Friday Sept 2, '05

[bleujazz3]

Roast Beef Sarnie: Kaiser roll, 2 extra-thick slices of rare roast beef, deli pickle slices (made for sandwiches), bread-and-butter pickles, romaine lettuce, and a good helping of Coleman's Mustard, with a grind of black pepper. Best sandwich this side of heaven. (Be prepared to sweat.) Chilled Bud Light in a frosted mug.

Question of the day is: How many of you were not satisfied with your stock amplifier tubes, and upgraded to something else?

I just had my Fender Blues Deluxe RI in the shop and had Groove Tube 6L6S (a.k.a. KT-66 or 5881 tubes) put in. The result is subtle, but noticeable. The second channel is now smoother distortion, and breaks up without the usual "spitting." Not violin-like, like a good Mesa might, but as you turn the "drive" past 10 (it goes 1 - 12) the distortion is more even. The EQ has changed somewhat, in that bass and treble sound best at 10 (again, 1 - 12) and mids halfway at 6.

I get the sound of Jimmy Page on "I'm Gonna Leave You" with that midrange hump from my PS SC. Yep, the sound of his LP with my SC. I'm very pleased I was able to dial in that tone, although it wasn't what I had in mind when I had the amp retubed and rebiased.

Have any of you BaMmers found anything interesting using specific tubes in way of tone? How would you describe the sound in comparison to your favorite artists? And finally, was that what you had in mind when you first wanted the tubes replaced, or were you surprised by the results?

[johnreardon]

Some Fish, scrambled egg and brocolli. Wife's idea nit mine

To be honest, I just order any valves I can get hold of. Never even contemplate how they may sound, usually they are the cheapest. My F-50, to me sounds exactly the same with my replacement Harma valves as it did with the Mesa branded ones.

Must be my ears, or perhaps sound is in the fingers ;)

[Aldwyn]

Um... I believe it was a hot dog.

Yop... I have yet to own a tube amp I havent replaced at least some of the tubes.

Peace,
Aldwyn

[Peter]

A really good burrito, with some kind of marinated pork.

I'm very happy with the tubes I have. In the Two Rock, I am dreading having to replace the Phillips power tubes. I am doing a bit of experimentation with the preamp tubes, trying to take a bit of gain out - make the distortion a bit less smooth. Of course, what happens is I rarely spend time making careful tone comparisons, using whatever time I have to play instead. Oh well.

[irwcustom]

I think I missed lunch, then snacked out:(


I noticed a big change only when I changed my Boogie El34's to 6l6's on the outer two - but then you would do. I never went back. Then I changed the valves throughout to Groove tubes in an 8 which were and still are great what must be well over 10 years ago. I keep playing and keep checking them, but they just go on and on. I had a set of Ruby tubes that were good, but because they were Chinese and old in a very old amp, I thought I'd change them. Cost me an arm and a leg for some Philips ones. Can't really say there was any difference - clean in a twin though. More tone changes for the better were to be gained by capacitor and resistor changes. Mainly capaictor. So long as they were a good matched set in the push-pull set up that that amp uses, it was fine.

I got hold of a few Mullard 12AX7's which really you couldn't say were any better in the twins or the Boogie. Another thing is that a lot of those can and do get stamped up as Mullards - solvent removes the old labels and then they stamp them up and pass them off as something else.

There's a lot of hype talked about valves. It's probably because it's the easiest thing for the lay-person to change and therefore sell to them.

[Big Mike]

Lesse...that was In N Out Burger. Double Double and fries!

I do see (hear) changes in certain tubes. I don't go NOS on Powertubes but PI and Preamp tubes made a difference for me.

I changed to a NOS EF86 in my Dr Z (this is an odd tube, and the new production arent as good).

[jbird]

Lunch in a few minutes, will be leftovers, Raviolis! I've only used Mesa's offering of tubes in my Dual Rec. I have an authorized dealer close by so they see me once a year or so. I did switch from the stock 6L6's to EL34's though! I prefer the tighter low end and placement of mids the EL34's have to offer over the 6L6's.