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softwareguy · 5th February 2006

This question comes from my limited knowledge of EE, which is almost entirely based in maintaining and trying to understand my old guitar amplifiers.

My question is, is it always better to have a big, powerful tranny in play? I know it will support bass information better, but I keep thinking about the sound/desirability of Fender Supers and Fender Pro's, which have much smaller output tranny's than the Fender Twins/Showman line (even considering the power differential). The Showman is a wonderful bass amp, but this circuit never develops the transformer saturation that a Fender Super or Pro does, and as a result, it never has the same compression, sweetness, and midrange richness that those amps attain when dealing with higher frequency material such as guitar (think of a Fender Twin vs. a Super). Is the output tranny on a preamp analogous? Should I be trying to get some pre's that are useful for "full range" like a Showman and others that might get squishy on bass but are really amazing for mid and high frequency material? Do preamp designers ever consider such "limitations" to be desirable?

Thanks for your thoughts.

5th February 2006	#1
softwareguy Lives for gear Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 807 Thread Starter	Transformers: Is Bigger Better? This question comes from my limited knowledge of EE, which is almost entirely based in maintaining and trying to understand my old guitar amplifiers. My question is, is it always better to have a big, powerful tranny in play? I know it will support bass information better, but I keep thinking about the sound/desirability of Fender Supers and Fender Pro's, which have much smaller output tranny's than the Fender Twins/Showman line (even considering the power differential). The Showman is a wonderful bass amp, but this circuit never develops the transformer saturation that a Fender Super or Pro does, and as a result, it never has the same compression, sweetness, and midrange richness that those amps attain when dealing with higher frequency material such as guitar (think of a Fender Twin vs. a Super). Is the output tranny on a preamp analogous? Should I be trying to get some pre's that are useful for "full range" like a Showman and others that might get squishy on bass but are really amazing for mid and high frequency material? Do preamp designers ever consider such "limitations" to be desirable? Thanks for your thoughts.