Introduction
Well, I never realized how important a Delay pedal is until I went to mix in the box by myself. Then, I've understood the importance of ambience restauration or recreation.
Despite of the expensive outboard gear used in Studios, it seemed to me a nice idea to have a nice delay that could change the ambience of my sound and better set the guitar in the right depth in the mix.
For sure, for a budget, TC Electronics Flashback gives you any kind of delay type and a reasonable sound. More expensive, Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay is hard to beat when used with distortion.
I am not a delay hacker. I am not going to create multi-echoed delays (a la U2) or any other kind of creative delay (well, who knows in the future!). My interest focus on a delay pedal that can put the guitar in the right space and depth in the mix, that's all.
Testing several delay types, I've decided that the delay type I was looking for was the Tape Echo type. I guess, this is because the most of commercial records were made with some EchoPlex unit and, there are a lot of top notch guitarists that rely on these units (as Brian May, that works with a couple of them!).
So nice so sad. Price of real tape echo units, as the EP 2 is unaffordable for a guitar aficionado. That's the truth. Even if it was possible, those kind of devices need a lot of maintenance to have them always in an optimal working status.
Therefore, next step was to look for some delay pedal that just could suit my needs.
Indeed, Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay is one of the best all purpose delay units. It works incredible good with distortion effects and, it just enhances the sound, when used with caution. If you overdo the effect, you can start to hear some digital artifacts (digititis) but, overall, it's highly recommended as a "plug & play" pedal. Easy to set up, awesomely sounding.
Then, I wanted to explore Tape Echo emulations and, went for a Wampler Faux Tape Echo delay. It's also a nice pedal but, to be honest, while it works really nice for clean sounds, it tends to wash distortion sounds and, to thin and edge the sound.
Probably because of that voltage issues I was discussing in my previous entry or, maybe because the pedal sounds like this. I don't know. But the truth is that I had better distortion results with the Mad Professor's one. And, I had better clean results with the Wampler's one.
To be honest, I was lately weighting whether to use Mad Professor's or Wampler's one in my pedalboard. But, in the meanwhile, I was reading lot of people talking about Strymon delay units and, I've reviewed Youtube entries and was very interested on what I've heard. So, I bought an Strymon El Capistan as my last try in delay effects.
Today, I was able to check how El Capistan worked and, this entry will discuss about such a pedal and my first impressions.
Analog, Digital?
Everybody knows it: an analog delay delivers warmer tones than a digital one. This is a drawback of using digitial audio technology. But be careful, an analog delay isn't the cup of everybody!. Maxon AD-999 Analog Delay (top notch in analog delays) wasn't my cup.
Most of digital delays have at least one mode that emulates an Analog delay.
A Tape Echo type delay is just emulating an analog delay: usually, an EchoPlex 2 unit.
You will see a wide offer for this kind of delay, including Carl Martin, Fulltone, among other large list of pedal makers.
Some pedal maker will try to convince you that their digital pedal is less digital than it seems. So, a typical selling argument is "the unprocessed signal uses a true analogical path". And, ok, that's good, indeed but, what happens to the processed (wet) signal?.
When we were discussing about digital audio, in my past entry: Home Studio: Mixing - Part 1, we tolk about the importance of AD/DA converters and, how they become a key feature to achieve the most natural (whitin the boundaries of digital audio) sound.
And, just about this is what pedal makers should had to talk about: the quality of their AD/DA converters.
We assume that we have a digital unit so, don't sell snake oil, just tell us about the quality of your converters and, the quality of the processing components you are using in your pedals.
Fortunately, Strymon isn't focusing on how analog is the (already) analog unprocessed signal but, he enhances the quality of its AD/DA converters, that are working with a resolution of 24 bits at 96 KHz of sampling ratio. And, that's a good resolution. I would personally prefer 32 bits at 48 KHz (or 96 KHz) but...
Some characteristics and Sound
One thing that surprised me is the light weight of this unit. Maybe it's using aluminium box?. I dunno but, it really weights nothing compared to the rest of my pedals.
You can read anywhere else the huge list of characteristics that this pedal has (this, just emulating a Tape Echo machine) and, you can bet that you could tweak the pedal to the extreme, to suit your needs. But, I've just tested it as it came stock.
To me, it was so easy to dial the delay sound as if I was using the Deep Blue Delay. Just some tweaks in the controls and everything started to sound really good. Not the case of the Wampler Tape Echo, that drives me crazy.
