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I wonder if these are any different to JFETs in blind auditions. People have been basically taking old Marshall circuitry and turning it into pedals using J201
by m0zg 8y ago
I wonder if these are any different to JFETs in blind auditions. People have been basically taking old Marshall circuitry and turning it into pedals using J201 JFET transistors. It's a bit of a bear to set up bias for, but the results are impressive enough that there's an entire cottage industry around this by now and some higher end manufacturers (e.g. Bogner Amplification) have jumped on the bandwagon. Needless to say, a JFET is at least an order of magnitude cheaper than this can ever be.
- analog31 8y agoThe JFET is at a disadvantage from a marketing standpoint, because it faces the burden of proof, and is known to be cheaper. There's an automatic presumption that someone is using it to save money while making compromises to the audio quality. All it takes is one person to proclaim that it doesn't sound exactly like a tube. In contrast, a 12AX7 is indisputably a tube.
- m0zg 8y agoBut this is not 12ax7. And nutube is a cold cathode tube. There have been attempts to use low-power tubes called nuvistors before. Those are actually more of a tube than nutube, and they failed to get any traction. It's a notoriously fickle market, and tubes are still manufactured in China, Russia, and even in the US, so it's arguable if they need to be "replaced" by some newfangled thing.
- analog31 8y agoIndeed, last I checked, a 12AX7 is like 5 bucks in quantity (and I'm no master at low cost sourcing), so it's barely even an economic argument. The guitar amp can't be made much smaller overall because it still needs a speaker.
- wishinghand 8y agoWhich Bogner products are you referring to?
- m0zg 8y agoBogner Ecstasy Red and Blue pedals, which aim to duplicate the Red and Blue channels (and the various sub-modes) of the corresponding amps, and do a pretty good job.