Introduction
There are a lot of new things that I wanted to share with you all but, I'm not having personal free time enough lately. I really wanted to go for an individual pedal by pedal complete review but, I'm running out of time lately so, I had some time to do an overall review of my current rig, which includes all the new incomes.
In that way, instead on focus on every little detail related to every pedal, I can describe why I've choose these and, what I am trying to achieve with the complete rig.
After a bunch of years chasing my tone, I think I've reached the end of the search, with a very satisfactory gear. Unfortunately, there is only one true in Audio: you got what you paid. Audio is expensive as hell but, most of time I regret of spending lot of little money in cheap pedals that never satisfied me. But, even going for the expensive stuff, it's really difficult to get what you really need and, what you need depends only on your own.
The gear I'm introducing here was selected to suit my personal needs. If you have similar needs, this can be a good opportunity to plan your next acquisitions. If you don't have similar needs, to know how each pedal sounds can help you to definitively discard them.
Amp
The amp is a Fender '59 Bassman LTD. I've substituted the stock GT tubes with a set of tubes from Watford Valves, which I find that sound better.
Current production Jensen' speakers lack the magic that original ones had. I am always finding that new Jensen sound really nice alone but, they are lost in the mix, as soon as you play in a band context or with backing tracks.
I wanted to swap the four P10R speakers with four Celestion Gold but, unfortunately, the amp's chassis perfectly fits the carved rectangular shape of the Jensen's cone and, therefore, the round cone of the Celestions doesn't work there. So, I finally ended with a couple of Celestion Gold at the bottom of the cab and, a pair of P10R above.
After trying several amps, of any kind, what I've decided is to go for an amp with exceptional cleans that can take any pedal with ease and that don't mask my guitar's foundational tone.
The Bassman has some magic in its simplicity. Remember that the first Marshall (JMP 45) was based in a Bassman and, that both are mythical because of their tone.
The Bassman gives me one of the best Fender's clean tones and, it's so kind that takes any pedal with ease. This makes it a good platform to build any wanted sound with the help of some pedals.
But, it's an amp that needs some time to get what you wanted.
The normal channel is somewhat fat and a bit blurred, while the Bright channel is excesivelly bright.
I'm using it with both channels linked and, with the volume of bright channel more or less at 3, and the normal channel more or less at 1.
After tweaking a lot its controls, I find that the control that better definition gives to the sound is the Presence control so, I am setting it barelly to max.
For a balanced tone, tone controls (middle, treble and bass) work better for me around 7.
It took me a long while until I went to this recipe!.
Each amp has its sweet spots and, I find the Bassman is perfect with these settings.
Guitar
I've already introduced my new number 1 in previous entries.
My preferred guitar, now, it's my make-to-order custom Southern Belle Guitars Strato.
I've ordered the guitar to satisfy my requirements. I wanted the sound of a pure Strato but, with all the little details that can improve the original model and, it worthed the money!.
If you want to know more about it, just read the previous entry in this blog.
Cables and Patch Cords
I've already discussed about this in previous entries but, not a bad idea to remember it.
I'm using Eminence Audio' stuff, only.
Sound quality is top notch and, they have a for-life-warranty. That means that if your cable breaks, they send to you a brand new cable. So you expend the money just once. And, it works like this (it happened to me)!!!.
For guitar-to-pedalboard or pedalboard-to-amp, I'm using their The Forte MKII.
For Patch cords, I'm using their Monorail, with SIS plugs (very easy to make your own cords!).
Pedalboard
The pedalboard has evolved year by year. I think what I've got right now is the best combination I've ever had and, perfectly combines with my preferred guitar and amp.
Tuner - Peterson Classic Stomp
Not too much to say about the tuner. It's just the most accurated and, it has the possibility to use it as a DI box for Studio Recording.
Wah - Roger Mayer Vision Wah
Not my preferred Wah. I find its rocker's range as a bit short to my taste.
Soundwise, it's a great sounding wah and, highly tweakable.
You can select between 16 different wah voices, you can fine-tune the Q-Filter for each one and, you even have a booster or gain control.
But, what I really like about this wah is that is really quiet, compared to most of Wahs, which tend to introduce floor noise and which tend to introduce unwanted feedback. The RM's is one of the quietests of the market.
Vibe - Dry Bell Machine
My preferred all-the-times Vibe.
It has every original feature and, the original sound and, it goes beyond the original.
It's one of the best vibe sounds of the market and, it offers something that no others offer: a very friendly pedalboard size (except the Lovepedal Pickle Vibe, which doesn't sound as good).
It's easy to control, nice sounding and small enough.
This is a keeper for life.
Buffer / Enhancer - Klon KTR
Well, you know. There is so much hype with the Klon Centaur that, I had to check a Klon pedal.
Honestly, the prices of Centaurs are ridiculous high and, I cannot pay such a money for a single pedal.
But, Ok, I went to the web of his creator and, read about the KTR. According to his creator, he spent lot of years trying massive production components to achieve the same sound with the KTR as the original Centaur units.
Well, I cannot talk about this, because I hadn't the oportunity to check the three pedals in a row so, I can only opine about what the KTR does and, how it fits my needs.
I don't like the KTR used as an Overdrive. Reason is that it introduces a very fat distortion grain, somewhat confussing and compressed, at least with middle amp's volume. Maybe it can make wonderful things with the amp really kranked but, I don't like that way.
In the other side, with the gain at 0, it's an awesome buffer and, helps you to round the sound, making it nicer but, without affecting your instrument's foundational tone.
It remembers me the combination of a Xotic EP Booster and a buffer or, the Wampler's Decibel+.
But, differently to both, the KTR has a tone control that helps to remove excesive highs and, to better round the final result. Used this way, I complete love this pedal and, it's on all the way, being part of my clean foundational tone.
The KTR has a switchable output buffer, which honestly works better switched on. This helps to feed the rest of the chain.
Compressor - Bogner Harlow
This pedal will be loaded out of my pedalboard. It's a mix of overdrive and compressor but, the bad side of all this is that you cannot control each effect separately, which is a mess.
As you add compression with the Bloom control, you are also adding what they called 'grit' but, if you go beyond 12 o'clock in the bloom control, the pedal introduces a very dirty, fat grain distortion that I don't like. Maybe, as in the case of the KTR, this could sound awesome in a really kranked amp but, it doesn't work fine in my case.
I'm planning to load in back the Wampler's EGO, which is an awesome compressor.
Overdrive 1 - Lovepedal Kalamazoo
I wanted to thank you to Rafa, by Auvisa, to introduce me to this pedal.
It's an awesome overdrive, super-versatile.
I think this pedal is on the line of the kind of pedals introduced by Mad Professor, with his Sweet Honey Overdrive. So, this is a warm pedal, with a very bluesy core.
Appart of Gain and Volume, if you play with Tone and Glass controls, you can achieve a wide range of overdrive tones.
It can go really dark and compressed, remembering me most of the Dumble-alike pedals (as the Hermida Audio Zendrive or Weehbo Dumbledore) or, it can go very clean Tweed, as most of Bassman-alike pedals (Wamplers '59 Tweed, etc).
Some people says that it can nails the better tones of a Centaur.
I don't think so, honestly, because what I like from the KTR is the clean tone and, what I love from the Kalamazoo is just the dirty tone.
The pedal alone is gorgeous sounding but, stacked into the Bogner Wessex is pure Hard Rock Heaven.
Overdrive 2 - Bogner Wessex
If the Kalamazoo is needed for bluesy old-school tones, the Wessex is needed for old-school crunchy tones. It's a very marshallish pedal, very crunchy.
The Kalamazoo into the Wessex produces an incredible nice old-school Hard Rock tone that I love.
The Wessex into the Bogner Burnley creates a Marshallish wall of sound, real hi gain tone.
Alone, has its own use but, I love it combined more combined with other pedals.
Hi Gain - Bogner Burnley
It's similar to the Shur Riot in any single sense, even the color but, the Burnley has a more refinated sound to my taste, with a very musical feedback, specially when pushed by some other pedal behind it.
As I've explained in other entries, Bogner's pedals have an OT designed by Neve, which make a great difference in sound and feel. They realy feel like an amp, in the way that the sound manifestates itself.
I've tested really good pedals, as the Wampler's, Mesa Boogie's or the Weehbo's and, all them were sounding awesome, until I've heard and played the Bogner's. End of story.
Volume Pedal - Boss
Well, to be honest, I even don't remember the exact model. It's just a passive volume control pedal.
I'm using it after the gain section to control the overall loudness, once the original sound was already processed by the gain pedals.
I want it to match the loudness to the backing tracks o to the particular sound I'm working at a time.
Of course, it can be used for sweelings but, not my case.
Chorus - Strymon Ola
I really need a Chorus in very few songs. The Strymon has a studio quality in all their pedals and, this one isn't different. I'm using a fixed chorus mode, very wide and clean sounding. Nothing special, but really nice.
Reverb - Strymon Bluesky
There are a couple of my amps that doesn't have a built reverb effect and, unfortunatelly, the Bassman is one of them.
I'm running the typical Springs Reverb mode in the Bluesky and, it helps me (together with the delay) to put my guitar in the right depth of the mix.
Delay - Strymon El Capistan
A great sounding Tape Echo pedal. I'm using just a fixed setting and, together with the Strymon Bluesky, its used to put my sound in the right depth of the mix.
The Bluesky, the El Capistan and the KTR are part of my foundational clean sound.
I'm sculpting the rest of sounds over those three pedals, which are active all the time.
Video
This video has two parts.
The first part, I'm talking about my rig and sharing with you same comments you can read above so, you can skip that part, in any case.
Second part, I'm demoing the sounds of the rig, in clean and then, by adding some other pedals. Probably, the most interesting part for you, if you've read what I write above.
Everything about electric guitars world
Showing posts with label Amps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amps. Show all posts
06 June 2015
05 May 2014
One more day in guitarists heaven - intensive pedal, pickups and amp testing
Introduction
It seems that we, guitarists, are always in the market for a more exciting gain pedal, a better overdrive, a better distortion, a better fuzz, a better compressor...
In early days there was really few choices so, the search could end really fast.
Nowadays, among the very well established pedal companies, there is an explosion of boutique pedal makers and, everybody seems to sell the ultimate gain unit, to discover that most of them are just tweaking a bit very well known pedals, being the Tube Screamer the king of the modified pedals.
This is not good or bad, as it seems that every pedal has a legion of followers and buyers and, since tone is a very particular matter, what works for ones will not necessarily work for others. We are all ok, we are all happy.
Well, I was really happy with two Jetter pedals: the Gold 45/100 and the Jetdrive and, until now, none of the pedals I already own was able to dethrone those two kings of my tone. I did my tests with all my gain pedals and, this includes most of Weehbo's, Wampler's, Mad Professor's, Fulltone's, among many other boutique pedals.
Jetters were my to-go pedals but, still not fully satisfied. An awesome tone but, not exactly MY tone. Some day, I've seen that Mesa Boogie was releasing a line of pedals. I'm not a huge fan of MB amps, since they all have very complex front-end designs and, I am more in the line of having a clean and fair channel to build my tone over with some good pedals. Anyway, I was curious about those and watched and heard some Youtube videos. I thought they sounded really good but, you know, I needed to test them with the rest of my gear, to be sure they will perfectly interact with my "definitively keeper" pedals.
So, I went with my couple of fellow friends to Auvisa store, to check those pedals.
Mesa Boogie pedals time
As always, I've selected a Fender Bassman reissue to run my tests, since I consider it a fair amp, that reveals everything about any gear, the good and the bad. Tweaked the controls to get the foundational clean tone and, started to check Mesa Boogie pedals.
I've decided to insert 3 MB pedals in my pedalboard. First one was the GridSlammer, second the Flux Drive and, third the Throttle. In principle, I wasn't interested on their Booster, since this function is already well covered by my Wampler Decibel+ (buffer and booster).
So, the pedalboard was formed by the following pedals:
Probably, the Flux Drive is deceptively the more anodyne pedal of those three but, once you push it with the GridSlammer stacked before, you are in Hard Rock's heaven. Once I've switched on both pedals in a row, I wasn't able to stop playing.
Since results were so exciting, I've decided to complete the test using backing tracks. I've asked Auvisa's responsible (Rafa) to prepare me some PA system to run my MP3 backing tracks, to check how the pedals will work in real application. Rafa came back with a Yamaha StagePass 200 PA system (just a single speaker) and, the show begun.
Started the test playing over "Smoke on the Water" and, the compulsive dancing of a chinese little girl in front the room's window confirmed that the tone was perfect. While childs are natural, mature people seemed suddenly highly interested on the anodyne content of the shelves that were in front of the window. That confirmed me again that the sound was good enough.
Time to check the GridSlammer alone, while playing "Cocaine". Awesome tone, also.
Time to check first the GridSlammer alone and then, pushing the distortion levels with the Flux Drive, while playing "Old Love" and "Since I've been Loving You".
I had a man entering inside the room and, alternatively looking to the amp, pedals, my guitar and my fingers, while I was performing "Since I've been Loving You" and a "Blues in G". He gave me his "thumb up" before leaving the room. My friends told me that he was a very well known blues-man of this area.
I was funny thinking that maybe people thought that I was there demoing or promoting a particular product, instead of being a mediocre player carefully testing some pedals in a store.
Well, those were just people's reaction that just confirmed what my ears said: these pedals are a perfect marriage for my gear and personal style!!!.
Both pedals had a fair sound representation, with total definition note to note, even in unharmonic chords. They both sounded very open, without killing the attack, while delivering a nice sustain that made solos really easy to perform.
Tested those two from 11:30 to 13:30h and, went satisfied to lunch with my fellow friends.
We were discussing about the sound and, we all agreed they were perfectly fitting my gear and style.
We took a long while to lunch, drink, small talk and laugh then, we went back to the store, around 18:00h.
After our ears were cleaned and not biased, I did a quick test again with a few more backing tracks and, satisfied with the sound, I've decided to check the Throttle.
The Throttle is a Recto-in-a-box. Er... not... let me to reword this... is THE Recto-in-a-box pedal. Not a surprise, being MB the father of Rectifier amps.
While I also love that dense wall of sound of the red channel of a recto, this is not the sound that I will use the most of time but, I wanted to give a chance to this pedal. The "Mids cut" knob is somewhat the Contour control you usually find in MB amps and, completely re-equalizes the tone stack going from clear and bumped-mids settings to dark and deep with recessed mids.
So, it clearly covers lot of ground in High Gain distortion. I liked it more with the Mids-cut control around 7:00 (practically off). Tone, once more was left in the middle position.
Wow, wow, wow, wow!.
With this setting, I was achieving a very polished high gain distortion that clearly cut the mix, with that tasty controllable feedback on sound tails. This setting remembered me more to the sound of a Peavey 5150 or a Diezel Einstein but, you could achieve anything just rotating the Mids-cut control.
Even better, you could even switch on the three pedals and the sound remains well defined and, every single note is clearly recognized!!!.
Decision was clear: I want all them!. Let see how much they cost and, let see how many can I get today.
I've decided to end my pedals tests and, go to check some acoustic guitars, before the store closed.
As I left the guitar, my fellow friend asked me: "Can I..?". "Sure, bro, rock on!".
I left my friend preparing himself and, went to test some acoustic guitars.
I had two deceptions in this pedalboard: the Bonamassa's wah and the Badgerplex Trilogy.
Bonamassa's wah lacked some sweep range, which made the EQ very narrowed.
The Badgerplex Trilogy is just a tone sucker. It was recommended to me in a forum, selling it as a way better sounding pedal than the good Xotic EP Booster and, since I've sold my EP Booster (and regretted every day), I've decide to try it.
Well, while the Xotic EP Booster just enhances your sound in a way that nobody is able to describe. The Trilogy kills your tone in a way that I can clearly describe.
The Trilogy rolls off high end frequencies, slightly compresses the attack and, kills the natural sustain of your sound. Instead of giving just an enhanced louder sound, it tends to easily force your tubes to break, which wasn't the goal for this kind of pedal.
Definitively, both were a waste of money.
Acoustic Guitars time
I was really interested on to test a couple of Martin's, the D28HD and D35HD but, they had the D28 and the D45, only.
I have to say that I was highly disappointed with both Martins, that sounded very dull in basses and string-to-string unbalanced. My other fellow friend (the luthier) was selecting more other guitars that seemed to have a good look. Tested lots of models of well known US brands, except for Gibson acoustics (the store doesn't work with Gibson anymore). I was highly disappointed with all them, including Martin, Taylor and, other brands.
The only guitar that sounded with piano like basses, an open voice and a nice balance string-to-string, was a model by Alhambra. We were both surprised. Alhambra is a well known Spanish company that had a good name building Spanish and flamenco guitars but, I didn't know they were in the acoustic market, also.
My friend explained me that the key for tone is the way the air is being conducted inside the body and, this is something Spanish makers were mastered several centuries ago. So, not surprise that a Flamenco Guitar maker could apply its knowledge to build a great acoustic guitar.
Well, I cannot go so deep in luthier' stuff but, I had to agree that the Alhambra was the best sounding acoustic guitar of the around 25 guitars we've tested, hands down.
By the way, while I was testing the acoustics, I was clearly hearing my other friend performing "Hey Joe" and "Whola Lotta Love" and, I thougth: "Man, this is like to be hearing Hendrix and Page in a festival. Yes, I want those pedals to death".
Amp and David Allen's Dover pickups time
We've already tested the brand new Deluxe Stratocaster of my friend, loaded with David Allen Dovers pickups set and, the wiring design I did specially for my friend and those pickups but, from that early time, my amp was improved with a retubing kit from Watford Valves for this Fender Hot Rod III Deville amp.
Since my #1 strat (also loaded with David Allen's pickups) is on hands of my friend luthier (Alex Tirado, look for that man!), for a complete refretting work and a nut substitution (remove the LRS nut and put a bone nut there), I was crazy to test how the enhanced amp would sound with those Dovers.
While my other friend was playing (Robert Tirado), I was tweaking the controls of its pedals, to adapt the EQ to the amp. Once established, the show begun.
Robert was along any kind of style you can imagine, playing from country to shredding. Backing tracks of Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Clapton, Prince... anything...
We selected sounds to check every of the 10 pickups combinations of his axe, getting great strato tones and good tele and lp alike tones.
It was a PERFECT marriage. Same as if you'd found the right wine for the right food, same as to play a LP in a old Marshall. We were shocked with the sound. It was professional studio quality.
Alex and I agreed: "Man, you need to buy exactly this amp and re-tube it with exactly this kit. You owe it!".
David Allen's Dovers are, in my honest opinion, the best strato set I've ever tested up to now (I am waiting an Echoes set). Dovers are just PERFECTION. They get anything and deliver with ease.
We tried combinations like a virtual LP Neck, Bridge and Middle positions (combining in series pickups) and, virtual Tele middle positions (both single coils and a virtual humbucker and a single coil).
They covered every style with ease, from sweet silky bells to rough but perfectly defined hi gain sounds.
If you still are in doubts whether to get a David Allen' set or, specially which one to get, I would say, try those Dovers first.
The only I regret is not being so smart to record his performance, because the sound was killer. But, we will do, for sure. This should be heard and spread to the whole World.
Side thoughts
While my friend was playing, achieving such an inspirational tone, I thought that when your gear has the right marriage, the only that you can do is just to create and enjoy. There is no need to think on... this doesn't sound, what's wrong?. Your mind isn't hijacked by negative thoughts and, you just play and enjoy and, if you enjoy, you transmit your feelings to the audience.
The Rock's dinosaurs had that kind of gear. They had the best tubes ever made, they had the pickups that current makers are trying to reproduce. They had the pedal effects that current makers are trying to reproduce or enhance. They had the gear so, they just focused on to enjoy it and be creative.
Watford's retubing kit included a NOS Philips 6L6 matched pair of tubes and, this is a clear enhancement over the stock Groove Tubes. The killer sounding Dovers in a relatively cheap amp retubed with great tubes made a huge difference.
I recall that my Fender Princeton Reverb reissue costed me exactly 1000 Euros, stock. I had to enhance it with a Weber speaker and, new tubes. For slightly less than 1000 Euros, I bought the Hot Rod III Deville and retubed it with a great Watford's kit. This amp has some cheap details, as the power cord in white (while the rest of amp is black) directly soldered to the PCB but, for that price you get a killer machine.
Another thing that surprised me is that I was a Marshall's and EL34s guy, to lately discover that I love Fender's and 6L6s !!!. It's crazy how our "pre-conceptions" go against our real needs.
It doesn't matter which style fits you, the most important thing is to find the right marriage, the one where all the components of your rig complete the full puzzle of your sound. And, it doesn't matter if you achieve it with the cheapest gear on the world (which usually doesn't happen). Forums create trends and overhypen (in both sides, as good or bad) certain products, most of times people that even didn't tried them in person.
To go to the store with your complete rig (if they doesn't have your components) to test a new component that should fit your rig is a great idea. Sometimes, to test a certain device alone gives us good sensations but, when it has to be inserted in your sound chain, the drawbacks suddenly explode in your face.
It seems that we, guitarists, are always in the market for a more exciting gain pedal, a better overdrive, a better distortion, a better fuzz, a better compressor...
In early days there was really few choices so, the search could end really fast.
Nowadays, among the very well established pedal companies, there is an explosion of boutique pedal makers and, everybody seems to sell the ultimate gain unit, to discover that most of them are just tweaking a bit very well known pedals, being the Tube Screamer the king of the modified pedals.
This is not good or bad, as it seems that every pedal has a legion of followers and buyers and, since tone is a very particular matter, what works for ones will not necessarily work for others. We are all ok, we are all happy.
Well, I was really happy with two Jetter pedals: the Gold 45/100 and the Jetdrive and, until now, none of the pedals I already own was able to dethrone those two kings of my tone. I did my tests with all my gain pedals and, this includes most of Weehbo's, Wampler's, Mad Professor's, Fulltone's, among many other boutique pedals.
Jetters were my to-go pedals but, still not fully satisfied. An awesome tone but, not exactly MY tone. Some day, I've seen that Mesa Boogie was releasing a line of pedals. I'm not a huge fan of MB amps, since they all have very complex front-end designs and, I am more in the line of having a clean and fair channel to build my tone over with some good pedals. Anyway, I was curious about those and watched and heard some Youtube videos. I thought they sounded really good but, you know, I needed to test them with the rest of my gear, to be sure they will perfectly interact with my "definitively keeper" pedals.
So, I went with my couple of fellow friends to Auvisa store, to check those pedals.
Mesa Boogie pedals time
As always, I've selected a Fender Bassman reissue to run my tests, since I consider it a fair amp, that reveals everything about any gear, the good and the bad. Tweaked the controls to get the foundational clean tone and, started to check Mesa Boogie pedals.
I've decided to insert 3 MB pedals in my pedalboard. First one was the GridSlammer, second the Flux Drive and, third the Throttle. In principle, I wasn't interested on their Booster, since this function is already well covered by my Wampler Decibel+ (buffer and booster).
So, the pedalboard was formed by the following pedals:
- TC Electronics Polytune (which I am still suspecting is a tone sucker)
- Dunlop Joe Bonamassa's Wah (which disapointed me)
- Wampler EGO Compressor
- Dry Bell Vibe Machine
- Wampler Decibel+
- Mesa Boogie GridSlammer
- Mesa Boogie Flux Drive
- Mesa Boogie Throttle
- Strymon Mobius
- Strymon El Capistan
I've started with MY clean tone, that is, with the Decibel+ correcting signal level and, the El Capistan for a nice Tape Echo delay. Then, first pedal tested was the GridSlammer.
