Miss the "Vintage" preamp tube ?

Mornna84

Member
OK,ok, I know... As soon as something is removed from a new FW, there always gotta be someone missing it.
But I feel in this case, that's not just nostalgia nonsense.

I understand that the "Vintage" type of preamp tubes (PTs) were the least accurate regarding PTs in the real world.
Nevertheless, these PTs, with their extra bit of saturation, provided me greater sustain without adding dirt to my sound.
For example, I was using Vintage PTs for a very smooth lead sound with quite low gain but still high sustain, and Modern (now Short Plate) PTs for a rhythm high gain sound, providing me more precision and clarity.

Having updated from 18.04 to 18.07 today, I immediately noticed some small improvements with the tone, but also a disappointing change regarding the sustain in my low gain lead patches. Of course, the Vintage PTs are gone!
So at the moment, I rolled back to 18.04 to get the Vintage PTs back, but I expect this forum to provide me with some nice tips about how to compensate for my loss with the appropriate parameter in the newest FWs.
 
I worked with all three ,and would think I liked vintage , the realize something just didn't rev my motor , liked long plate on some , had a hard time with modern sounding or feeling a bit too hard , with the tweaks Cliff made to modern in 18.06, the two completely work for me I like short and long plate they do what they should !!
I don't miss vintage al all myself !!
 
OK,ok, I know... As soon as something is removed from a new FW, there always gotta be someone missing it.
But I feel in this case, that's not just nostalgia nonsense.

I understand that the "Vintage" type of preamp tubes (PTs) were the least accurate regarding PTs in the real world.
Nevertheless, these PTs, with their extra bit of saturation, provided me greater sustain without adding dirt to my sound.
For example, I was using Vintage PTs for a very smooth lead sound with quite low gain but still high sustain, and Modern (now Short Plate) PTs for a rhythm high gain sound, providing me more precision and clarity.

Having updated from 18.04 to 18.07 today, I immediately noticed some small improvements with the tone, but also a disappointing change regarding the sustain in my low gain lead patches. Of course, the Vintage PTs are gone!
So at the moment, I rolled back to 18.04 to get the Vintage PTs back, but I expect this forum to provide me with some nice tips about how to compensate for my loss with the appropriate parameter in the newest FWs.

Found the same thing . gone back to 18.04
 
Glad I'm not alone missing it! What's kinda frustrating is that my current addiction to those Vintage PTs prevents me from enjoying the benefits from FW18.07, which I enjoyed to some extend for several minutes... Now I'm trying to find a solution by taking my lead presets, switching to long plate PTs (the short plate sound kinda harsh to me), and trying to compensate the loss of sustain by increasing either the CF Comp, the Input Drive, Input Trim.... but it doesn't sound/feel the same... :/
 
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It was only there for a day or so. One day wouldn't be enough to make me rule out ear fatigue for if something sounded better or worse. For me the short/long options work dandy.
 
Glad I'm not alone missing it! What's kinda frustrating is that my current addiction to those Vintage PTs prevents me from enjoying the benefits from FW18.07, which I enjoyed to some extend for several minutes... Now I'm trying to find a solution by taking my lead presets, switching to long plate PTs (the short plate sound kinda harsh to me), and trying to compensate the loss of sustain by increasing either the CF Comp, the Input Drive, Input Trim.... but it doesn't sound/feel the same... :/

I'm not sure it will help but you might try raising the preamp hardness a little to the long plate to get somewhere between the short & long plate. Maybe even the power amp hardness.
 
I gotta say I saw the vintage tube setting making an exit at some point as soon as it was made an option in the beta FW. Personally I found it worse for higher gain, and the long-plate was my personal clear winner for anything clean to mid-gain.

I know it's probably futile but I can't recommend sticking with 18.07 enough with the UR bug fix. Seeing as how huge a wave FW 13 created with UR impulses I can imagine you'd regret not being able to make full use of it.
 
I like the current short and long plate tubes better. Previously, I preferred Test, Vintage and modern in that order. Almost always lo to mid gain settings for me.

I'm not sure what all changed in 18.07, but I prefer this firmware over 18.06.
 
It was available for such a short time I did not have enough time to love it let alone miss it

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I miss whatever the most current FW is minus 1 version.

