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Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:15 pm
by sonidero
Why not just leave the head on the tour bus and get longer cables???
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:18 pm
by theavondon
theactionindex wrote:fiddelerselbow wrote:fag butts
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:36 pm
by Uncle Grandfather
Mudfuzz wrote:then there is, loading and unloading them, vibrations from being in moving vehicles, temperature changes from being taken in and out side as well...
sure, i mentioned earlier that its convoluted. what it boils down to, is their a sonic difference when your playing music/noise whatever.
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:41 pm
by Uncle Grandfather
sonidero wrote:Why not just leave the head on the tour bus and get longer cables???
that's what stated me down this path. putting the head in the control room with me and playing rhythm tracks or punch ins or something and noticing there was a difference.
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:57 pm
by foomanfat
I can see how this is a procedure in studios, but it seems so impractical outside of a sterile environment like that.

Fwiw, my bass head sits in its foam padded road case lid on top of cabs and my guitar amp is a combo.
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 10:10 pm
by Uncle Grandfather
foomanfat wrote:I can see how this is a procedure in studios, but it seems so impractical outside of a sterile environment like that.

Fwiw, my bass head sits in its foam padded road case lid on top of cabs and my guitar amp is a combo.
Good point. Just suprised is all that only a couple people have taken any steps...foam or on the floor. Moot point for most. You're hearing what you're familiar with and that's all it boils down to.
Btw I keep my head in the flight case lid too on foam, but i take some further steps to deal with stage vibrations and place it where its accessible, or right next to my pedal table.
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 3:33 am
by rfurtkamp
is their a sonic difference when your playing music/noise whatever.
None I've ever heard. I did the amp on chair, on floor, etc. for various purposes over the years as needed, and it still sounded like a Bassman head.
If it's on the floor, you're going to get possibly even more vibrations than on top as the sound resonates through the floor.
This is pretty much radical overthinking though. It's an amp head, put it where you can tweak it and be happy.
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 4:39 am
by goroth
Uncle Grandfather wrote:Any amp is designed to amplify the signal as accurately as possible with as little distortion as possible..
Even taking the eq out of the equation and just looking at the gain stages in pretty much any guitar amp and they aren't going to amplify things in a linear manner. The "warmth" that people hear with tube amps is just distortion. Introduce an eq, and non linear frequency response from guitar speakers, a shitty Shure SM57, a couple of pickups and your signal is nothing like what your strings are putting out. And that's the whole point! A guitar signal from start to finish gives you so many different places to insert distortion of some description, it's rad. And mostly no-one will care except you. And that has a certain poetic beauty to it.
Moar FUZZZZZZ!
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:51 am
by fiddelerselbow
theavondon wrote:theactionindex wrote:fiddelerselbow wrote:fag butts
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 10:14 am
by Communarchy
Didn't read this whole thread, but putting on the floor is dumb. Bass amp and bass drum are gonna shred your head with the vibrations through the floor. More vibrations than your teeny tiny stwings buzzing through your cab to your head. I have seen head hammocks before. Believe it or not. I've seen pics of Marc Bolan and Page with their heads in hammock stands. And Jimmy used to throw his hiwatts on table next to his stack. Not sure how that would even make a difference though. It's still transferring stage vibration.
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 1:31 pm
by lapsteel
I would rather have my head sitting on top of the cab then having to worry about it getting kicked or used as a step on the floor...I mean if someone accidently tripped on it in the dark of the backstage and the tubes where hot, they could be damaged... So I would be way more comfortable having it in view and accessable. Besides vibratons add tonal mojo dontchaknow. Then again I am not a professional musician and I have never needed to overthink these things.
However, maybe having the amp on the cab reduces the length required for the speaker cable, and by extension minimizes the resistance between the amp and speaker....
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 1:51 pm
by theavondon
The only time I've ever put my amp on the ground was at shows where I was worried that someone would barrel into my cabs and knock my shit over.
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 2:26 pm
by Fuzzy Picklez
I'm gonna piggyback onto this thread.
My head actually shakes and almost falls of my amp as soon as I play loud now.
How do I fix that?
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 2:54 pm
by Holy Schnikes
I have a buddy who was quickly loading in years ago, went to throw his Marshall head atop a massive full stack and instead threw it right on over the top and crashing onto the stage floor behind said stack lol. Talk about bad vibrations.
Believe it or not, that head functioned flawlessly that night...
Re: Tube amp head and cab's
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 2:57 pm
by D.o.S.
Fuzzy Picklez wrote:I'm gonna piggyback onto this thread.
My head actually shakes and almost falls of my amp as soon as I play loud now.
How do I fix that?
Put it on the floor.