Transparency is which would better describe the tone of the GridSlammer. Is a really good overdrive that pushes the tubes with ease. Sound is crystalline clear, with a British crunch flavor and, sets you in SRV tones and alike.
I said transparency is the key word for this pedal, because it just enhances the natural tone of your guitar and amp. With the tone control at 12:00 (middle position), the pedal straight cuts the mix. The guitar sound was perfectly distinguishable in its right presence range of frequencies. This pedal loves to push the other two MB pedals, also.
Then, it was the turn for the Flux Drive. Once again, the Flux Drive with its tone controls at 12:00, was straight cutting the mix. Not so transparent as the GridSlammer, the Flux Drive is more oriented to get medium distortion sounds in the ballpark of the old MB Mark amp series.
I have to confirm this by reading the user's manual but, I had the sensation that tone controls were active, instead of passive and, any slight touch had a clear impact in tone. Middle position (which is a detent-stop position) worked flawless with my rig.
Probably, the Flux Drive is deceptively the more anodyne pedal of those three but, once you push it with the GridSlammer stacked before, you are in Hard Rock's heaven. Once I've switched on both pedals in a row, I wasn't able to stop playing.
Since results were so exciting, I've decided to complete the test using backing tracks. I've asked Auvisa's responsible (Rafa) to prepare me some PA system to run my MP3 backing tracks, to check how the pedals will work in real application. Rafa came back with a Yamaha StagePass 200 PA system (just a single speaker) and, the show begun.
Started the test playing over "Smoke on the Water" and, the compulsive dancing of a chinese little girl in front the room's window confirmed that the tone was perfect. While childs are natural, mature people seemed suddenly highly interested on the anodyne content of the shelves that were in front of the window. That confirmed me again that the sound was good enough.
Time to check the GridSlammer alone, while playing "Cocaine". Awesome tone, also.
Time to check first the GridSlammer alone and then, pushing the distortion levels with the Flux Drive, while playing "Old Love" and "Since I've been Loving You".
I had a man entering inside the room and, alternatively looking to the amp, pedals, my guitar and my fingers, while I was performing "Since I've been Loving You" and a "Blues in G". He gave me his "thumb up" before leaving the room. My friends told me that he was a very well known blues-man of this area.
I was funny thinking that maybe people thought that I was there demoing or promoting a particular product, instead of being a mediocre player carefully testing some pedals in a store.
Well, those were just people's reaction that just confirmed what my ears said: these pedals are a perfect marriage for my gear and personal style!!!.
Both pedals had a fair sound representation, with total definition note to note, even in unharmonic chords. They both sounded very open, without killing the attack, while delivering a nice sustain that made solos really easy to perform.
Tested those two from 11:30 to 13:30h and, went satisfied to lunch with my fellow friends.
We were discussing about the sound and, we all agreed they were perfectly fitting my gear and style.
We took a long while to lunch, drink, small talk and laugh then, we went back to the store, around 18:00h.
After our ears were cleaned and not biased, I did a quick test again with a few more backing tracks and, satisfied with the sound, I've decided to check the Throttle.
The Throttle is a Recto-in-a-box. Er... not... let me to reword this... is THE Recto-in-a-box pedal. Not a surprise, being MB the father of Rectifier amps.
While I also love that dense wall of sound of the red channel of a recto, this is not the sound that I will use the most of time but, I wanted to give a chance to this pedal. The "Mids cut" knob is somewhat the Contour control you usually find in MB amps and, completely re-equalizes the tone stack going from clear and bumped-mids settings to dark and deep with recessed mids.
So, it clearly covers lot of ground in High Gain distortion. I liked it more with the Mids-cut control around 7:00 (practically off). Tone, once more was left in the middle position.
Wow, wow, wow, wow!.
With this setting, I was achieving a very polished high gain distortion that clearly cut the mix, with that tasty controllable feedback on sound tails. This setting remembered me more to the sound of a Peavey 5150 or a Diezel Einstein but, you could achieve anything just rotating the Mids-cut control.
Even better, you could even switch on the three pedals and the sound remains well defined and, every single note is clearly recognized!!!.
Decision was clear: I want all them!. Let see how much they cost and, let see how many can I get today.
I've decided to end my pedals tests and, go to check some acoustic guitars, before the store closed.
As I left the guitar, my fellow friend asked me: "Can I..?". "Sure, bro, rock on!".
I left my friend preparing himself and, went to test some acoustic guitars.
I had two deceptions in this pedalboard: the Bonamassa's wah and the Badgerplex Trilogy.
Bonamassa's wah lacked some sweep range, which made the EQ very narrowed.
The Badgerplex Trilogy is just a tone sucker. It was recommended to me in a forum, selling it as a way better sounding pedal than the good Xotic EP Booster and, since I've sold my EP Booster (and regretted every day), I've decide to try it.
Well, while the Xotic EP Booster just enhances your sound in a way that nobody is able to describe. The Trilogy kills your tone in a way that I can clearly describe.
The Trilogy rolls off high end frequencies, slightly compresses the attack and, kills the natural sustain of your sound. Instead of giving just an enhanced louder sound, it tends to easily force your tubes to break, which wasn't the goal for this kind of pedal.
Definitively, both were a waste of money.
Acoustic Guitars time
I was really interested on to test a couple of Martin's, the D28HD and D35HD but, they had the D28 and the D45, only.
I have to say that I was highly disappointed with both Martins, that sounded very dull in basses and string-to-string unbalanced. My other fellow friend (the luthier) was selecting more other guitars that seemed to have a good look. Tested lots of models of well known US brands, except for Gibson acoustics (the store doesn't work with Gibson anymore). I was highly disappointed with all them, including Martin, Taylor and, other brands.
The only guitar that sounded with piano like basses, an open voice and a nice balance string-to-string, was a model by Alhambra. We were both surprised. Alhambra is a well known Spanish company that had a good name building Spanish and flamenco guitars but, I didn't know they were in the acoustic market, also.
My friend explained me that the key for tone is the way the air is being conducted inside the body and, this is something Spanish makers were mastered several centuries ago. So, not surprise that a Flamenco Guitar maker could apply its knowledge to build a great acoustic guitar.
Well, I cannot go so deep in luthier' stuff but, I had to agree that the Alhambra was the best sounding acoustic guitar of the around 25 guitars we've tested, hands down.
By the way, while I was testing the acoustics, I was clearly hearing my other friend performing "Hey Joe" and "Whola Lotta Love" and, I thougth: "Man, this is like to be hearing Hendrix and Page in a festival. Yes, I want those pedals to death".
Amp and David Allen's Dover pickups time
We've already tested the brand new Deluxe Stratocaster of my friend, loaded with David Allen Dovers pickups set and, the wiring design I did specially for my friend and those pickups but, from that early time, my amp was improved with a retubing kit from Watford Valves for this Fender Hot Rod III Deville amp.
Since my #1 strat (also loaded with David Allen's pickups) is on hands of my friend luthier (Alex Tirado, look for that man!), for a complete refretting work and a nut substitution (remove the LRS nut and put a bone nut there), I was crazy to test how the enhanced amp would sound with those Dovers.
While my other friend was playing (Robert Tirado), I was tweaking the controls of its pedals, to adapt the EQ to the amp. Once established, the show begun.
Robert was along any kind of style you can imagine, playing from country to shredding. Backing tracks of Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Clapton, Prince... anything...
We selected sounds to check every of the 10 pickups combinations of his axe, getting great strato tones and good tele and lp alike tones.
It was a PERFECT marriage. Same as if you'd found the right wine for the right food, same as to play a LP in a old Marshall. We were shocked with the sound. It was professional studio quality.
Alex and I agreed: "Man, you need to buy exactly this amp and re-tube it with exactly this kit. You owe it!".
David Allen's Dovers are, in my honest opinion, the best strato set I've ever tested up to now (I am waiting an Echoes set). Dovers are just PERFECTION. They get anything and deliver with ease.
We tried combinations like a virtual LP Neck, Bridge and Middle positions (combining in series pickups) and, virtual Tele middle positions (both single coils and a virtual humbucker and a single coil).
They covered every style with ease, from sweet silky bells to rough but perfectly defined hi gain sounds.
If you still are in doubts whether to get a David Allen' set or, specially which one to get, I would say, try those Dovers first.
The only I regret is not being so smart to record his performance, because the sound was killer. But, we will do, for sure. This should be heard and spread to the whole World.
Side thoughts
While my friend was playing, achieving such an inspirational tone, I thought that when your gear has the right marriage, the only that you can do is just to create and enjoy. There is no need to think on... this doesn't sound, what's wrong?. Your mind isn't hijacked by negative thoughts and, you just play and enjoy and, if you enjoy, you transmit your feelings to the audience.
The Rock's dinosaurs had that kind of gear. They had the best tubes ever made, they had the pickups that current makers are trying to reproduce. They had the pedal effects that current makers are trying to reproduce or enhance. They had the gear so, they just focused on to enjoy it and be creative.
Watford's retubing kit included a NOS Philips 6L6 matched pair of tubes and, this is a clear enhancement over the stock Groove Tubes. The killer sounding Dovers in a relatively cheap amp retubed with great tubes made a huge difference.
I recall that my Fender Princeton Reverb reissue costed me exactly 1000 Euros, stock. I had to enhance it with a Weber speaker and, new tubes. For slightly less than 1000 Euros, I bought the Hot Rod III Deville and retubed it with a great Watford's kit. This amp has some cheap details, as the power cord in white (while the rest of amp is black) directly soldered to the PCB but, for that price you get a killer machine.
Another thing that surprised me is that I was a Marshall's and EL34s guy, to lately discover that I love Fender's and 6L6s !!!. It's crazy how our "pre-conceptions" go against our real needs.
It doesn't matter which style fits you, the most important thing is to find the right marriage, the one where all the components of your rig complete the full puzzle of your sound. And, it doesn't matter if you achieve it with the cheapest gear on the world (which usually doesn't happen). Forums create trends and overhypen (in both sides, as good or bad) certain products, most of times people that even didn't tried them in person.
To go to the store with your complete rig (if they doesn't have your components) to test a new component that should fit your rig is a great idea. Sometimes, to test a certain device alone gives us good sensations but, when it has to be inserted in your sound chain, the drawbacks suddenly explode in your face.
22 April 2014
Amps: Watford Valves, yes Sir.
Introduction
This is just a short note related to my recent experience with Watford Valves.
I have a drawer full of spare tubes, that correspond to all the tubes I was purchasing trying to bring some life to my amps. Most of my purchases were made to the Tube Amp Doctor (T.A.D.) but, once I've started to be disappointed with their tubes, I went to other European tube dealers, to get even worst results.
I knew about Watford Valves and, I knew they had a strong name but, the expensive exchange rate Euro / Pound, were keeping me out of their online store. This and the fact that the five times I tried to get some guidance from them ended in nothing. Nobody seems to answer you back. This is still my main concern related to Watford Valves. Nobody seems to care about emails.
But, since Watford has some re-tubing kits, specific for some brand and model of amps and, I was in the need to re-tube a couple of amps (Vox Night Train and Fender Hot Rod III Deville) and, my spare stock contained just those tubes I had rejected, I've decided to give a try to one of those kits.
Already mentioned in a previous blog entry, I've successfully re-tubed my Fender Hot Rod III Deville with one of Watford's re-tubing kits and, as soon as those tubes were at home, I did my own tests, with the help of the Orange Divo VT-1000 tester and, I was gratefully surprised with all them being really close to specifications.
Because of that, I wanted to check again with a couple more amps: the Vox Night Train (complete re-tubing) and the Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo (just pre-amp tubes, because power tubes are already SED Winged-C EL34s).
Retubing the Vox Night Train
As I did with the tubes for the Deville, I've tested the new tubes as soon as they came from Watford and, before installing them in both amps.
The kit I've used for the Night Train is the kit that's being sold for a Vox AC15, since they have exactly same tube topology and, very similar overall character.
Watford relabels all the tubes that are passing their exhaustive Drive Test with the Harma name.
TAD relabels also the tube that passed their own tests with the TAD name but, I have the impression that TAD tubes have a tolerance range higher than Harma tubes and, therefore, they don't bring the same life to the amp.
The kit for the Vox AC15 comes with a couple of Harma ECC83-RET (retro) pre-amp tubes and a couple of Harma EL84-RET (retro) tubes. Watford doesn't identifies which brand/model is re-labeling but, I had the impression that all them where Mullard reissue (Red Sensor).
Since I had a Mullard 12AX7 in Night Train's preamp and a couple of Mullard EL84 in power amp, comparing my tubes with tubes from Watford, gave me the impression that they were all Mullard reissue.
This is not an issue, because those were exactly the tubes I've chosen time ago for that amp. But, since I remember how they sounded after re-tubing the Night Train, this would be a fire test to see if the relabeled Harma tubes could work the same or better.
Wow!.
I remember that my Night Train was sounding really good (before some tube worn) but, man, now it sounds really stellar.
The Orange Divo doesn't tells me all the history. The readings for the pre-amp tubes where the same I usually get for Mullard reissue 12AX7 tubes: one triode reads 10, the other 11. The readings for both EL84 were 10, while I'm getting readings of 10 (most of times) and 11 for Mullard EL84 reissue tubes.
So, in principle, I was throwing there same tubes, with same readings. So, how that kit from Watford can sound better?.
My suspect is that the difference can be related to other variables and, very specially, to transconductance.
I made a short test, with guitar and some backing tracks and, I was fully satisfied with the sound of the Night Train. Indeed, one more score!.
Retubing the Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo
I've chosen a Classic / Hi Gain kit for this amp, because I want an early breakup, to be able to cook the tubes at lower volumes.
This time the Harma ECC83-Ret tubes seemed to me JJ ECC83S tubes but, readings where a digit over my usual readings with TAD 12AX7-Cz (JJ ECC83S) tubes. While TAD tubes usually read 8 / 9 (triode A / triode B), Harma tubes read 9 / 10 (V1 and V3), 8 / 10 (V2) and, the balanced one 10 / 11 (PI).
This is the second balance tube from Watford and, both have unbalanced triodes but, both have at least one reading 10 (on specs) and, the unbalanced is just a digit more or less.
Long time ago, I did a lot of swaps to this Marshall, and my conclusion was that there is no other tube that works better in this particular amp than the JJ ECC83S. My suspect is that those ECC83-Ret are effectively JJ ECC83S tubes. If the history repeats, as with the Deville and the Night Train, my favourite amp will come back to life very soon.
I have to re-bias the EL34 to Marshall' specs (45mv). Then, I will be able to evaluate the real impact of those pre-amp tubes, which I hope to test by tomorrow.
Conclusion
It seems that Watford Valves do the best tests on tubes, at least in Europe.
I've wasted a lot of money before, trying to get more affordable tubes, which leaded me to unsatisfactory results and a ton of spare tubes that I will probably have to throw to the trash can.
They won a new customer, indeed. But, I would suggest to Watford to have someone taking care of the email, because not everybody can make an international call that could cost even more than a single tube.
This is just a short note related to my recent experience with Watford Valves.
I have a drawer full of spare tubes, that correspond to all the tubes I was purchasing trying to bring some life to my amps. Most of my purchases were made to the Tube Amp Doctor (T.A.D.) but, once I've started to be disappointed with their tubes, I went to other European tube dealers, to get even worst results.
I knew about Watford Valves and, I knew they had a strong name but, the expensive exchange rate Euro / Pound, were keeping me out of their online store. This and the fact that the five times I tried to get some guidance from them ended in nothing. Nobody seems to answer you back. This is still my main concern related to Watford Valves. Nobody seems to care about emails.
But, since Watford has some re-tubing kits, specific for some brand and model of amps and, I was in the need to re-tube a couple of amps (Vox Night Train and Fender Hot Rod III Deville) and, my spare stock contained just those tubes I had rejected, I've decided to give a try to one of those kits.
Already mentioned in a previous blog entry, I've successfully re-tubed my Fender Hot Rod III Deville with one of Watford's re-tubing kits and, as soon as those tubes were at home, I did my own tests, with the help of the Orange Divo VT-1000 tester and, I was gratefully surprised with all them being really close to specifications.
Because of that, I wanted to check again with a couple more amps: the Vox Night Train (complete re-tubing) and the Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo (just pre-amp tubes, because power tubes are already SED Winged-C EL34s).
Retubing the Vox Night Train
As I did with the tubes for the Deville, I've tested the new tubes as soon as they came from Watford and, before installing them in both amps.
The kit I've used for the Night Train is the kit that's being sold for a Vox AC15, since they have exactly same tube topology and, very similar overall character.
Watford relabels all the tubes that are passing their exhaustive Drive Test with the Harma name.
TAD relabels also the tube that passed their own tests with the TAD name but, I have the impression that TAD tubes have a tolerance range higher than Harma tubes and, therefore, they don't bring the same life to the amp.
The kit for the Vox AC15 comes with a couple of Harma ECC83-RET (retro) pre-amp tubes and a couple of Harma EL84-RET (retro) tubes. Watford doesn't identifies which brand/model is re-labeling but, I had the impression that all them where Mullard reissue (Red Sensor).
Since I had a Mullard 12AX7 in Night Train's preamp and a couple of Mullard EL84 in power amp, comparing my tubes with tubes from Watford, gave me the impression that they were all Mullard reissue.
This is not an issue, because those were exactly the tubes I've chosen time ago for that amp. But, since I remember how they sounded after re-tubing the Night Train, this would be a fire test to see if the relabeled Harma tubes could work the same or better.
Wow!.
I remember that my Night Train was sounding really good (before some tube worn) but, man, now it sounds really stellar.
The Orange Divo doesn't tells me all the history. The readings for the pre-amp tubes where the same I usually get for Mullard reissue 12AX7 tubes: one triode reads 10, the other 11. The readings for both EL84 were 10, while I'm getting readings of 10 (most of times) and 11 for Mullard EL84 reissue tubes.
So, in principle, I was throwing there same tubes, with same readings. So, how that kit from Watford can sound better?.
My suspect is that the difference can be related to other variables and, very specially, to transconductance.
I made a short test, with guitar and some backing tracks and, I was fully satisfied with the sound of the Night Train. Indeed, one more score!.
Retubing the Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo
I've chosen a Classic / Hi Gain kit for this amp, because I want an early breakup, to be able to cook the tubes at lower volumes.
This time the Harma ECC83-Ret tubes seemed to me JJ ECC83S tubes but, readings where a digit over my usual readings with TAD 12AX7-Cz (JJ ECC83S) tubes. While TAD tubes usually read 8 / 9 (triode A / triode B), Harma tubes read 9 / 10 (V1 and V3), 8 / 10 (V2) and, the balanced one 10 / 11 (PI).
This is the second balance tube from Watford and, both have unbalanced triodes but, both have at least one reading 10 (on specs) and, the unbalanced is just a digit more or less.
Long time ago, I did a lot of swaps to this Marshall, and my conclusion was that there is no other tube that works better in this particular amp than the JJ ECC83S. My suspect is that those ECC83-Ret are effectively JJ ECC83S tubes. If the history repeats, as with the Deville and the Night Train, my favourite amp will come back to life very soon.
I have to re-bias the EL34 to Marshall' specs (45mv). Then, I will be able to evaluate the real impact of those pre-amp tubes, which I hope to test by tomorrow.
Conclusion
It seems that Watford Valves do the best tests on tubes, at least in Europe.
I've wasted a lot of money before, trying to get more affordable tubes, which leaded me to unsatisfactory results and a ton of spare tubes that I will probably have to throw to the trash can.
They won a new customer, indeed. But, I would suggest to Watford to have someone taking care of the email, because not everybody can make an international call that could cost even more than a single tube.
03 April 2014
Amps: Fender Hot Rod III 212 Deville - testing tubes - Part 1
Introduction
After installing the re-tubing set from Watford, the amp came to good life, warmer, punchier and with rich harmonics but, I wondered if I can go further, fine tuning the sound.
Those NOS JAN/Philips 6L6WGB are great tubes, indeed. And those Harma 12AX7-STR (I bet this is a take of the JJ ECC83S Golden-pin) are delivering good sound with spades. But, I feel some crunchy mids that I am suspecting coming from the PI tube.
Even that this set works awesome, I am just curious to see the impact of changing every individual pre-amp tube.
Test: Swapping PI (V3) tube
Being the Harma 12AX7-STR a nice tube for this position, it has a short plate and, I usually prefer there long plate tubes or, the awesome JAN/Philips 5751 (with a great transconductancy and really hard to break up).
Well, I reviewed my spare depot and, didn't found a valid long plate tube, as the Sovtek 12AX7-LPS or the JJ ECC803S. Well, I had a LPS but, with very low ratings (7 / 8, triode A, triode B).
I could test a Mullard reissue there but, maybe the spiky mids and crunchy distortion can be a bad election for this amp. So, with so few options, I went to reuse my last JAN/Philips 5751.
Clearly, that blurry mids that I've hear were removed and, the overall sound was brighter and more defined.
I've tested also the hi-gain settings (Drive Channel / More Drive) and, it was awesome, with fast response to your picking technic so, fast riffs where really easy to perform, because of the immediateness of the amp.
But the 5751 works the best, the more you raise the volume of the amp, sounding a tad bonny and trebbly at low volumes. With the amp really hot, results are enough to demolish your walls. What a beast!.
Also, the reverb was tamed down, and most of the ice picky reverb sounds were removed. JJ ECC83S tube is picking hard in mid-highs.
This little test, showed me that there is some room for improvements there, just swapping the PI tube.
I need to source some even-EQ'd tubes with large plate and good transconductancy and nice output to try there. Maybe the JJ ECC803S or the Ruby 12AX7-M or the Sovtek 12AX7-LPS (but, this one last very few in combos).
The second test was to thrown there a Mullard 12AX7 reissue, even that I knew is a bright tube, I wanted to check the effect of the change.
Well, more or less same results than with the 5751, maybe slightly more power and, overall, the tone was brighter and harsher, very specially with single coils.
Noe of those tubes has same reverb strength as the original GT but, it made the Reverb to sound really harsh.
It seems that the Harma 12AX7-STR, this time balanced, will be the best option.
Test: Sorting tubes by gain, ascending
While I prefer the V1 with higher gain to get an overall early distortion. I thought that maybe a way to remove that slightly blurred mids (due to the Phase Inverter, as demoed my previous test) could be to arrange the tubes from lower to higher gain, being the PI the tube with higher gain. Maybe, in that way I could have some headroom when cascading a tube into the other.
Wow!. Results are just Perfect. Nothing more, nothing less.
That sounds to great amp, right now.
I stop swapping tubes. Those Harma 12AX7-STR paired with those JAN/Philips 6L6WGB are awesome for this amp.
The high distortion sounds more defined, with less fizz and strange overtones.
Well, I think that Watford Valves has earn a new customer, indeed!.
Great work!.
Video Demo
to come...
After installing the re-tubing set from Watford, the amp came to good life, warmer, punchier and with rich harmonics but, I wondered if I can go further, fine tuning the sound.
Those NOS JAN/Philips 6L6WGB are great tubes, indeed. And those Harma 12AX7-STR (I bet this is a take of the JJ ECC83S Golden-pin) are delivering good sound with spades. But, I feel some crunchy mids that I am suspecting coming from the PI tube.