Wampler's unit is able to generate echos that are loudest than the original sound and, this adds confusion to the resulting sound. As far as I see, El Capistan is creating echoes always under the original signal level.
For my needs, I went just for the Single Head / Type A emulation. With all controls at noon, I already had an usable sound but, I wanted to roll back a bit the Mix, Repeats and Time. Very intutitive, as the Deep Blue Delay is.
I've checked also the effect of Tape Age and Warble&Flute knobs.
The Tape Age works very similar to a Tone control, achieving the brighter position at left hand. It was really sweet and, I've never got the excessive high end that I can hear in Wampler's unit.
The Warble knob adds some modulation to the sound and, works really nice.
Overall, I was greatly surprised with the resulting sound. It works flawless with distortion pedals (as the Mad Professor's does) and with clean stuff (as the Wampler's does).
In Youtube videos, it sounded to me a bit in the bright side and, I was wondering if it would sound as the Wampler's one but, in real work, it sounded really natural and, it's very easy to match the tone of the delay to the amp's tone with small tweaks on the knobs.
That AD/DA converters are working really fine and, the sound is very natural, open, dynamic and organic.
This time, I've ran Wampler Decibel+, Wampler Ego Compressor and Wampler Euphoria at 18V, to compensate the drop in voltage of my mains line. Weehbo PlexDrive and JCM Drive worked with dynamic switch at 18V also. I've also put the Drybell Vibe Machine at 18V and, everything sounded killer.
I was enjoying a lot this testing session.
I didn't heard the typical digital artifacts of digital delay units. Maybe, because I never went to extreme settings and, maybe because of the quality of converters.
To be continued...
I am gonna experiment a lot more with this unit to have a final verdict but, what I've seen up to now is that, for what I want it, it has the best characteristics of both, Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay and Wampler Faux Tape Echo and, none of their drawbacks.
The sound is clear, open, defined and, echo tails sound very natural to me.
It has more features than I need but, the one I really need it does with spades.
Very recommendable delay unit, if you are after a Tape Echo emulation pedal!.
If I feel inspired, I will come back with some specific video. Otherwise, the Strymon will sound in any video made by me in a future, beginning today.
Nice work, Strymon!.
Everything about electric guitars world
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.
23 June 2013
Pedal Effects: Weehbo PlexDrive and JCM Drive - First impressions
Introduction
As already said, overdrives and distortions are the pedals that mostly rotate in our pedalboards. We seem satisfied for a while with some and then, there is something else that seems to cover the gaps of our current pedals or, that they seem to do it just a bit or a tad better.
To date, the pedal that left me closer to that Plexi (or early Marshall) sound was the Wampler Plexi Drive and, still works awesome but, all Wampler users are claiming to Wampler the same: "please, give a full tone stack to that pedal to exactly dial the right amount of treble, mid and bass".
Well, I've decided to wait for the next Plexi Drive release but, it doesn't seems to be close in time.
But... in the meanwhile... someone was talking about Weehbo effects. I was curious and, I've checked Youtube demos. I was really impressed with the sound. I thought: "Man, that fills the gaps of the Plexi Drive. They sound really organic. I HAVE TO TEST IT!.
Taking into account that Weehbo is an European firm, we, the european people can celebrate to have an outstanding line of boutique pedals, without having to source them from USA (what means lot of additional expenses in shipping and customs fees).
This blog entry discusses about my own testings with this pedals for about 1 week.
Weehbo PlexDrive and JCM Drive
Both pedals are nailing Marshall tones but, they are covering different types of Marshall vibes.
The PlexDrive is oriented to reproduce the characteristic sonic fingerprint of early Marshall units, as the JTM45 or JTM50 or, even the 1959 (SuperLead).
The tone of most of Rock beasts was built around those amps.
JTM line, with that plexiglas front panel (from where it comes the name), had a very distinctive tone that cutted the mix with authority. Those were low gain to mid gain amps that were pushed harder with the help of some pedals, like the Range Master booster, any kind of vintage fuzz (face fuzz, tone bender, etc) or any kind of treble booster or light overdrive (as the TS-8'08).
So, you should take this into account. The PlexDrive will sound with just that gain level that those amps had and, at its maximum gain level, you will get the same as with a driven Plexi amp. If you want more gain, you should use any thing else before or after (some booster, overdrive, distortion, fuzz).
