Demise of the Bass Tube Combo Amp

eSGEe said:
perhaps bass players are just more practical ....?
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smitty_p said:
This is probably gonna get me flamed, but personally, with the exception of blues, jazz, and earlier classic rock, I prefer the sound of SS bass amps and active pickups.

Let the hate begin!
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No hate here! For a bass, i think that set up works wonderfully honestly. I personally have no hatred for SS amps in general: hell i own a few and have owned others lol.

I like valves being pushed hard in a guitar honestly, just that warm roar that goes wild the harder you drive them. But solidstate is always fine too
 
Thatbastarddon said:
Also…I can only imagine the levels of vibration present in a high powered, all tube, bass combo amp…it would have to be put together pretty well.
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I think that may be it.
Too much rattle and vibration for the amp to survive with a 15" speaker.

The old ampegs - were built with the circuit boards lifted up on military shock absorber mounts.
The new amps "don't even" have shock mounts....
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Well, i see several tecchnical reasons with bass tube amps.
Already mentioned: vibrations. Can be damped. Same issue as with a seperate amp on top of a cab.
More severe: the bass cab needs a closed box. Not an open back. Well, not quite, but an open back suitable for bass would be as large as a truck...
Tubes produce heat and require air flow for cooling (yes tubes must be cooled). Which is not possible if You put them into a closed cab - unlike transistors - their heat sinks can easily made part of an enclosure.

Which means two separate chambers for speaker and cab, not just the tubes within the volume of the copen back cab of the guitar speakers.

And then the bass cabs tend to be large - even a fairly small one like the TL606 has 90 litres (a doubled TL806 as a 212 would be 70 litres). Plus the volume of the tube amp. Compact tube amps were only made by some German companies (Dynacord Eminent 2, Echolette M80) - and even these were pretty large compared to a cab. BTW: Dynacord actually made a combo where an Eminent Chassis was integrated with a 112 cab (that was the 40W power stage, and the amp actually was the version for Guitar and keyboard - but IMHO the 80W bass amp (Imperator) and a more powerful speaker can be fitted.

Dynacord_K502-2.JPG


Which means: tube bass combo designs can be done. They will be pretty heavy, and they are suitable mostly for small locations.

I can imagine a compact 120 W combo using two LS50 or their clones as output tubes in connection with some TL806 like or slightly larger cab - but the weight would be around 30 kg even in a lightweight design. Carrying 2 x 15kg should be a bit mor comfortable, shouldn't it?
 
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bea said:
Well, i see several tecchnical reasons with bass tube amps.
Already mentioned: vibrations. Can be damped. Same issue as with a seperate amp on top of a cab.
More severe: the bass cab needs a closed box. Not an open back. Well, not quite, but an open back suitable for bass would be as large as a truck...
Tubes produce heat and require air flow for cooling (yes tubes must be cooled). Which is not possible if You put them into a closed cab - unlike transistors - their heat sinks can easily made part of an enclosure.

Which means two separate chambers for speaker and cab, not just the tubes within the volume of the copen back cab of the guitar speakers.

And then the bass cabs tend to be large - even a fairly small one like the TL606 has 90 litres (a doubled TL806 as a 212 would be 70 litres). Plus the volume of the tube amp. Compact tube amps were only made by some German companies (Dynacord Eminent 2, Echolette M80) - and even these were pretty large compared to a cab. BTW: Dynacord actually made a combo where an Eminent Chassis was integrated with a 112 cab (that was the 40W power stage, and the amp actually was the version for Guitar and keyboard - but IMHO the 80W bass amp (Imperator) and a more powerful speaker can be fitted.

Dynacord_K502-2.JPG


Which means: tube bass combo designs can be done. They will be pretty heavy, and they are suitable mostly for small locations.

I can imagine a compact 120 W combo using two LS50 or their clones as output tubes in connection with some TL806 like or slightly larger cab - but the weight would be around 30 kg even in a lightweight design. Carrying 2 x 15kg should be a bit mor comfortable, shouldn't it?
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It is the weight that's the issue.
Certainly, a bass amp needs a closed or ported cabinet to reproduce low frequencies, good point.
And even a 12" bass speaker makes the thing too heavy....and it really needs a 15".
Many musicians I know, are trying to shed the weight using smaller lighter amplifiers.
Finally, people realize that large heavy amps are built for big venues; most of these bands are playing in small venues....or using a PA to mic the amps etc.
 
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