Even that this set works awesome, I am just curious to see the impact of changing every individual pre-amp tube.
Test: Swapping PI (V3) tube
Being the Harma 12AX7-STR a nice tube for this position, it has a short plate and, I usually prefer there long plate tubes or, the awesome JAN/Philips 5751 (with a great transconductancy and really hard to break up).
Well, I reviewed my spare depot and, didn't found a valid long plate tube, as the Sovtek 12AX7-LPS or the JJ ECC803S. Well, I had a LPS but, with very low ratings (7 / 8, triode A, triode B).
I could test a Mullard reissue there but, maybe the spiky mids and crunchy distortion can be a bad election for this amp. So, with so few options, I went to reuse my last JAN/Philips 5751.
Clearly, that blurry mids that I've hear were removed and, the overall sound was brighter and more defined.
I've tested also the hi-gain settings (Drive Channel / More Drive) and, it was awesome, with fast response to your picking technic so, fast riffs where really easy to perform, because of the immediateness of the amp.
But the 5751 works the best, the more you raise the volume of the amp, sounding a tad bonny and trebbly at low volumes. With the amp really hot, results are enough to demolish your walls. What a beast!.
Also, the reverb was tamed down, and most of the ice picky reverb sounds were removed. JJ ECC83S tube is picking hard in mid-highs.
This little test, showed me that there is some room for improvements there, just swapping the PI tube.
I need to source some even-EQ'd tubes with large plate and good transconductancy and nice output to try there. Maybe the JJ ECC803S or the Ruby 12AX7-M or the Sovtek 12AX7-LPS (but, this one last very few in combos).
The second test was to thrown there a Mullard 12AX7 reissue, even that I knew is a bright tube, I wanted to check the effect of the change.
Well, more or less same results than with the 5751, maybe slightly more power and, overall, the tone was brighter and harsher, very specially with single coils.
Noe of those tubes has same reverb strength as the original GT but, it made the Reverb to sound really harsh.
It seems that the Harma 12AX7-STR, this time balanced, will be the best option.
Test: Sorting tubes by gain, ascending
While I prefer the V1 with higher gain to get an overall early distortion. I thought that maybe a way to remove that slightly blurred mids (due to the Phase Inverter, as demoed my previous test) could be to arrange the tubes from lower to higher gain, being the PI the tube with higher gain. Maybe, in that way I could have some headroom when cascading a tube into the other.
Wow!. Results are just Perfect. Nothing more, nothing less.
That sounds to great amp, right now.
I stop swapping tubes. Those Harma 12AX7-STR paired with those JAN/Philips 6L6WGB are awesome for this amp.
The high distortion sounds more defined, with less fizz and strange overtones.
Well, I think that Watford Valves has earn a new customer, indeed!.
Great work!.
Video Demo
to come...
02 April 2014
Amps: Fender Hot Rod III 212 Deville
Introduction
I was in the market for an amp with a great clean channel that could take every pedal with ease and, that could be used at studio and gig levels. For dorm levels, or you end with a good solid state amp or, some amp modeler (digital) or with some kind of dummy load to reduce the overall loudness.
But, I haven't really planed to get one, right now.
What happened is that I went with my fellow friend to a big store, to help him to select his new brand Strato. I wanted to have the opportunity to test some amps, just to discard some models and narrowing the search but, I hadn't any real willing of buying an amp that time.
Well, I've plugged my guitar to several, including some unaffordable or unpractical ones (as the Bassman 4x10 or some Victoria amps). Suddenly, I've remembered to watch some videos about Fender's Hot Rod series and, was really curious to test one.
Between the Deluxe and the Deville, my election was to test the Deville, because of its higher power (60W), which should give me more clean headroom.
Hell!. As soon as I plugged my guitar and pedalboard to that amp, I loved it.
Well, we were 4 friends in the room. Everybody liked it and, pushed me to buy it!.
I had the credit available so... what the heck... I did it!.
The amp
It seems to be the most selled amp in the world and a total score for Fender but, is that good?.
The amp works with three pre-amp tubes (12AX7 / ECC83 types) and a couple of power tubes (6L6).
Rectifier is solid state.
It has two channels (well, just one more stacked triode in the second tube), two inputs (higher and lower impedance), a mode switch (normal, bright) and a gain switch (gain, more gain).
Controls are: Volume (for clean channel), Treble, Middle, Bass, Reverb and Presence.
For the gain channel, the Volume is being deactivated and the Gain pot takes its place. The overall volume of this channel is handled later with the Master control.
Channel and gain levels are switchable with an external pedal switch (two switches).
It has a post-preamp output and a pre-power input so, you can even chain several of those or, you can use those as the FX loop (whitout level control).
This is one of the few Fenders I see having a Bypass switch, what is very well welcome. Also, one of the few Fenders that comes with a trim pot for cathode-method biasing and a clear testing pin for your probes.
On the dark side, the amp has the jacks for plug alternative cabs inside, instead of on top or back. The power cord is directly soldered to the PCB and its white, while the whole amp is black!!!. So, you cannot unplug that hanging white cord from the amp.
The tube sockets are floating, just supported by the solders to the PCB, which makes me feel that I am gonna break the PCB if pushing the tubes really hard. As in most Fender's combos, the tubes hang down so, you will probably have to tilt the amp to see the sockets, when replacing tubes.
Well, I know price is a compromise but, can those important things be part of price compromise, really?. Even VHT, with unbeatable prices, gets rid of this things!.
Overall, the amp has a typical Fender look and, seem well built (except for those mentioned design details).
The sound
Stock, the amp sounds really good but, as soon as you drive it a bit more, with the help of a clean booster or alike, you quickly see that the sound can be enhanced.
Without any pushing pedal, it sounds nice but, like lacking some mojo. Too much defined, even aseptic. More hi-fi than musical.
The drive channel farts a bit and, sounds like a IC / transistor / diodes are doing the dirty work, instead of cooked tubes. But, well, I wasn't interested on the drive channel anyway. For that, I have my good pedals.
As usual, I've removed the tubes and, tested them with the Orange Divo VT-1000 tube tester, to check which tubes came stock and which values were used.
All tubes were Groove-Tubes. Not surprise, since GT belongs to Fender, as well.
The three pre-amp tubes were SV-12AX7-R, so Sovtek 12AX7 tubes, which are very EQ even and silky but, lack tridimensionality and character.
The power tubes were, at the end, a couple of EH 5881 tubes.
Measured their matching values, I've found following figures:
V1: 7 / 8
V2: 8 / 8
V3: 7 / 8
Power: 9 / 10
Being each value the corresponding to each triode (for pre-amp tubes) or the value of each tube (for power tubes). The degree that each tube (or triode) satisfies standard specifications is being give by such a number, being 10 the reference value.
That means that, if a 12AX7 tube should have a gain of 100 (10 for each triode), V1 had a gain of 7 for triode 1 and 8 for triode 2 therefore, under specifications. Power tubes were right well on specs values.
Speakers are Celestion G12P-80. Not great speakers but, very even EQ'd and, often used for modeling-amps, which need a very broad frequential representation, to mime several amps with very different EQ characteristics. Not being specialized speakers, they can serve as a good clean platform to build your sound with the help of pedals so, I am not in the need of swap them, by now.
Tube Swapping
I was understanding that I should get more tone from this amp, just swapping stock tubes.
This is my first 6L6 amp so, I had to investigate a while about 6L6 tubes and, recommendations.
As always, NOS tubes seem to be the reference but, the Winged-C 6L6 (of the real Svetlana factory, in St. Petersburg) seemed to be the natural election, followed by some TAD 6L6WGB.
So, I did my research and, this time, I wanted to try Watford Valves, for this set of tubes.
Watford Valves had a re-tube kit ready for this amp, with NOS 6L6 tubes and, three of their re-branded tubes (Harma ECC83-STR).
Watford Valves is, probably, the tube dealer with the best name but, I had never ordered to them, because of the Pound / Euro ratio, VAT, etc. But, there is always a first time.
While I was waiting for such a set, I wanted to try some pre-amp tubes and, thrown there a Mullard Reissue in V1, a Svetlana (Red Sensor) 12AX7 in V2 and a Tung-Sol in the PI (since I had no better option).
Results were awful. What a way to destroy the sound of that amp!.
Overall loudness did fall about 2 numbers in the volume dial and, the sound was bonny, hollow and excessively crunchy. Not a good set of tubes to be paired with those 6L6 tubes.
So, since I had that re-tubing set on the way, I've decided to wait for it and, to continue my tests later.
As soon as the Watford tubes came, I prepared the Orange Divo VT-1000 tube tester and, checked every tube. That was a very great surprise. While most of tubes coming from TAD are rated around 8/9, the set from Watford was very consistent and, very close to specifications. These were the values:
Harma ECC83-STR - tube 1 - 9 / 10
Harma ECC83-STR - tube 2 - 10 / 11
Harma ECC84-STR - tube 3 - 10 / 10
NOS JAN/Philips 6L6WGB - 9 / 10
I've decided to put tube 2 in V1, because it had the two triodes with more gain, to push the input stage.
I've decided to put tube 3 in PI, because it had the more balanced triodes.
And, tube 1 was placed in V2.
Next decision was how to BIAS the amp. Fortunately, the Hot Rod III Deville has a (big blue) trim pot to bias the power tubes, this and my TAD Bias Master system, made it very comfortable.
The factory biasing sounded a tad cool and, I wanted to get a little more harmonic content so, I've searched everywhere and, found (as always) highly contradictory information.
Fender recommends 30 mV by tube but, if you use Weber Bias Calculator, it seems that 6L6 tubes can go up to 40 mV at 70% of max. disipation power.
Eurotubes was biasing to 40 mV by tube.
A mate was really happy with his amp biased to 32.5 mV by tube and, added that his tubes last years and years because of it.
I made my own calculations, taking into account the highly variable voltage ratio read in my mains, and decided to go with 38 mV by tube.
Switched on the amp and plugged the guitar. Overall, the sound was warmer and darker than with original Sovtek tubes but, in a good way. But, the sound seemed to me a bit cooked and, breaking really early. The power delivered was brutal and, most of the objects on the bins around started to fall down.
Tested the guitar direct to amp, both channels, every mode.
I've ended taking the decision to move down the biasing value and, I wanted to try those 32.5 mV that seemed to satisfy that guy.
Next day, I re-biased the tubes to 32.5 mV and, tried again.
Wow. The overall loudness was reduced but, the sound was less crunchy or cooked and, allowed me to set up the amp in a good sweet spot, to play clean and break the tubes by picking hard.
There is a warm pad bellow the sound, rich in harmonics and really tasteful.
I've enjoyed the test session a lot. It was like being plugged to a good old-school amp, a la Bassman or alike.
The Normal mode of the Clean channel sounded a bit dull and lifeless with factory tubes but, with this re-tubing, it sounded warm but beautiful. Really nice.
The Bright mode of the Clean channel sounded too much bright (even piercing) with factory tubes but, now it was easier to tame down the excessive high end.
The Gain channel sounded too dirty with Factory tubes. Now, it sounded more like a tube-distortion.
I can try to rotate those three tubes in the different positions. Maybe a higher output tube with a later break in PI will bring more clean headroom to the amp. And maybe, a lower output tube with a later break can help the pre-amp to stay cleaner. But, it's clear that British sounding tubes, as the Mullard reissue, the EH or the Svetlana aren't the best option for this amp, since they have a classic British crunch.
I have no clue which tubes are those Harma 12AX7-STR because, STR (Special Tube Request) means that the maker introduces some variations to make the tube to buyer' specifications (that is, Watford Valves' specifications) and, this usually mean you are ordering a Chinese tube. But, tube pins don't have that dull aspect that Chinese tubes usually have and, it's overall aspect resembles me to a JJ ECC83S (maybe with golden pins). The sound is also closer to a JJ, specially in the middle-high frequencies but, surprisingly darker than the Sovtek. I have to investigate it a bit more.
Maybe, now that I have the tubes biased and controls set up to my taste, I will try some tubes, in individual positions, to see what changes. Maybe, the TAD 7025-S highgrade in V1 could do something good. Will see. I would like to tame a bit the spike on mid-highs and, a cleaner Reverb recovery sound.
Will come back with my tests in a further entry in this blog.
Notes on Biasing this amp
Biasing this amp, don't forget to:
By careful, there are a lot of components that can be accidentally touched and, have lethal voltages.
I was in the market for an amp with a great clean channel that could take every pedal with ease and, that could be used at studio and gig levels. For dorm levels, or you end with a good solid state amp or, some amp modeler (digital) or with some kind of dummy load to reduce the overall loudness.
But, I haven't really planed to get one, right now.
What happened is that I went with my fellow friend to a big store, to help him to select his new brand Strato. I wanted to have the opportunity to test some amps, just to discard some models and narrowing the search but, I hadn't any real willing of buying an amp that time.
Well, I've plugged my guitar to several, including some unaffordable or unpractical ones (as the Bassman 4x10 or some Victoria amps). Suddenly, I've remembered to watch some videos about Fender's Hot Rod series and, was really curious to test one.
Between the Deluxe and the Deville, my election was to test the Deville, because of its higher power (60W), which should give me more clean headroom.
Hell!. As soon as I plugged my guitar and pedalboard to that amp, I loved it.
Well, we were 4 friends in the room. Everybody liked it and, pushed me to buy it!.
I had the credit available so... what the heck... I did it!.
The amp
It seems to be the most selled amp in the world and a total score for Fender but, is that good?.
The amp works with three pre-amp tubes (12AX7 / ECC83 types) and a couple of power tubes (6L6).
Rectifier is solid state.
It has two channels (well, just one more stacked triode in the second tube), two inputs (higher and lower impedance), a mode switch (normal, bright) and a gain switch (gain, more gain).
Controls are: Volume (for clean channel), Treble, Middle, Bass, Reverb and Presence.
For the gain channel, the Volume is being deactivated and the Gain pot takes its place. The overall volume of this channel is handled later with the Master control.
Channel and gain levels are switchable with an external pedal switch (two switches).
It has a post-preamp output and a pre-power input so, you can even chain several of those or, you can use those as the FX loop (whitout level control).
This is one of the few Fenders I see having a Bypass switch, what is very well welcome. Also, one of the few Fenders that comes with a trim pot for cathode-method biasing and a clear testing pin for your probes.
On the dark side, the amp has the jacks for plug alternative cabs inside, instead of on top or back. The power cord is directly soldered to the PCB and its white, while the whole amp is black!!!. So, you cannot unplug that hanging white cord from the amp.
The tube sockets are floating, just supported by the solders to the PCB, which makes me feel that I am gonna break the PCB if pushing the tubes really hard. As in most Fender's combos, the tubes hang down so, you will probably have to tilt the amp to see the sockets, when replacing tubes.
Well, I know price is a compromise but, can those important things be part of price compromise, really?. Even VHT, with unbeatable prices, gets rid of this things!.
Overall, the amp has a typical Fender look and, seem well built (except for those mentioned design details).
The sound
Stock, the amp sounds really good but, as soon as you drive it a bit more, with the help of a clean booster or alike, you quickly see that the sound can be enhanced.
Without any pushing pedal, it sounds nice but, like lacking some mojo. Too much defined, even aseptic. More hi-fi than musical.
The drive channel farts a bit and, sounds like a IC / transistor / diodes are doing the dirty work, instead of cooked tubes. But, well, I wasn't interested on the drive channel anyway. For that, I have my good pedals.
As usual, I've removed the tubes and, tested them with the Orange Divo VT-1000 tube tester, to check which tubes came stock and which values were used.
All tubes were Groove-Tubes. Not surprise, since GT belongs to Fender, as well.
The three pre-amp tubes were SV-12AX7-R, so Sovtek 12AX7 tubes, which are very EQ even and silky but, lack tridimensionality and character.
The power tubes were, at the end, a couple of EH 5881 tubes.
Measured their matching values, I've found following figures:
V1: 7 / 8
V2: 8 / 8
V3: 7 / 8
Power: 9 / 10
Being each value the corresponding to each triode (for pre-amp tubes) or the value of each tube (for power tubes). The degree that each tube (or triode) satisfies standard specifications is being give by such a number, being 10 the reference value.
That means that, if a 12AX7 tube should have a gain of 100 (10 for each triode), V1 had a gain of 7 for triode 1 and 8 for triode 2 therefore, under specifications. Power tubes were right well on specs values.
Speakers are Celestion G12P-80. Not great speakers but, very even EQ'd and, often used for modeling-amps, which need a very broad frequential representation, to mime several amps with very different EQ characteristics. Not being specialized speakers, they can serve as a good clean platform to build your sound with the help of pedals so, I am not in the need of swap them, by now.
Tube Swapping
I was understanding that I should get more tone from this amp, just swapping stock tubes.
This is my first 6L6 amp so, I had to investigate a while about 6L6 tubes and, recommendations.
As always, NOS tubes seem to be the reference but, the Winged-C 6L6 (of the real Svetlana factory, in St. Petersburg) seemed to be the natural election, followed by some TAD 6L6WGB.
So, I did my research and, this time, I wanted to try Watford Valves, for this set of tubes.
Watford Valves had a re-tube kit ready for this amp, with NOS 6L6 tubes and, three of their re-branded tubes (Harma ECC83-STR).
Watford Valves is, probably, the tube dealer with the best name but, I had never ordered to them, because of the Pound / Euro ratio, VAT, etc. But, there is always a first time.
While I was waiting for such a set, I wanted to try some pre-amp tubes and, thrown there a Mullard Reissue in V1, a Svetlana (Red Sensor) 12AX7 in V2 and a Tung-Sol in the PI (since I had no better option).
Results were awful. What a way to destroy the sound of that amp!.
Overall loudness did fall about 2 numbers in the volume dial and, the sound was bonny, hollow and excessively crunchy. Not a good set of tubes to be paired with those 6L6 tubes.
So, since I had that re-tubing set on the way, I've decided to wait for it and, to continue my tests later.
As soon as the Watford tubes came, I prepared the Orange Divo VT-1000 tube tester and, checked every tube. That was a very great surprise. While most of tubes coming from TAD are rated around 8/9, the set from Watford was very consistent and, very close to specifications. These were the values:
Harma ECC83-STR - tube 1 - 9 / 10
Harma ECC83-STR - tube 2 - 10 / 11
Harma ECC84-STR - tube 3 - 10 / 10
NOS JAN/Philips 6L6WGB - 9 / 10
I've decided to put tube 2 in V1, because it had the two triodes with more gain, to push the input stage.
I've decided to put tube 3 in PI, because it had the more balanced triodes.
And, tube 1 was placed in V2.
Next decision was how to BIAS the amp. Fortunately, the Hot Rod III Deville has a (big blue) trim pot to bias the power tubes, this and my TAD Bias Master system, made it very comfortable.
The factory biasing sounded a tad cool and, I wanted to get a little more harmonic content so, I've searched everywhere and, found (as always) highly contradictory information.
Fender recommends 30 mV by tube but, if you use Weber Bias Calculator, it seems that 6L6 tubes can go up to 40 mV at 70% of max. disipation power.
Eurotubes was biasing to 40 mV by tube.
A mate was really happy with his amp biased to 32.5 mV by tube and, added that his tubes last years and years because of it.
I made my own calculations, taking into account the highly variable voltage ratio read in my mains, and decided to go with 38 mV by tube.
Switched on the amp and plugged the guitar. Overall, the sound was warmer and darker than with original Sovtek tubes but, in a good way. But, the sound seemed to me a bit cooked and, breaking really early. The power delivered was brutal and, most of the objects on the bins around started to fall down.
Tested the guitar direct to amp, both channels, every mode.
I've ended taking the decision to move down the biasing value and, I wanted to try those 32.5 mV that seemed to satisfy that guy.
Next day, I re-biased the tubes to 32.5 mV and, tried again.
Wow. The overall loudness was reduced but, the sound was less crunchy or cooked and, allowed me to set up the amp in a good sweet spot, to play clean and break the tubes by picking hard.
There is a warm pad bellow the sound, rich in harmonics and really tasteful.
I've enjoyed the test session a lot. It was like being plugged to a good old-school amp, a la Bassman or alike.
The Normal mode of the Clean channel sounded a bit dull and lifeless with factory tubes but, with this re-tubing, it sounded warm but beautiful. Really nice.
The Bright mode of the Clean channel sounded too much bright (even piercing) with factory tubes but, now it was easier to tame down the excessive high end.
The Gain channel sounded too dirty with Factory tubes. Now, it sounded more like a tube-distortion.
I can try to rotate those three tubes in the different positions. Maybe a higher output tube with a later break in PI will bring more clean headroom to the amp. And maybe, a lower output tube with a later break can help the pre-amp to stay cleaner. But, it's clear that British sounding tubes, as the Mullard reissue, the EH or the Svetlana aren't the best option for this amp, since they have a classic British crunch.
I have no clue which tubes are those Harma 12AX7-STR because, STR (Special Tube Request) means that the maker introduces some variations to make the tube to buyer' specifications (that is, Watford Valves' specifications) and, this usually mean you are ordering a Chinese tube. But, tube pins don't have that dull aspect that Chinese tubes usually have and, it's overall aspect resembles me to a JJ ECC83S (maybe with golden pins). The sound is also closer to a JJ, specially in the middle-high frequencies but, surprisingly darker than the Sovtek. I have to investigate it a bit more.
Maybe, now that I have the tubes biased and controls set up to my taste, I will try some tubes, in individual positions, to see what changes. Maybe, the TAD 7025-S highgrade in V1 could do something good. Will see. I would like to tame a bit the spike on mid-highs and, a cleaner Reverb recovery sound.
Will come back with my tests in a further entry in this blog.
Notes on Biasing this amp
Biasing this amp, don't forget to:
- Roll down every control, including the tone stack, presence, master and drive. Everything down.
- Switch the mode to Normal (not Bright).
- Set your biasing probes between the socked and the tube (safer than just a multimeter).
- Switch off the amp and, wait 5 mins.
- Switch off the bypass
- Bias to your target value
- Leave the amp like this for about 20 mins, to help the whole circuit to stabilize.
- Re-check your bias setting and, do latest adjustment.
By careful, there are a lot of components that can be accidentally touched and, have lethal voltages.
27 June 2013
Generic: a reflexion about the importance of voltage in guitarist's gear
Introduction
Maybe, you never had voltage issues. In fact, I never had those before I've moved to a new house but, I've noticed those issues when giging, also.
Or, maybe, you are currently having voltage issues and you don't know it!.
We already discussed about the importance of to have a good ground in our mains (see past entry: how to troubleshoot noise in our rig and, entry: Accessories: Socket Tester) and, about the function of some filtering and surge protection devices (Power Conditioner), as well as the role that a good Power Regulator (see past entry: Accessories: Phonic PPC9000E Power Conditioner).
Voltage issues affect to each single device that is actually connected to the mains and, it has more or less impact depending on how many devices are depending on such an energy source.
This entry is just a reflexion about the importance of voltage in our rig, after experiencing myself several related issues and, after observing how it affects to every gear.
Voltage = Dynamics
I don't know if this is a written rule but, what I've observed is that Voltage means Dynamics in Audio.
If you don't know what dynamics means, please read this past entry: Home Studio: Mixing - Part 4.