When 18.04 was the rage, I liked 17........Now with this 18.07 business, I've switched over to 18.04, which to me sounds better than 18.07. When 18.XX comes around (which I'm sure it will) I will then upgrade to 18.07, even though it technically will be a downgrade since I'll try the newest, and find I like 18.07 better.
 
I liked the vintage preamp tube choice best for clean sounds. Sounded really good on clean Fenders. Fattened them up for those Hendrix / SRV clean sounds.
It would be nice to still have vintage as an additional choice. With this not an option in 18.07 I'm using the long plate and adding a bit of midrange. I'll be using the long plate for everything now. So far I have liked the long plate better than the short plate on every amp I have tried it with.
 
i know a ton of people are letting the word "vintage" affect how they remember or interpret what that setting does...

Haha. You've been reading my mail. I seem to gravitate towards anything labelled 'vintage' and sometimes I think if it were labelled 'modern digital' I wouldn't be quite so keen. Maybe these options should just be labelled ' type 1', 'type 2', 'type 3' etc so we know we're really using our ears!
 
Back with 18.07 and also done a utility parameter reset . Seems to have improved things for me .
 
I am joking, but tube preamp lead a big role in feel. The attack is affected in a unique manner... different drom compressor, or power amp sag. It's a mix of compression and distortion. I would like less amp model and a little bit more tweakibility... but in a guitar friendly way: 12ax7, 12ay7, power tube type, trafo type, so on... to mix & match in each amp model.
 
OK,ok, I know... As soon as something is removed from a new FW, there always gotta be someone missing it.
But I feel in this case, that's not just nostalgia nonsense.

I understand that the "Vintage" type of preamp tubes (PTs) were the least accurate regarding PTs in the real world.
Nevertheless, these PTs, with their extra bit of saturation, provided me greater sustain without adding dirt to my sound.
For example, I was using Vintage PTs for a very smooth lead sound with quite low gain but still high sustain, and Modern (now Short Plate) PTs for a rhythm high gain sound, providing me more precision and clarity.

Having updated from 18.04 to 18.07 today, I immediately noticed some small improvements with the tone, but also a disappointing change regarding the sustain in my low gain lead patches. Of course, the Vintage PTs are gone!
So at the moment, I rolled back to 18.04 to get the Vintage PTs back, but I expect this forum to provide me with some nice tips about how to compensate for my loss with the appropriate parameter in the newest FWs.

Can you post clips from 18.04 where the only change is changing the tube type from vintage to test or modern?

I'm guessing the tube type is not affecting the tone very drastically and the difference you are experiencing between 18.04 and 18.07 is something other than the tube type.
 
I don't think any audio clip will make you clearly understand how different it is between the "vintage" and the other tube types. I guess the only audible difference is the sustain of single notes using low-mid gain lead tone. To me, the difference is a combination of the feel (attack, dynamic response...) AND the sustain. I'm using the USA IIC+ for my lead tones, my guitar has passive pickups, and I guess you will quite easily feel the difference between the tube types if you don't use too much distortion.
I admit that, regarding the tone ONLY, there is not much difference (barely audible). But to me, sustain and feel are essential.
 
Haha. You've been reading my mail. I seem to gravitate towards anything labelled 'vintage' and sometimes I think if it were labelled 'modern digital' I wouldn't be quite so keen. Maybe these options should just be labelled ' type 1', 'type 2', 'type 3' etc so we know we're really using our ears!

You've got a point. I do often seem to gravitate toward the "Vintage" labeled stuff. But for my $, I'd like to stick with the Modern/Vintage type labeling, instead of 1 & 2. My vintage ears don't hear so well as they used to, so sometimes I need to be told. I tend to use "vintage" cabs & tubes with vintage amps, and switch to "modern" cabs & tubes, for modern amps, for the most part. I almost always try to check them out in various formats, first, and this is where I usually land.

Overall, I tend to gravitate more toward the vintage amps, but I like to keep a few moderns in the quiver. The recent tube renaming format didn't affect me too much - I could "feel" the difference, but after a bit of tweaking, I'm pretty much near where I want to be.... until next week when we have 4 more FW updates.... :eagerness:
 
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