GaN guitar amps?
With the success of GaN amps from the likes of @atmasphere and others, I was wondering if that technology could possibly infiltrate and possibly supplant guitar players’ beloved tube amps? Seems like a no brainer given reliability and weight savings in a pro-audio environment. Am I missing something here?
I don't either- mostly on account of the dearth of such amps to begin with and then how hard it is to introduce guitar players to stuff like that. I imagine things will look at lot different in 10 years! |
@designsfx That was certainly true decades ago but now, not so much. There might be an overdriven tube, but that tube may not be in the guitar amp- it might be in an effects pedal. Alternatively, it might be in a guitar amp, but not the output tubes- that is why guitar amps have more than one volume control. For the last 20 years or more, guitar players for the most part have sculpted their 'sound' by the use of various effects pedals, of which I'm sure you're aware. So all a class D amp has to do is not fall flat on its face :) About a year ago we sent a prototype class D system to a bass player named Ron Carter, for audition to see if the idea had merit. He liked the sound FWIW. He was/is already using a class D amplifier which is a more common in the world of acoustic instruments. But even electric guitar players are considering the move, since there's a big difference between 15 pounds and 70 pounds when you're loading out of a venue at 3 in the morning! There are several guitar amplifiers that were hifi in nature. The famous Sunn tube guitar amp used the Dynaco MkIII amp circuit and output transformers. The venerable Ampeg V4 was built to hifi standards throughout (the work of Roger Fox, who eventually was vice president of Fendor). Finally the Marshall Major is a 200 Watt amp that can be used as PA, bass or guitar as its built to hifi standards as well. Of course these amps have tone controls; what I mean by hifi is they have wide bandwidth and low distortion. So its entirely reasonable to consider hifi and guitar amps in the same conversation. |