The more the voltage a certain gear has, the more the dynamic range and, therefore, the more natural, organic and open it sounds. The less voltage, the less dynamic range and, therefore, the more compressed it sounds. And, this seems to be true for every single thing in our gear.
Pickups
While most of people seems to focus on DC Resistance when choosing its pickups, I am more interested in other specifications.
Maybe DC Resistance talks about the overall EQ of the pickup but, resonance frequency and resonance peak will better talk about where this guitar will be placed in the mix and, how piercing will it be.
In fact, resonance defines somewhat the place in the frequential range called Presence where this guitar will be recognized. If it's its natural place in the mix everything will be fine, otherwise, that track would need extra EQ work to make it to cut the mix. You can eventually have issues trying to differentiate your guitar when playing with your band, also.
Then, one more parameter that interests me a lot is the output voltage of a pickup. This output voltage tells a lot, not only about the strengh of the signal but about how dynamic can be the sound. The higher the voltage, the more gap you can represent between soft and high volume notes and, therefore, the sound will be more natural, open and organic. The less voltage, the more compressed the sound will be.
Pickup voltage isn't depending on your mains source, because the pickup generates it. So, this is the the more special case we are going to discuss here. Rest of gear depends on your mains.
Since voltage in a pickup depends on the magnetic field variation, all components in a pickup have something to say (magnets, screws, rods, coil, wire, etc) and, trying to optimize some pickup characteristic have an impact in other characteristics.
You can get more voltage with a powerfuler magnet but, this can also impact in the resonance peak and make the pickup brighter or even piercing. You can change to a thicker wire to wind the coil or, to wind more turns there but, this will change the overall EQ, by example.
We are choosing pickups for how they sound and, every pickup design is a compromise between the several specification characteristics so, we get at the end a given (maximum output) voltage for each pickup and, we usually don't change it.
Pedals
If I didn't had the incredible variation in voltage levels in my actual mains, I would probably never noticed how important voltage is for pedals that are being feeded with some AC adapter.
Most pedals are designed to work, at least, with a battery (typically 9V) but, there are some exceptions, like most of Lovetone pedals, that are so small that doesn't have room for a battery and, some other pedals, as EH's Electric Lady or Morley Wahs, have their own AC adaptor and run at higher voltage levels (12V, 18V or even, 24V).
Probably, first time I've experienced the matter of voltage was with the Fulltone OCD V2 overdrive. While I was browsing its characteristics, I've read that it was possible to enhance the sound running it at 18v, instead of 9V and, since I had a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 adaptor that allowed me to use two different 9V outputs to feed a pedal with 18V, I did the test and, I was greatefully surprised with the results.
Since that day, I tried to feed all my critical pedals with 18V. Boosters, overdrives, delays. Anything not needing a compressed sound (as distortions or fuzzes, by example) can benefite of a higher voltage level.
The drawback is that the number of outputs is limited and, that if each pedal needs two outputs, you cannot really have a large chain of pedals.
The Xotic EP Booster is another example of how much open and dynamic the sound can be with 18V.
If you wanted to try this, please be sure to read your pedal' specifications to check the admited voltage range. To run a pedal with a higher voltage than allowed can destroy your pedal.
I love to death Weehbo Effekte's approach. Every Weehbo pedal has a DYNAMIC switch that changes the internal voltage from 9V to 18V. You will need to feed the pedal just with 9V and, the pedal will internally double this voltage, if you want it. That smart switch demonstrates the importance of voltage for dynamics and, in my experiences, converts a good pedal (at 9V) into a top notch pedal (at 18V).
I already saw that inner doubling system in other pedals and, I liked it but, to have a switch outside the pedal is the first time I see it and, something for what Weehbo should be congratulated (among THE sound).
Some pedals, because of their design, will not noticiable enhance their sound when stepping up in voltage levels but this, every time that your mains delivers a consistent and stable voltage level.
Vintage effects can even need a worn battery to sound their best. This is typical in vintage germanium fuzzes, that work better with worn low efficiency batteries (forget Duracell and similar). At this point, you should guess why!. The fuzz is an ultra-compressed sound and, therefore, wants low voltage range to compress the most.
So, to run pedals at higher voltage usually makes sense but, not always. Hear your pedal, stock. Do you feel it could sound better if it had just a tad more dynamics?, then increase the voltage level and, check it.
All that was just related to dynamics but, considering that your mains source delivers a stable voltage level but, in my home, this is far away from real world. I am having voltage variations between 185V to 240V in the lapse of a couple of seconds, some days. Other days, the average level can be at any level . This seriously impacts all my rig, from amp to pedals.
The easier way to avoid this issue would be to run all my pedals with batteries, instead of feeding them with a power adaptor. But, you know the drawbacks of this. Batteries worn really fast in some pedals and, can leave you without a certain effect during your performance. If you forget to remove each input patch cable in each pedal, your batteries will dead while you sleep and, you will have no pedal board next morning.
Since power adaptors are my way to go, there are some things I could do. First, to claim the company and ask them to deliver me a good electrical line (something that I've already did with more or less same outcoming). Second, to buy a Power Regulator, to ensure a consistent and filtered electrical power (something I cannot do because of its price).
Probably, the company can fix issues at my home (after several claimings, I hope so!) but, this will not solve the issues when I have to gig outside. I had exactly same issues when giging. So, probably, best solution is to buy a Power Regulator and bring it with me in any circumstance.
But, while this is economicaly possible, what I've recently noticed, while testing a couple of Weehbo units, is that pedals with a higher voltage suffer the less that voltage dropping.
I loved Mad Professor and Wampler pedals, while they were sounding good (when my voltage was correct) but, without knowing the root cause, I moved from Mad Professor to Wampler because I've noticed that the sound was very inconsistent in Mad Professor pedals, to finally discover that I had same issues with Wampler pedals!!!.
As Weehbo pedals are doubling the input voltage, I guess that there is always more than the original 9V available for that pedal. Imagine that the voltage that the Power adaptor delivers at the end falls to half (4.5V). This will be very poor for an unit that was designed to work at 9V and, that's why Mad Professor and Wamplers were failing delivering the right sound in my case. But, since Weehbo is doubling the voltage internally, 4.5V x 2 = 9V, I will get the minimum voltage to get an usable sound from that pedal (that sounds good at 9V and incredible good at 18V).
I didn't thought on this when buying those Weehbo pedals. I was just so interested in how they sounded but, this smart design helped me to have a consistent sound even when my electrical line was delivering a weak voltage.
When I was trying the Carl Martin Octaswitch MKII unit, I tried it with the wrong power adaptor. Since they current needs of the Octaswitch where so high, there was no way to feed it with the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 and, therefore, an additional adaptor was a must. My first try was to re-use some of the adaptors I had around (with less current levels) and, the result was an awful wistling and permanent feedback, when switching on the unit.
With weak current and voltage levels, I've noticed that even top notch pedals can start generating strange or unexpected noises, high pitched sounds, etc.
Amps
The design of an amp determines its dynamics and, there is really few you can do to increase it without hard moding it. A vintage-voiced amp has usually way more dynamics than a high-gain-voiced amp (designed to cover highly compressed sounds). There are amps with several channels and, each channel very differently voiced and, with very different dynamics.
What I've noticed is that the more dynamics the amp has, the most affected by voltage variations is. I instantanely recognize that my mains is weak when that amp starts to sound thin, weak and liveless. I take a look to my Power Conditioner's voltimeter and, I visually confirm that I am having voltage issues.
When this happens, all my rig is being compromissed and the resulting sound is just annoying. We already discussed about the convenience of a Power Regulator to fix this issue.
When the electrical line delivers an stable and regular power, I've noticed that tubes can change a tad dynamics of the amp (always within the boundaries stablished by its own design). Even same tube maker / model, with different characteristics (output, transconductancy, etc) can make a difference.
Usually, tubes with a higher voltage output are increasing dynamics, also. As happens with pickups, to optimize certain tube characterist affects the rest of them so, maybe getting more voltage means to have less transconductancy (inmediatness) or less output (strength) or any other parameter (EQ, break-up spot, ...). As we do with pickups, we choose tubes based on how well perform for a certain position of a certain amp and, therefore, we are somewhat limited by amp's design and tube's design, respect of our dynamics. A very dynamic tube that produces an sterile sound interest us nothing, at the end.
What I've noticed is that the impact of voltage drop in amps is less dramatical than in my pedals. If pedals work fine, the amp can stand more range of voltage drop than pedals can. So, even that there is a clear change in sound quality, by using those Weehbo pedals, the sound remains usable most of the time. Just extreme voltage drops seriously affect the resulting sound and, make me to hung the guitar and switch off everything.
GAS or need?
Indeed, we want everything we see and buy just what we can, even if we shouldn't do that!. This is GAS and, it's difficult to deal with it.
I recognize that apart of one amp and one guitar and one pedal of each type, everything else I've got is GAS but, in the particular case of pedals, my move from one to the next one was motivated because I wasn't achieving a good tone with such a pedal.
Did you ever noticed that that pedal that was sounding incredible good and that you loved to death is lately sounding annoying?. If so, maybe you have a voltage issue. Check it.
If I probably knew the real impact of this kind of issues, I would save a BIG amount of money if I'd purchased just a Power Regulator first and, then those pedals I liked more.
First pedals that were sounding incredible nice for me where Mad Professor's ones. But, since (before understanding what was going on with my mains) I was finding myself re-tweaking each pedal several times in same session or, every new session. I was fed up and, decided to move to other maker and, Wampler was my next election. But, once more, I am having same issues. I KNOW those pedals sound awesome, because I'VE ALREADY HEARD them but, I cannot get a consistent tone and, I am tweaking those pedals constantly, what drives me crazy.
The issues seems to be less dramatic with Weehbo pedals, by now but, for sure, I need more time to be convinced on that. Clearly, I need a Power Regulator but, that's a lot of money so... time to Time. I hope my own (bad) experiences can be of help to you and, I hope that you can save more money than I did, also.
Maybe, you never had voltage issues. In fact, I never had those before I've moved to a new house but, I've noticed those issues when giging, also.
Or, maybe, you are currently having voltage issues and you don't know it!.
We already discussed about the importance of to have a good ground in our mains (see past entry: how to troubleshoot noise in our rig and, entry: Accessories: Socket Tester) and, about the function of some filtering and surge protection devices (Power Conditioner), as well as the role that a good Power Regulator (see past entry: Accessories: Phonic PPC9000E Power Conditioner).
Voltage issues affect to each single device that is actually connected to the mains and, it has more or less impact depending on how many devices are depending on such an energy source.
This entry is just a reflexion about the importance of voltage in our rig, after experiencing myself several related issues and, after observing how it affects to every gear.
Voltage = Dynamics
I don't know if this is a written rule but, what I've observed is that Voltage means Dynamics in Audio.
If you don't know what dynamics means, please read this past entry: Home Studio: Mixing - Part 4.
The more the voltage a certain gear has, the more the dynamic range and, therefore, the more natural, organic and open it sounds. The less voltage, the less dynamic range and, therefore, the more compressed it sounds. And, this seems to be true for every single thing in our gear.
Pickups
While most of people seems to focus on DC Resistance when choosing its pickups, I am more interested in other specifications.
Maybe DC Resistance talks about the overall EQ of the pickup but, resonance frequency and resonance peak will better talk about where this guitar will be placed in the mix and, how piercing will it be.
In fact, resonance defines somewhat the place in the frequential range called Presence where this guitar will be recognized. If it's its natural place in the mix everything will be fine, otherwise, that track would need extra EQ work to make it to cut the mix. You can eventually have issues trying to differentiate your guitar when playing with your band, also.
Then, one more parameter that interests me a lot is the output voltage of a pickup. This output voltage tells a lot, not only about the strengh of the signal but about how dynamic can be the sound. The higher the voltage, the more gap you can represent between soft and high volume notes and, therefore, the sound will be more natural, open and organic. The less voltage, the more compressed the sound will be.
Pickup voltage isn't depending on your mains source, because the pickup generates it. So, this is the the more special case we are going to discuss here. Rest of gear depends on your mains.
Since voltage in a pickup depends on the magnetic field variation, all components in a pickup have something to say (magnets, screws, rods, coil, wire, etc) and, trying to optimize some pickup characteristic have an impact in other characteristics.
You can get more voltage with a powerfuler magnet but, this can also impact in the resonance peak and make the pickup brighter or even piercing. You can change to a thicker wire to wind the coil or, to wind more turns there but, this will change the overall EQ, by example.
We are choosing pickups for how they sound and, every pickup design is a compromise between the several specification characteristics so, we get at the end a given (maximum output) voltage for each pickup and, we usually don't change it.
Pedals
If I didn't had the incredible variation in voltage levels in my actual mains, I would probably never noticed how important voltage is for pedals that are being feeded with some AC adapter.
Most pedals are designed to work, at least, with a battery (typically 9V) but, there are some exceptions, like most of Lovetone pedals, that are so small that doesn't have room for a battery and, some other pedals, as EH's Electric Lady or Morley Wahs, have their own AC adaptor and run at higher voltage levels (12V, 18V or even, 24V).
Probably, first time I've experienced the matter of voltage was with the Fulltone OCD V2 overdrive. While I was browsing its characteristics, I've read that it was possible to enhance the sound running it at 18v, instead of 9V and, since I had a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 adaptor that allowed me to use two different 9V outputs to feed a pedal with 18V, I did the test and, I was greatefully surprised with the results.
Since that day, I tried to feed all my critical pedals with 18V. Boosters, overdrives, delays. Anything not needing a compressed sound (as distortions or fuzzes, by example) can benefite of a higher voltage level.
The drawback is that the number of outputs is limited and, that if each pedal needs two outputs, you cannot really have a large chain of pedals.
The Xotic EP Booster is another example of how much open and dynamic the sound can be with 18V.
If you wanted to try this, please be sure to read your pedal' specifications to check the admited voltage range. To run a pedal with a higher voltage than allowed can destroy your pedal.
I love to death Weehbo Effekte's approach. Every Weehbo pedal has a DYNAMIC switch that changes the internal voltage from 9V to 18V. You will need to feed the pedal just with 9V and, the pedal will internally double this voltage, if you want it. That smart switch demonstrates the importance of voltage for dynamics and, in my experiences, converts a good pedal (at 9V) into a top notch pedal (at 18V).
I already saw that inner doubling system in other pedals and, I liked it but, to have a switch outside the pedal is the first time I see it and, something for what Weehbo should be congratulated (among THE sound).
Some pedals, because of their design, will not noticiable enhance their sound when stepping up in voltage levels but this, every time that your mains delivers a consistent and stable voltage level.
Vintage effects can even need a worn battery to sound their best. This is typical in vintage germanium fuzzes, that work better with worn low efficiency batteries (forget Duracell and similar). At this point, you should guess why!. The fuzz is an ultra-compressed sound and, therefore, wants low voltage range to compress the most.
So, to run pedals at higher voltage usually makes sense but, not always. Hear your pedal, stock. Do you feel it could sound better if it had just a tad more dynamics?, then increase the voltage level and, check it.
All that was just related to dynamics but, considering that your mains source delivers a stable voltage level but, in my home, this is far away from real world. I am having voltage variations between 185V to 240V in the lapse of a couple of seconds, some days. Other days, the average level can be at any level . This seriously impacts all my rig, from amp to pedals.
The easier way to avoid this issue would be to run all my pedals with batteries, instead of feeding them with a power adaptor. But, you know the drawbacks of this. Batteries worn really fast in some pedals and, can leave you without a certain effect during your performance. If you forget to remove each input patch cable in each pedal, your batteries will dead while you sleep and, you will have no pedal board next morning.
Since power adaptors are my way to go, there are some things I could do. First, to claim the company and ask them to deliver me a good electrical line (something that I've already did with more or less same outcoming). Second, to buy a Power Regulator, to ensure a consistent and filtered electrical power (something I cannot do because of its price).
Probably, the company can fix issues at my home (after several claimings, I hope so!) but, this will not solve the issues when I have to gig outside. I had exactly same issues when giging. So, probably, best solution is to buy a Power Regulator and bring it with me in any circumstance.
But, while this is economicaly possible, what I've recently noticed, while testing a couple of Weehbo units, is that pedals with a higher voltage suffer the less that voltage dropping.
I loved Mad Professor and Wampler pedals, while they were sounding good (when my voltage was correct) but, without knowing the root cause, I moved from Mad Professor to Wampler because I've noticed that the sound was very inconsistent in Mad Professor pedals, to finally discover that I had same issues with Wampler pedals!!!.
As Weehbo pedals are doubling the input voltage, I guess that there is always more than the original 9V available for that pedal. Imagine that the voltage that the Power adaptor delivers at the end falls to half (4.5V). This will be very poor for an unit that was designed to work at 9V and, that's why Mad Professor and Wamplers were failing delivering the right sound in my case. But, since Weehbo is doubling the voltage internally, 4.5V x 2 = 9V, I will get the minimum voltage to get an usable sound from that pedal (that sounds good at 9V and incredible good at 18V).
I didn't thought on this when buying those Weehbo pedals. I was just so interested in how they sounded but, this smart design helped me to have a consistent sound even when my electrical line was delivering a weak voltage.
When I was trying the Carl Martin Octaswitch MKII unit, I tried it with the wrong power adaptor. Since they current needs of the Octaswitch where so high, there was no way to feed it with the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 and, therefore, an additional adaptor was a must. My first try was to re-use some of the adaptors I had around (with less current levels) and, the result was an awful wistling and permanent feedback, when switching on the unit.
With weak current and voltage levels, I've noticed that even top notch pedals can start generating strange or unexpected noises, high pitched sounds, etc.
Amps
The design of an amp determines its dynamics and, there is really few you can do to increase it without hard moding it. A vintage-voiced amp has usually way more dynamics than a high-gain-voiced amp (designed to cover highly compressed sounds). There are amps with several channels and, each channel very differently voiced and, with very different dynamics.
What I've noticed is that the more dynamics the amp has, the most affected by voltage variations is. I instantanely recognize that my mains is weak when that amp starts to sound thin, weak and liveless. I take a look to my Power Conditioner's voltimeter and, I visually confirm that I am having voltage issues.
When this happens, all my rig is being compromissed and the resulting sound is just annoying. We already discussed about the convenience of a Power Regulator to fix this issue.
When the electrical line delivers an stable and regular power, I've noticed that tubes can change a tad dynamics of the amp (always within the boundaries stablished by its own design). Even same tube maker / model, with different characteristics (output, transconductancy, etc) can make a difference.
Usually, tubes with a higher voltage output are increasing dynamics, also. As happens with pickups, to optimize certain tube characterist affects the rest of them so, maybe getting more voltage means to have less transconductancy (inmediatness) or less output (strength) or any other parameter (EQ, break-up spot, ...). As we do with pickups, we choose tubes based on how well perform for a certain position of a certain amp and, therefore, we are somewhat limited by amp's design and tube's design, respect of our dynamics. A very dynamic tube that produces an sterile sound interest us nothing, at the end.
What I've noticed is that the impact of voltage drop in amps is less dramatical than in my pedals. If pedals work fine, the amp can stand more range of voltage drop than pedals can. So, even that there is a clear change in sound quality, by using those Weehbo pedals, the sound remains usable most of the time. Just extreme voltage drops seriously affect the resulting sound and, make me to hung the guitar and switch off everything.
GAS or need?
Indeed, we want everything we see and buy just what we can, even if we shouldn't do that!. This is GAS and, it's difficult to deal with it.
I recognize that apart of one amp and one guitar and one pedal of each type, everything else I've got is GAS but, in the particular case of pedals, my move from one to the next one was motivated because I wasn't achieving a good tone with such a pedal.
Did you ever noticed that that pedal that was sounding incredible good and that you loved to death is lately sounding annoying?. If so, maybe you have a voltage issue. Check it.
If I probably knew the real impact of this kind of issues, I would save a BIG amount of money if I'd purchased just a Power Regulator first and, then those pedals I liked more.
First pedals that were sounding incredible nice for me where Mad Professor's ones. But, since (before understanding what was going on with my mains) I was finding myself re-tweaking each pedal several times in same session or, every new session. I was fed up and, decided to move to other maker and, Wampler was my next election. But, once more, I am having same issues. I KNOW those pedals sound awesome, because I'VE ALREADY HEARD them but, I cannot get a consistent tone and, I am tweaking those pedals constantly, what drives me crazy.
The issues seems to be less dramatic with Weehbo pedals, by now but, for sure, I need more time to be convinced on that. Clearly, I need a Power Regulator but, that's a lot of money so... time to Time. I hope my own (bad) experiences can be of help to you and, I hope that you can save more money than I did, also.
30 May 2013
Amps: Koch Studiotone combo revalved, finally!
Introduction
Note: this entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around Juny 2011. I am just revisiting it here.
Of all the amps I've retubed this, without any doubt, is the one that more headaches gave me. Around 60 tube swap testings, throwing there anything I had in stock and even, purchasing new tube types to check any possible combination and, I was stuck for around 3 weeks.
After trying everything, some light shone in my head: am I doing it well?.
I went to user's manual and, I thought it would be a good idea to get a couple of the setting samples in that manual and test the tubes with those amp settings that I would probably use the most: Blues (Hard Rock) and Metal.
So, while reviewing the settings, I've realized that the Mids Shift switch worked in inverse mode as I thought. Position (+) is where we have natural mids, while in position (.) we have recessed mids.
Oh my God!, I was trying to get a decent Hard Rock sound with recessed mids!.
Well, after fighting with tubes and, after a bunch of tube swapping I've learnt some lessons that I would like to record in this entry (for my own use, mainly).
Lesson 1: carefully read the User's Manual before starting.
If you have a hi gain amp or any other kind of amp with a complex front end, search the settings that better suit your habitual style. Theoretically, you should be able to select the right tubes with those setting suggested by the maker.
One more thing that took my attention is that no sample setting in the manual had a Volume greater than position at 10:00h, while I was trying with volumes far away the 2:00h.
(see lesson 1)
It seems that, until 9h, the power section remains clean, without distortion but, beginning in 10h, the power section starts to break up and, every little touch in Volume overloads the PI tube and, power tubes exponentially so, in fact, only with very low gain settings you can roll on high volumes.
Alright!. After discovering that I was wasting my time, due to the fucking Mid Shift switch, I've decided to start from scratch, with following criteria:
Lesson2: In amps with simple design, changes in pre-amp are way drastic than in complex front-end amps.
In simple-design amps, it's very difficult to get a wrong sound when working with the EQ but, in complex front-end amps, it's way easier to get wrong sounds if you don't carefully tweak ALL controls at same time.
In simple amps, it's very easy to identify a tube that will bring you exactly the character you wanted for that amp but, complex amps seem to like better neutral and even tubes, so they can cover any of the possible voices. The amp will not shine in any particular mode in that way but, it could cover any ground with an usable voice, instead.
After trying it with the suggested settings, it was clear to me that my issues with excessive feedback and squealing where directly related to power stage, not with pre-amp stage.
Looking to the blocks schema of this amp, the Volume control was placed after the two pre-amp tubes (V1, V2) and, before the Phase Inverter (V3).
So, the Gain control is regulating the saturation control of EVERY pre-amp tube, while the Volume control regulates the saturation level of the PI and, consequently of the power tubes.
That means that, if we already have the pre-amp with a high gain level, the original signal was highly amplified and distorted so, we would need to deliver smaller levels to the power tubes, where it will be exponentially amplified.
