Class A, B, AB,C etc

[pwdrive]

From another forum, a rather long debated thread about amplifier classifications, A,AB,B,C etc concerning the guitar community....

http://www.ax84.com/bbs/dm.php?thread=319777

Lawrence.

[tiv48]

guitar amp design has always been a bit of a mystery to me .it goes against the grain to design an amp with high levels of distortion.
I remember fixing I think it was a sound city amp that had a hooligan switch on the back that disconnected one half of the push/pull out stage!
Rob T

[pwdrive]

It's "that sound" they are after, it was the same in the 60's with the British pop groups wanting to emulate the Motown sound, the recording gear in the Motown recording studio was not much different from the kind of stuff we had over here, it was the songwriters, musicians, arrangers that made that distinctive sound. When the British visited the Motown studio they were disappointed to see the same basic type of recording equipment that they had back in the UK.
"That guitar sound" was in part a hangover from the American blues players, again we tried to emulate them over here but only a few ever came anywhere near such as Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Tony McPhee etc.
The Beatles did quite a few Motown numbers in their early days, Barratt Strong's Money, Isley Brothers Twist and Shout etc. However a guitar played through a valve amp does have a certain edge over a traditional transistor amp depending on which way you look at it.

I've rambled enough.

Lawrence.

[pwdrive]

For reference, valve operation classes:

Lawrence.