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Single Ended Triodes (SETs), the ultimate tube lovers dream.

What the 45 does best

What the 45 does best is to present the midrange better than other SE tubes. I dare say that no other tube in amplification can do it as well as the 45.

It is not necessarily that it presents the best midrange tone; that is not what it really does. What it really does is emphasize the midrange, the gut, the best emphasis on or thrust of the music better than the rest. And it seems to do it very accurately too.

Let me give an example. Say you are at a rock concert, and the lead guitarist is trying to rip out an engaging solo. If his amplifier is too low, or even too loud, it is just not going to come across as well as if the solo is proportionally right to the rest of the music. The 45 just grabs the music right.

Whatever the engineers do at the studio to present the right proportion of the music especially in relation to the lead, or to the thrust of the sound, you can be sure when the right 45 amp grabs the music, it is going to present it as well as you can imagine or want.

This is certainly the most important in lead vocal music say like Al Green, or in the classic rock when there were great lead guitarists, and in jazz where there is alot of great soloing. You want to hear Al Green's voice presented in just the right strength and emphasis as it leads the music, or you just want to hear what Eric Clapton or Duane Allman can do, especially as it thrusts the music and grabs the listener. The 45 just does this like no other tube.

Of course that is not only what music is about. But if you know what I am talking about, then I can say that the 45 reigns king in this regard.

Now let's take more mood music or when rock shifted away from great soloing. The switch went to more rhythm and such and then a 300b might serve just as well or better. New Age music without virtuostic guitar or piano, dance music, rock like Sade, etc. might just play better with the 300b.

The 300b seems to me more a master of impression, harmonics, shadows, more mystery. It's emphasis is a little more even across the board so it does not have the capability to do what the 45 can do.

To say that the SE output tubes do not have their own unique characteristics is incorrect. Drive tubes can significantly shape the output tubes but the output tubes come with their own prevailing characteristics.

If you give the premise of the unique characteristics of the different SE output tubes, then I would want to suggest further to try to compliment the unique characteristics of the output tubes, to develop the unique lines further. This is done through the selection of driver tubes, etc..

Music is varied, along different potential lines. Why not the various output tubes too?

This is just the way it seems to me.



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Topic - What the 45 does best - njjohn 16:43:04 03/02/07 (14)

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