Every time that the Volume knob is below 10:00h, all squealing and excessive feedback issues go away.
Once we reached some Gain level, any increase of the Volume knob doesn't give us a great difference in loudness level but, maybe a higher degree of distortion of the PI and power tubes, increasing the feedback and squealing.
Lesson 3: draw a scheme with the gain cascade of your amp and, understand how pre-amp and power stages interactue between themselves.
Pre-amp tubes
V1
On amp's schema, first tube was labeled as 12AX7LM.
According to Koch Techs, they are currently mounting a JJ ECC83S in factory, not because of its sounding quality but, more because it can get rid of most of microphonics issues (and, I bet that it's also because it's cheap). Additionally to this, it's high output ratio helps to feed the rest of this complex front end.
It's gain level isn't so high as in other tubes and, therefore it can help to lower a bit the overall loudness of this amp.
There are some other alternative tubes that are specially good to solve microphonics issues in V1.
By definition, any 7025 is specially good for microphonics issues (even that sonically cannot be the best option).
A NOS 5751 can work also there but, it has a gain factor of 70 (instead of the nominal 100 of 12AX7 specification), that gives some headroom for cleans.
But, also in current production 12AX7 tubes, there are a few that work very well related to microphonics:
V2
Koch people says that they are currently loading there a Ruby 7025S or 12AX7A-C. That are Chinese tubes of high quality and sonically better than JJ ECC83S tubes.
For this position, everything is possible, once we got rid of noise and microphonics with the tube in V1.
My own experience with this particular amp says me that tubes with very even response, without any bump in any range of frequencies and, a good definition and harmonically rich content will work better here.
V3 (PI)
For this position, my natural election is always a Sovtek 12AX7-LPS with balanced triodes. But, another tube that can work equally well is a JJ ECC803S. Even a Chinese 12AX7A-C or a NOS 5751 can do a good job here.
Tests: Phase 1 - same tube in V1 and V2
Since both tubes work for every channel in his amp, best way to understand how each type of tube affect the voice and character of this amp is to mount same tube type in both positions. In that way, we can analyze how each particular tube works in every circumstance (low gain, high gain, break-up, clean, etc).
Therefore, in this first phase, I've tried to check how each tube type worked with the two styles I've choose: Blues/Hard Rock and Metal.
Results should help me to decide if a certain tube will work better in V1 or V2 and, if they would work better for Rock or Metal.
I've reduced the type of tubes for this test, because I've already rejected some other tubes in other tests, because of their sonic quality. These below were rejected:
For each style, I've tried the three channels. Clean corresponds to Clean channel. Crunch corresponds to OD channel and, Gain corresponds to OD+ channel.
Settings for each style/mode corresponds to the sample settings that you will find in your user's manual.
TAD 12AX7A-C (Shughuang, China)
ROCK
Clean
Nice body. Warm, defined. No noise, feedback or squealing.
Crunch
Sharp and thin Mids. A bit compressed but defined.
Gain
Compressed but crunchy at same time. Not bad. More for Metal than for Rock but, overall, well sounding and standing the definition. Feedback in sound tails but, controllable muting strings.
High white noise level.
METAL
Clean
Trebly, thin and hollow. No noise.
Crunch
Thin, sharp and crunch. With snappy trebles.
Gain
Nice for chugs. Thin, crunchy and dark sound, with sharp high end and a tad undefined low end.
TAD 7025 Highgrade
ROCK
Clean
More defined than previous one. Sound is more trebly, even piercing. Higher gain. Thin, without body low end.
Crunch
Crunchy, defined but piercing. Some lack of sustain and some principles of feedback.
Gain
Best mode of three. Nice crunch, maintains definition note-to-note. A tad bright but, cuts the mix with attitude. Feedback in tails of sounds, controllable muting strings.
METAL
Clean
Clean, defined, sterile and bright. More gain and definition than the previous tube.
Crunch
Cuts the mix less than previous one. Crunchy, defined but a tad hollow. No feedback.
Gain
Better than the previous tube. Low end is clearer and defined. Nice chugs and very Metal sound. Better pinch harmonics. Lower feedback at the very tail of the sound, controllable muting strings.
Sovtek 12AX7-WC
ROCK
Clean
No noise. Well balanced, nice body and definition, slightly warm.
Crunch
Breaks up before the previous ones. Nice sustain. Light feedback. Crunchy and slightly compressed. Tends to Mid-Trebles.
Gain
Feedback in tails but controllable muting strings. Excellent sound, well defined and very Rock.
METAL
Clean
No noise. Well defined and better than previous tubes. Less hollow. Cold but, not bad.
Crunch
Defined. Hollow Mids, slightly thin sound. No feedback.
Gain
Very defined. Better than previous tubes. Less chugs. Nice distortion but, more crunchy than creamy. Better for Rock than Metal.
Svetlana 12AX7
ROCK
Clean
No noise. Perfectly balanced and crystalline. Very kind to the ear but, with a slight bump in Mid-Trebles.
Crunch
Crystalline, well defined. Nice Mid-trebles that help to cut the mix. Nice sound, good for Rock, without extreme EQ, very even.
Gain
Excellent Hard Rock sound. Powerful basses, crystalline definition, crunchy and very kind to ear.
Starts feedback before previous ones but, it can be easily controlled by muting strings.
METAL
Clean
No noise. Perfectly balanced. Richer sounding than previous ones. Tasty Mid-trebles. High end well represented without going piercing. Clean, crystalline, angelical. Very sweet sound.
Crunch
Mids are a tad hollow but, better definition than in previous ones. Nice legato in riffs.
Gain
What a Metal tube!. Excellent definition. Excellent chugs. Always defined. Excellent transconductancy, allows speedy riffs, with outstanding definition note-to-note. Excellent sustain and light feedback at the very tail of sound.
JJ ECC83S
ROCK
Clean
Louder than Svetlana. EQ more exaggerated than in Svetlana, bigger body but less definition. Nice sound, overall.
Crunch
Tends to more pronounced trebles than Svetlana and, sound more compressed.
Gain
Big volume step when changing channel. Powerfuller than the Svetlana but less defined and a tad more aggressive to the ear.
METAL
Clean
Not so defined as the Svetlana but, nice body and warmer. It should have lot of Mids, that doesn't seem to disappear when you switch down Mid Shift and, with Mids knob at -5.
Crunch
Tends to Mid-Highs. Slightly thin but less than rest of previous tubes.
Gain
Volume increase when changing channel not so high as in Rock mode. Way less definition note-to-note than the Svetlana. Powerful sound, dark and a bit confused with excessive Mid-Lows. Excellent chugs but, not defined enough for shredding works but, it has a nice legato anyway. Lacks a bit of sustain and the feedback comes very late but very strong, even that is controllable.
Electro-Harmonix 12AX7
ROCK
Clean
So defined and balanced as the Svetlana but WAY MORE gain than previous ones. Excellent definition and dimensionality. Tends to Mid-Highs.
Crunch
No noise. Excellent crunch, very powerful, defined and very Marshalish. Mid-Highs very notable.
Gain
Brutal!. Hard Rock in pure state. LOT of gain. Excellent, in the right spot. A great tube for Hard Rock. Nice sustain but strong feedback in tails.
METAL
Clean
As grateful as the Svetlana but with all the strength (and more) than the JJ. No noise.
Crunch
Hollow mids, as all tubes. Better gain and strong Mid-Highs.
Gain
Perfect Metal tube!. Excellent chugs, dark but defined low end, bright high end but not piercing, nice body, excellent sustain, good transconductancy that allows speedy riffs. Creamy and crunchy at same time. Feedback late in tails, controllable.
Tung Sol 12AX7 RI
ROCK
Clean
Clear sound but a tad exaggerated in EQ. Not so pure or balanced as the Svetlana or EH. It has the gain of the EH, with powerful basses and sharp Mid-Highs.
Crunch
Tends to Mid-Highs. Nice crunch, very sharp and, maybe a tad piercing.
Gain
Powerful, very Rock. Nice sustain. Feedback late in tails, controllable. No excessive noise. Good definition note-to-note, a tad veiled respect of Svetlana or EH, closer to JJ.
METAL
Clean
A tad sharp but, nice body and sound, overall.
Crunch
Its powerful basses help this tube to sound less hollow than rest of tubes.
Gain
Basses help to generate powerful chugs but, still with a good note-to-note definition. Mids sound a tad confusing. More for Rock than Metal.
Mullard 12AX7 RI
ROCK
Clean
Beautiful sound, full of harmonics, with sharp Mid-Highs but not piercing. Good gain level, less than EH and closer to JJ but, more than Svetlana.
Crunch
Excellent. Cutting Mids. Distortion with tasteful crunch and very defined. Very British sounding. Spatially, the sound is wider and bigger and, "smells to full stack".
Gain
Awesome, Incredible!. Rock Stadium sound. Sharp Mid-Highs, slightly piercing but, very musical.
Perfect definition, 3D sounding and nice harmonics. Nice sustain , with light feedback late in tails.
METAL
Clean
Beautiful sound, angelical. Pure, with a nice body. A bit thinner than in Rock style but, one of the best of Metal style.
Crunch
Nice crunch and excellent definition. A tad sharp and bright for Metal but, good enough.
Gain
Excellent!, I have no adjectives. Incredible pinch harmonics. Practically no feedback.
TAD 7025-S Highgrade
ROCK
Clean
Very low noise level. Excellent sound. Warmer and more body than the Mullard. Less spatially open but, equally harmonically rich.
Crunch
Nice crunch, not so sharp as the Mullard. Less legato.
Gain
Nice sound. More exaggerated in lows and highs than Mullard, closer to the Tung Sol. Less sustain than in the Mullard.
METAL
Clean
Warm sound, like Tung Sol, more or less. Not so pure as the Svetlana, EH or Mullard.
Crunch
Hollow, less convincing than the Mullard or Tung Sol.
Gain
Very good. Darker than Mullard. Nice definition. Low end a bit veiled. More for Metal than Rock. Easy Pinch Harmonics but, without the bite of the Mullard, softer. Acceptable sustain but lower than in the Mullard. Feedback in tails.
Tests: Phase 2 - the 3 finalists
Of all those tested tubes, the one that more likes me is the Mullard reissue (as usual). It seems able to work in any style, any mode, with a delicious harmonics content and a big spatial openness. The drawback is that it has a gain level a tad higher than what I actually need.
The EH once more showed its incredible versatility and, even that is poorer in harmonics and, more mono dimensional than the Mullard, its sound perfectly suits every style and mode in this amp.
Drawback is that its gainer than the Mullard.
The Svetlana was a nice surprise. Has the lower gain of those three but, it has a very balanced sound, smooth and kind to the ear and, seemed as versatile as the other two. Pushed hard works better for Metal than the EH or the Mullard.
Sonically, those are the three that I would choose for this amp but, to have better information, I need to check those with more volume/gain ranges, to see which one works better at low volume (with full body, definition and rich) and, which one works better at high volume (less feedback, more definition, sustain).
Svetlana 12AX7
ROCK
Clean
Very decent from 7:00h but, it starts to sound really good around 9:00h. The sound is beautiful, silky.
Starts to break up around 10:00h, with a sound a la "Little Wing".
Between 10:00 and 11:00h sounds very bluesy.
Beyond 1:00h, better to use the OD channel but, it stands very linear even with volume at max.
While increasing the volume, the sound sharpers every time more, loosing its silky character.
Crunch
Not so good at low volume, starting to sound decently around 9:00h.
Good sound around 10:00h.
At 11:00h, feedback in tails and Mid-Highs sharpen a lot.
At 1:00h Mid-Highs are more tamed and the sound is really nice but, feedback starts early an strongly, even that you can still control it by muting strings.
At 3:00h the sound is really good but, feedback starts really soon, is strong and difficult to control.
Overall, very linear but, tends to go sharper in Mid-Highs with more volume.
Better results with more gain and less volume, overall.
Snappy basses at high volume seem to mean that the power stage is overflowed or that the speaker isn't able to handle that energy.
Gain
Starts to sound decently at 9:00h.
Around 10:00 sounds very nice. Low end a bit thin and crunchy. Impressive pinch harmonics. Nice sustain. Feedback in tails, not so soon not late, controllable. High noise level.
Around 11:00h, the sound is powerful but the power tubes start to be saturated enough and the distortion doesn't sound as grateful.
It maintains a good definition always.
Starting at 1:00, early and strong feedback, without control.
Beyond 2:00h unusable, excessive squealing.
Overall, it seems that this tube, by itself, supports well gain and volume but, everything goes wrong in the power stage, when pushed really hard.
METAL
Clean
Starts to sound decently around 7:00h, colder and sharper than in Rock.
At 9:00h, it sounds better, warmer and with more body.
At 10:00, slight break up, with a wonderful sound, angelical.
Starting at 11:00h, the sound goes sharper and, basses sound a tad hollow and the sound seems doubled.
Crunch
Sounds decently starting at 7:00h.
Good around 9:00h.
Impressive around 10:00h. Clearly, at this position is where you get the best of this tube.
Basses start to go hollow beginning at 11:00 but, without feedback.
Very Metal at 10:00h!!!.
Gain
Very decent really early.
At 9:00h sounds really good, late feedback in tails, controllable.
Beyond 11:00, feedback starts as soon as you leave some open string.
At high volumes, it seems as if the amp or speaker were going to explode. Excessive gain.
GENERAL
It seems that the sweet spot for this tube is between 9:00 and 10:00h of the volume knob of this amp. It's where you will get the best of this tube. Beyond 11:00h, to much gain enters in the power stage and, the distortion goes uglier.
Fortunately for that range you have a nice volume level, not low not high, easy to work.
At 9:00h the loudness is very acceptable.
At 10:00h it starts to be high but, without hurting your ears.
At 11:00h is excessive and the power stage seem to not being able to handle it.
I love the silky character of the cleans of this tube, very angelical but with the right amount of warmth and body. The crunch in Metal is really awesome.
EH 12AX7
ROCK
Clean
Acceptable at 7:00 and good at 9:00.
The right spot is around 10:00h.
Not so silky as the Svetlana, sharper but nicely sounding.
Breaks up at 11:00, later than the Svetlana and, on this spot the harmonics content is highly increased.
At 2:00h has more or less same break up level than at 11:00h but, way more volume. So, it stands defined very well.
Crunch
Decent beyond 7:00h.
A bit hollow and sharp around 9:00h.
At 10:00 sounds better but, still not in its sweet spot.
At 11:00h seems the sweet spot but, sounds brighter and sharper than the Svetlana and, maybe too much gain for the power stage.
Gain
Acceptable at 7:00, but very sharp.
At 9:00h sounds better. Light feedback with open strings.
At 10:00h strong, nice legato and sustain. Easy feedback. Overall, sharp and bright, compared to Svetlana.
The sweet spot of this tube seems to be at 11:00h, the sound of this tube at this spot is incredible good for Rock but, it seem to feed the power stage too much.
METAL
Clean
Decent at 7:00h but, a tad thin and sharp.
At 9:00h, it starts to sound good but, with less quality than the Svetlana. Its sharp highs give it some coldness, compared to the Svetlana.
At 10:00h the harmonics start to shine but, still very sharp.
At 11:00h is the sweet spot for this tube.
Crunch
At 7:00h very convincing but, a bit hollow.
At 9:00h still sharp but, with good legato and nice pinch harmonics.
At 10:00h more power, still sharp. No feedback issues.
At 11:00h the right spot, nice sound, very metal, clean and defined but, a tad bright.
Gain
At 7:00h workable sound.
At 9:00h sounds very good, no feedback issues.
At 10:00h too much gain and, the power stage has a bad distortion. Excessive squealing.
GENERAL
The good range for this tube seems to be between the 10:00h and 11:00h but, closer to 11:00h. At this time, the signal level is so high that the power stage starts to distort in a bad way and there is an excessive squealing.
For this particular amp, this tube doesn't seems the best election but, this is probably because the power tubes it currently has that, when they break up, I don't like their distortion character.
Mullard 12AX7 RI
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00h, workable sound. No noise.
At 9:00h starts to sound really good, with the warmth and richness of the Svetlana but more bright and bite.
At 10:00h, light break up, delicious, slightly bluesy.
At 11:00h, completely breaks up, delicious crunch. Clear and defined. The power stage starts to be overloaded.
Increasing more the volume, the break up level remains the same but, the content increases in harmonics and goes louder but, without loosing definition, never. Excellent, without the excessive highs of the EH.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but, not on its best.
At 9:00 better, but still not on its best.
At 10:00 delivers an impressive crunch, very British.
At 11:00h seems on its sweet spot. Incredible crunch that surrounds you. VERY LOUD.
Increasing the volume, squealing and the sensation that the power stage or the speaker cannot handle so much gain but, the tube itself continues delivering a sound that goes every time better!. Very strange!.
Gain
At 7:00h, useful sound but a tad dark.
At 9:00h totally useful, with infinite sustain. The sound is way open than at 7:00 and feedback late in tails.
At 10:00h, pure Rock Stadium sound. Feedback enters with open strings.
At 11:00h, you should hear it to believe it. IN-CRE-DI-BLE. Strong feedback with open strings. Awesome pinch harmonics.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00h, crystalline clear. Less warmth than Svetlana (that sounds really sweet in this mode) and, less sharp and bright than the EH. Not on its best.
At 9:00, the openness is better than in Svetlana but, it sound sharper.
At 10:00h, close to its sweet spot but, basses are still a bit sharp.
At 11:00h sweet spot. Slight break up than reveals the nice harmonics of this tube.
Overall, the Svetlana sounds silkier and more balanced but, the Mullard seems to better cut the mix and, the unwanted highs can be rolled off with the amp controls.
Beyond 1:00h the power amp or speaker seems unable to handle so much gain.
Crunch
At 7:00h usable sound but, still not on its best.
At 9:00h usable sound, good sustain, nice pinch harmonics and good chugs at a reasonable loudness.
At 10:00h AWESOME. Fantastic chugs, pinch harmonics, superlative definition. Powerful... it has it everything!.
At 11:00h you SHOULD experience it. The sound is incredible but, feedback starts really early and, we are still limited by the power stage or speaker.
Gain
At 7:00h totally usable at low volume.
At 9:00 usable, infinite sustain and slight feedback on tails.
At 10:00h excellent sound but, power stage and/or speaker are in trouble to handle so much gain.
Beyond 11:00h, impossible to play. Excessive squealing, even with muted strings.
GENERAL
The Mullard is a very linear tube and delivers good results in every mode. This tube shines specially when you can push it beyond its break up spot, where it can bring you delicious harmonics. The sound character is between the Svetlana, more silky and, the EH, sharper and brighter. But no other tube sounds as 3D as this one (only the NOS Philips 5751 seems to sound slightly more spatially open).
When this tube on its sweet spot is able to push the power tube to its respective sweet spot, the sum of harmonics deliver a sound that is simply spectacular. I have no adjectives, you should experience it to understand it.
Weighting the 3 finalists tubes
These three tubes will work really good in this amp. All them are able to maintain a high note-to-note definition, during most of the gain and volume range.
From those three, the more balanced, sweet and silky sound comes from the Svetlana (nice discovering!). It also seems to break up a bit earlier, so you can extract its harmonic juice at lower volumes.
Harmonically rich and very even EQ'd, with smooth trebles / Mid-Highs and, very crystalline.
When it breaks up, isn't so crunchy as the Mullard or EH but, its distortion grain makes it specially good for Metal, where its greater compression and creamy distortion seems to better suit this amp.
Also, in style metal and clean mode, its warm Mids help to avoid this tube to sound sharp or hollow when recessing Mids.
The EH is probably the tube that more electrons injects in the power stage, giving an earlier break up to power tubes and, producing feedback and squealing at lower volume settings, what makes it difficult to get the best from this tube.
From all three, this one is the brighter and sharper one. It's Mid-Highs give it of an excellent crunch but, it can sound a bit piercing, when you start to rise the volume.
In Metal / clean, sounds a tad bright and sharp but, maybe will be what you need for a darker amp and drop tunings, where it could help to balance excessive low end.
It's a great tube for other power tubes that can handle its high output and gain.
The Mullard RI is, plainly, awesome. It hasn't the silkiness of the Svetlana and, its Mid-Highs are more notable than in the Svetlana but, less than in the EH.
Harmonically very rich and, it goes better the more you push it.
Very linear sounding and consistent among the whole range of gain / volume but, specially good between 10:00 and 11:00h, when we start breaking up the power amp, summing together power and pre-amp harmonics, where the is "from out of this world".
Main drawback is similar to the one with EH, at this gain / volume levels, the power stage or speaker seem not able to handle the excessive power.
Probably, more useful for Rock than Metal but, don't go wrong, it has fantastic pinch harmonics, chugs and palm mutings, also.
Before deciding which power tubes I will use for this amp, my current bet is the Mullard RI for V1 and V2, because my own style is closer to Hard Rock than to Metal but... that silky cleans of the Svetlana made me fall in love of that tube. Maybe, I will try mixing both. Let see.
Price difference is important here. The Svetlana goes around 19.4 Eur, while the Mullard is 25 Eur. So, the Svetlana seems a good candidate to stock but, Mullard production seems to be more consistent.
If you find the Mullard RI a tad sharp, try that Svetlana!.
Tests: Phase 3 - choosing power tubes
During my pre-amp tests, it was clear to me that the issues I was having with excessive feedback and squealing where less related to pre-amp tubes and more related to power tubes.
This amp is currently using a pair of matched JJ EL84, with Perfect Pair #6 (according to TAD matching system).
Originally, this amp came stock with Sovtek EL84M, a very sturdy tube but very sterile sounding.
Koch people confirmed me that they still think that those EL84M are the best power tubes for this particular amp but, since they are hard to find, they are currently mounting JJ EL84 tubes.
I've ordered three pair of tubes to check which one will better suit my needs.
TAD people says that those EL84M never go beyond a Perfect Pair #4, what means a plate current significatively lower. So, probably, I am using tubes with more power than needed for this amp.
My current needs are: to lower a tad the overall loudness, being able to better push tubes at low volumes, while preserving a rich harmonic content and, low noise, microphonics, feedback and squealing.
A curious note here, in none of the settings that you will find in user's manual the volume knob will be set up beyond 10:00h, what in my own experience corresponds to the boundary of the amount of power that power tubes and / or speaker are able to handle in this amp.
With all that info and goals, let see how the different power tubes work in this amp.
For these tests, I will leave the Mullard RI in V1 and V2 and, the Sovtek 12AX7-LPS in V3.
EL84M/E84L (Perfect Pair #4)
ROCK
Clean
Overall, very trebly. I had to roll off trebles a tad to accept the sound. They are very clean and crystalline sounding but, they lack some kind of warmth. The sound is a tad sterile.
At 7:00 usable sound but, lacks some body. I'm missing some kind of "glue" between notes.
At 9:00 usable sound but, still lacking some glue. Very pure and crystalline sound.
At 10:00 starts a light break up and the legato is being enhanced. Low end a bit thin but, overall, good sound.
At 11:00 blues-like break up. Better presence of low end but, starting to sound a tad confusing note-to-note.
At 1:00 very good in every sense. The loudness is really high here.
At 2:00 fantastic and tasteful crunch. Nice body but, now not clear anymore.
Overall, works fine in the whole range and, stands very clean up to around 1:30h. No feedback issues, even at 3:00h (but crunch is excessive then).
Crunch
At 7:00h usable.
