by erichayes » Wed Dec 20, 2006 1:43 am
Okay, the yang's been discussed, now for the yin--the creation of music electronically.
I used to be a musician, but my weapon of choice was a Mason and Hamlin Concert Grand piano. That pretty much recuses me from judging the foibles and idiosyncrasies of electric guitarists, et al, so all I can do is listen to their railings on likes and dislikes as far as sound is concerned.
As I've mentioned in other threads, I've worked with musicians who could give a rat's ass about how a tube works, or what torture it can be subjected to in order to get "That Sound, man". That's why I don't argue with a harp player, when he says "That Sound, man" occurs when we stuff a 5Y3 into his Bassman's rectifier socket, and a 6L6 and 6V6 into the output tube sockets. Or with a jazz guitarist who swears by his Princeton that's running with 1N4007s.
As Matt mentioned, there's a certain amount of compression that can be obtained from tube rectifiers, especially when they're undersized (5Y3 subbed for a 5AR4, f'rinstance) and pushed hard. God knows there are stomp boxes out there that can emulate this performance quantitively, and even give more range to the effect. But there are players who want the real deal, whether it's a Super Reverb's analog tank, a Fender Rhodes' eerie phase-shift tremolo, or the walking-on-crushed-glass sound of an old Marshall.
Eric in the Jefferson State