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Topic: Owners! Little Walter amp question? |
Greg Derksen
From:
Alberta, Canada
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Posted 11 Jun 2018 6:55 am |
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Any thoughts on whether the Octal pre amp is better sounding than the 12AX7 preamp?
I don't need a loud amp, just mostly for home recording, tracking etc,
Thx in advance.
Greg |
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Dave Stroud
From:
Texas
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Posted 13 Jun 2018 1:30 pm
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We've got a LW 22 watt for my wife's lapsteel (still plenty of clean headroom for pedal steel at house volumes) and I've got a LW 59' for pedal steel.
The '59 uses 12ax7's and the 22 watt uses octals. I've tried steel on both, but it isn't a fair fight because of the difference in tone stacks... The 59' is very flexible for fine-tuning EQ, while the 22 watt has one tone knob. Both sound fantastic, but of course, the tone stack of the '59 gives it an edge.
I also haven't tried the 22 watt amp with my steel speaker, which I'm sure affects things as well. |
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Greg Derksen
From:
Alberta, Canada
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Posted 15 Jun 2018 8:47 am
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Thx Dave, I guess I'm just curious if the full tone stacked 12ax7 50 or89 watt are more for power,
I have heard a few clips with octal pre amp with bass & treble control too ,
Curious what Octal pre's bring to the table thats maybe a bit different, for pedal steel guitar,
Greg |
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Mark Fowler
From:
Minnesota, USA
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Posted 16 Jun 2018 2:21 am
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Octals have a deeper warm tone and people build higher wattage amps such as 100w or 150w amps for PSG, guitar or bass as well.
Mark |
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Dave Stroud
From:
Texas
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Posted 28 Jun 2018 11:16 am
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I don't believe the 12ax7's are there for power. I hesitate to use the term 'more agressive' to describe the 12ax7's when comparing them to the octals... but tone-wise it seems that way. I don't mean any crunch though, both have very clean cleans.
I only use the 59' in our little home studio. I told Phil Bradbury that I don't plan on using the amp at high volumes, and I asked him if 50 watts is too over powered for playing at home. I was mostly worried that I wouldn't drive it hard enough to reach the "sweet spot".
He told me that's the great thing about his amps- the tone doesn't change alot as you turn up the volume. The tone is the same at lower volumes as it is at higher volumes.
Keep in mind though that the preamp tubes don't determine power, whether they're 12ax7's or octals. The headroom is dependent on the power tube wattage. The little Walter 22 watt amp can actually get louder than the 50 watt amp. The difference between the two is the 22 watt starts breaking up a little when the volume is at noon position, while the 50 watt won't start breaking up until the volume is at 3 o' clock. So the 50 watt just has more potential to have a clean sound at higher volumes. |
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