At 9:00h usable, nice crunch.
At 10:00h usable but the sound is a tad hollow and thin.
At 11:00h is close to its sweet spot. Very loud right now. Still a bit hollow and, some feedback and squealing starts to appear.
At 1:00 sound much better, more body. Enough feedback and squealing.
Beyond 2:00 squeals as a pig, unusable.
Gain
At 7:00 usable.
At 9:00 usable.
At 10:00h nice Rock sound. Good power chords but, lacking some glue between notes.
At 11:00 Excellent Rock sound, still a tad thin in low end but, cutting really good. Feedback on tails. Power chords sound awesome.
At 1:00h awesome sound but, very loud and with high squealing, even with guitar's volume closed.
General
It seems to perform better between 11:00 and 1:00h but, the loudness level is very high in that range.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 usable but very cold.
At 9:00 a bit better.
At 10:00 slight break up, the sound goes sharper.
At 11:00 better body, more break up but, better sound overall, with richer harmonics content.
At 1:00 more crunchy and warmth. It seems to sound better when you can get its harmonics out.
At 2:00 not very useful, confusing low end. The speaker doesn't seem able to handle those.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but, without body, sharp low end.
At 9:00 very usable, still lacking some strength in low end but, sounds way better but, still a bit sharp.
At 10:00 very Metal, maybe with some lack of body. The distortion grain is very adequate.
At 11:00 full, nice Metal sound.
At 1:00 excessive distortion but, surprisingly no squealing.
Gain
At 7:00 perfectly usable.
At 9:00 very good, just a bit more is needed.
At 10:00 starts to squeal with muted strings and the guitar's volume off. Once you get feedback, you can only remove it switching to clean channel.
To use a Noise Gate for this mode is a must.
General
A tube better for Metal than Rock. It has a late break up and seems a bit cold with low gain, lacking some harmonics and dimension. Very sterile or Hi-Fi.
It works better when pushed hard, when requires high loudness.
The distortion type seems better for Metal than Rock.
It has a lot of high end or Mid-Highs (but not piercing) and some recessed Mid-Lows.
Low end sound a bit thin, sharp and confusing but, high end is always good represented.
Sovtek EL4 (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 usable. Warmer than the EL84M, with better glue between notes.
At 9:00 very good. Well balanced. It doesn't seem to be enhance no frequency range in particular. Slightly warmer and darker than the EL84M. Very quiet.
At 10:00 sounds beautiful, very silky. Slight break up but lower than in EL84M. No noise.
At 11:00 more break up, looses a bit of definition in low end, that goes a bit hollow. No noise. Excellent Mids and Highs.
At 1:00 Bluesy break up. Excellent Mids and Highs. Low end a tad poor but usable.
At 2:00 too much crunch. Looses definition in chords.
Overall, it sounds good along the whole range.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but, a bit fuzzy.
At 9:00, more or less same as at 7:00 but louder.
At 10:00 better but, still lacks some body. A tad sharp and hollow.
At 11:00 close to its sweet spot but still not breaking up enough. Way better body than the EL84M.
At 1:00 the tube seems to get too much from the amp. Some rings and noise.
Overall, it lacks some distortion. Better legato than in EL84M, from the beginning. Good Mids and decent lows and highs.
Gain
At 7:00 very usable. Nice sustain. No feedback.
At 9:00 very usable. Feedback late in tails, controllable.
At 10:00 sounds very nice, good body, good definition, good sustains, late feedback in tails, controllable.
At 11:00 powerful. Less body, nice definition, excellent pinch harmonics. Early feedback but, still controllable.
At 1:00 very powerful sound, maintaining definition. Loud. Nice pinch harmonics. Shows some inner noises because of excess of vibration. Early feedback but, controllable.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 very sharp and hollow.
At 9:00 a bit better, still very sharp.
At 10:00 very good. Warmer than EL84M, with better body. Silky sound, a tad sharp in Mid-Highs.
At 11:00 slight break up, sharpening Mid-Highs.
At 1:00 still nice high end but, too much break up and, chord definition is compromised.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but sharp and hollow.
At 9:00 better but, still lacking some body.
At 10:00 close to its sweet spot. A tad bright and sharp for Metal. Nice chugs.
At 11:00 Perfect!. It's sweet spot.
At 1:00 everything is being exaggerated, excessive gain.
Gain
At 7:00 totally usable, nice sustain.
At 9:00 same as 7:00, louder.
At 10:00 nice Metal sound. Nice chugs, pinch harmonics and eternal sustain. A bit undefined note-to-note.
General
Not being the best tube in nothing, is overall good for everything.
Breaks up later than EL84M, which makes you to rise the volume to get some harmonics from that tube but, even this, it has a better body and is warmer than the EL84M at low volumes so, is more versatile in the whole range.
Electro-Harmonix EL84 (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 usable. Warm, soft and silky.
At 9:00 very usable. Warmer than previous ones. Slight roll off in high end, nice harmonic content and good 3D representation.
At 10:00 Perfect. Balanced, clean, defined, smooth, warm. No noise.
At 11:00 break up spot. Adding harmonics, beautiful sound. No noise.
At 1:00 too much break up. Good sound but not so clear, even that still defined.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable. More body and warmth than previous ones.
At 9:00 totally usable. Well defined, a tad dark, nice crunch.
At 10:00 excellent crunch. A tad dark, what makes me to doubt if it will be able to cut the mix but, the distortion character is awesome and stands very defined.
At 11:00 very loud. Nice crunch. A bit more open than in the previous position but, I still have doubts about if it will cut the mix. Slight feedback, controllable.
At 1:00 same as in previous position but, louder and with an earlier feedback.
Gain
At 7:00 usable. A tad dark and far away but, overall, good.
At 9:00 same as previous, louder.
At 10:00 very nice sound but, a tad far away, as recessed, mono dimensional, veiled, without jumping out of the speaker.
At 11:00 very nice sound also, same considerations as in previous one.
At 1:00 more presence in sound. Excessive volume, early feedback but, still controllable.
General
Overall, this tube sounds very tasteful. Probably the sound closer to what you could expect from an EL84 but, the drawback is that this tube seems to lack some presence, dimension, and life enough to jump out of the speaker. It's a mess to see how the sound seems to come from the backside of the cab instead of from the front of the speaker and, it seems it will have some issues to cut the mix.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 more or less same as the Sovtek but, with a more silky high end.
At 9:00 usable, warmer.
At 10:00 usable, not so pure in tone as the Sovtek but better body than previous ones.
At 11:00 slight break up. Sharper high end and, less defined.
At 1:00 higher break up, with similar characteristics.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable, but sounding far away.
At 9:00 usable, but sounding far away and a tad dark.
At 10:00 nice Metal sound, nice chugs, nice definition, still sounding far away.
At 11:00 seems the sweet spot for this tube, that sounds far away until it reaches this spot.
Gain
At 7:00 perfectly usable, still sounding far away.
At 9:00 very usable, very Metal. Still far away. No controllable feedback.
At 10:00 very Metal, still far away.
At 11:00 better sound overall but, if you get feedback, you can only control it by switching to clean channel.
General
From these three tubes, is the one with the best definition. Smooth highs and Mids and a bit bumped Mid-Lows, what makes it darker.
Its sweet spot is around 11:00 but, it seems to need lot of current to be excited. Probably, better results when using boosters or overdrives.
Sonically very smooth and silky, always sounds far away, as coming from the back side of the cab, what can make it difficult to cut the mix.
It can be very useful to tame excessively bright amps.
Mixed feelings with this tube, because it has a really tasteful sound but, it cannot be projected jumping out of the speakers. If it was able to do that, it would be my preferred tube, all the way.
JJ EL84 (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 very usable. Nice body and warmth. Smooth high end.
At 9:00 very good. Nice harmonics but, tends to Mid-Lows.
At 10:00 slight break up. Nice sound, warm and jumping out of speaker. Very dynamic. Loudness is now high.
At 11:00 bluesy break up. Starting here, the distortion grain of this tube I don't like it, sounds rude to my ears.
At 1:00 more or less the same than previous position but way louder.
At 2:00 more distortion, louder.
It seems a good tube to have a nice headroom. Breaks up late, defined, warm and jumps out of the speaker. Very gainy and very linear, until it breaks up.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable. Way better than previous tubes. Sound a bit dirty, because of lack of volume.
At 9:00 very usable. Still lacks some volume.
At 10:00 good volume but seems to have too much of high end and recessed mids, to have the right crunch.
At 11:00 sound goes overall better, fuller but, we have early feedback but, still controllable. Piercing highs and, a tad exaggerated low end.
Gain
At 7:00 usable.
At 9:00 as in 7:00, a tad veiled in low end, very usable at a volume kind with your ears.
At 10:00 awesome!. Pure Hard Rock. It's in its sweet spot, delivering an excellent sound and harmonics content. Powerful basses, piercing highs. No feedback issues.
At 11:00 like in 10:00 but, in industrial quantities. Very loud. Earlier feedback. Its excessive low end seems to compromise the ability of the speaker to represent them and, make the sound a bit confusing. Excellent pinch harmonics and very snappy and piercing highs.
General
Excellent tube, full of life. It makes this combo to sound like a Full Stack.
Between 10:00 and 11:00 you should experience its loudness to understand how powerful can go, the sound is massive. But, anyway, it allows you to have a nice sound at lower volumes, because it works very linearly but, in the commented range, is a demolition machine.
Excellent for Hard Rock, not so good for Blues or crunch.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00, a bit thin (lacks some mids). Witch excess in low and high end, dirtier than previous tubes.
At 9:00 more or less the same, louder and a bit more body.
At 10:00 way better but, highs are really piercing and hurt the ear.
At 11:00 better high end, more body. I don't like how it breaks for Metal stuff.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but, it lacks I-don't-know-what.
At 9:00 usable. Low volume with nice chugs, pinch harmonics. No feedback issues.
Ar 10:00 very good. Nice chugs, accurate and cutting power chords, nice pinch harmonics. No feedback.
At 11:00 awesome!. Super Metal. Feedback starts and some unwanted squealing. Monstrous loudness. Noise Gate is a must.
Gain
At 7:00 totally usable. Lacks some power in low end but, everything else is there.
At 9:00 Fantastic. Nice Metal at low volumes.
At 10:00 Excellent. Drawback is that is feedback starts, you can only remove it by switching to clean channel.
At 11:00 more power than this speaker can handle. Feedback is a real issue now.
General
It behaves very well along the whole range of volume but, its wild face starts between 10:00 and 11:00h, where it develops a brutal power, with strong low end, piercing trebles and an overall sensation of power that are impressive. Very good for Hard Rock and Metal.
Noise Gate with high gain/volume is a must.
You should experience this tube at high volume and gain to sense its power.
You will not like to stop playing (your neighbors and Police, yes).
TAD EL84-STR (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 usable, very similar to JJ.
At 9:00 very usable. Maybe smoother high end than JJ and fuller Mids.
At 10:00 slight break up. Overall, smoother high end than in JJ, warmer Mids, without so much projecting outside the speaker. Nice tube, more defined than the JJ.
At 11:00 Low end more exaggerated than in JJ. Breaks up more bluesy and I like it more than JJ but, the excess of basses veils a tad the overall sound.
At 1:00 like in previous position, louder and with more distortion.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable, a tad dark.
At 9:00 very usable. Lacks some strength but it has a better break up than the JJ.
At 10:00 very good. Loud and it has more Mids and Lows than the JJ, with smoother trebles. Less 3D projection than the JJ but, more than the Sovtek or the EH.
At 11:00 same remarks as previous position. The excessive basses make the combo to vibrate to much and, some noise appears in tubes because of this.
Gain
At 7:00 usable, lacks some sustain.
At 9:00 totally usable. Light feedback on tails, controllable. Excessive Low End, can work to tame bright amps.
At 10:00 sounds very good but, not so alive and powerful as the JJ. Excessive basses.
At 11:00 very powerful. Low end kicks impressively. The sweet spot. Excellent sustain, pinch harmonics more clear than in JJ. Earlier feedback. Controllable.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 usable. Less sharp and thin than the JJ.
At 9:00 totally usable. High end less sharp than in JJ, full sound, clearer and with good body.
At 10:00 sharp clean, less harmonic content than the JJ.
At 11:00 more body, more break up, sharp. Crystalliner than the JJ and, it breaks up more nicely than the JJ, to my taste.
At 1:00 sounds a tad like a Fender pushed hard, more crystalline than sharp. Lot of low end, good mids and, smoother high end.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable. A bit far away and lacks some strength.
At 9:00 very usable. Nice chugs at low volume but, still lacks some body.
At 10:00 very well. Very Metal. Nice Chugs, good sustain, good basses. Impressive Power Chords. If feedback, you can only remove it by changing the channel. Noise Gate is a must.
At 11:00 wonderful. Super Metal. Those powerful basses give lot of strength to chugs. Pinch harmonics less powerful than in JJ. If you get feedback, it can be controlled by changing channel.
Gain
At 7:00 usable but, a bit far away.
At 9:00 very usable at low volume. Darker than JJ, smoother high end than JJ.
At 10;00 Squeals from the very beginning. Noise Gate is a must. Excellent Metal sound. Powerful basses, well defined high end, no stridency, nice pinch harmonics.
At 11:00 Perfect Metal. Squeals even before giving a simple note. Noise Gate is a must. Excellent chugs, powerful basses, controlled trebles, nice pinch harmonics but smothers than in JJ.
General
As in the case of the JJ, this tube delivers its best between 10:00 and 11:00 in this amp.
Better crunch and works better for Blues than the JJ, while the JJ suits better Hard Rock.
In Metal mode, they are very similar but, the TAD has more controlled trebles, fuller mids and deeper basses and, everything without loosing definition.
Harmonically, the JJ is richer and has a better 3D projection (jumps out of the speaker in a wider beam).
Works exceptionally good for Metal and, it can help to balance amps with weak basses and bright trebles.
Mullard EL84 re-issue (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 usable. Clean and transparent as the EL84M but darker, in the ballpark of the TAD or JJ, in between both.
At 9:00 very pure but not cold as the EL84M. Smooth high end as in the TAD, small bump in mids but not so much as in the TAD. Slight break up that sounds really tasteful. No noise. Extremely quiet.
At 10:00 light break up. Very pure tone but not cold. Perfect definition and, its harmonics start to appear, with a quite well angelical sound.
At 11:00 Bluesy break up. Still maintaining an excellent definition. Loudness slightly lower than the TAD (better for my goals). Tasteful distortion. Nice body and excellent definition in mids and highs.
At 1:00 Excellent. Continues super quiet. Fantastic crunch. Very defined, no stridency. Excellent frequentially, nice body and super dynamic.
Crunch
At 7:00 very usable. Nice crunch at barely dorm levels. Not so far away sounding as other tubes. Super quiet.
At 9:00 very usable. More or less same as previous position. Still very quiet.
At 10:00 Excellent crunch. Slight feedback at tails, controllable. Very British. To play and play and play.
At 11:00 Awesome. Excellent sustain and legato. Awesome definition. Its sweet spot, no doubt. Compared to JJ and TAD, it sounds at lower volume.
At 1:00 Just incredible!. It has some kind of glue that links together the notes with an unusual richness. Very dynamic. Always defined. Very low noise level. The best distortion character of all these tubes. Excellent transconductancy, allows speedy riffs and never looses definition.
Gain
At 7:00 very usable. Nice sustain. Nice Hard rock sound at low volume. Very quiet.
At 9:00 very usable. Better sustain and, slight feedback on tails, controllable. Still quiet.
At 10:00 without the brutal power of the JJ, with the smooth highs of the TAD and a delicious body. Defined and with sustain. Earlier feedback but, controllable.
At 11:00 spectacular!. Hard Rock in pure state. Infinite sustain, nice dynamics. Lot of strength but, always controlled and defined (differently to JJ).
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 sounds silky, slight break up, smooth highs. Very good.
At 9:00 warm, without sharpness. Very good.
At 10:00 Excellent. Angelical. Delicious.
At 11:00 Impressive. Highs snap with crystal bits, without hurting. Very warm and defined, with excellent representation of low end, mids and highs. Powerful sound. Still very quiet.
At 1:00 Excessive volume and, too much distortion for cleans. But, still sounds awesome.
Crunch
At 7:00 very usable.
At 9:00 very usable. Some rings, due to vibration.
At 10:00 excellent crunch. Nice chugs but, less compressed than needed for Metal.
At 11:00 Impressive. Still defined and pushing really hard. Awesome chugs and, always controlled.
At 1:00 Brutal. It seems that nothing can make this tube to loose the focus, still defined. Danger of unwanted feedback. Noise Gate is a must.
Gain
At 7:00 totally usable, at dorm levels.
At 9:00 totally usable, reasonable volume. Barely infinite sustain. Excellent lows and definition.
At 10:00 sounds awesome but you get squeals even without touching the guitar. Noise Gate is a must.
At 11:00 Brutal!. What a tube!.
General
This tube seems to combine the best of the previous ones and to remove their main drawbacks.
At low levels is so crystalline as the EL84M but, without the coldness of this late.
It has a frequential balance similar to the EH or the Sovtek but, it has way better projection out of the speaker.
Not so loud as the JJ and slightly less than the TAD but, it works very linearly and, it never looses definition. At contrary, the more you push this tube, the richer the sound.
Works really nice between 10:00 and 11:00 but, at 1:00 is from other world. It's a mess that in this position the loudness is too much for my needs but... believe it, the sound is Brutal. You have to experience it.
Its linearity and frequential balance allows it to deliver a nice sound at any volume and gain levels, showing a distortion without excessive compression, without veiling basses and without sharpening highs too much.
Dimensionally, maybe the power of the JJ helps it to better be projected out of the speaker at lower volumes but, at 1:00 the JJ is very undefined, while the Mullard sounds at its best.
The distortion type suits better Blues, Hard Rock and Crunch. For Metal, I bet many people would prefer a more compressed and creamy distortion but, honestly, it works really good even for Metal.
And the Winner is...
No doubt. The Mullard reissue, hands down.
Very quiet, never looses the focus and stays always defined. Good in every mode and loudness level but, it sounds better when you harder push it. Very balanced, never looses body, even in extreme metal positions with recessed mids. Warm and not strident, nice presence in the range of frequencies that is natural to guitars. Very dynamic, allowing different break up levels depending on the strength of your picking.
Tests: Phase 4 - last touch
Without any doubt, this combination is a clear winner. Two Mullard RI in V1 and V2, a Sovtek-LPS in V3 and a couple of Mullard RI in power tubes give me the balance I was looking for. This combination doesn't shines specially in no mode but cover every one with attitude.
But, I felt in love with the Svetlana so, I wondered how would it work if I put an Svetlana in V1.
Testing Last alternative combination
V1: Svetlana 12AX7
V2: Mullard 12AX7 re-issue
V3: Sovtek 12AX7-LPS
POWER: Mullard EL84 re-issue
It's also a fantastic combination but, I was surprised.
The Mullard is smoother than the Svetlana!. The Svetlana seems to have a big bump in mid-highs that produce a very crystalline and sharp sound.
The Svetlana seems to be hard to distort, being very crystalline up to very low levels, what can be good for who is looking for more headroom and for, who has the possibility to play really loud.
Overall, that peak in mid-highs that the Svetlana has is the same as in the JJ EL84 and, maybe this is what makes them to better jump out of the speaker, cutting more the mix.
The Mullard EL84 is more balanced and lacks that peak in mid-highs so, it can sound a bit distant at low volumes (an issue that disappears at higher volumes).
The Svetlana paired with the Mullard EL84, helps to recover that peak in mid-highs and, therefore the sound jumps better out of the speaker and cuts better.
But, the Svetlana lacks the "glue" note-to-note that the Mullard RI has, until you push it really hard.
The sound goes sharper and crystallized, closer to American sound, to a clean Fender, with cutting high end and well represented lows. While the Mullard has a more British character, complexer, with some fuzzy harmonics and better legato.
In Rock or Blues mode, the resulting sound is monstrous when you reach killer volumes (at 1:00) but, I am still missing that "glue" that the Mullard has.
In Metal mode, that lack of "harmonics fuzz", makes it a more accurate sound, allowing cleans more Metal than with the Mullard. Sounds a tad colder than the Mullard but, it better suits this style.
Of course, at 1:00 the sound of this set of tubes is massive. The sound eats you, with strong basses, cutting highs and a big sensation of power.
Finally, I will leave that Mullard in V1, because allows me to achieve better results at lower volume but, I strongly recommend that Svetlana to whoever that can play really loud and, to whoever that could need a more cutting sound.
To pair an Svetlana with a JJ EL84 or any other very bright tube as the EL84M can be a mistake.
Respect of its distortion character, the Svetlana sounds more American, more compressed (but awesome!) than the Mullard, that has that British crunch and richness.
The Video
I am attaching here the video related to the test of the set of tubes that I've finally choose.
I am demoing both modes: Rock and Metal, in the 3 channels at different volumes.
I am sorry because of the Metal demo, I bet it will have no sense for Metalheads but, I hope they can focus in the sound, instead of my no sense riffs.
Note: this entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around Juny 2011. I am just revisiting it here.
Of all the amps I've retubed this, without any doubt, is the one that more headaches gave me. Around 60 tube swap testings, throwing there anything I had in stock and even, purchasing new tube types to check any possible combination and, I was stuck for around 3 weeks.
After trying everything, some light shone in my head: am I doing it well?.
I went to user's manual and, I thought it would be a good idea to get a couple of the setting samples in that manual and test the tubes with those amp settings that I would probably use the most: Blues (Hard Rock) and Metal.
So, while reviewing the settings, I've realized that the Mids Shift switch worked in inverse mode as I thought. Position (+) is where we have natural mids, while in position (.) we have recessed mids.
Oh my God!, I was trying to get a decent Hard Rock sound with recessed mids!.
Well, after fighting with tubes and, after a bunch of tube swapping I've learnt some lessons that I would like to record in this entry (for my own use, mainly).
Lesson 1: carefully read the User's Manual before starting.
If you have a hi gain amp or any other kind of amp with a complex front end, search the settings that better suit your habitual style. Theoretically, you should be able to select the right tubes with those setting suggested by the maker.
One more thing that took my attention is that no sample setting in the manual had a Volume greater than position at 10:00h, while I was trying with volumes far away the 2:00h.
(see lesson 1)
It seems that, until 9h, the power section remains clean, without distortion but, beginning in 10h, the power section starts to break up and, every little touch in Volume overloads the PI tube and, power tubes exponentially so, in fact, only with very low gain settings you can roll on high volumes.
Alright!. After discovering that I was wasting my time, due to the fucking Mid Shift switch, I've decided to start from scratch, with following criteria:
- To leave a Sovtek 12AX7-LPS in the PI position (V3, PI or Diver)
- To leave a matched pair of JJ EL84 in the power tubes, since they are very standard.
- To use a pair of the maker' suggested settings as a comparison starting point: Blues and Metal settings.
Lesson2: In amps with simple design, changes in pre-amp are way drastic than in complex front-end amps.
In simple-design amps, it's very difficult to get a wrong sound when working with the EQ but, in complex front-end amps, it's way easier to get wrong sounds if you don't carefully tweak ALL controls at same time.
In simple amps, it's very easy to identify a tube that will bring you exactly the character you wanted for that amp but, complex amps seem to like better neutral and even tubes, so they can cover any of the possible voices. The amp will not shine in any particular mode in that way but, it could cover any ground with an usable voice, instead.
