MarkI (and others...) Power amp vs Pre amp distortion Tone?

[Driss]

For you distortion techies,
A lot had been said and argued about pre amp distortion doesn't sound as good as power amp distortion.

Obviously, with the master volume you can turn preamp volume way and up and keep master to around 1.5/ 2 for small venue, needing a nice creamy distorted sound.
(I have a Weber attenuator and I cannot really tell that there is huge difference between that setting and turning up the master volume with the power attenuator.
P.S. I get more sustain without the attenuator for some reason.)

What is your take on power amp vs pre amp distortion and cTone?
Does the boogie have a different preamp build that other amps? is it more "power" amp like?
Thanks

 

[trem]

Hi there,

Although I have little experience with my Mark IV, I think most of the trademark boogie sound is produced in the pre-amp. That said, running the master at a very low level does degrade the sound. About this, I'm not sure whether it's more related to the amount air being pushed by the speakers, or the actual power amp distortion. Anyway, tubes are known to be not so linear, so to a certain degree, pushing the tube a bit by turning the master high does sweeten the sound.

I personally think there's no need for the pre vs post distortion argument. Simply adjust the pre to get your sizzle, and adjust the master up to point so that it'll tame the buzz and sweeten it up, OR when your drummer starts complaining (the latter being less important of course).

Besides, as someone else pointed out here, never mind the volume, your ears will adjust. Ok ok, use ear plugs.

~trem

 

[trem]

Just a bit more sidenote. Having the tweed/full power, triode/pentode and class A/simul-class options in the Mark IV helps to get a better tone at a lower volume, but only to a certain extent. Most of the time you tweak those to get a desired tone, not for the lower volume. The amp itself plus the EVM-12L is already very loud anyway.

~trem

 

[hans-jürgen]

I have a Mark IIB 60w head with Thiele cab (EVM-12L) at home, and I love how it sounds at bedroom level, i.e. lead master at ~0.8 and lead drive at ~6, volume 1 at 7. I play mostly bluesrock stuff, but have enough reserve to increase the gain to some '80 metal stuff.

 

[Driss]

Thanks for the reply.
I found that the Mark I (and really Boogies in general) have the best/sweetest preamp distortion that of any other amps I have ever tried.
I have used a power attenuator and turned up all the volume to 7. You could play but for some reason it doesn't sustain as well and is not as "clean" distortion. Kind of harsh and a bit metallic.
I am selling the power attenuator and just using preamp distortion