How Much Difference Do Tubes Makes?! 

That's completely understandable. There's so much confusion on topics like this because most people don't know the different between gain and volume. They are completely different things. You can only overdrive/distort tubes (or transistors for solid state) with gain. A volume control cannot distort or damage the signal in any way. Gain controls are always on the input of a component, and volume controls are always on the output of a component. When you increase gain on your guitar amp, you're overdriving your preamp tubes, not the el34's or 6550's, or whatever your amp has for power tubes. And even for a clean signal, the preamp tubes still make a big difference. The reason for that is the lower the signal strength, the more its effected by external factors. A line level signal isn't anywhere near as powerful as the signal that goes to your speakers. If you have ever wondered why vinyl can be so expensive to get into, the signal from a phono cartridge is an order of magnitude weaker that a line level signal, so that type of gear has to be built to a higher standard. I just want to make a couple of quick points on volume controls because I know some of you will want to challenge me on my comment about volume can't distort or damage the signal. On most audio devices, you can keep increasing the volume until things start to sound bad and break up. That's not the volume controls fault. A volume control is nothing more than a variable resistor. It can only attenuate the signal, nothing more. So, for example, you're listening to music at normal levels and it sounds fine. In most cases, you can increase the volume until the sound starts to break up and sound bad. When that happens, the volume control is not the cause of the distortion. The speakers themselves may not be able to play that loud, or the amp may run out of power. Either way, its not the signal that's distorting. On the input, too much gain directly causes the signal to distort. If you want to see this happen for real, go to your guitar amp. There's usually a volume and gain knob right next to each other. Turn the volume all the way down and turn the gain all the way up. Now, if you turn the volume up just a bit, you'll have distortion, even at a very low volume level. If you now do the opposite, with less gain and more volume, the signal will stay clean until you push the levels really hard.

I agree. Get good speakers you like, treat the room where you're recording and make sure the rest of the chain does its job.

I was replacing just the stock tubes. So far I've only heard tubes make somewhat of a difference but I've never heard them make a huge difference. Changing the speaker is a huge difference to me.

Thanks for chiming in! I would also never pay the big bucks for some expensive tubes, but this was an interesting experiment.

This amp doesn't need to be biased. Thanks for sharing what you hear! As the one playing and recording this, I found it hard to determine if I was being fooled by some placebo effect.

So far I've been happy with these new ones. I feel like the amp is a bit more lively but also nuanced, less sterile than before. I shot this video about 6 months (or more) ago.

Yeah I get what you mean 😅 I'm still on the fence about what I think to hear and what the difference really is. The comments are going to be interesting I think!

I haven't even tried different types of tubes in an amp. I used to have a Marshall Origin, the 50 watt head version, right when they came out. I did notice a bigger difference swapping the tubes on that one, but maybe those were cheaper and lower quality tubes, as it's an affordable amp. Most of the time I don't change tubes unless something starts sounding weird, which has rarely happened to me.

Well, that's simple for me, as I've tried it all from windmills (I'm Dutch after all) to catching lightning with a kite for that ultimate rock tone. My answer, and the secret of all my sounds, are a hamster wheel powered by a mutated turtle. Nothing sounds better than that!

Buy a Furman Power Conditioner!

@@rogerforsman5064 does it also help with my bad hair days?

Was there a noticeable difference in sound?

Was there a noticeable difference in sound?

@@StevenAnthonyGuitar Being curious I tried Mullard reissue PT with Tung Sol pre. Just awful. Back to the OE winged C that it came with and it was like a new amp. The China pre's are solid, sound good with no issues.

I've heard that all those pre amp tubes are made in the same factory but sold to different brands that check their specs and add their own label

@@melexdy that has been my experience too with cheaper amps. I get my tubes from Tube Amp Doctor or Tonefactory, as they have way more options and are often better prices than Thomann.

I've recorded this video about 6 months ago and in the meantime I think the amp sounds a bit more lively and less sterile than it did before with the stock tubes. So even though I still don't know if it's a placebo-effect, I do think I notice a difference. And I think tubes will stick around for a while. Just like vinyl is back in the picture. There's something about the old stuff that people keep longing for. Of course I hope I'm right! 😉

I've noticed similar things as well: I play a lot cleaner once I change up my dirty underwear.

Yes that too..😉