After trying it with the suggested settings, it was clear to me that my issues with excessive feedback and squealing where directly related to power stage, not with pre-amp stage.
Looking to the blocks schema of this amp, the Volume control was placed after the two pre-amp tubes (V1, V2) and, before the Phase Inverter (V3).
So, the Gain control is regulating the saturation control of EVERY pre-amp tube, while the Volume control regulates the saturation level of the PI and, consequently of the power tubes.
That means that, if we already have the pre-amp with a high gain level, the original signal was highly amplified and distorted so, we would need to deliver smaller levels to the power tubes, where it will be exponentially amplified.
Every time that the Volume knob is below 10:00h, all squealing and excessive feedback issues go away.
Once we reached some Gain level, any increase of the Volume knob doesn't give us a great difference in loudness level but, maybe a higher degree of distortion of the PI and power tubes, increasing the feedback and squealing.
Lesson 3: draw a scheme with the gain cascade of your amp and, understand how pre-amp and power stages interactue between themselves.
Pre-amp tubes
V1
On amp's schema, first tube was labeled as 12AX7LM.
According to Koch Techs, they are currently mounting a JJ ECC83S in factory, not because of its sounding quality but, more because it can get rid of most of microphonics issues (and, I bet that it's also because it's cheap). Additionally to this, it's high output ratio helps to feed the rest of this complex front end.
It's gain level isn't so high as in other tubes and, therefore it can help to lower a bit the overall loudness of this amp.
There are some other alternative tubes that are specially good to solve microphonics issues in V1.
By definition, any 7025 is specially good for microphonics issues (even that sonically cannot be the best option).
A NOS 5751 can work also there but, it has a gain factor of 70 (instead of the nominal 100 of 12AX7 specification), that gives some headroom for cleans.
But, also in current production 12AX7 tubes, there are a few that work very well related to microphonics:
- Mullard 12AX7 re-issue, this one has an excellent harmonic content and note-to-note definition (but works better when pushed hard). Not a great output level, instead so, it cannot work for complex front-ends.
- Tung Sol 12AX7 re-issue, this one has big bottom end and cutting high end, good gain and output levels but, not so defined as the Mullard..
- Svetlana 12AX7 re-issue, a very soft and sweet tube, very kind with your ears. Maybe one of the more even and balanced, together with the EH but, with an output level similar to the Mullard.
- Electro-Harmonix 12AX7, very even and balanced and very linear, character similar to Svetlana but with way more output (maybe the one with the most) and, very crunchy when breaking up.
- Sovtek 12AX7-WA, more or less same gain/output levels than a 5751 but, with a very sterile sound. It's being used by many makers, just because it's one with the less microphonics issues around and, it's cheap but, usually, this would be the very first tube to swap in your amp, if you have it stock.
- Sovtek 12AX7-WB, practically the same has the WA but, with a tad more gain level.
V2
Koch people says that they are currently loading there a Ruby 7025S or 12AX7A-C. That are Chinese tubes of high quality and sonically better than JJ ECC83S tubes.
For this position, everything is possible, once we got rid of noise and microphonics with the tube in V1.
My own experience with this particular amp says me that tubes with very even response, without any bump in any range of frequencies and, a good definition and harmonically rich content will work better here.
V3 (PI)
For this position, my natural election is always a Sovtek 12AX7-LPS with balanced triodes. But, another tube that can work equally well is a JJ ECC803S. Even a Chinese 12AX7A-C or a NOS 5751 can do a good job here.
Tests: Phase 1 - same tube in V1 and V2
Since both tubes work for every channel in his amp, best way to understand how each type of tube affect the voice and character of this amp is to mount same tube type in both positions. In that way, we can analyze how each particular tube works in every circumstance (low gain, high gain, break-up, clean, etc).
Therefore, in this first phase, I've tried to check how each tube type worked with the two styles I've choose: Blues/Hard Rock and Metal.
Results should help me to decide if a certain tube will work better in V1 or V2 and, if they would work better for Rock or Metal.
I've reduced the type of tubes for this test, because I've already rejected some other tubes in other tests, because of their sonic quality. These below were rejected:
- (no brand) 7025 Grey Anode (probably Chinese, anodyne).
- TAD 7025, Chinese, extreme high content, bonny and hollow low end.
- TAD 7025-WA, similar to Sovtek 12AX7-WA, better sonically, anyway.
- TAD 12AY7, voice and character differs a lot respect of any 12AX7 tube.
- EH 12AY7, same case as previous one.
- Sovtek 12AX7-WA, I didn't liked it in any amp.
- JAN/Philips 5751 NOS: I've got just a single tube so, not valid for this test.
For each style, I've tried the three channels. Clean corresponds to Clean channel. Crunch corresponds to OD channel and, Gain corresponds to OD+ channel.
Settings for each style/mode corresponds to the sample settings that you will find in your user's manual.
TAD 12AX7A-C (Shughuang, China)
ROCK
Clean
Nice body. Warm, defined. No noise, feedback or squealing.
Crunch
Sharp and thin Mids. A bit compressed but defined.
Gain
Compressed but crunchy at same time. Not bad. More for Metal than for Rock but, overall, well sounding and standing the definition. Feedback in sound tails but, controllable muting strings.
High white noise level.
METAL
Clean
Trebly, thin and hollow. No noise.
Crunch
Thin, sharp and crunch. With snappy trebles.
Gain
Nice for chugs. Thin, crunchy and dark sound, with sharp high end and a tad undefined low end.
TAD 7025 Highgrade
ROCK
Clean
More defined than previous one. Sound is more trebly, even piercing. Higher gain. Thin, without body low end.
Crunch
Crunchy, defined but piercing. Some lack of sustain and some principles of feedback.
Gain
Best mode of three. Nice crunch, maintains definition note-to-note. A tad bright but, cuts the mix with attitude. Feedback in tails of sounds, controllable muting strings.
METAL
Clean
Clean, defined, sterile and bright. More gain and definition than the previous tube.
Crunch
Cuts the mix less than previous one. Crunchy, defined but a tad hollow. No feedback.
Gain
Better than the previous tube. Low end is clearer and defined. Nice chugs and very Metal sound. Better pinch harmonics. Lower feedback at the very tail of the sound, controllable muting strings.
Sovtek 12AX7-WC
ROCK
Clean
No noise. Well balanced, nice body and definition, slightly warm.
Crunch
Breaks up before the previous ones. Nice sustain. Light feedback. Crunchy and slightly compressed. Tends to Mid-Trebles.
Gain
Feedback in tails but controllable muting strings. Excellent sound, well defined and very Rock.
METAL
Clean
No noise. Well defined and better than previous tubes. Less hollow. Cold but, not bad.
Crunch
Defined. Hollow Mids, slightly thin sound. No feedback.
Gain
Very defined. Better than previous tubes. Less chugs. Nice distortion but, more crunchy than creamy. Better for Rock than Metal.
Svetlana 12AX7
ROCK
Clean
No noise. Perfectly balanced and crystalline. Very kind to the ear but, with a slight bump in Mid-Trebles.
Crunch
Crystalline, well defined. Nice Mid-trebles that help to cut the mix. Nice sound, good for Rock, without extreme EQ, very even.
Gain
Excellent Hard Rock sound. Powerful basses, crystalline definition, crunchy and very kind to ear.
Starts feedback before previous ones but, it can be easily controlled by muting strings.
METAL
Clean
No noise. Perfectly balanced. Richer sounding than previous ones. Tasty Mid-trebles. High end well represented without going piercing. Clean, crystalline, angelical. Very sweet sound.
Crunch
Mids are a tad hollow but, better definition than in previous ones. Nice legato in riffs.
Gain
What a Metal tube!. Excellent definition. Excellent chugs. Always defined. Excellent transconductancy, allows speedy riffs, with outstanding definition note-to-note. Excellent sustain and light feedback at the very tail of sound.
JJ ECC83S
ROCK
Clean
Louder than Svetlana. EQ more exaggerated than in Svetlana, bigger body but less definition. Nice sound, overall.
Crunch
Tends to more pronounced trebles than Svetlana and, sound more compressed.
Gain
Big volume step when changing channel. Powerfuller than the Svetlana but less defined and a tad more aggressive to the ear.
METAL
Clean
Not so defined as the Svetlana but, nice body and warmer. It should have lot of Mids, that doesn't seem to disappear when you switch down Mid Shift and, with Mids knob at -5.
Crunch
Tends to Mid-Highs. Slightly thin but less than rest of previous tubes.
Gain
Volume increase when changing channel not so high as in Rock mode. Way less definition note-to-note than the Svetlana. Powerful sound, dark and a bit confused with excessive Mid-Lows. Excellent chugs but, not defined enough for shredding works but, it has a nice legato anyway. Lacks a bit of sustain and the feedback comes very late but very strong, even that is controllable.
Electro-Harmonix 12AX7
ROCK
Clean
So defined and balanced as the Svetlana but WAY MORE gain than previous ones. Excellent definition and dimensionality. Tends to Mid-Highs.
Crunch
No noise. Excellent crunch, very powerful, defined and very Marshalish. Mid-Highs very notable.
Gain
Brutal!. Hard Rock in pure state. LOT of gain. Excellent, in the right spot. A great tube for Hard Rock. Nice sustain but strong feedback in tails.
METAL
Clean
As grateful as the Svetlana but with all the strength (and more) than the JJ. No noise.
Crunch
Hollow mids, as all tubes. Better gain and strong Mid-Highs.
Gain
Perfect Metal tube!. Excellent chugs, dark but defined low end, bright high end but not piercing, nice body, excellent sustain, good transconductancy that allows speedy riffs. Creamy and crunchy at same time. Feedback late in tails, controllable.
Tung Sol 12AX7 RI
ROCK
Clean
Clear sound but a tad exaggerated in EQ. Not so pure or balanced as the Svetlana or EH. It has the gain of the EH, with powerful basses and sharp Mid-Highs.
Crunch
Tends to Mid-Highs. Nice crunch, very sharp and, maybe a tad piercing.
Gain
Powerful, very Rock. Nice sustain. Feedback late in tails, controllable. No excessive noise. Good definition note-to-note, a tad veiled respect of Svetlana or EH, closer to JJ.
METAL
Clean
A tad sharp but, nice body and sound, overall.
Crunch
Its powerful basses help this tube to sound less hollow than rest of tubes.
Gain
Basses help to generate powerful chugs but, still with a good note-to-note definition. Mids sound a tad confusing. More for Rock than Metal.
Mullard 12AX7 RI
ROCK
Clean
Beautiful sound, full of harmonics, with sharp Mid-Highs but not piercing. Good gain level, less than EH and closer to JJ but, more than Svetlana.
Crunch
Excellent. Cutting Mids. Distortion with tasteful crunch and very defined. Very British sounding. Spatially, the sound is wider and bigger and, "smells to full stack".
Gain
Awesome, Incredible!. Rock Stadium sound. Sharp Mid-Highs, slightly piercing but, very musical.
Perfect definition, 3D sounding and nice harmonics. Nice sustain , with light feedback late in tails.
METAL
Clean
Beautiful sound, angelical. Pure, with a nice body. A bit thinner than in Rock style but, one of the best of Metal style.
Crunch
Nice crunch and excellent definition. A tad sharp and bright for Metal but, good enough.
Gain
Excellent!, I have no adjectives. Incredible pinch harmonics. Practically no feedback.
TAD 7025-S Highgrade
ROCK
Clean
Very low noise level. Excellent sound. Warmer and more body than the Mullard. Less spatially open but, equally harmonically rich.
Crunch
Nice crunch, not so sharp as the Mullard. Less legato.
Gain
Nice sound. More exaggerated in lows and highs than Mullard, closer to the Tung Sol. Less sustain than in the Mullard.
METAL
Clean
Warm sound, like Tung Sol, more or less. Not so pure as the Svetlana, EH or Mullard.
Crunch
Hollow, less convincing than the Mullard or Tung Sol.
Gain
Very good. Darker than Mullard. Nice definition. Low end a bit veiled. More for Metal than Rock. Easy Pinch Harmonics but, without the bite of the Mullard, softer. Acceptable sustain but lower than in the Mullard. Feedback in tails.
Tests: Phase 2 - the 3 finalists
Of all those tested tubes, the one that more likes me is the Mullard reissue (as usual). It seems able to work in any style, any mode, with a delicious harmonics content and a big spatial openness. The drawback is that it has a gain level a tad higher than what I actually need.
The EH once more showed its incredible versatility and, even that is poorer in harmonics and, more mono dimensional than the Mullard, its sound perfectly suits every style and mode in this amp.
Drawback is that its gainer than the Mullard.
The Svetlana was a nice surprise. Has the lower gain of those three but, it has a very balanced sound, smooth and kind to the ear and, seemed as versatile as the other two. Pushed hard works better for Metal than the EH or the Mullard.
Sonically, those are the three that I would choose for this amp but, to have better information, I need to check those with more volume/gain ranges, to see which one works better at low volume (with full body, definition and rich) and, which one works better at high volume (less feedback, more definition, sustain).
Svetlana 12AX7
ROCK
Clean
Very decent from 7:00h but, it starts to sound really good around 9:00h. The sound is beautiful, silky.
Starts to break up around 10:00h, with a sound a la "Little Wing".
Between 10:00 and 11:00h sounds very bluesy.
Beyond 1:00h, better to use the OD channel but, it stands very linear even with volume at max.
While increasing the volume, the sound sharpers every time more, loosing its silky character.
Crunch
Not so good at low volume, starting to sound decently around 9:00h.
Good sound around 10:00h.
At 11:00h, feedback in tails and Mid-Highs sharpen a lot.
At 1:00h Mid-Highs are more tamed and the sound is really nice but, feedback starts early an strongly, even that you can still control it by muting strings.
At 3:00h the sound is really good but, feedback starts really soon, is strong and difficult to control.
Overall, very linear but, tends to go sharper in Mid-Highs with more volume.
Better results with more gain and less volume, overall.
Snappy basses at high volume seem to mean that the power stage is overflowed or that the speaker isn't able to handle that energy.
Gain
Starts to sound decently at 9:00h.
Around 10:00 sounds very nice. Low end a bit thin and crunchy. Impressive pinch harmonics. Nice sustain. Feedback in tails, not so soon not late, controllable. High noise level.
Around 11:00h, the sound is powerful but the power tubes start to be saturated enough and the distortion doesn't sound as grateful.
It maintains a good definition always.
Starting at 1:00, early and strong feedback, without control.
Beyond 2:00h unusable, excessive squealing.
Overall, it seems that this tube, by itself, supports well gain and volume but, everything goes wrong in the power stage, when pushed really hard.
METAL
Clean
Starts to sound decently around 7:00h, colder and sharper than in Rock.
At 9:00h, it sounds better, warmer and with more body.
At 10:00, slight break up, with a wonderful sound, angelical.
Starting at 11:00h, the sound goes sharper and, basses sound a tad hollow and the sound seems doubled.
Crunch
Sounds decently starting at 7:00h.
Good around 9:00h.
Impressive around 10:00h. Clearly, at this position is where you get the best of this tube.
Basses start to go hollow beginning at 11:00 but, without feedback.
Very Metal at 10:00h!!!.
Gain
Very decent really early.
At 9:00h sounds really good, late feedback in tails, controllable.
Beyond 11:00, feedback starts as soon as you leave some open string.
At high volumes, it seems as if the amp or speaker were going to explode. Excessive gain.
GENERAL
It seems that the sweet spot for this tube is between 9:00 and 10:00h of the volume knob of this amp. It's where you will get the best of this tube. Beyond 11:00h, to much gain enters in the power stage and, the distortion goes uglier.
Fortunately for that range you have a nice volume level, not low not high, easy to work.
At 9:00h the loudness is very acceptable.
At 10:00h it starts to be high but, without hurting your ears.
At 11:00h is excessive and the power stage seem to not being able to handle it.
I love the silky character of the cleans of this tube, very angelical but with the right amount of warmth and body. The crunch in Metal is really awesome.
EH 12AX7
ROCK
Clean
Acceptable at 7:00 and good at 9:00.
The right spot is around 10:00h.
Not so silky as the Svetlana, sharper but nicely sounding.
Breaks up at 11:00, later than the Svetlana and, on this spot the harmonics content is highly increased.
At 2:00h has more or less same break up level than at 11:00h but, way more volume. So, it stands defined very well.
Crunch
Decent beyond 7:00h.
A bit hollow and sharp around 9:00h.
At 10:00 sounds better but, still not in its sweet spot.
At 11:00h seems the sweet spot but, sounds brighter and sharper than the Svetlana and, maybe too much gain for the power stage.
Gain
Acceptable at 7:00, but very sharp.
At 9:00h sounds better. Light feedback with open strings.
At 10:00h strong, nice legato and sustain. Easy feedback. Overall, sharp and bright, compared to Svetlana.
The sweet spot of this tube seems to be at 11:00h, the sound of this tube at this spot is incredible good for Rock but, it seem to feed the power stage too much.
METAL
Clean
Decent at 7:00h but, a tad thin and sharp.
At 9:00h, it starts to sound good but, with less quality than the Svetlana. Its sharp highs give it some coldness, compared to the Svetlana.
At 10:00h the harmonics start to shine but, still very sharp.
At 11:00h is the sweet spot for this tube.
Crunch
At 7:00h very convincing but, a bit hollow.
At 9:00h still sharp but, with good legato and nice pinch harmonics.
At 10:00h more power, still sharp. No feedback issues.
At 11:00h the right spot, nice sound, very metal, clean and defined but, a tad bright.
Gain
At 7:00h workable sound.
At 9:00h sounds very good, no feedback issues.
At 10:00h too much gain and, the power stage has a bad distortion. Excessive squealing.
GENERAL
The good range for this tube seems to be between the 10:00h and 11:00h but, closer to 11:00h. At this time, the signal level is so high that the power stage starts to distort in a bad way and there is an excessive squealing.
For this particular amp, this tube doesn't seems the best election but, this is probably because the power tubes it currently has that, when they break up, I don't like their distortion character.
Mullard 12AX7 RI
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00h, workable sound. No noise.
At 9:00h starts to sound really good, with the warmth and richness of the Svetlana but more bright and bite.
At 10:00h, light break up, delicious, slightly bluesy.
At 11:00h, completely breaks up, delicious crunch. Clear and defined. The power stage starts to be overloaded.
Increasing more the volume, the break up level remains the same but, the content increases in harmonics and goes louder but, without loosing definition, never. Excellent, without the excessive highs of the EH.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but, not on its best.
At 9:00 better, but still not on its best.
At 10:00 delivers an impressive crunch, very British.
At 11:00h seems on its sweet spot. Incredible crunch that surrounds you. VERY LOUD.
Increasing the volume, squealing and the sensation that the power stage or the speaker cannot handle so much gain but, the tube itself continues delivering a sound that goes every time better!. Very strange!.
Gain
At 7:00h, useful sound but a tad dark.
At 9:00h totally useful, with infinite sustain. The sound is way open than at 7:00 and feedback late in tails.
At 10:00h, pure Rock Stadium sound. Feedback enters with open strings.
At 11:00h, you should hear it to believe it. IN-CRE-DI-BLE. Strong feedback with open strings. Awesome pinch harmonics.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00h, crystalline clear. Less warmth than Svetlana (that sounds really sweet in this mode) and, less sharp and bright than the EH. Not on its best.
At 9:00, the openness is better than in Svetlana but, it sound sharper.
At 10:00h, close to its sweet spot but, basses are still a bit sharp.
At 11:00h sweet spot. Slight break up than reveals the nice harmonics of this tube.
Overall, the Svetlana sounds silkier and more balanced but, the Mullard seems to better cut the mix and, the unwanted highs can be rolled off with the amp controls.
Beyond 1:00h the power amp or speaker seems unable to handle so much gain.
Crunch
At 7:00h usable sound but, still not on its best.
At 9:00h usable sound, good sustain, nice pinch harmonics and good chugs at a reasonable loudness.
At 10:00h AWESOME. Fantastic chugs, pinch harmonics, superlative definition. Powerful... it has it everything!.
At 11:00h you SHOULD experience it. The sound is incredible but, feedback starts really early and, we are still limited by the power stage or speaker.
Gain
At 7:00h totally usable at low volume.
At 9:00 usable, infinite sustain and slight feedback on tails.
At 10:00h excellent sound but, power stage and/or speaker are in trouble to handle so much gain.
Beyond 11:00h, impossible to play. Excessive squealing, even with muted strings.
GENERAL
The Mullard is a very linear tube and delivers good results in every mode. This tube shines specially when you can push it beyond its break up spot, where it can bring you delicious harmonics. The sound character is between the Svetlana, more silky and, the EH, sharper and brighter. But no other tube sounds as 3D as this one (only the NOS Philips 5751 seems to sound slightly more spatially open).
When this tube on its sweet spot is able to push the power tube to its respective sweet spot, the sum of harmonics deliver a sound that is simply spectacular. I have no adjectives, you should experience it to understand it.
Weighting the 3 finalists tubes
These three tubes will work really good in this amp. All them are able to maintain a high note-to-note definition, during most of the gain and volume range.
From those three, the more balanced, sweet and silky sound comes from the Svetlana (nice discovering!). It also seems to break up a bit earlier, so you can extract its harmonic juice at lower volumes.
Harmonically rich and very even EQ'd, with smooth trebles / Mid-Highs and, very crystalline.
When it breaks up, isn't so crunchy as the Mullard or EH but, its distortion grain makes it specially good for Metal, where its greater compression and creamy distortion seems to better suit this amp.
Also, in style metal and clean mode, its warm Mids help to avoid this tube to sound sharp or hollow when recessing Mids.
The EH is probably the tube that more electrons injects in the power stage, giving an earlier break up to power tubes and, producing feedback and squealing at lower volume settings, what makes it difficult to get the best from this tube.
From all three, this one is the brighter and sharper one. It's Mid-Highs give it of an excellent crunch but, it can sound a bit piercing, when you start to rise the volume.
In Metal / clean, sounds a tad bright and sharp but, maybe will be what you need for a darker amp and drop tunings, where it could help to balance excessive low end.
It's a great tube for other power tubes that can handle its high output and gain.
The Mullard RI is, plainly, awesome. It hasn't the silkiness of the Svetlana and, its Mid-Highs are more notable than in the Svetlana but, less than in the EH.
Harmonically very rich and, it goes better the more you push it.
Very linear sounding and consistent among the whole range of gain / volume but, specially good between 10:00 and 11:00h, when we start breaking up the power amp, summing together power and pre-amp harmonics, where the is "from out of this world".
Main drawback is similar to the one with EH, at this gain / volume levels, the power stage or speaker seem not able to handle the excessive power.
Probably, more useful for Rock than Metal but, don't go wrong, it has fantastic pinch harmonics, chugs and palm mutings, also.
Before deciding which power tubes I will use for this amp, my current bet is the Mullard RI for V1 and V2, because my own style is closer to Hard Rock than to Metal but... that silky cleans of the Svetlana made me fall in love of that tube. Maybe, I will try mixing both. Let see.
Price difference is important here. The Svetlana goes around 19.4 Eur, while the Mullard is 25 Eur. So, the Svetlana seems a good candidate to stock but, Mullard production seems to be more consistent.
If you find the Mullard RI a tad sharp, try that Svetlana!.
