🚀 go-pugleaf

   Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 02:15:13 GMT
   From: insomnia@carson.u.washington.edu (Ryan Klemmer)
   Organization: University of Washington

   Ask any guitar player what kind of amplifier they would use and most would
   say tube.  Why?  Because they have a certain sound that semiconductor
   devices just can't produce.

Not true; tube amplifiers sound like they do because of the specific
circuit topology used, the overdrive characteristics, and the low use of
feedback -- not because they use tubes.  (I described this more completely
in an earlier post.)

On the market however, you'll find that all the available tube amps are
subtle variations variations on one design and all transistor amps are
subtle variations on maybe three designs, so yeah, the generalization holds
in that respect.  But note the distinction between what's available on the
market and what's technically possible!  Besides being inaccurate, you're
making an extremely rude insult to the field of electrical engineering when
you say that an amplifier built with a certain active device has to (or
can't) sound a certain way.

   Moving on to effect devices.  Why analog?  Same reason.  

In case it wasn't clear, my comments about the musical quality of analog
vs. digital effects were specifically about what's available on the market,
not what's technically possible.

  -- Don