power amp EQ, switchable series and parallel FX loops... you just won't ever get that much control over your sound with a small amp.

 

[december]

Why XLR out ? I prefer USB.

It's a tube amp... wouldn't you want to keep the DI analog, too? And USB connections add terrible noise to guitar gear.
The digital components in the Revv G20 added a high-pitched whine to the amp. An $80 Hum Exterminator fixed it, but they already charge way too much for that mediocre amp.