The JCM Drive has two sides, a JTM side that shares the characteristics of the PlexDrive (even that the PlexDrive sounds to me more accurate) and, a JCM side that covers the original tones of the JCM800 (not hotroded!).
None of both pedals are delivering high gain and, even that the JCM has more gain available, don't expect the gain levels of a hotroded JCM800 or the line of JCM900, by example.
With the PlexDrive, you can easily nail the tone of "Little Wing" or, "The Song remains the same" or many other classic Rock and Hard Rock titles.
With the JCM, is quite easy to get that Deep Purple tones.
Both, stacked, give you a nice and organic Marshall driven sound, nice for leads but, never so compressed and fluid as the sounds you will expect from a Marshall's high gain amp (for that, you have the Weehbo JVM !!!).
Wise Design
Something I've loved from Wampler was that he always gave some additional options to every pedal, that made it as versatile as you would need but, dude, Weehbo goes beyond Wampler boundaries and, does it with spades.
Let's talk first about the INPUT knob. This knob allows you to change the input impedance of the pedal and, therefore, changes the load your pickups see. That translates to the fact that you can use any kind of guitar and any kind of amp without any kind of issues. You can leave rest of control as they are and just to adjust the input knob to suit your rig.
This knob injects the needed guts to your signal and, pushes the pedal in the wanted way.
Play with this knob!. It's key in Weehbo pedals.
Now, let's take tops off, when talking about the DYNAMICS switch.
These pedals are made in a way that your traditional 9V input is being internally increased to 18V.
If you ever checked how a booster or clean overdrive works when operating at 9V or 18V you should now what I mean.
Increasing the Voltage Rail inside the pedal, increases the dynamics of the sound (there is a higher range of voltage to represent different sound levels). So, at 18V, those pedals sound as organic as any tube amp. They really seem the real thing!.
At 9V, the sound is more compressed. Maybe is what you wanted if you are thinking on lead lines but, to my taste those 18V make those pedals to play in another league.
Sure, you can achieve the same with any of your current drive pedals, every time that you feed them with 18V (watch out!, read specifications. Not all pedals allow such an input voltage level). But, to be honest, I've never experienced so much difference as you can hear with Weehbo stuff.
Since Weehbo stuff were designed specifically in that way, they work very differently in each mode and, the dynamics change remembers me the big effect that the Dumping switch has in the Orange Rockerverb 50 amp.
I was browsing the line of Weehbo pedals and, they are mostly covering British sounds, except for a couple of pedals. It seems that Weehbo is just working on the gain pedals area and, even than the Dumbledore is a really good Dumble take (I think I like it more than the Hermida Audio Zendrive or the Wampler Euphoria), I am missing some other kind of pure overdrive unit (a la Timmy or Centaur).
Some of Weehbo pedals have ACTIVE tone stack, which allows you to dramatically change the sound of your guitar and amp and, this is very unusual in pedal makers.
So, I am very excited with Weehbo stuff but, I am missing some basic tools (I hope they will come some early day). I am quite sure, the designer is able to do anything with spades in the drive department.
Sound
Well, in most of the Youtube videos I've seen, these pedals are being actually demoed with a Marshall amp!.
Do you want to achieve the Marshall sound in a Marshall?. What's the point, here?.
The first amp where I've run those pedals is the Fender Princeton Reverb reissue I've got.
Nothing more far away than this amp respect of a Marshall signature sound.
The Princeton sounds saggy, darker, a bit compressed and lacks the punchy and crunchy mids of a Marshall. Good for Blues work, not so versatile for rest of things... or it is?.
Well, the Princeton is the hardest of my amps. It takes not so good any pedal and, pedals that shine in my other amps, sound lifeless in the Princeton, maybe because there is no way to regulate the gain at its input (other than use high or low gain inputs). Its sound is so particular that it's hard to "overwrite" with the help of any pedal so... how those Weehbo worked there?.
AWESOME. Enough said.
Instantanely, the Princeton was converted to a family of Marshall amps (depending on pedal settings). It sounds as Marshall as my Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo (some kind of JCM 2000 DSL50).
For the very first time, those 6V6GT tubes started to seriously cut the mix.
The only thing that worries me is, maybe, an excesive high end content that tends to generate feedback.
