History Of The Amp: Valves
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The vacuum tube (or valve or tube) experienced immense popularity during the first half of the 20th century as it was the choice technology in devices such as the radio, television and telephone.
The second half of the century would see a new use for it…
When the first solid body electric guitar was invented (generally considered to be by Leo Fender’s ‘Esquire’: 1949; although other contenders are Paul Bigsby’s Merle Travis guitar: 1948; Les Paul’s ‘Log Guitar’: Early 40s; and Rickenbacker’s ‘Frying Pan’ guitar: 1931), the amplifier was probably a standard stereo system using valves.
As guitarists wanted to play louder, they discovered a common problem of the valve which audiophiles detested – when overloaded, a valve would distort the audio signal… Eureka!
This distortion of the signal became a favourite effect for guitarists (often known as overdrive or distortion), and soon amplifier builders were designing amps which manipulated the level of distortion.
During the 60s, as more manufacturer favoured semiconductors over valves due to their practical advantages, guitar amplifiers resisted the change until later (and when the changed occurred it was more of a niche).
Today, the valve amplifier is still manufactured by almost all of the major brands and its audio characteristics are still considered the very best.
