Who wants their hifi rig to push a 300B to distortion? Hmmm...Pass is into "tube like" sound as illustrated by his XA-25. I have one and it sounds great but not particularly like tubes to my ears...I switch between that amp and a Dennis Had SEP. SS guitar distortion pedals into a tube guitar amp can sound amazing. I have various ones including my old 1980 ProCo Rat that is my fave...a supposed magic Motorola LM308 transistor is the key to that tone.
A Black Box to Solve Everything
Tubes vs. solid state?? There's a thread out right now about this exact question (there always is), but I didn't want to take it off subject. So my question is; is there a device that could go between the preamp and amp that has variable harmonic distortion capabilities? I know there are tube buffers, but they are not really addressing the point because they use line level signals and don't have the distortion of a good 300B tube being pushed beyond its limits. My thinking is that of a black box with switches and knobs to adjust harmonic distortion to mimic different tube types. It would also have to have a bypass switch so we could readily and quickly A/B the thing. Any ideas?
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I guess you could try a unity gain tube buffer which is normally used for impedance matching between components, I remember reading somewhere there was even a SS device which emulated the 2nd (and others?) harmonic of a tube and the distortion (magnitude of harmonic) was applied in variable steps. I can't recall where I have seen it, I will have a search. |
For you DIYers, Ethan Winer provides directions on how to build his Mojo Maestro box, which he states is: "...a simple box that can add distortion ranging from very subtle—to add a little grit to a sterile sounding instrument track or to help “glue” a full mix together—through severe clipping to add “mojo” or “dirt” to any musical source that will benefit. The Mojo setting also switches in a capacitor to gently roll off the highest frequencies to counter the added buzziness. With gentler settings, the overall effect is similar to running music through a tube amplifier or an analog tape recorder but without the added tape hiss and flutter.": https://audioxpress.com/article/you-can-diy-build-the-mojo-maestro |
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