I've also noticed this in Youtube videos (looks as Brett Kingman is muting the guitar when detecting that feedback).
I've noticed exactly the same in this amp. There is some ringing high end that tends to generate feedback and, this worries me respect of live gigs.
More on this, I've seen same issue in all Weehbo pedals, according to Youtube videos.
Appart of this issue, pedals sound incredible good, like a real Marshall amp (in an amp that has nothing in common with a Marshall !!!).
To be continued...
I still didn't checked those pedals with all amps and guitars but, tests I did with the Fender Stratocaster and the Charvel San Dimas were really promising.
Videos
I've prepared a couple of videos, demoing these two exciting pedals.
First one focus on the PlexDrive and, the second one in the JCM side of the JCM Drive, since the JTM side is close to the PlexDrive. At the end of the second part, I'm testing both pedals stacked together.
As already said, overdrives and distortions are the pedals that mostly rotate in our pedalboards. We seem satisfied for a while with some and then, there is something else that seems to cover the gaps of our current pedals or, that they seem to do it just a bit or a tad better.
To date, the pedal that left me closer to that Plexi (or early Marshall) sound was the Wampler Plexi Drive and, still works awesome but, all Wampler users are claiming to Wampler the same: "please, give a full tone stack to that pedal to exactly dial the right amount of treble, mid and bass".
Well, I've decided to wait for the next Plexi Drive release but, it doesn't seems to be close in time.
But... in the meanwhile... someone was talking about Weehbo effects. I was curious and, I've checked Youtube demos. I was really impressed with the sound. I thought: "Man, that fills the gaps of the Plexi Drive. They sound really organic. I HAVE TO TEST IT!.
Taking into account that Weehbo is an European firm, we, the european people can celebrate to have an outstanding line of boutique pedals, without having to source them from USA (what means lot of additional expenses in shipping and customs fees).
This blog entry discusses about my own testings with this pedals for about 1 week.
Weehbo PlexDrive and JCM Drive
Both pedals are nailing Marshall tones but, they are covering different types of Marshall vibes.
The PlexDrive is oriented to reproduce the characteristic sonic fingerprint of early Marshall units, as the JTM45 or JTM50 or, even the 1959 (SuperLead).
The tone of most of Rock beasts was built around those amps.
JTM line, with that plexiglas front panel (from where it comes the name), had a very distinctive tone that cutted the mix with authority. Those were low gain to mid gain amps that were pushed harder with the help of some pedals, like the Range Master booster, any kind of vintage fuzz (face fuzz, tone bender, etc) or any kind of treble booster or light overdrive (as the TS-8'08).
So, you should take this into account. The PlexDrive will sound with just that gain level that those amps had and, at its maximum gain level, you will get the same as with a driven Plexi amp. If you want more gain, you should use any thing else before or after (some booster, overdrive, distortion, fuzz).
The JCM Drive has two sides, a JTM side that shares the characteristics of the PlexDrive (even that the PlexDrive sounds to me more accurate) and, a JCM side that covers the original tones of the JCM800 (not hotroded!).
None of both pedals are delivering high gain and, even that the JCM has more gain available, don't expect the gain levels of a hotroded JCM800 or the line of JCM900, by example.
With the PlexDrive, you can easily nail the tone of "Little Wing" or, "The Song remains the same" or many other classic Rock and Hard Rock titles.
With the JCM, is quite easy to get that Deep Purple tones.
Both, stacked, give you a nice and organic Marshall driven sound, nice for leads but, never so compressed and fluid as the sounds you will expect from a Marshall's high gain amp (for that, you have the Weehbo JVM !!!).
Wise Design
Something I've loved from Wampler was that he always gave some additional options to every pedal, that made it as versatile as you would need but, dude, Weehbo goes beyond Wampler boundaries and, does it with spades.
Let's talk first about the INPUT knob. This knob allows you to change the input impedance of the pedal and, therefore, changes the load your pickups see. That translates to the fact that you can use any kind of guitar and any kind of amp without any kind of issues. You can leave rest of control as they are and just to adjust the input knob to suit your rig.
This knob injects the needed guts to your signal and, pushes the pedal in the wanted way.
Play with this knob!. It's key in Weehbo pedals.
Now, let's take tops off, when talking about the DYNAMICS switch.
These pedals are made in a way that your traditional 9V input is being internally increased to 18V.
