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Losing gain as I play - tubes?


tommy p

Question

I have an amp that I'll take to a jam or practice, get everything set just the way I like it and then as I play the sound changes.  Specifically, what seems to happen is that the amount of tube distortion I'm getting via the gain setting gets weaker (ie, cleaner) the longer we play.  Does that sound like a tube problem?  Pre-amp or power?

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What Murkat said. Usually my amps get nastier as they continue to heat up....especially Class A amps like my tweed Champ...it gets thicker and thicker.

i do find that sometime our ears may deceive us too....when I first turn on I may hear a killer tone with just the right gain, but after some ear fatigue settles in I fight the urge to turn it up or to increase the gain....

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When in doubt, dial up the gain.

 

:D

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4 hours ago, Jakeboy said:

I do find that sometime our ears may deceive us too....when I first turn on I may hear a killer tone with just the right gain, but after some ear fatigue settles in I fight the urge to turn it up or to increase the gain....

I had a Kendrick Tweed Deluxe clone years ago, it sounded great but I constantly kept 'feeling the need' to crank the volume controls (they were interactive) to where the amp was maxed out gain-wise, at the point where it sounded like Crazy Horse-era Neil Young.  I loved the amp, but I got rid of it after about a year, as I found that it stuck me into a tonal rut because of that.

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5 hours ago, crunchee said:

I had a Kendrick Tweed Deluxe clone years ago, it sounded great but I constantly kept 'feeling the need' to crank the volume controls (they were interactive) to where the amp was maxed out gain-wise, at the point where it sounded like Crazy Horse-era Neil Young.  I loved the amp, but I got rid of it after about a year, as I found that it stuck me into a tonal rut because of that.

That’s funny...cause though I dig that tone occasionally, usually the flabbiness in my 5e3 causes me to lower the gain to get a more Hotel California like tone, gain-wise.

But I absolutely get it. Live, I was always adding gain to my 5e3...

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