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Introduction To Jazz Guitar Amplifiers

By Tanisha Berg


The final volume to be achieved with an amplifier is dependent on other factors. A crucial factor is the efficiency of a speaker and the construction of housing. An increase in efficiency by 6 dB is achieved through a higher sound pressure level than the doubling of the power of jazz guitar amplifiers and can also significantly influence the change of frequency response dynamics, and tonal character. A speaker with 10 dB higher efficiency roughly doubles the perceived loudness.

Guitar speakers typically have pronounced resonances; the speakers are hung tough and are less attenuated by the high source resistance of tube amplifiers. In contrast, hi-fi speakers convey music signals but do not have their own sound. The resonance behavior of the often open-back wooden housing is another reason for the lower attenuation and the warm sound with pronounced mid-shift. The output stages of tube guitar amplifiers operate mainly in AB mode, that is, it uses one tube to amplify the positive or negative half-wave (push-pull).

The signal flow and arrangement of components and adjusting elements becomes clear. The individual components of a guitar amp are the input (signal input), mostly realized by a connection with a 6.35-mm mono jack, preamp with volume control, tone control (equalizer) to boost or cut individual frequency ranges (bass, middle, treble and linear distortion), output amplifier, speaker system and power supply (PSU).

Nowadays electronics tubes are rarely used due to size, weight, heat generation, long-term stability and complex power supply. The quasi-modular design of modern tube amps (one or two series-connected precursors and a final stage) can create different distortions. The precursors are usually with double triodes, such as ECC81, ECC82 and ECC83.

Overdriving the precursor results in a distorted signal at the input or output stage. Regulating at the output stage leads to a distorted signal with relatively low voltage to the speakers. This is advantageous to the low overall volume, but the sound is not the same compared with that of a distorting amplifier.

The first tube amps from the 1950s could hardly control the precursors, but the distortion was achieved by setting the amp as loud as possible. This means the power tubes were overridden and the transformer went into saturation. This is what influences the sound of guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Alvin Lee (Ten Years After). Technically spoken messages are added to the signal in single-ended tube, which increases even-numbered harmonics (overtones) and the signal is increasingly soft (soft clipping).

This construction was popular in the seventies, when transistor output stages with the sturdiness of best tube amps were still difficult to achieve, but enabled greater flexibility in the input and tone control stages. However, tube amps are more expensive than transistor amplifiers with the same output because of required transformers.

In some cases, digital signal processors (DSPs) are used to simulate the behavior of tube amplifiers on mathematical models. They are also known as modeling amps. Nowadays, there are numerous guitar amplifiers that use this method of sound production. Because of greater flexibility and range of sounds, this amp is replacing the classic guitar amps. Since 2006, a new generation of guitar amp simulators provides many musicians with advanced acoustic capabilities. Some equipment employ high quality analog-to-digital converters, and processors of high computing power. The dynamics of classic guitar amp is simulated with the help of fractal algorithms.




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