Samba Pa Ti Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 (edited) i was lookin around for effects pedals with tubes in them and came across this rack device with a tube in it, when i decided to google it i found this page : http://www.record-producer.com/learn.cfm?a=2838 im pretty shocked that they would add Led's behind the tube to make it look like its glowing... im wondering if anyone else employs this tactic in their valvey effects :S Edited May 25, 2007 by Samba Pa Ti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 I spoke to an amp tech once who showed me a Marshall with a valve that was wired up purely to glow...it had no connection to any of the signal chain at all. Quite a lot of companies add LED's to make the tubes look like they're glowing more, after all they must be working harder if they glow brighter right? I'm not really sure what to think about it. Shouldn't audio equipment be based on what it sounds like? Does that Behringer unit sound worse now that they know what's in it or exactly the same? The sad truth is that musicians will mostly by audio equipment based on what it looks like or on what someone else says is good. You've just proved that point by looking for effects pedals with tubes in them, not looking for effects that work with your gear or sound good to you but ones that have a feature that you've been told you need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_ado Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 my value amp had a light in it it all comes down to the sound of it and if your prepared to pay that much for it i guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GodBlessTexas Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 i was lookin around for effects pedals with tubes in them and came across this rack device with a tube in it, when i decided to google it i found this page : http://www.record-producer.com/learn.cfm?a=2838 im pretty shocked that they would add Led's behind the tube to make it look like its glowing... im wondering if anyone else employs this tactic in their valvey effects :S I can't really blame them. Most musicians are idiots when it comes to what is good and what isn't good in equipment. If they put a tube in it, but ran it at low enough current to not have it glow like a lightbulb, people would be disappointed because we've been taught that tubes glow when in use. The tube in the Behringer is still in the signal path. They just decided to add LED's to make up for it's lack of visual oompf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba Pa Ti Posted May 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 I can't really blame them. Most musicians are idiots when it comes to what is good and what isn't good in equipment. If they put a tube in it, but ran it at low enough current to not have it glow like a lightbulb, people would be disappointed because we've been taught that tubes glow when in use. The tube in the Behringer is still in the signal path. They just decided to add LED's to make up for it's lack of visual oompf. i guess you're right, but its a pretty lame effect if that is the case, i want my tubes to glow ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GodBlessTexas Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 i guess you're right, but its a pretty lame effect if that is the case, i want my tubes to glow ! And your tubes will glow in a power amp, but I'd be concerned about the soundness of a Mic preamp pushing enough current to make a 12AX7 glow visibly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 My amp glows so brightly that one day I forgot to turn it off and it was like a light bulb shining on the wall at night. Pretty cool stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgmorg Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 Ya, it's pretty gimmicky, but that seems to be Behringer's schtick, I guess. I have the ultragain unit, and it seems to work pretty well. I got it mainly to boost a Rode NT series condensor mic to a level that our Tascam 788 could use. It performs that function well, but the "warmth" control seems to be absolutely useless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thoughtless 7 Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 i was lookin around for effects pedals with tubes in them and came across this rack device with a tube in it, when i decided to google it i found this page : http://www.record-producer.com/learn.cfm?a=2838 im pretty shocked that they would add Led's behind the tube to make it look like its glowing... im wondering if anyone else employs this tactic in their valvey effects :S I can't really blame them. Most musicians are idiots when it comes to what is good and what isn't good in equipment. If they put a tube in it, but ran it at low enough current to not have it glow like a lightbulb, people would be disappointed because we've been taught that tubes glow when in use. The tube in the Behringer is still in the signal path. They just decided to add LED's to make up for it's lack of visual oompf. I totally agree with this. I use a lot of Behringer stuff and i can't complain with it. It does what is says well, while keeping the price down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorecki Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 There are A LOT of vendors doing this with low end 'tube' preamp's. I even had an experience with an ART unit where I took the tube out entirely and it still worked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biliousfrog Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 A friend says that his Engl amp also had an led to light it up so I guess it's not all budget gear that does it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brewu22 Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 Digitech does it too. I never really thought about it before this thread. I pulled the cover off, and powered it up. The top of the 12ax7's glow, but there is a helper led between the 2 tubes to get that full tube glow. This is a digitech 2120 preamp by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba Pa Ti Posted May 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 There are A LOT of vendors doing this with low end 'tube' preamp's. I even had an experience with an ART unit where I took the tube out entirely and it still worked! i guess its ok if the tube is actually being used, but if you took it out thats just not on... why even put the tube in there if its not doing anything... on a sidenote is there a decent website for building effects with Tubes ? is that amp forum anygood for it ? id like to mess with some tubes in a guitar effect before i build a full blow tube amp (seems a lot simpler building a preamp on its own) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 Tubes are not the holy grail, despite guitar-world lore. Plenty of the most sought-after professional equipment has been solid-state. You COULD make a case for guitar amps and tubes, if you really wanted to get into a dreadfully boring debate-- because we'll intentionally overdrive the tubes. But for mic preamps, mixers, DIs and the like... the tube isn't going to produce any magic for you. It's definitely more than just Behringer using the LED trick, as already mentioned. My ART (a really bad mic pre by the way...) did the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba Pa Ti Posted May 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 (edited) i agree tubes are not the holy grail of guitar sounds but i still find it unacceptable that theres Fakery (SP) going on, personally i think its nice to have a Good mix of solid state/tubes for the best sounds, even if it means using different amps its still nice to have the option, i wouldnt want to buy somthing thinking it was tube driven only to find this was a big scam just to sell it to people thinking they are getting a tube sound. also offtopic slightly my favourite plane http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mig_25 uses/used Tubes/valves so that it was resistant to EMI and EMP from its nuclear payload, a little bit sinister, at least if nuclear war breaks out our tube amps should still work : P Edited May 25, 2007 by Samba Pa Ti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thoughtless 7 Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 I think this topic has gone from the Behringer Ultragain (which does actually use the tube, it just doesn't drive it like a guitar amp would drive a tube) to pretty much every product that has a "fake" tube. I suppose in this case ignorance is bliss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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