If you ever checked how a booster or clean overdrive works when operating at 9V or 18V you should now what I mean.
Increasing the Voltage Rail inside the pedal, increases the dynamics of the sound (there is a higher range of voltage to represent different sound levels). So, at 18V, those pedals sound as organic as any tube amp. They really seem the real thing!.
At 9V, the sound is more compressed. Maybe is what you wanted if you are thinking on lead lines but, to my taste those 18V make those pedals to play in another league.
Sure, you can achieve the same with any of your current drive pedals, every time that you feed them with 18V (watch out!, read specifications. Not all pedals allow such an input voltage level). But, to be honest, I've never experienced so much difference as you can hear with Weehbo stuff.
Since Weehbo stuff were designed specifically in that way, they work very differently in each mode and, the dynamics change remembers me the big effect that the Dumping switch has in the Orange Rockerverb 50 amp.
I was browsing the line of Weehbo pedals and, they are mostly covering British sounds, except for a couple of pedals. It seems that Weehbo is just working on the gain pedals area and, even than the Dumbledore is a really good Dumble take (I think I like it more than the Hermida Audio Zendrive or the Wampler Euphoria), I am missing some other kind of pure overdrive unit (a la Timmy or Centaur).
Some of Weehbo pedals have ACTIVE tone stack, which allows you to dramatically change the sound of your guitar and amp and, this is very unusual in pedal makers.
So, I am very excited with Weehbo stuff but, I am missing some basic tools (I hope they will come some early day). I am quite sure, the designer is able to do anything with spades in the drive department.
Sound
Well, in most of the Youtube videos I've seen, these pedals are being actually demoed with a Marshall amp!.
Do you want to achieve the Marshall sound in a Marshall?. What's the point, here?.
The first amp where I've run those pedals is the Fender Princeton Reverb reissue I've got.
Nothing more far away than this amp respect of a Marshall signature sound.
The Princeton sounds saggy, darker, a bit compressed and lacks the punchy and crunchy mids of a Marshall. Good for Blues work, not so versatile for rest of things... or it is?.
Well, the Princeton is the hardest of my amps. It takes not so good any pedal and, pedals that shine in my other amps, sound lifeless in the Princeton, maybe because there is no way to regulate the gain at its input (other than use high or low gain inputs). Its sound is so particular that it's hard to "overwrite" with the help of any pedal so... how those Weehbo worked there?.
AWESOME. Enough said.
Instantanely, the Princeton was converted to a family of Marshall amps (depending on pedal settings). It sounds as Marshall as my Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo (some kind of JCM 2000 DSL50).
For the very first time, those 6V6GT tubes started to seriously cut the mix.
The only thing that worries me is, maybe, an excesive high end content that tends to generate feedback.
I've also noticed this in Youtube videos (looks as Brett Kingman is muting the guitar when detecting that feedback).
I've noticed exactly the same in this amp. There is some ringing high end that tends to generate feedback and, this worries me respect of live gigs.
More on this, I've seen same issue in all Weehbo pedals, according to Youtube videos.
Appart of this issue, pedals sound incredible good, like a real Marshall amp (in an amp that has nothing in common with a Marshall !!!).
To be continued...
I still didn't checked those pedals with all amps and guitars but, tests I did with the Fender Stratocaster and the Charvel San Dimas were really promising.
Videos
I've prepared a couple of videos, demoing these two exciting pedals.
First one focus on the PlexDrive and, the second one in the JCM side of the JCM Drive, since the JTM side is close to the PlexDrive. At the end of the second part, I'm testing both pedals stacked together.
20 June 2013
Pedal Effects: MI Audio Neo Fuzz - Test and demo
Introduction
Note: this entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around August / 2011. Just revisiting it here.
The Fuzz was the very first pedal effect I had and, I had it just because I've built one myself. This is an effect that accompanies me from the very beginning and therefore, it's very familiar and useful for me.
But, I was so stupid that I thrown to the trashcan my hand-made fuzz (among with another hand-made distortion unit I've also built that time). With the past of time, when I wanted to recover the sound of such a fuzz, none of the multi-effect emulations (Zoom GFX-8, POD X3 Live, etc) and none of the several fuzz pedals I've tried leaved me satisfied.
The closer I went to that sound was with the Hudson Electronics' Stroll On, an expensive clone of the Tone Bender MKII but, cheaper than the D*A*M one and, with a reasonable lead time.
