Emulating valvestate amplifiers.

[cibonato]

Hello everybody. I was thinking about something and now I have a question: what kind of pedal should I use to emulate a valvestate amplifer? And if there's any (I think so), schematics and any kind of information is very welcome.

Thank you all.

Miguel D.

[aaronkessman]

well, i can't remember quite what a valvestate amp is like, but my guess is that they're tryin to emulate old marshal tube amps. in that case, I'd say the Brown Sound in a Box II is the way to go, since this is trying to do the same.

Aaron

[vanhansen]

Go to Runoffgroove.com and check out the Thunderchief.  It's an emulation of the Marshall Super Lead.

Remember, the Valvestate amps had a tube preamp and solid state power amp so emulating the preamp using J201's or MPF102's shouldn't be a problem.  The fun part will be getting the "power" section of the circuit to emulate the Valvestates.

[petemoore]

Below is a silly long rant, could be of no use whatsoever...
 Peter Snowberg's experiences and knowledge of the ValveState amp and suggestion for Emulating it's sound is well thought out, based on solid background info.
 I have an 18, and a Supreaux Jfet stompboxes, both are great, and DIST before them does sound remarkably amp like, even at low volume levels.
 Here's what I typed and didn't delete...way too 'ahead of the game approach toward getting a sound...' ...viable, useful, not necessarily relevant to the thread you started....I apoligize...gets a little 'Ranty' may be of some use to someone...
 Speaker> cable> Amp > Cable > Effect[s > Cable > Guitar...this is the order used for effecient debugging of an audio system.
 Get good cables and take them from the debugging process.
 That leaves speaker first. If it works, you can eliminate this as a problem. If it sounds great [or is a 'better' speaker] you can eliminate this as a source of what's not getting your sound. Without these you will not sound, or you may not sound 'optimally good' with less than 'optimal' type speakers...YMMV.
 Follow through the rest of the chain in a very similar manner...Amp > Effects > Guitar.
 Amp...once you've got speaker[s, the next two links are highly variable [amp and Effects] in the results you will hear. again YMMV, and hopefully IMO does.
 Effects...'nuff said here [?'s]
 Guitar...pickups make a big Diff. I go for 'quality'. I like SC's, HB's etc split coil is my fave [saves buying two sets of guitar strings for two sounds].
 THese issues are raised by your question, I think it is important to look at some of the audio equipment you have to work with before  deciding what to add to it to make it 'X' [6'' Valvestate Stack in a StompBox, etc.].
 The results you'll get from any stompbox is very highly variable, depending on what next to it in the chain on either side, and everylink from one end to the other.  
 I dunno, for some reason I kinda let all that out there...I know you're not building a system from the ground up... :oops:

[GreenEye]

I kind of miss my old Marshall valvestate head.  It was cheap, and actually sounded really good for recording.  Not much power though in a live situation, and the effects loop always screwed up (a problem on every Marshall I've seen).  I went to play one of the newer valvestate Marshalls at Guitar Center about a year or more ago, and the amp broke when I was trying it out.

[Peter Snowberg]

I have a Valvestate 8240 and while the distortion is fun, I think you can get MUCH better effects from MUCH simpler circuits. The fuzz is like a Distortion Plus built with LEDs for clippers which is then fed into two stages of 12AX7 and finally filtered. I really don't like the filtering, but that's personal.

My amp has a problem with high frequency squeal when overdrive #2 (the fuzziest one) is acticvated and there is no input. It's quite to the point of being unuseable for anything besides jamming or garage performance. I think this may just layout related and moving the HV tube supply wires has helped a little.

The chorus sounds decent when set to a shallow value, but it's nothing special and the reverb is from a short tank so it shows of economy construction.

I would also suggest building an ROG emulator. Put that after a distortion plus and you should be quite close with only a small fraction of the parts.

[Alex C]

My main amp used to be the 120-watt 2x12 Valvestate combo with chorus.  It only had one preamp tube, which I felt was kind of a gimmick (ads said "with a real tube!").  It was plenty buzzy, fizzy, "harsh," etc.  The chorus was wonderful, not because the chorus itself was great, but because it was in stereo with the 2x12s.  It could sound amazing if set right.  

It seems to me that the Valvestate amps themselves are "emulating" the older-style Marshalls, so why emulate an emulator?  I'd recommend that you go with the Thunderchief.

Alex

[Gus]

Valvestate type amps use current feedback. to try to emulate the pentode tube output interaction with the transformers inductance and speaker with  the Z rise of the speaker at its resonate freq and HIGH drive levels.

Have fun trying to model that

The speaker is part of the feedback loop.

look up current feedback also servo control loudspeaker amps for help understanding