Do power tubes matter?

[DanTravis62]

Glenn Fricker enters the chat

I would LOVE to see glenn fricker attempt to withstand the onslaught he would get here.

Most likely he would drop links to his youtube videos and run, before the pitchforks caught up to him.

 

[thegame]

Most likely he would drop links to his youtube videos and run, before the pitchforks caught up to him.

First he’d have to drop the 4 KFC chicken drumsticks each paw of his is holding

 

[DanTravis62]

First he’d have to drop the 4 KFC chicken drumsticks each paw of his is holding

To be fair, Glenn has lost some weight.

Now, if he could only dial in a (or literally ANY) marshall without making it sound like dogshit.

I swear it's mind boggling how bad he makes any marshall style amp sound with all that expensive recording gear.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

To be fair, Glenn has lost some weight.

Now, if he could only dial in a (or literally ANY) marshall without making it sound like dogshit.

I swear it's mind boggling how bad he makes any marshall style amp sound with all that expensive recording gear.

Well he tries to make everything sound like a 5150. Of course a Marshall will sound like shit if you try to dial it in that way.

 

[DanTravis62]

Well he tries to make everything sound like a 5150. Of course a Marshall will sound like shit if you try to dial it in that way.

Yes. That was where I was headed with my comment.

The problem is that he purports himself to be the final boss of youtube metal production, and he literally can't fathom that marshalls require a different engineering approach

And it's been YEARS. Like, at least a decade. And he STILL cannot dial in a marshall and record it like a normal person. It's actually wild

 

[DanTravis62]

@MadAsAHatter

SERIOUSLY LISTEN TO THIS

Not the whole video, i have it timestamped at him actually playing the guitar (apologies in advance)

It's like he literally cannot dial in a marshall style tonestack

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Yes. That was where I was headed with my comment.

The problem is that he purports himself to be the final boss of youtube metal production, and he literally can't fathom that marshalls require a different engineering approach

And it's been YEARS. Like, at least a decade. And he STILL cannot dial in a marshall and record it like a normal person. It's actually wild

Yeah, he's been doing studio recording for how long now and the best he can do is the standard 5150, V30, SM57 and that's it. The sad part is he caters to young/beginners who have barely scratched the surface of tone and for whatever reason take his word as gospel. I guess screaming obscenities into the camera makes you an expert now-a-days.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

@MadAsAHatter

SERIOUSLY LISTEN TO THIS

Not the whole video, i have it timestamped at him actually playing the guitar (apologies in advance)

It's like he literally cannot dial in a marshall style tonestack

Unfortunately I've seen that one before. Truly horrid. Somehow he figured out how to take all the karang and bite out of the amp.

 

[DanTravis62]

Unfortunately I've seen that one before. Truly horrid.

Yeah, he's been doing studio recording for how long now and the best he can do is the standard 5150, V30, SM57 and that's it. The sad part is he caters to young/beginners who have barely scratched the surface of tone and for whatever reason take his word as gospel. I guess screaming obscenities into the camera makes you an expert now-a-days.

It's insane because he worships at the altar (and chases the dragon) of the mid period "clayman" era In Flames tones, but he doesn't seem to understand that musical context is a thing. Those tones work because of the music that's being played. Glenn can't just transplant that exact tone into his drop d Clutch/Chevelle mallcore riffs and have it work the same way.

He reminds me of one of my high school friends who thinks of everything as a math problem, but only in terms of the math he understands.

He's very lucky he got into the youtube game early, because judging by the records hes done, his production skills were definitely NOT going to earn him a living LOL

He always talks about the Wood of Ypres record he did, knowing full well his normie/younger audience isn't going to actually look it up and listen to it...... and realize it's a black metal band that's supposed to have "bad" production.

 

[thegame]

That's mean. My fans are on the far side of the spectrum. They're non verbal.

And if they’re lucky, deaf too

 

[thegame]

To be fair, Glenn has lost some weight.

