Could I safely run the AD30 with a single power tube?

[guilleonline]

I was checking the other post about running the rockerverb100 with only two power tubes to get half the powers o it got me thinking about the AD30. Could it also be done here? Or is it different? It would be nice to get into power crunch territory at lower levels

[bclaire]

Don't think so...

[guilleonline]

Don't think so...

That's what I thought wonder why though...

[fiveightandten]

No. You have to run the AD-30 with all 4 power tubes.

The AD-30 is cathode biased, so you can't pull 2 tubes out (and definitely not 3). You'd burn the remaining ones up in a very short amount of time and likely pop a fuse.

You can't run any push and pull output section with an odd number of tubes. It would draw an uneven amount of current through the output transformer, and destroy it. This holds true for nearly every guitar amp with multiple tubes. There are very few single ended amps with more than one tube. THD Bivalve is the only one I can think of.

-Nick

[mr_william]

the laney lh50's running 5 el34's in the power section i think...

[a.hun]

the laney lh50's running 5 el34's in the power section i think...

GH50L maybe?

Anyway, -1 to that, maybe even -3!


Andy.

[fiveightandten]

the laney lh50's running 5 el34's in the power section i think...

Correct. I had not heard of that model. But it does indeed run 5 EL34s in single ended class A. Pretty cool!

-Nick

[mr_william]

yeah, to clarify more - it's the lion heart 50...

http://www.laney.co.uk/products/product_details/71" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

andy, not a fan of laney's then?

[a.hun]

yeah, to clarify more - it's the lion heart 50...

http://www.laney.co.uk/products/product_details/71" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

andy, not a fan of laney's then?

I take it all back! Live and learn, eh? Well that's why I come here I guess...

Had never heard of it. Wow, 50W parallel single ended from 5 X EL34s? That is nuts - in a 'good nuts' way. (And is that a big toroidal output transformer too?) Definitely a unique design.

I've got nothing at all against Laney amps. Have only ever played through a couple over the years but thought they were pretty good. Liked their little 15W valve combo.

Also like Sabbath so I really can't hate the sound of them too much...


Andy.

[fiveightandten]

I take it all back! Live and learn, eh? Well that's why I come here I guess...

Had never heard of it. Wow, 50W parallel single ended from 5 X EL34s? That is nuts - in a 'good nuts' way. (And is that a big toroidal output transformer too?) Definitely a unique design.

I've got nothing at all against Laney amps. Have only ever played through a couple over the years but thought they were pretty good. Liked their little 15W valve combo.

Also like Sabbath so I really can't hate the sound of them too much...


Andy.

Cool design, isn't it Andy?! Cool to see some manufacturers going out of the box like that.

They're not bad amps. I have an LC-15, which I just use for practice at home. It sounds pretty decent for that. I used to have an AOR50 head, and although insanely heavy (the MDF headsleeve was to blame for much of that), it did a better JCM800 than some of the JCM800's i've owned.

If it interests anyone, I used the LC-15 to record this guitar shootout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRwCqSERUMM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

-Nick

[a.hun]

Indeed, that's pretty neat. Nice to see someone else putting the theory into practice. Only other parallel single ended guitar amp I can think of right now is the THD Bivalve. Any others?

I think it was an LC15 I played, though I think that one had reverb (LC15R, yes?)


Andy.