But anyway, the fuzz is a cursed effect. It can sound really good or really ugly, depending on several variables. Fuzz magic depends on a correct election of its set of transistors and a correct biasing of such a set.
In my case, I more interested in Germanium fuzzes and, unfortunately, production of germanium transistors is really inconsistent and, there is some uncontrollable rawness in each one. Just that unpredictable factor is what produces a more musical result (respect of silicon ones), in a similar way as tubes sound more musical than the more technically perfect transistors.
One more turn to the screw, germanium transistors are very sensible to temperature changes and, in extreme conditions can stop to conduct the signal. This obliges you to have to re-bias transistors to bring back the nice sound to the unit.
Another typical issue is related to the interaction between this pedal with every different rig (guitar, pickups, cables, amp and rest of pedals). Early pedals were originally designed for electronic organs and, therefore, the input impedance was established according such a kind of instruments and, that means that is actually very low compared to the needs of an electrical guitar. By example, the Fuzz Face had an input impedance of 1 KOhm, when your amp has an input impedance of 1 MOhm (1000 times higher).
A fuzz works better when it's receiving the direct signal from your guitar, because under such conditions, pickup overload is creating the right sound.
Typically, if you place a modern pedal, with a very low output impedance (below the 1 KOhm that expects the fuzz), the sound of the fuzz will be compromised.
Additionally to all that, depending on the pickup we use (single coil, humbucker, low / medium / high output...) the fuzz sound can radically change.
All these issues, typical in germanium fuzzes, drove me to search for some current alternative, with special interest in to find some fuzz with a certain control of tone and bias and, that can be compatible with the rest of the pedalboard.
And, this quest lead me to the MI Audio Neo Fuzz, which sound liked me in Youtube videos and, which technical specifications seemed to cover all my requisites.
So, in this entry, I will talk about my impressions while testing this interesting and modern unit.
Presentation
It comes in an anonymous cardboard box, without any kind of logo. Just a simple stick on the upper side identifies the product.
Inside, the pedal comes wrapped in an air-bubble plastic sheet and, you can find a paper sheet with the description of this product and the basic function of its knobs and switches.
There are no example settings but, just some few notes about the function of each knob or switch, to understand how each change contributes to the overall sound.
Most of pedal makers forget to include some example settings that can be of help to get the basics of its pedals, something very interesting when you face any new effect for the very first time.
A second sticker says that this product has a warranty of 5 years!. That talks about the quality that should have such a pedal.
When you open the back cover, you can see a couple of PCB containing the components and, they look really professionally finished (bright soldering, rigid wires, etc...).
The unit is slightly wider than any typical pedal (MXR, Ibanez, Boss, etc), closer to the size of Voodoo Lab pedals.
Characteristics
According to the maker, this fuzz load 3 military NOS germanium transistors, around 30 years old, that were carefully selected (he thrown around 70% of bought transistors).
It seems that this fuzz isn't a clone of a vintage design but, it was designed from scratch, based in a careful analysis of several classic fuzzes, taking into account the issues related to each particular design and, checking how each component contributed to the tone.
Always according to the maker, it seems that his design has a double negative feedback that helps to stabilize the variable behavior of germanium transistors, even with sudden temperature changes.
This pedal works as any effect based on germanium transistors, that is, with the positive grounded. It allows to use an external supply unit, with a typical boss barrel connector with negative center (the standard in pedals, what is nice!). The unit will swap negative and positive internally.
Even that this is a genial idea, you should take into account that you could do that only in the case that you have some power supply with ISOLATED outputs or, if you use a separated power unit just to feed this pedal (among any other with germanium transistors or reversed polarity).
Watch out, you can damage your pedal and / or your supply unit !!!.
I am running it with a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus supply unit, which has isolated outputs so, I have no issues.
Anyway, worn low efficiency batteries are the typical way with fuzzes. That way, they sound the best.
All these characteristics, together with the versatility of its controls and, the fact that this design was made from scratch, with a moderner take but trying to preserve the "vintage tone", is what made me to try once more with another fuzz pedal.
Controls
Volume
One of the two bigger knobs of this unit. As in any fuzz, it controls the output level of this pedal.
Fuzz
The second big knob. It controls the amount of the fuzz effect applied to the original signal and, it's highly dependent on the rest of controls and, very specially, on Bias and Load settings.
