Tube PA head for guitar or bass

[CyaNitrate]

Who does it, or has in the past?

There's a very sweet looking AIMS Vocalsonic IV near me, which is described as being similar to a 4 channel Fender Twin.

There isn't a ton of info on them, but according to legend AIMS was started by fender guys who left after the CBS buy out.

This thing is appealing for a lot of reasons...I imagine it could handle guitar or bass, the channels might be jumper-able, or made to be, and with four channels I like the idea of revoicing one or more of them (blackface-ish, tweed/marshall-ish, etc)

So, who has thoughts?

[Mudfuzz]

I think you should try it out and see what happens.

[crochambeau]

The tube PA type stuff I have messed with in the past (Newcomb, Bogen, Allied Knight, Harmon Kardon) is pretty much geared for vocals, public address and maybe some piped in muzak. This boils down to a fairly standard "un-voiced" input, several channels worth all usually sharing a Baxadall type bass/treble tone stack and a master volume. A lot of the time the output transformers are not wound with bass in mind, but in my experience they offer a pretty full bandwidth if you're not hitting the output section hard, and narrow down a bit to a middle crunch if you do. Mind you, they (I've no experience with the AIMS, I'm generalizing here) tend to get muddy if you run them too hard, so you'd want to do a bit of revoicing work if you hope to mod it for cascading channels and general craziness.

My take away is that they often are built at lower voltage ratings etc (there ARE exceptions) to extend service life of tubes, as they'd often be run every day, so sometimes you trade a little headroom for extended tube life.

If it's a reasonable price, I'd do it!

[CyaNitrate]

My take away is that they often are built at lower voltage ratings etc (there ARE exceptions) to extend service life of tubes, as they'd often be run every day, so sometimes you trade a little headroom for extended tube life.

If it's a reasonable price, I'd do it!

This may be an exception, it's rated 100 watts from a pair of 6550 power tubes, which I was under the impression meant higher voltages.

The guy is asking $425, but I might be able to talk him down. It's been sitting a while. I'm looking for a big loud clean machine that I can dirty up with my pedals.

[crochambeau]

Yeah, 100 watts from a pair of 6550s is leaning into them a bit. Is it local to you, or would it have to ride in a box?

[CyaNitrate]

Local, about 15 minutes away. I don't want to bug him until I have cash though. I just retubed my vibrolux reverb so hopefully that will help it sell.

[rustywire]

I think you should try it out and see what happens.

[rustywire]

My 70something Oliver head is actually a 2ch PA with 2 pairs of inputs. Full range & mid range. All tube, even a gz34 rectifier.
It's super clean. clinical. Great for bass. Completely bland with guitar.
I also have a pair of 4 input 60s Altec tube heads. Similar circuit lineage but they get nice & crunchy by comparison.

All 3 use a pair of 7027a power tubes for about 50w with the Oliver and 35ish for the Altecs.
You really gotta try to know

[ognoy]

Badass Norwegian noiserockers Arabrot use a Hiwatt PA-head for (baritone) guitar along with a Hiwatt Custom 100. At least they're loud.

[fuzzonaut]

I used a Dynacord Eminent II with bass for years, sounded great to me.

Now I mix my table top stuff with it. It's brilliant for that.

[karmablock]

I used to use a Fender PA 100 for my bass rig. It sounds good to me. I think Skully and Brian of SS/BS have used them too.

[insubordination]

I used to use a Fender PA 100 for my bass rig. It sounds good to me. I think Skully and Brian of SS/BS have used them too.

I used one of these on bass for awhile and thought it sounded good as well. The guitarist for a band called Healer from Buffalo uses one of those AIMS PA heads and it sounded pretty sweet when I saw them live.

[CyaNitrate]

GAS grows...but it just got more complicated, as a guy with a '66 Bassman is contemplating trading with me, and that's a sure thing as far as sound goes. Still gonna try grabbing the AIMS though if I can.

[Benn Roe]

I have a Traynor YMV-1 Voice Master, which I've used to pretty good effect with guitar. I'm under the impression the circuitry is pretty much the same as the YBA-1.

[crochambeau]

It's funny, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum: I just re-capped a Bogen K15 today that produces a rated 15 watts from a pair of 6L6. Roughly 300 volts on the plates, in reference to cathode. I slapped a pair of 5881 in there and expect to need to change those about the same time I'll need to refresh the electrolytics again.

Not loud enough to cut in a live situation (unless you're busy sniffing wine & cheese), but certainly a decent bedroom/studio amp with two high gain channels and a nice line level (takes pedals clean) input.