RockStarNick
Active member
So, like many people, I was under the impression for a long time that power tubes defined the sound of an amp. 6L6 automatically yeilded bouncy fendery tones, and EL34 automatically gave you british hazy midrangy tone.
Then, I learned from Bruce and Jeff and everyone on this forum that it's the preamp design and tone stack that have much more to do with tone shaping, than the actual type of power amp tube does. Especially at lower volumes.
Still, I wondered how they could get "Class A" tones from an amp that was class AB. I assumed that the ONLY way to get class A tones was to have those tubes cooking away in a class A circuit.
But after trying out an Egnater VX module, and hearing some clips of the Randall Top Boost Module, modded or unmodded, they sound pretty authentically Vox-y to me. My question is: how do they do it?!?!?! Is it all about the midrange EQ-ing with the vox? I'm guessing that, similarly to the way dropping EL34's into a Blackface Fender won't turn it into a marshall, that the preamp has more to do with the vox sound, than the fact that it's running on class A tubes?
Likewise, what would happen if you had a vox preamp running into a class AB power amp. Would it still sound like a vox?
Then, I learned from Bruce and Jeff and everyone on this forum that it's the preamp design and tone stack that have much more to do with tone shaping, than the actual type of power amp tube does. Especially at lower volumes.
Still, I wondered how they could get "Class A" tones from an amp that was class AB. I assumed that the ONLY way to get class A tones was to have those tubes cooking away in a class A circuit.
But after trying out an Egnater VX module, and hearing some clips of the Randall Top Boost Module, modded or unmodded, they sound pretty authentically Vox-y to me. My question is: how do they do it?!?!?! Is it all about the midrange EQ-ing with the vox? I'm guessing that, similarly to the way dropping EL34's into a Blackface Fender won't turn it into a marshall, that the preamp has more to do with the vox sound, than the fact that it's running on class A tubes?
Likewise, what would happen if you had a vox preamp running into a class AB power amp. Would it still sound like a vox?
I can't recommend them highly enough. And even in half-power mode, 2w is loud enough to shake walls and get you evicted from an apartment, way louder than conversation! (by comparison, the Zvex Nano micro-amp is 0.1w, so a half-power MOD50 with two YJ Triodes can be significantly louder!)