Bias
This is control that you don't see externally in fuzzes. If any, they are small trim pots inside the unit that force you to open the back cover, tweak, test, tweak, test.
The Bias controls the sweet spot of its transistors, where they can work more linearly and, where you achieve the best headroom to handle negative and positive signals.
As I mentioned before, this is one of the key characteristics I was looking for, to allow me to comfortably re-bias transistors when needed.
Load
I don't know of any other fuzz having this characteristic.
Load changes the input impedance level, in a way that the pickup sees different load levels. This allows you to adjust the load to different pickups and, to compatibilize this pedal with the rest of your pedalboard.
One more specific characteristic that made me to choose this fuzz.
Tone
Most of fuzzes have a tone control that just cuts the highs, throwing them to ground. The Neo Fuzz increases the low end when rolling on to left hand or, increases high end when rolled on to right hand.
Body
One more unusual control in fuzzes. This knob controls the content in Mid frequencies of the sound.
To left hand, it seems to enhance mid-lows while, to right hand it seems to enhance mid-highs.
This control is highly dependent on the Tone knob. If Tone is all they way to left hand, Body hasn't effect.
Tame Switch
This 3-positions switch is the responsible of controlling the higher frequencies content.
In the middle position (off), nothing is being cut and, therefore, you get the brightess (or piercing) sound.
To the left (some), some is being cut, helping to tame the sound of bright guitars or amps.
To the left (lots), the high end is being drastically cut and, it's specially good for bright hi-gain amps.
This control is also highly dependent on the Tone control.
Sound
I've tested the fuzz alone, to check what can it do by itself and, to be sure I am getting the best fuzz tones.
Differently to other fuzzes, which they have some spot where they start to sound over-compressed and over-saturated, with excesive hard clipping, the Neo Fuzz was delivering a very dynamic sound, covering all gain levels (from a colored booster to a powerful fuzz) with spades.
Once the Bias was set up, the Load knob allows you to control the body of the effect, so we can achieve very different level of compression in the effect.
The four tone controls help you to achieve barely any kind of fuzz sound you have in mind, from dark and deep tones to bright and cutting trebles.
In some setting, I was achieving a sound very close to an Octavia effect (for a casual!).
Indeed, this is a very versatile fuzz, in the line of the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory but, with an important difference.
While the Fuzz Factory seems to be oriented to achieve "Freaky" effects (apart of the basis tone, that's excellent), the Neo fuzz seems to be oriented to achieve only useful variate sounds, without covering the extremes of the Fuzz Factory.
Video
Following video covers my experience while testing this pedal, in all the combinations that I was able to imagine.
It starts describing the characteristics of the unit, functions of each control and, continues with the step of finding the right Bias spot.
Once the Bias was set up, we check the Load knob and see how the body and overall sound changes.
Then, we go to analyze the several tone controls, seen extreme and middle combinations.
Once all controls were seen, there is a small series of riffs with different random settings, to check more clearly the different voices of this fuzz unit.
I am finishing the video checking the ability to clean the signal when rolling off guitar's volume.
As an additional note, I have to say that changes in tone are more notable in real world. It seems that recording and further audio transformations removed some of the sound nuances and, very specially in the high end zone.
Note: this entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around August / 2011. Just revisiting it here.
The Fuzz was the very first pedal effect I had and, I had it just because I've built one myself. This is an effect that accompanies me from the very beginning and therefore, it's very familiar and useful for me.
But, I was so stupid that I thrown to the trashcan my hand-made fuzz (among with another hand-made distortion unit I've also built that time). With the past of time, when I wanted to recover the sound of such a fuzz, none of the multi-effect emulations (Zoom GFX-8, POD X3 Live, etc) and none of the several fuzz pedals I've tried leaved me satisfied.
The closer I went to that sound was with the Hudson Electronics' Stroll On, an expensive clone of the Tone Bender MKII but, cheaper than the D*A*M one and, with a reasonable lead time.
But anyway, the fuzz is a cursed effect. It can sound really good or really ugly, depending on several variables. Fuzz magic depends on a correct election of its set of transistors and a correct biasing of such a set.
In my case, I more interested in Germanium fuzzes and, unfortunately, production of germanium transistors is really inconsistent and, there is some uncontrollable rawness in each one. Just that unpredictable factor is what produces a more musical result (respect of silicon ones), in a similar way as tubes sound more musical than the more technically perfect transistors.
