Preamp tube covers, do they make a difference?

Wolfeman

Wolfeman

I Prefer EL-34s. So What?
Feb 21, 2006
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I was interested in this thread over at Rig-Talk http://www.rig-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=88483

So I decided to do a test and see if it really does matter if you have the covers on or not.

Here is my test- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2033066/Preamp Tube Covers Test.zip

So yeah, it doesn't make a difference, like I thought. But some people swear it does. There was a few spots on the low end in some of the tests that had a little difference in frequency level(I'm talking like .1db of a difference) so nothing really audible.

What do you guys think?
 
I've not listened to the test, and I don't really know much about amps or electronics. But it honestly sounds like a load of shit to me. Guitar players generally are very daft when it comes to stuff like this I think. Constantly changing things that make little to zero difference in a search for "mojo"
 
Yeah I knew there wasn't going to be a difference, but I thought it was funny how they were saying you could hear the high end a lot better lol.
 
They do reduce RFI shit though. I ran my ampeg vl-1002 at a practice space where i could pickup radio stations by turning my crybaby wah on. when i took the pickup covers off i could really hear that shit blasting through.
 
Sloan said:
They do reduce RFI shit though. I ran my ampeg vl-1002 at a practice space where i could pickup radio stations by turning my crybaby wah on. when i took the pickup covers off i could really hear that shit blasting through.
Click to expand...

Yep you are correct. But These guys are saying they make an audible difference on the guitar frequincies, which is utter nonsense:)
 
Trevoire520 said:
I've not listened to the test, and I don't really know much about amps or electronics. But it honestly sounds like a load of shit to me. Guitar players generally are very daft when it comes to stuff like this I think. Constantly changing things that make little to zero difference in a search for "mojo"
Click to expand...

+1

a simple pick/the material it's made out of
can change the sound drastically, so why not start there!? :D

just listened to the clips, couldn't hear any difference.
i know a shit about amps and electronics and i also can't imagine how
the tube covers could affect the sound in any way :)

cheers
S.
 
It could make a difference to the high freq's. The covers will act as a shield against interferance and allow the signals that you want to hear (ie the guitar) to be amplified cleanly.
It would depend on a lot of different variables though (enviroment the amp was used in, the amp, the tubes, the amount of gain, grounding issues etc).
The covers could also act as a vibration dampener (the amp is usually coupled to the speakers). A tube that vibrates could be noiser as well. If you have an amp on and flick the tubes it makes crazy noises. This would depend on the quality of the tubes.
This is all theory though, I've never actually tried it. I've always used the covers.

Just some thoughts ...
 
Riku said:
It could make a difference to the high freq's. The covers will act as a shield against interferance and allow the signals that you want to hear (ie the guitar) to be amplified cleanly.
It would depend on a lot of different variables though (enviroment the amp was used in, the amp, the tubes, the amount of gain, grounding issues etc).
Click to expand...
It may block some stray RF, but that is going to have absolutley no effect on the audible frequencies of the guitar. Trust me, it won't affect the tone at all.
Riku said:
The covers could also act as a vibration dampener (the amp is usually coupled to the speakers). A tube that vibrates could be noiser as well. If you have an amp on and flick the tubes it makes crazy noises. This would depend on the quality of the tubes.
Click to expand...

This you are correct on, and if you read my post in the Rig-Talk thread I say the same thing :)

But these guys are saying they hear an audible 'no shit' difference to the guitar 'tone' just by having them on or off. That is nonsense, any body can do an A/B test on their own and find that out (not just playing and pulling them off, but by actually recording and doing an A/B)
 
PaoloJM said:
Wasn't it Gerald Weber who came out with the all time classic "tube shields confuse electrons" statement?
Click to expand...

Lol yeah, that would be him.

Edit- Actual after a bit of research it was the 'Groove Tubes' guy(Aspen Pittman), which makes more sense. Same guy that said having air in tubes made them sound better.
 
Oh my Satan was that Gear-Talk thread full of fail and AIDS. Bunch of fucking idiots using big electrical engineering lingo to sound smart. The covers are there as a grounding shield, grounding any interference to ground before it can make its way to the tube, meaning RF interference goes down.
 
TheWinterSnow said:
Oh my Satan was that Gear-Talk thread full of fail and AIDS. Bunch of fucking idiots using big electrical engineering lingo to sound smart. The covers are there as a grounding shield, grounding any interference to ground before it can make its way to the tube, meaning RF interference goes down.
Click to expand...

I should offer the option on my amps to not supply preamp tube covers for $100, to get better tone :lol:
 
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