"Slave" into a power amp

Hi folks, I've been trying to figure out how I can get more of my el84-based Budda SUperdrive 18s clean tones, which only stays clean until 9:00 on the master. In my other post I was asking which would be better, getting another budda 18 watter (to run both together) or just 1 30 watt Budda (4 el84s, to my 18s 2 el84s)

Someone suggested using the Slave OUt (from the back of my amp) into a dedicated power amp (such as the Mesa 20/20, 4el84s making for 40 watts). This sounds like a great idea (much more in my budget), since I already love my amp's tone, just wish there was more of it. But I could see problems in that the other Poweramp might hurt the tone of my amp.

Has anyone here tried a setup? I know rack-systems reek of 80s hair metal, and I only play at home anyway, but if a poweramp/slave would sound as good as just the amp on its own, I'd love it. And the Mesa 20/20 is about 1/3 as much as a new Budda (of course, I'll probably spend that extra $ on more gear anyway, but still:-))

My amp's manual just says the Slave is for going to another power amp, and is a "padded eq of the signal going to the speakers).

Footnote: I posted this in the "Amps" portion of the site, but hadn;t seen this area yet--it seems like it might belong here.

[aleclee]

Originally posted by ktotheb
Footnote: I posted this in the "Amps" portion of the site, but hadn;t seen this area yet--it seems like it might belong here.

Either section is fine but we try to discourage cross-posting as it increases bandwidth and disk space requirements with the hosting service. If we (the mods) have a problem with where a post is started or if you think it should be moved, we can (and generally will) move it from one section to the other.

[veldt666]

Although I rarely do it now, I used to use a "Super Champ", lined into a Quadraverb for reverb, delay etc, then to a power amp, either a "Boogie" 395, or a "Marshall" 8080, the to either a stereo 4 X 12 c/w Vintage 30's, or a pair of "Boogie" 1 X 12 EV's.

Either set up had a phenomenal sound, although on reflection, the Marshall valvestate power amp set to linear gave less colouration than the Boogie.

On occasion I would play at an outdoor festival gig, & take only the "Super Champ", & line out to the FX return socket of any supplied backline amp, (Peavey, Carlsbro, Marshall), agin a great sound, although less detailed.

Watch for ground loops, on occasion this would be a problem, depending on the venue.

My experience with that amp (I have an SD80 and a 30) is that the cleans break up around 9:00. But that amp in general hits its limit arount 2:00. 2 to limit is more of a tone control. The tricky part is the fact that the lead and clean channel us hard to balance as the "master" knob can't really be set for both channels realistically. Either way, I think the amp was designed to break up on that channel. It does that by design. But I just thought you should know that the behavior of the amp will probably remain the same if you tried a 30 or and 80. The tubes on that amp are run very hot (the 6L6's in my 80 idle at 50mA). They were thinking more complex JTM45 when they designed it.

I hear the new SD45 will actually be quite different, you might want to check out the buzz on that amp. Call Budda, they're great guys. Post to the Budda.com message board too. A few people still check that out.

My experience with that amp (I have an SD80 and a 30) is that the cleans break up around 9:00. But that amp in general hits its limit arount 2:00. 2 to limit is more of a tone control. The tricky part is the fact that the lead and clean channel us hard to balance as the "master" knob can't really be set for both channels realistically. Either way, I think the amp was designed to break up on that channel. It does that by design.

Thanks for the post--yeah, My SD18 breaks up at 9:00 also. I was just wondering if the SD30 could get loud enough before breaking up, but I think I am fighting against what the amp wants to do, like you said. I am going to try a slave out from my Budda SD18 to a Mesa 20/20 power amp (el84s, like my Budda), hopefully that won't affect the tone too much. I only play at home, so the 18 is plenty loud for me, it just doesn't stay clean past 9:00--if it stayed clean at 11:00, that would be ideal. when I called Budda, they recommended the 80 for clean headroom, and said the 30 had a bit more headroom, but not a LOT more, than my 18.

The SD45 would be great excpet for 2 things: It is based on 6l6s so is supposed to be more "Fender" clean than "Vox" clean (I like the Vox-y cleans of el84s personally), and it won't be available til the end of the year at the soonest (plus a 3-4 month wait, like all their stuff).

Either set up had a phenomenal sound, although on reflection, the Marshall valvestate power amp set to linear gave less colouration than the Boogie.

Thanks, that is helpful. I am playing at home, so don't need THAT much power---I may check out the solid state power amps, since I dont want tube "clipping".