Tubemeister 36: not much volume difference between 36W and 18W modes

Hi,

I have a Tubemeister 36 which I am quite happy about as I use it with a lot of pedals and a Boss ES-8 that does all my switching (amp and pedals). So a very versatile setup.

I am trying to use the power soak as a way to have different volumes for solo versus normal playing. If I use e.g stomp box distortion I use the clean channel set to 18W, and when i want to do a solo I switch it to 36W but i find there isn't much of a difference.

Does anyone else notice this as well ?

Thanks!

Yves

There isn't much difference between 18W and 36W on any amp. Doubling the power does not give you anything like a doubling of the volume. It's a more subtle process than that I'm afraid and may need you to use the Volume control to give you the relative volumes you want between voices. That's what the Volume control is there for.

Thanks for explaining me what volume pots do and thanks for reminding me the square law of power versus amplitude

I wasn't talking down to you and explaining what Volume pots do, you obviously don't know the layout of the GM36!!!  When I said "that's what THE Volume control is there for", (notice 'THE' not just 'A'), I was giving you specific advice meaning in the case of the GM36, (I have one as well as a TM36), and not in general.  Due to the lack of use of the TM forum nowadays I had simply forgotten which forum I was on and my mind went to the GM by default, my apologies for that.

What I was saying is that in the case of the GM36 the Volume pot and the Master Volume pot are directly connected to each other.  It may seem stupid to have two controls working against each other like that, however, the Volume pot is programmable and changes under MIDI control, the Master Volume pot is purely a standard pot and does not.  The idea is to set the Volume pot individually per patch so they are in balance relative to each other and save that for recall later.  You then set the Master Volume to the overall level you want in the environment you are in at that time and it applies to all of your patches equally.  Your patches then remain in balance no matter where you are and how the Master is set.

The point about the power square law seemed needed as you were specifically stating that you wanted to go from 18W to 36W without any other changes and it wasn't giving you enough lift.  I'm not surprised at that.  You may know of the square law for power but you didn't seem to be aware of how it affects things in real life and how it becomes even more compressed as the power goes up.

So once again, my apologies, I'll butt out now and hope someone else is still interested in the TM models enough to be able to give you advice that is more useful. You're welcome.

Apologies in return for sounding a bit harsh. I do know the layout of the GM but as you also realised I don't own a GM but a TM , which has a seperate master volume per channel , and no midi control of volume . I prefer the TM approach which is to leverage power amp distortion by using the power soak and boost pedals hitting the amp. I don't think the GM is capable of achieving the same sonic palette Im after as it seems to mostly rely on preamp distortion .

It's not that I'm not getting enough of a kick when I switch from 18 to 36w . I don't hear any noticeable difference . And his is weird , for sure on the clean channel.