PEAvEY
called “tube sound.” We’ve been doing this
for forty something years and I think we’ve
probably come closer than anybody else. We
have a number of patents on what we call
TransTube Technology where we synthesized
the overload characteristics of the amp and
transformer—the asymmetrical clipping
when the tubes clip. They almost always clip
asymmetrically. We’ve tried to simulate what
happens when you overdrive the grid of the
tube, which actually becomes positive and
you encounter something called grid current
where current actually comes out of the grid
and this causes what they call bias shift. All
of this occurs in a magnificent choreography that ends up making the tube amp not
only sound the way tube amps sound, but
respond and feel like a tube amp feels.
There are guys out there who can certainly
tell the difference between real tubes and
our solid-state technology, but on the stage
it’s pretty damn close. It’s ninety-five percent, and when I was in school ninety-five
percent was a passing grade. The reality
Oil-stained bodies for HP Special guitars in the
Peavey Custom Shop.
is, I’m not one of these people who wants
to get on a soapbox and proclaim that our
solid-state amplifier is as good as any tube
amp out there, because if somebody wants
a tube amp they’re going to buy a tube
amp, no matter how good the solid-state
version works. That’s why we still make lots
of tube amps!
That acknowledgment is evident with your
new Vypyr modeling amp. That amp is a
straight up modeling amp.
It combines the best of digital modeling
and some analog circuits right out of our
TransTube playbook. The interplay between
the loud speakers and the power amplifier is
very, very important. Some people try to do
it all with the preamp but frankly, you can’t.
The best you could ever hope for is kind of a
pseudo snapshot of a tube amp. A tube amp
has to push back. It has to have that feel,
you know, that response. It has to mimic the
situation where you overdrive the grid
