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I've seen lots of pics and players of tube amps, with the amp head sitting atop the speaker cab I've never understood why someone would do that, what with the vibrations/rattles getting to the tubes or other components in the amp head. It just seems obvious that this is going to lessen the tubes life and degrade the sound quality. I always keep my amp heads isolated from the cabs and stage vibration. I thought the ability to do so was one of the benefits over combo amps. Any body know why some guitarists/bassists do that? Or am I just off base

I've wondered this myself. I put a layer of foam between them to dampen the vibes.

Ben79 wrote:I've wondered this myself. I put a layer of foam between them to dampen the vibes.

That seems like a good idea. All that vibration could make your tubes become microphonic too.

1. it looks cool
2. its convient
3. it looks cool
3. small stages are small so it saves space
4. it looks cool

But mainly 1,3, and what should be 5

Derelict78 wrote:But mainly 1,3, and what should be 5

Scruffie likes this

Foam is a good idea indeed... although heads with rubber feet do.

Scruffie wrote:

Derelict78 wrote:But mainly 1,3, and what should be 5

Scruffie likes this

Foam is a good idea indeed... although heads with rubber feet do.

I guess it looks cool if its what you're used to seeing. I like the look of two cab's side by side or stacked. I keep my heads on the floor to the side or behind, in the flight case lid on top of foam. Then I have three largish bearings in little metal bowls as footers below....set up with two in rear and one in the front. This way any vibrations from the stage/air set the bearings slightly rollin in their bowls, thus lessening the vibrations from getting up to the amp head.

I use alot of $$ NOS tubes and do my best to get the most out of em. I definitely go through tubes faster in my combos.

I still have yet to retube my mesa 400+ and I got it 5-6 years ago.. I need to do the pre's one of these days.. now when I used a SVT.. I always had microphonic problems with the per's…

Mudfuzz wrote:I still have yet to retube my mesa 400+ and I got it 5-6 years ago.. I need to do the pre's one of these days.. now when I used a SVT.. I always had microphonic problems with the per's…

you lucky i just took a look at the 400+, you very lucky. That's gonna be expensive to retube I do my best to keep my SVT very isolated from the cabs and stage.

Uncle Grandfather wrote:I've seen lots of pics and players of tube amps, with the amp head sitting atop the speaker cab I've never understood why someone would do that, what with the vibrations/rattles getting to the tubes or other components in the amp head. It just seems obvious that this is going to lessen the tubes life and degrade the sound quality. I always keep my amp heads isolated from the cabs and stage vibration. I thought the ability to do so was one of the benefits over combo amps. Any body know why some guitarists/bassists do that? Or am I just off base

There are two main reasons why I always keep my head on top of my cab:

1.) I mostly play in tiny shitty bars where the stage area is crazy small and I just simply don't have the room to put it on the ground most of the time.

2.) I change settings on my amp several times during a gig, including an adjustment here and there mid-song if necessary. If i had to bend down and crane my neck to see the knobs, that would be a major pain in the butt.

And I guess a third one:

3.) I've never had an issue with it. My current amp got new tubes when I bought it, about 2.5 years ago, and I haven't had any trouble with it so far.

I'm 6'3" and have bad knees, I wouldn't be able to adjust anything if I sat my p on the floor. For the most part I usually leave the amp as is while playing live, but there's the occasional volume or EQ tweak as the sound will be different in different venues and how the band sets up. It's much easier for me to have my amps above my cabs. I'm with you on spending for quality tubes but I haven't noticed any downside to having my amps on top of my cabs. All my cabs are well braced and sturdy, with hardly any vibration that I can notice, on top of my heads having rubber feet all around. At practice I usually have towels on between as to not scratch the cabs, not due to vibrations though.

I'm not saying my way is right/wrong or vice versa. This is just more convenient for my body as well as for the room at our storage and the room available where we usually play. I always thought the purpose of head/cab was more for transportation convenience than vibration or longevity issues.

chillerthanmost wrote:I'm 6'3" and have bad knees, I wouldn't be able to adjust anything if I sat my p on the floor. For the most part I usually leave the amp as is while playing live, but there's the occasional volume or EQ tweak as the sound will be different in different venues and how the band sets up. It's much easier for me to have my amps above my cabs. I'm with you on spending for quality tubes but I haven't noticed any downside to having my amps on top of my cabs. All my cabs are well braced and sturdy, with hardly any vibration that I can notice, on top of my heads having rubber feet all around. At practice I usually have towels on between as to not scratch the cabs, not due to vibrations though.

I'm not saying my way is right/wrong or vice versa. This is just more convenient for my body as well as for the room at our storage and the room available where we usually play. I always thought the purpose of head/cab was more for transportation convenience than vibration or longevity issues.

That makes sense. For me, I'll often play gigs where I'm seated with my guitar in my lap and a table in front of me with pedals loosely arranged atop. Also my expression/footpedals down below for times when I'm standing and playing guitar. Not because of any bending over issues but for easier access to making constant adjustments with my pedals while playing, also i can keep my amp head right next to me too. Other gigs with a pedal board I'll still get down on a knee to tweak about with my pedals, or make adjustments on my amp heads. On many a small stage I've had to improvise my set up.

I really think I hear an improvement, but could just be placebo Either way it suits my style of playing too I guess. I hope my knees hold out

Coming soon to a store near you: Uncle Grandfather's HeadHammock™

Suspend your amplifier head from the ceiling/walls.

bigchiefbc wrote:

Uncle Grandfather wrote:I've seen lots of pics and players of tube amps, with the amp head sitting atop the speaker cab I've never understood why someone would do that, what with the vibrations/rattles getting to the tubes or other components in the amp head. It just seems obvious that this is going to lessen the tubes life and degrade the sound quality. I always keep my amp heads isolated from the cabs and stage vibration. I thought the ability to do so was one of the benefits over combo amps. Any body know why some guitarists/bassists do that? Or am I just off base

There are two main reasons why I always keep my head on top of my cab:

1.) I mostly play in tiny shitty bars where the stage area is crazy small and I just simply don't have the room to put it on the ground most of the time.

2.) I change settings on my amp several times during a gig, including an adjustment here and there mid-song if necessary. If i had to bend down and crane my neck to see the knobs, that would be a major pain in the butt.

And I guess a third one:

3.) I've never had an issue with it. My current amp got new tubes when I bought it, about 2.5 years ago, and I haven't had any trouble with it so far.

1. I've been there I'll pull it up near my pedal board it need be.
2. Me too, i also bend down alot to make changes on my pedals too.
3. I know, I've bought amps from the 60s and 70s that had the stock tubes in them. Like a silvertone amp in case model, the tubes were branded silvertone, and they still sounded great. Once I swapped in some NOS the tone was amazing, but its incredible how long tubes can last.

Sometimes I don't even notice that the tubes are degrading cause I'll have gotten used to how the amp has been sounding for so long and there are no farts or crackles or other noises....then i'll swap in some replacements I bought to make sure they are OK and I don't need to contact the seller, and WOW what a difference.

Chankgeez wrote: head from the ceiling

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