Tests: Phase 3 - choosing power tubes
During my pre-amp tests, it was clear to me that the issues I was having with excessive feedback and squealing where less related to pre-amp tubes and more related to power tubes.
This amp is currently using a pair of matched JJ EL84, with Perfect Pair #6 (according to TAD matching system).
Originally, this amp came stock with Sovtek EL84M, a very sturdy tube but very sterile sounding.
Koch people confirmed me that they still think that those EL84M are the best power tubes for this particular amp but, since they are hard to find, they are currently mounting JJ EL84 tubes.
I've ordered three pair of tubes to check which one will better suit my needs.
TAD people says that those EL84M never go beyond a Perfect Pair #4, what means a plate current significatively lower. So, probably, I am using tubes with more power than needed for this amp.
My current needs are: to lower a tad the overall loudness, being able to better push tubes at low volumes, while preserving a rich harmonic content and, low noise, microphonics, feedback and squealing.
A curious note here, in none of the settings that you will find in user's manual the volume knob will be set up beyond 10:00h, what in my own experience corresponds to the boundary of the amount of power that power tubes and / or speaker are able to handle in this amp.
With all that info and goals, let see how the different power tubes work in this amp.
For these tests, I will leave the Mullard RI in V1 and V2 and, the Sovtek 12AX7-LPS in V3.
EL84M/E84L (Perfect Pair #4)
ROCK
Clean
Overall, very trebly. I had to roll off trebles a tad to accept the sound. They are very clean and crystalline sounding but, they lack some kind of warmth. The sound is a tad sterile.
At 7:00 usable sound but, lacks some body. I'm missing some kind of "glue" between notes.
At 9:00 usable sound but, still lacking some glue. Very pure and crystalline sound.
At 10:00 starts a light break up and the legato is being enhanced. Low end a bit thin but, overall, good sound.
At 11:00 blues-like break up. Better presence of low end but, starting to sound a tad confusing note-to-note.
At 1:00 very good in every sense. The loudness is really high here.
At 2:00 fantastic and tasteful crunch. Nice body but, now not clear anymore.
Overall, works fine in the whole range and, stands very clean up to around 1:30h. No feedback issues, even at 3:00h (but crunch is excessive then).
Crunch
At 7:00h usable.
At 9:00h usable, nice crunch.
At 10:00h usable but the sound is a tad hollow and thin.
At 11:00h is close to its sweet spot. Very loud right now. Still a bit hollow and, some feedback and squealing starts to appear.
At 1:00 sound much better, more body. Enough feedback and squealing.
Beyond 2:00 squeals as a pig, unusable.
Gain
At 7:00 usable.
At 9:00 usable.
At 10:00h nice Rock sound. Good power chords but, lacking some glue between notes.
At 11:00 Excellent Rock sound, still a tad thin in low end but, cutting really good. Feedback on tails. Power chords sound awesome.
At 1:00h awesome sound but, very loud and with high squealing, even with guitar's volume closed.
General
It seems to perform better between 11:00 and 1:00h but, the loudness level is very high in that range.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 usable but very cold.
At 9:00 a bit better.
At 10:00 slight break up, the sound goes sharper.
At 11:00 better body, more break up but, better sound overall, with richer harmonics content.
At 1:00 more crunchy and warmth. It seems to sound better when you can get its harmonics out.
At 2:00 not very useful, confusing low end. The speaker doesn't seem able to handle those.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but, without body, sharp low end.
At 9:00 very usable, still lacking some strength in low end but, sounds way better but, still a bit sharp.
At 10:00 very Metal, maybe with some lack of body. The distortion grain is very adequate.
At 11:00 full, nice Metal sound.
At 1:00 excessive distortion but, surprisingly no squealing.
Gain
At 7:00 perfectly usable.
At 9:00 very good, just a bit more is needed.
At 10:00 starts to squeal with muted strings and the guitar's volume off. Once you get feedback, you can only remove it switching to clean channel.
To use a Noise Gate for this mode is a must.
General
A tube better for Metal than Rock. It has a late break up and seems a bit cold with low gain, lacking some harmonics and dimension. Very sterile or Hi-Fi.
It works better when pushed hard, when requires high loudness.
The distortion type seems better for Metal than Rock.
It has a lot of high end or Mid-Highs (but not piercing) and some recessed Mid-Lows.
Low end sound a bit thin, sharp and confusing but, high end is always good represented.
Sovtek EL4 (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 usable. Warmer than the EL84M, with better glue between notes.
At 9:00 very good. Well balanced. It doesn't seem to be enhance no frequency range in particular. Slightly warmer and darker than the EL84M. Very quiet.
At 10:00 sounds beautiful, very silky. Slight break up but lower than in EL84M. No noise.
At 11:00 more break up, looses a bit of definition in low end, that goes a bit hollow. No noise. Excellent Mids and Highs.
At 1:00 Bluesy break up. Excellent Mids and Highs. Low end a tad poor but usable.
At 2:00 too much crunch. Looses definition in chords.
Overall, it sounds good along the whole range.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but, a bit fuzzy.
At 9:00, more or less same as at 7:00 but louder.
At 10:00 better but, still lacks some body. A tad sharp and hollow.
At 11:00 close to its sweet spot but still not breaking up enough. Way better body than the EL84M.
At 1:00 the tube seems to get too much from the amp. Some rings and noise.
Overall, it lacks some distortion. Better legato than in EL84M, from the beginning. Good Mids and decent lows and highs.
Gain
At 7:00 very usable. Nice sustain. No feedback.
At 9:00 very usable. Feedback late in tails, controllable.
At 10:00 sounds very nice, good body, good definition, good sustains, late feedback in tails, controllable.
At 11:00 powerful. Less body, nice definition, excellent pinch harmonics. Early feedback but, still controllable.
At 1:00 very powerful sound, maintaining definition. Loud. Nice pinch harmonics. Shows some inner noises because of excess of vibration. Early feedback but, controllable.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 very sharp and hollow.
At 9:00 a bit better, still very sharp.
At 10:00 very good. Warmer than EL84M, with better body. Silky sound, a tad sharp in Mid-Highs.
At 11:00 slight break up, sharpening Mid-Highs.
At 1:00 still nice high end but, too much break up and, chord definition is compromised.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but sharp and hollow.
At 9:00 better but, still lacking some body.
At 10:00 close to its sweet spot. A tad bright and sharp for Metal. Nice chugs.
At 11:00 Perfect!. It's sweet spot.
At 1:00 everything is being exaggerated, excessive gain.
Gain
At 7:00 totally usable, nice sustain.
At 9:00 same as 7:00, louder.
At 10:00 nice Metal sound. Nice chugs, pinch harmonics and eternal sustain. A bit undefined note-to-note.
General
Not being the best tube in nothing, is overall good for everything.
Breaks up later than EL84M, which makes you to rise the volume to get some harmonics from that tube but, even this, it has a better body and is warmer than the EL84M at low volumes so, is more versatile in the whole range.
Electro-Harmonix EL84 (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 usable. Warm, soft and silky.
At 9:00 very usable. Warmer than previous ones. Slight roll off in high end, nice harmonic content and good 3D representation.
At 10:00 Perfect. Balanced, clean, defined, smooth, warm. No noise.
At 11:00 break up spot. Adding harmonics, beautiful sound. No noise.
At 1:00 too much break up. Good sound but not so clear, even that still defined.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable. More body and warmth than previous ones.
At 9:00 totally usable. Well defined, a tad dark, nice crunch.
At 10:00 excellent crunch. A tad dark, what makes me to doubt if it will be able to cut the mix but, the distortion character is awesome and stands very defined.
At 11:00 very loud. Nice crunch. A bit more open than in the previous position but, I still have doubts about if it will cut the mix. Slight feedback, controllable.
At 1:00 same as in previous position but, louder and with an earlier feedback.
Gain
At 7:00 usable. A tad dark and far away but, overall, good.
At 9:00 same as previous, louder.
At 10:00 very nice sound but, a tad far away, as recessed, mono dimensional, veiled, without jumping out of the speaker.
At 11:00 very nice sound also, same considerations as in previous one.
At 1:00 more presence in sound. Excessive volume, early feedback but, still controllable.
General
Overall, this tube sounds very tasteful. Probably the sound closer to what you could expect from an EL84 but, the drawback is that this tube seems to lack some presence, dimension, and life enough to jump out of the speaker. It's a mess to see how the sound seems to come from the backside of the cab instead of from the front of the speaker and, it seems it will have some issues to cut the mix.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 more or less same as the Sovtek but, with a more silky high end.
At 9:00 usable, warmer.
At 10:00 usable, not so pure in tone as the Sovtek but better body than previous ones.
At 11:00 slight break up. Sharper high end and, less defined.
At 1:00 higher break up, with similar characteristics.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable, but sounding far away.
At 9:00 usable, but sounding far away and a tad dark.
At 10:00 nice Metal sound, nice chugs, nice definition, still sounding far away.
At 11:00 seems the sweet spot for this tube, that sounds far away until it reaches this spot.
Gain
At 7:00 perfectly usable, still sounding far away.
At 9:00 very usable, very Metal. Still far away. No controllable feedback.
At 10:00 very Metal, still far away.
At 11:00 better sound overall but, if you get feedback, you can only control it by switching to clean channel.
General
From these three tubes, is the one with the best definition. Smooth highs and Mids and a bit bumped Mid-Lows, what makes it darker.
Its sweet spot is around 11:00 but, it seems to need lot of current to be excited. Probably, better results when using boosters or overdrives.
Sonically very smooth and silky, always sounds far away, as coming from the back side of the cab, what can make it difficult to cut the mix.
It can be very useful to tame excessively bright amps.
Mixed feelings with this tube, because it has a really tasteful sound but, it cannot be projected jumping out of the speakers. If it was able to do that, it would be my preferred tube, all the way.
JJ EL84 (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 very usable. Nice body and warmth. Smooth high end.
At 9:00 very good. Nice harmonics but, tends to Mid-Lows.
At 10:00 slight break up. Nice sound, warm and jumping out of speaker. Very dynamic. Loudness is now high.
At 11:00 bluesy break up. Starting here, the distortion grain of this tube I don't like it, sounds rude to my ears.
At 1:00 more or less the same than previous position but way louder.
At 2:00 more distortion, louder.
It seems a good tube to have a nice headroom. Breaks up late, defined, warm and jumps out of the speaker. Very gainy and very linear, until it breaks up.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable. Way better than previous tubes. Sound a bit dirty, because of lack of volume.
At 9:00 very usable. Still lacks some volume.
At 10:00 good volume but seems to have too much of high end and recessed mids, to have the right crunch.
At 11:00 sound goes overall better, fuller but, we have early feedback but, still controllable. Piercing highs and, a tad exaggerated low end.
Gain
At 7:00 usable.
At 9:00 as in 7:00, a tad veiled in low end, very usable at a volume kind with your ears.
At 10:00 awesome!. Pure Hard Rock. It's in its sweet spot, delivering an excellent sound and harmonics content. Powerful basses, piercing highs. No feedback issues.
At 11:00 like in 10:00 but, in industrial quantities. Very loud. Earlier feedback. Its excessive low end seems to compromise the ability of the speaker to represent them and, make the sound a bit confusing. Excellent pinch harmonics and very snappy and piercing highs.
General
Excellent tube, full of life. It makes this combo to sound like a Full Stack.
Between 10:00 and 11:00 you should experience its loudness to understand how powerful can go, the sound is massive. But, anyway, it allows you to have a nice sound at lower volumes, because it works very linearly but, in the commented range, is a demolition machine.
Excellent for Hard Rock, not so good for Blues or crunch.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00, a bit thin (lacks some mids). Witch excess in low and high end, dirtier than previous tubes.
At 9:00 more or less the same, louder and a bit more body.
At 10:00 way better but, highs are really piercing and hurt the ear.
At 11:00 better high end, more body. I don't like how it breaks for Metal stuff.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable but, it lacks I-don't-know-what.
At 9:00 usable. Low volume with nice chugs, pinch harmonics. No feedback issues.
Ar 10:00 very good. Nice chugs, accurate and cutting power chords, nice pinch harmonics. No feedback.
At 11:00 awesome!. Super Metal. Feedback starts and some unwanted squealing. Monstrous loudness. Noise Gate is a must.
Gain
At 7:00 totally usable. Lacks some power in low end but, everything else is there.
At 9:00 Fantastic. Nice Metal at low volumes.
At 10:00 Excellent. Drawback is that is feedback starts, you can only remove it by switching to clean channel.
At 11:00 more power than this speaker can handle. Feedback is a real issue now.
General
It behaves very well along the whole range of volume but, its wild face starts between 10:00 and 11:00h, where it develops a brutal power, with strong low end, piercing trebles and an overall sensation of power that are impressive. Very good for Hard Rock and Metal.
Noise Gate with high gain/volume is a must.
You should experience this tube at high volume and gain to sense its power.
You will not like to stop playing (your neighbors and Police, yes).
TAD EL84-STR (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 usable, very similar to JJ.
At 9:00 very usable. Maybe smoother high end than JJ and fuller Mids.
At 10:00 slight break up. Overall, smoother high end than in JJ, warmer Mids, without so much projecting outside the speaker. Nice tube, more defined than the JJ.
At 11:00 Low end more exaggerated than in JJ. Breaks up more bluesy and I like it more than JJ but, the excess of basses veils a tad the overall sound.
At 1:00 like in previous position, louder and with more distortion.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable, a tad dark.
At 9:00 very usable. Lacks some strength but it has a better break up than the JJ.
At 10:00 very good. Loud and it has more Mids and Lows than the JJ, with smoother trebles. Less 3D projection than the JJ but, more than the Sovtek or the EH.
At 11:00 same remarks as previous position. The excessive basses make the combo to vibrate to much and, some noise appears in tubes because of this.
Gain
At 7:00 usable, lacks some sustain.
At 9:00 totally usable. Light feedback on tails, controllable. Excessive Low End, can work to tame bright amps.
At 10:00 sounds very good but, not so alive and powerful as the JJ. Excessive basses.
At 11:00 very powerful. Low end kicks impressively. The sweet spot. Excellent sustain, pinch harmonics more clear than in JJ. Earlier feedback. Controllable.
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 usable. Less sharp and thin than the JJ.
At 9:00 totally usable. High end less sharp than in JJ, full sound, clearer and with good body.
At 10:00 sharp clean, less harmonic content than the JJ.
At 11:00 more body, more break up, sharp. Crystalliner than the JJ and, it breaks up more nicely than the JJ, to my taste.
At 1:00 sounds a tad like a Fender pushed hard, more crystalline than sharp. Lot of low end, good mids and, smoother high end.
Crunch
At 7:00 usable. A bit far away and lacks some strength.
At 9:00 very usable. Nice chugs at low volume but, still lacks some body.
At 10:00 very well. Very Metal. Nice Chugs, good sustain, good basses. Impressive Power Chords. If feedback, you can only remove it by changing the channel. Noise Gate is a must.
At 11:00 wonderful. Super Metal. Those powerful basses give lot of strength to chugs. Pinch harmonics less powerful than in JJ. If you get feedback, it can be controlled by changing channel.
Gain
At 7:00 usable but, a bit far away.
At 9:00 very usable at low volume. Darker than JJ, smoother high end than JJ.
At 10;00 Squeals from the very beginning. Noise Gate is a must. Excellent Metal sound. Powerful basses, well defined high end, no stridency, nice pinch harmonics.
At 11:00 Perfect Metal. Squeals even before giving a simple note. Noise Gate is a must. Excellent chugs, powerful basses, controlled trebles, nice pinch harmonics but smothers than in JJ.
General
As in the case of the JJ, this tube delivers its best between 10:00 and 11:00 in this amp.
Better crunch and works better for Blues than the JJ, while the JJ suits better Hard Rock.
In Metal mode, they are very similar but, the TAD has more controlled trebles, fuller mids and deeper basses and, everything without loosing definition.
Harmonically, the JJ is richer and has a better 3D projection (jumps out of the speaker in a wider beam).
Works exceptionally good for Metal and, it can help to balance amps with weak basses and bright trebles.
Mullard EL84 re-issue (Perfect Pair #6)
ROCK
Clean
At 7:00 usable. Clean and transparent as the EL84M but darker, in the ballpark of the TAD or JJ, in between both.
At 9:00 very pure but not cold as the EL84M. Smooth high end as in the TAD, small bump in mids but not so much as in the TAD. Slight break up that sounds really tasteful. No noise. Extremely quiet.
At 10:00 light break up. Very pure tone but not cold. Perfect definition and, its harmonics start to appear, with a quite well angelical sound.
At 11:00 Bluesy break up. Still maintaining an excellent definition. Loudness slightly lower than the TAD (better for my goals). Tasteful distortion. Nice body and excellent definition in mids and highs.
At 1:00 Excellent. Continues super quiet. Fantastic crunch. Very defined, no stridency. Excellent frequentially, nice body and super dynamic.
Crunch
At 7:00 very usable. Nice crunch at barely dorm levels. Not so far away sounding as other tubes. Super quiet.
At 9:00 very usable. More or less same as previous position. Still very quiet.
At 10:00 Excellent crunch. Slight feedback at tails, controllable. Very British. To play and play and play.
At 11:00 Awesome. Excellent sustain and legato. Awesome definition. Its sweet spot, no doubt. Compared to JJ and TAD, it sounds at lower volume.
At 1:00 Just incredible!. It has some kind of glue that links together the notes with an unusual richness. Very dynamic. Always defined. Very low noise level. The best distortion character of all these tubes. Excellent transconductancy, allows speedy riffs and never looses definition.
Gain
At 7:00 very usable. Nice sustain. Nice Hard rock sound at low volume. Very quiet.
At 9:00 very usable. Better sustain and, slight feedback on tails, controllable. Still quiet.
At 10:00 without the brutal power of the JJ, with the smooth highs of the TAD and a delicious body. Defined and with sustain. Earlier feedback but, controllable.
At 11:00 spectacular!. Hard Rock in pure state. Infinite sustain, nice dynamics. Lot of strength but, always controlled and defined (differently to JJ).
METAL
Clean
At 7:00 sounds silky, slight break up, smooth highs. Very good.
At 9:00 warm, without sharpness. Very good.
At 10:00 Excellent. Angelical. Delicious.
At 11:00 Impressive. Highs snap with crystal bits, without hurting. Very warm and defined, with excellent representation of low end, mids and highs. Powerful sound. Still very quiet.
At 1:00 Excessive volume and, too much distortion for cleans. But, still sounds awesome.
Crunch
At 7:00 very usable.
At 9:00 very usable. Some rings, due to vibration.
At 10:00 excellent crunch. Nice chugs but, less compressed than needed for Metal.
At 11:00 Impressive. Still defined and pushing really hard. Awesome chugs and, always controlled.
At 1:00 Brutal. It seems that nothing can make this tube to loose the focus, still defined. Danger of unwanted feedback. Noise Gate is a must.
Gain
At 7:00 totally usable, at dorm levels.
At 9:00 totally usable, reasonable volume. Barely infinite sustain. Excellent lows and definition.
At 10:00 sounds awesome but you get squeals even without touching the guitar. Noise Gate is a must.
At 11:00 Brutal!. What a tube!.
General
This tube seems to combine the best of the previous ones and to remove their main drawbacks.
At low levels is so crystalline as the EL84M but, without the coldness of this late.
It has a frequential balance similar to the EH or the Sovtek but, it has way better projection out of the speaker.
Not so loud as the JJ and slightly less than the TAD but, it works very linearly and, it never looses definition. At contrary, the more you push this tube, the richer the sound.
Works really nice between 10:00 and 11:00 but, at 1:00 is from other world. It's a mess that in this position the loudness is too much for my needs but... believe it, the sound is Brutal. You have to experience it.
Its linearity and frequential balance allows it to deliver a nice sound at any volume and gain levels, showing a distortion without excessive compression, without veiling basses and without sharpening highs too much.
Dimensionally, maybe the power of the JJ helps it to better be projected out of the speaker at lower volumes but, at 1:00 the JJ is very undefined, while the Mullard sounds at its best.
The distortion type suits better Blues, Hard Rock and Crunch. For Metal, I bet many people would prefer a more compressed and creamy distortion but, honestly, it works really good even for Metal.
And the Winner is...
No doubt. The Mullard reissue, hands down.
Very quiet, never looses the focus and stays always defined. Good in every mode and loudness level but, it sounds better when you harder push it. Very balanced, never looses body, even in extreme metal positions with recessed mids. Warm and not strident, nice presence in the range of frequencies that is natural to guitars. Very dynamic, allowing different break up levels depending on the strength of your picking.
Tests: Phase 4 - last touch
Without any doubt, this combination is a clear winner. Two Mullard RI in V1 and V2, a Sovtek-LPS in V3 and a couple of Mullard RI in power tubes give me the balance I was looking for. This combination doesn't shines specially in no mode but cover every one with attitude.
But, I felt in love with the Svetlana so, I wondered how would it work if I put an Svetlana in V1.
Testing Last alternative combination
V1: Svetlana 12AX7
V2: Mullard 12AX7 re-issue
V3: Sovtek 12AX7-LPS
POWER: Mullard EL84 re-issue
It's also a fantastic combination but, I was surprised.
The Mullard is smoother than the Svetlana!. The Svetlana seems to have a big bump in mid-highs that produce a very crystalline and sharp sound.
The Svetlana seems to be hard to distort, being very crystalline up to very low levels, what can be good for who is looking for more headroom and for, who has the possibility to play really loud.
Overall, that peak in mid-highs that the Svetlana has is the same as in the JJ EL84 and, maybe this is what makes them to better jump out of the speaker, cutting more the mix.
The Mullard EL84 is more balanced and lacks that peak in mid-highs so, it can sound a bit distant at low volumes (an issue that disappears at higher volumes).
The Svetlana paired with the Mullard EL84, helps to recover that peak in mid-highs and, therefore the sound jumps better out of the speaker and cuts better.
But, the Svetlana lacks the "glue" note-to-note that the Mullard RI has, until you push it really hard.
The sound goes sharper and crystallized, closer to American sound, to a clean Fender, with cutting high end and well represented lows. While the Mullard has a more British character, complexer, with some fuzzy harmonics and better legato.
In Rock or Blues mode, the resulting sound is monstrous when you reach killer volumes (at 1:00) but, I am still missing that "glue" that the Mullard has.
In Metal mode, that lack of "harmonics fuzz", makes it a more accurate sound, allowing cleans more Metal than with the Mullard. Sounds a tad colder than the Mullard but, it better suits this style.
Of course, at 1:00 the sound of this set of tubes is massive. The sound eats you, with strong basses, cutting highs and a big sensation of power.
Finally, I will leave that Mullard in V1, because allows me to achieve better results at lower volume but, I strongly recommend that Svetlana to whoever that can play really loud and, to whoever that could need a more cutting sound.
To pair an Svetlana with a JJ EL84 or any other very bright tube as the EL84M can be a mistake.
Respect of its distortion character, the Svetlana sounds more American, more compressed (but awesome!) than the Mullard, that has that British crunch and richness.
The Video
I am attaching here the video related to the test of the set of tubes that I've finally choose.
I am demoing both modes: Rock and Metal, in the 3 channels at different volumes.
I am sorry because of the Metal demo, I bet it will have no sense for Metalheads but, I hope they can focus in the sound, instead of my no sense riffs.
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