Members Slaymoar Posted September 20, 2008 Members Share Posted September 20, 2008 What are the differences between them? I hear that ultralinear gets more wattage out of the tubes + uses lower output load impedance. My main point is about tone though - what type of tone/music would ultralinear be attributed to? Thanks -D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Casey4s Posted September 20, 2008 Members Share Posted September 20, 2008 What are the differences between them? I hear that ultralinear gets more wattage out of the tubes + uses lower output load impedance.My main point is about tone though - what type of tone/music would ultralinear be attributed to?Thanks-D There have been some ultralinear guitar amps, most noteably some of the silverface Fenders but they never seemed to go anywhere. Ultralinear came about in the 1940's for Hi-Fi gear and requires another winding on the OT to accomodate the screens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Slaymoar Posted September 21, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 21, 2008 Well, I read that several home audio designs use ultra-linear. Peavey has used it in several designs, like the heritage series. Some amp manufaturers use it for bass amps for clean headroom. They are described as being the best of both worlds between triode and pentode operation. Almost as low impedance as triode operation and matching or higher power output to pentode. Apparently yeilds 60W on 2x6L6. I'm thinking that if the distortion factor is lower, it just means it would make a mean clean amp, or very high gain metal amp. -D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators isaac42 Posted September 21, 2008 Moderators Share Posted September 21, 2008 The old Sunn tube amps were ultralinear, derived as they were from the Dynaco Mk III tube power amps. Great for bass, and I like them for guitar as well, but after Woodstock, guitarists went from Sunn to Marshall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PaoloJM Posted September 21, 2008 Members Share Posted September 21, 2008 AFAIK, ultra-linear helps reduce the overall THD (total harmonic distortion) over a pentode (UL = Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Victory Posted September 21, 2008 Members Share Posted September 21, 2008 I'm no expert but I've got one of the Ultra Linear Silverface Twin Reverbs with the master volume. I bought it only for the speakers it had in it (JBL D 120's). I bought this and tryed to like it after I got home and no dice. I plan to take the speakers out and put something else in like CTS and sell it. It doesn't even sound good for country picking IMO. The thing is too mid rangy clean, will not distort at all, and sounds like crap with pedals. It says 135 watts but it doesn't sound like it to me. My 45 watt Bassman will kick its ass all day long volume wise. To me it sounds like a bad transistor amp w/ the mid range that gives you a headache after about 3 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Slaymoar Posted September 21, 2008 Author Members Share Posted September 21, 2008 I'm no expert but I've got one of the Ultra Linear Silverface Twin Reverbs with the master volume. I bought it only for the speakers it had in it (JBL D 120's). I bought this and tryed to like it after I got home and no dice. I plan to take the speakers out and put something else in like CTS and sell it. It doesn't even sound good for country picking IMO. The thing is too mid rangy clean, will not distort at all, and sounds like crap with pedals. It says 135 watts but it doesn't sound like it to me. My 45 watt Bassman will kick its ass all day long volume wise. To me it sounds like a bad transistor amp w/ the mid range that gives you a headache after about 3 minutes. No go for ultra linear! Thanks guys! -D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members echodeluxe Posted October 3, 2008 Members Share Posted October 3, 2008 ultralinear doesnt mean bad sounding. you guys are unltrasimplifying (see what i did there?) you are right on one thing, unltralinear power supplies make for lots more clean headroom. most 70's silverface fenders used ultralinear transformers in order to make louder amps with less distortion. there are TONS of silverface fenders out there, and ive seen tons of bands use them live, and they can sound great. hell, the bassman ten is an amazing amp, and its ultralinear. they have NOT "vanished without a trace". far from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members syscrusher Posted October 3, 2008 Members Share Posted October 3, 2008 Ultralinear is great for a tube driven bass amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PaoloJM Posted October 4, 2008 Members Share Posted October 4, 2008 Ultralinear is great for a tube driven bass amp. Ultra-linear is great for any instrument power amplifier where the design objective is for as low as possible THD. This would include Keys, Vocals etc.etc. Most people would agree that a guitar sounds better with more (within reason) THD. Single ended guitar amps are particularily prefered because of the high level of 2nd order harmonic distorsion present. I've also seen a lot of blues harmonica players playing through Fender Champs and the like. They do theoretically give more output power with the same valve compliment but I've read a number of articles that stated that this is almost negligable, especially when the loss of harmonic content is considered. Of course this is someones opinion, and I would tend to agree, but I guess it's "whatever turns you on". I've been doing some reading in this area latley!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators isaac42 Posted October 5, 2008 Moderators Share Posted October 5, 2008 If anyone is interested in hearing what ultralinear amps sound like, just listen to Woodstock. The back line there was made up of Sunn amps, all of which had ultralinear power sections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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