In this paper, differences in the static transfer characteristics of the pre-amplifier of a guitar amplifier were quantitatively evaluated for two types of triode vacuum tubes commonly used by guitarists, the 5751 (amplification factor 70) and the ECC83S (amplification factor 100). First, representative devices were found for each of the two types of vacuum tubes using the parameters of a high-precision physical model, mounted on the pre-amplifier and measurements were performed. Subsequently, modelling by polynomial approximation, a method that provides an intuitive understanding of the relationship between the asymmetric non-linear character of the static transfer characteristics depending on the input signal strength and the even- and odd-order harmonic distortion in the frequency spectrum, and its evaluation were carried out. As a result, it was found that the difference in amplification factor makes a clear difference in the transition from “Clean” to “Overdrive”.

Authors: Sakamoto, Karin; Inui, Masaki; Hamasaki, Toshihiko
Affiliations: Hiroshima Institute of Technology, Hiroshima, Japan; Hiroshima Institute of Technology, Hiroshima, Japan; Hiroshima Institute of Technology, Hiroshima, Japan(See document for exact affiliation information.)
Express Paper 57; AES Convention 154; May 2023
Publication Date: May 13, 2023 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Musical Acoustics
Permalink: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=22082

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