4.1.3
Channel Three (Lead)
This channel is voiced for highly articulate single note lines or for very heavy and
massive rhythm guitar. Due to its slight midrange accent and very high gain
structure, it possesses good punch and will, with ease and authority, rule any stage
or studio. The “less is often more” rule applies here also.
4.1.4
Mid Cut
The section Mid Cut incorporates controls for Intensity and Level. Designed for
friends of Heavy or Nu-Metal type musical styles, the Intensity control attenuates
low midrange at approximately 400Hz. To compensate for the inevitable volume
loss when activating this feature, one can bring the volume level back up with the
Level Control.
This Mid Cut function is MIDI assignable and can therefore be assigned to any or
all of the three channels. If you don’t want to use the Mid Cut function, then it can
be used as an additional programmable volume control with the Intensity control
set to 0 or off. This gives your Herbert 8 programmable volume options!
4.2
Pre-amp Tubes
The pre-amps are equipped with 12AX7 tubes in all positions, except the phase
inverter, which is a 12AT7. The pre-amp tubes are not used to make big power,
but merely as pre-amplifiers. Therefore their life expectancy is much higher than
that of the power amplifier tubes.
This is not to undermine their utter importance in overall sound and response of
the amplifier. Also, many nuisance defects like crackling noises and low
dynamics are directly related to defective pre-amp tubes. Like all other tubes,
12AX7 tubes come in many different gain stages, and offer a wide variety of tonal
behavior. Our choice for production was made to ensure a wide variety of tones,
with low noise and, hopefully, excellent reliability.
4.3
Microphonics and Bad Noises
The overall performance of pre-amp tubes is easily influenced by mechanical
factors from the outside. This would manifest itself by a sudden feedback sound
with high pitch. The input stage is especially suspect to this phenomenon. If one
encounters microphonic tube behavior, then the first tube should be checked as a
rule. Pre-Amplifier tubes can also cause hum or other bad noises, like crackling or
ticking.
