FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Solid State Bass Amp

Question:
we all know that tube guitar amps are much louder, or at least SEEM much louder than solid state guitar amps with the same wattage rating. A 15 watt tube guitar amp is probably as loud as a 40-50 watt solid state amp (I'm talking in general). I figure the same is true of bass amps, right? I realize there are some things to consider: 1) To be twice as loud, and amp will need 10 X the wattage. A 800 watt bass amp will be twice as loud as a 80 watt amp. 2) Part of the reason a tube guitar amp sounds louder is that it can be turned all the way up, and actually sound better than at lower volume. A solid state amp will start to distort in a bad sounding way. I'm assuming rock music where you want some guitar distortion, not jazz, etc.. This of course doesn't carry over to bass so much, or does it?? For the sake of discussion, lets assume the bassist doesn't want a 100% clean bass sound, rather a somewhat distorted tone. Think Geezer Butler on Early Sabbath, or Bob Daisley on the first Ozzy albums. 3) I figure a bass amp should have about 3X the amount of wattage the guitarist in the band has. That's what people say. My question is, would a tube bass head rated at 100 watts seem or be louder than a 300 watt solid state head? Any one use one with their band? I have tried them in the store of course, but it's impossible to judge volume with a band from being in a music store. Second question. Do any bassists use guitar amps, or guitar heads to drive bass cabs? I saw a thread about the best bass amps, and someone mentioend using a fender twin (into bass speakers) as a bass amp for recording. I have heard of various instances where this was done for recordings (I believe this was the case with Bob Daisley on the ozzy albums). I know that Lemmy uses guitar heads. Anybody out there do it? I recently saw a Peavey Mace guitar head for cheap. 160 watts, tube power amp section (SS pre-amp). I though hmm I could use that for bass right away. Anyone ever try this?

Answer:
Answer: depends! One basic difference between SS and tubes is that SS tends to clip hard which sounds bad and kills speakers. Tubes have a sort of soft limiting effect that allows you to push the overall volume up. (As you noted). BUT some SS amps come with Soft limiters. My Fender BXR200 for example or my Fender 750 watt PA amp. With no limiter, you have to set your bass level so low that the peaks never clip. This makes SS amps WAY softer watt for watt than tubes. But with a really decent soft limiter, (Like what I have) You can start to push the level up toward the top without bad sounds setting in. Not as far as with a tube head, mind you, but better. Now I can imagine a specially designed soft limiter that could duplcate tube limiting and then tubes and SS would sound pretty much the same watt for watt although you'd have to consider max output ratings. One remaining difference is that if you take a tube amp of X watts and over-drive it you can force more power above the X rating. But a SS amp with a soft limiter has the rated X power as the absolute max and you can't really drive over that rating with more input.