Groo Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 So, I just got my first tube amp (Fender Pro Jr). One of my tubes is glowing bright orange. Should it be doing this? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
In a little rowboat Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 For that amp and those tubes, yes... Blue and purple/red are the bad colors. jobu Quote Link to post Share on other sites
a.miller Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 I have one of the "big brother" models of that amp. Totally normal. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
oceanman Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Do not touch,it hurts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Groo Posted October 13, 2007 Author Share Posted October 13, 2007 Well, that's good to hear, thanks guys! This is my first tube amp, so everything is new to me. Here's what I like about it so far: 1) Fantastic incredible warm tone2) Looks great3) Easy to use and simple (two knobs!) Here's what's bothering me: I don't know much about tube amps, but from what I understand, at a certain point in volume, this amp is supposed to break up and distort. Which is fine, it sounds great. However, there seems to be very very little headroom with this. For example, even with the volume at 3 I start to hear some break up. Is this normal? This amp seems very sensitive to high quality cables. The type of cable makes a huge difference. The cheap $5 cable I used had a horrible crackling at higher volumes. The nicer Fender cable I used kept cutting out for no reason. The decent $20 Monster Cable doesn't seem to have any real problems. I just found this interesting, and am wondering if others have had the same experience? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gobias Industries Posted October 14, 2007 Share Posted October 14, 2007 It also depends what pickups your guitar has. Single-coils tend to break up a little earlier than humbuckers, if my memory serves me correctly. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rockinrob Posted October 14, 2007 Share Posted October 14, 2007 Tube amps are the best because of the dynamics involved in the amp. It is literally an instrument unto itself that you must learn to play. I have a boutique copy of a 59 fender deluxe, and it has very little headroom. The trick is, you must use your guitars volume controls. I only play old music, or old sounding new music (wilco, Ryan adams, etc.). These guys also use old pickups. Many new pickups offer way too much output and tube amps can't take it. they also dont allow the volume control to work as well as it should. I have also found that factory volume and tone controls (pots) do not allow for as much adjustment as they should. I HIGHLY recommend getting a superpot from rs guitarworks www.rsguitarworks.net It will make a huge difference to your ability to adjust the volume. I dont know what type of guitar you have, but on any guitar, this will work. Turn the amp all the way up. Make an E power chord, or an A, or maybe a big G major chord if that is your bag. Stand in front of the mirror, and in the words of Angus, dont tickle the bugger, Bash it! Think Pete Townsend windmill. Try to break a string with the force of this chord. You will notice the amp sounds somewhat like it is on fire and A nuclear bomb exploded. Let the chord desend into feedback and die. Now turn your volume down to about 3 or 4 (If you have the RS setup, you can go to 1), and play very lightly with your fingers. It should be clean and pretty. Play very lightly with a pick, same deal. Now play harder. You will hear a slight break up. This is the beauty of tube amps. On my Deluxe, I keep it cranked. My Les Paul has Antiquity pickups in it, and the RS setup. I keep my treble volume on around 4 and my rythym volume around 5 or 6. This is my normal Rockin sound. If I need it really clean, I flip to the neck pickup, and drop the volume to 2 or 3. If I go to do a lead, I will stay in the middle and knock the treble volume to 8 or so. It is all in your hands and the volume controls, you must learn how to play them. I just realized groo was the one asking, so your tele is perfect for the above trick. I like the middle position the best on Tele's, and the bridge pickup is good for a blast of treble spikyness. The bridge pickup on most teles will distort amps easily if you play hard. I know that you are a mostly acoustic player, and acoustic players are notorious for banging away on electrics when they first start playing those, so expirement with how hard you are playing. Sometimes when Im playing electric, I pick so lightly with my fingers that it probably wouldnt even make a sound on an acoustic guitar. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Groo Posted October 14, 2007 Author Share Posted October 14, 2007 post Thanks for all the tips! Strangely enough, I had a chance to really play with the amp this morning, and I actually picked up on a lot of the same tricks you're describing here. I thought everything sounded great, and I was able to get some really diverse sounds out of it by varying the way that I play. The one thing that I noticed is that when I turn the tone all the way down on the guitar and/or the ampe, it sounds like a bag of shit, especially on open major chords. Overall, I can get a lot of great tones out of this thing, I've even found I can get a decently clean sound by turning the tone all the way up, and the volume at half on the guitar. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
In a little rowboat Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 It also depends what pickups your guitar has. Single-coils tend to break up a little earlier than humbuckers, if my memory serves me correctly. It does matter what pickups....however (in general) humbuckers tend to break earlier because they have a higher electrical ouput. jobu Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mchchef1 Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 The trick is, you must use your guitars volume controls. I only play old music, or old sounding new music (wilco, Ryan adams, etc.). These guys also use old pickups. Many new pickups offer way too much output and tube amps can't take it. they also dont allow the volume control to work as well as it should. I have also found that factory volume and tone controls (pots) do not allow for as much adjustment as they should. I HIGHLY recommend getting a superpot from rs guitarworks www.rsguitarworks.net It will make a huge difference to your ability to adjust the volume. Sorry i have been lost on that web-page for about two days now! It is like a never ending journey, this whole electric guitar thing!Who knew? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loldoctor Posted October 27, 2007 Share Posted October 27, 2007 I just bought a Vox AC15. You may remember this amp being used by bands such as Wilco. I am in love with it currently. Next up... Stratocaster. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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