Because the only scale he knows is the bathroom scale

 

[DanTravis62]

Because the only scale he knows is the bathroom scale

Watching his pudgy fingers flop around a guitar haphazardly makes my skin crawl

However, i have to be fair - he has definitely lost at least one of his chins

 

[thegame]

Watching his pudgy fingers flop around a guitar haphazardly makes my skin crawl

However, i have to be fair - he has definitely lost at least one of his chins

Nah, with his constant cheap Harley Benton Chinese shilling, he’s gained a lot of Chins

 

[DanTravis62]

Nah, with his constant cheap Harley Benton Chinese shilling, he’s gained a lot of Chins

Goodness knows, with the tariffs, however will westerners consoom slave labor products for increasingly inflated prices?

I guess Glenn will have to find products made by people who are paid living pages to shill for... but somehow he'll find a way to fuck that up, too.

Out of all the high gain amp makers, he chooses Revv (because they're canadian, i'm sure) even though their tone to youtube presence ratio has been significantly off for years

So I assume he just shills for whoever pays him the most maple bucks

 

[thegame]

Goodness knows, with the tariffs, however will westerners consoom slave labor products for increasingly inflated prices?

I guess Glenn will have to find products made by people who are paid living pages to shill for... but somehow he'll find a way to fuck that up, too.

Out of all the high gain amp makers, he chooses Revv (because they're canadian, i'm sure) even though their tone to youtube presence ratio has been significantly off for years

So I assume he just shills for whoever pays him the most maple bucks

If he’s not shilling, he’s grilling

 

[savant421]

EL34's definitely sound different than 6L6's, without question.

Agree 100%. And to take it a step further, I've preferred 6CA7s over EL34s in certain amps (Uberschall)

 

[BABMusic]

Definitely make a huge difference at low volumes when playing alone. Recording or playing in a band? They may not matter as much.

 

[anomaly]

They matter a little bit, but not ad much as some claim. What you want in a power tube is for them to last...first and foremost.

 

[Kraku]

I saw an interview with Dave Friedman (or might have been Michael Soldano, but I'm pretty sure it was Friedman), where he explained that when people change tubes to different models in their guitar amps, they essentially change the whole circuit, instead of the tube. This is because the circuit around the tubes must be designed properly so it does what it's supposed to do. When you switch the tube to a different one, you're changing only one parameter in that circuit when you really would also need to change about 5 other parameters to keep the circuit functioning as intended. As people simply swap the tube(s) to different ones, they essentially break the functionality of the circuit with an incompatible electronic component. So what they hear is a broken circuit. So it's not the tube that sounds different. It's the broken unbalanced circuit which is functioning wrong. Just like if you swapped a resistor from your guitar amp to a different sized one from a different manufacturer and said that different resistors have a very different sound to them. They don't. You just broke the circuit and now it's operating wrong.

 

[DanTravis62]

They matter a little bit, but not ad much as some claim. What you want in a power tube is for them to last...first and foremost.

This is always my main focus as well. 99% of the time, whatever tonal variations there are, are relatively minor and I can dial them in or out with minor tone shaping tools. There are a couple of expensive NOS preamp tubes that have aural benefits, and they are expensive for a reason, but even the most ardent supporter will tell you the differences are generally subtle unless you're running a vintage style tone stack, where they become a much bigger deal.

However, the durability is why I almost exclusively use higher quality NOS or even old used glass.

It lasts significantly (and I mean really significantly) longer.

There are great sounding modern tubes out there, for sure - but it's really hard to find preamp AX7s that aren't microphonic under high gain, and the difference in lifetime for power tubes is completely ridiculous compared to modern EL34s, 6l6s, etc.

I run amps at high volume like, ALL THE TIME. I'm talking 15-25 hours of full band halfstack volume. And it's hard on modern power tubes.... and they fail relatively quickly. If you can find older stuff that's in good condition, you can save a metric fuckton of money in the long run.