Valve amp sounds from a Bose L1?
Jan from Sweden emailed me again with a bit more info about his set up…
Kenny!
Many, many thanks for your prompt and detailed answer. It helped my thougts about the L1-systems a lot. I actually bought both the L1 model 2 (8 months ago) and the L1 Compact (1 week ago) to my work-place (the parish of Karlskoga). I´ve brought them home for trial, and I agree: Bose L1 is a fantastic speaker system. Now I consider to buy a Bose L1 system myself. My basic music is from of the sixties, especially the sound of The Shadows (I play electric guiar). But I´m also playing acoustic guitar and violin. So far, in my view, the L1 cannot replace my all tube amplifier if I play trough a Line6 POD. The sound is ok, but the sound of an electric guitar through a tube amplifier isn´t easy to replace with other gear. Maybe you have other experiences? I will also try my new Vox ToneLab ST, but I think that the L1 (if I buy one) will do the sound-work for backing-tracks, acoustic instruments and vocals. Maybe does “Mp3 Backing Trax” have some interesting tracks for me? Thank´s again.
Regards
Jan
Hi Jan
Yes, the Bose L1 will be perfect for your violin, acoustic guitar and backing tracks.
But I agree with you about your electric guitar and valve amplifier.
Any professional guitarist will agree that trying to get the warm sound that only an old fashioned valve amp can give is very difficult to replicate using any modern sound equipment, not just the Bose L1.
As well as keyboards being my main instrument, I also play guitar so know what you mean exactly.
The sound produced when the valves in an old valve amp heat up is such a unique sound that it’s like nothing else you’ll ever hear. The distortion produced when you overdrive an old valve amplifier is smooth and warm, not hard and grating on the ears like transistor amps when they distort (and digital distortion sounds even worse).
Getting an old valve amp sound out of modern equipment is not a new problem and it is certainly not just a problem for the Bose L1.
In my opinion, no manufacturer has really been able to come up with a perfect replacement for a good old fashioned guitar valve amp sound (although some have come close).
There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of effects units, pedals and amplifiers that have tried to emulate the old valve sound and to be fair some have done a reasonably good job of trying to capture that old valve sound.
But, ask any guitarist to plug his axe in to a real valve amp on a stage and do a gig and he’ll be in heaven! The difference really is that noticable.
The Bose L1 excels at producing extremely high quality sound which it then disperses around the room in a very even way.
But guitarists who are used to using valve amps are not looking for a clinically clean sound…they want a very warm and “dirty” sound.
The tone-match on the Bose L1 is very good and can emulate the sound of many of the most famous amps and instruments in the world. But at the end of the day, it can still only attempt to emulate them. A valve will always be a valve.
Just listen to very old recordings of singers like Jim Reeves and Bing Crosby – the warmth and depth of their voices was captured beautifully by using valve microphones. Even though recording equipment was primitive back then, the valve microphones still managed to capture their voices in a way no other kind of microphone can.
And that still holds true today. Just take a look around the music shops and see what a valve microphone will cost you to buy. There are a few companies out there who still make valve microphones today so there’s still a demand for them, especially in good quality recording studios.
Regards
Kenny
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