INSIDE YOUR AMP, PART 3
Dan Veall closes this issue with a deeper dive into valve versus solid-state amps.
Dan Veall is a session and stage bass player, educator and gear expert and is here to answer your questions. Contact: @DanVeallBassist
Hey everyone! In my last two columns I looked at the workings inside a typical solid-state bass amplifier. Let’s now look at valve amps: What are they, and how do they differ from solid-state units?
First of all, we tend to think of valve amplifiers as rather old technology, because the valves themselves—otherwise known as ‘tubes’, ‘vacuum tubes’, and ‘thermionic valves’—were invented as far back as the first decade of the 20th century. Valve amplifiers are still in production, of course, although in smaller numbers for us bassists compared to our guitar-playing colleagues. Let’s look at why we still love this so-called ‘old’ tech.