Sounds science-y and cool, right? And as we approach the middle of the 20th century, the pentode (with five working elements) starts to show up and becomes a mainstay in the world of vacuum tubes. Fifteen or so years later, this starts getting called the “triode," sensibly enough. In 1906, Lee de Forest-the self-described “Father of Radio"-improved the basic valve diode by including a separate, third electrode, thereby inventing the main building block of early tube amplification.
Our goal: to open my heart and mind-and maybe yours, too-to some great sounding solid-state amps.īefore we get cracking, let's take a trip back through time to get some footing in amplifier topologies. I also enlisted a half-dozen intriguing examples of vintage transistor titans and tiny terrors. Jamie is the genius behind some of the coolest effect pedals out there, while Ben has worked in studios for years, earning a unique perspective on the audio-capture end. I also work at EarthQuaker, and I'm a pedal and amp builder. To help me get a fresh perspective and possibly reinvent my concept of what sounds good, I enlisted two colleagues, Jamie Stillman and Ben Vehorn of EarthQuaker Devices, to shed a little light on my otherwise dark and singular path.
So, I decided it's time to make an attempt to break out of my comfort zone and preconceptions, and let my ears decide what's best for a given stage or studio situation-while giving my biased peepers a rest.
It's discriminatory and, in fact, my judgmental eyeballs do this with almost every object on the planet. As a lover of sound, I'm guilty of tunnel vision when it comes to guitar and bass amplifiers, often emitting a low groan when I arrive at a stage with backline gear not to my liking.
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