One more turn to the screw, germanium transistors are very sensible to temperature changes and, in extreme conditions can stop to conduct the signal. This obliges you to have to re-bias transistors to bring back the nice sound to the unit.
Another typical issue is related to the interaction between this pedal with every different rig (guitar, pickups, cables, amp and rest of pedals). Early pedals were originally designed for electronic organs and, therefore, the input impedance was established according such a kind of instruments and, that means that is actually very low compared to the needs of an electrical guitar. By example, the Fuzz Face had an input impedance of 1 KOhm, when your amp has an input impedance of 1 MOhm (1000 times higher).
A fuzz works better when it's receiving the direct signal from your guitar, because under such conditions, pickup overload is creating the right sound.
Typically, if you place a modern pedal, with a very low output impedance (below the 1 KOhm that expects the fuzz), the sound of the fuzz will be compromised.
Additionally to all that, depending on the pickup we use (single coil, humbucker, low / medium / high output...) the fuzz sound can radically change.
All these issues, typical in germanium fuzzes, drove me to search for some current alternative, with special interest in to find some fuzz with a certain control of tone and bias and, that can be compatible with the rest of the pedalboard.
And, this quest lead me to the MI Audio Neo Fuzz, which sound liked me in Youtube videos and, which technical specifications seemed to cover all my requisites.
So, in this entry, I will talk about my impressions while testing this interesting and modern unit.
Presentation
It comes in an anonymous cardboard box, without any kind of logo. Just a simple stick on the upper side identifies the product.Inside, the pedal comes wrapped in an air-bubble plastic sheet and, you can find a paper sheet with the description of this product and the basic function of its knobs and switches.
There are no example settings but, just some few notes about the function of each knob or switch, to understand how each change contributes to the overall sound.
Most of pedal makers forget to include some example settings that can be of help to get the basics of its pedals, something very interesting when you face any new effect for the very first time.
A second sticker says that this product has a warranty of 5 years!. That talks about the quality that should have such a pedal.
When you open the back cover, you can see a couple of PCB containing the components and, they look really professionally finished (bright soldering, rigid wires, etc...).
The unit is slightly wider than any typical pedal (MXR, Ibanez, Boss, etc), closer to the size of Voodoo Lab pedals.
Characteristics
According to the maker, this fuzz load 3 military NOS germanium transistors, around 30 years old, that were carefully selected (he thrown around 70% of bought transistors).
It seems that this fuzz isn't a clone of a vintage design but, it was designed from scratch, based in a careful analysis of several classic fuzzes, taking into account the issues related to each particular design and, checking how each component contributed to the tone.
Always according to the maker, it seems that his design has a double negative feedback that helps to stabilize the variable behavior of germanium transistors, even with sudden temperature changes.
This pedal works as any effect based on germanium transistors, that is, with the positive grounded. It allows to use an external supply unit, with a typical boss barrel connector with negative center (the standard in pedals, what is nice!). The unit will swap negative and positive internally.
Even that this is a genial idea, you should take into account that you could do that only in the case that you have some power supply with ISOLATED outputs or, if you use a separated power unit just to feed this pedal (among any other with germanium transistors or reversed polarity).
Watch out, you can damage your pedal and / or your supply unit !!!.
I am running it with a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus supply unit, which has isolated outputs so, I have no issues.
Anyway, worn low efficiency batteries are the typical way with fuzzes. That way, they sound the best.
All these characteristics, together with the versatility of its controls and, the fact that this design was made from scratch, with a moderner take but trying to preserve the "vintage tone", is what made me to try once more with another fuzz pedal.
Controls
Volume
One of the two bigger knobs of this unit. As in any fuzz, it controls the output level of this pedal.
Fuzz
The second big knob. It controls the amount of the fuzz effect applied to the original signal and, it's highly dependent on the rest of controls and, very specially, on Bias and Load settings.
Bias
This is control that you don't see externally in fuzzes. If any, they are small trim pots inside the unit that force you to open the back cover, tweak, test, tweak, test.
The Bias controls the sweet spot of its transistors, where they can work more linearly and, where you achieve the best headroom to handle negative and positive signals.
As I mentioned before, this is one of the key characteristics I was looking for, to allow me to comfortably re-bias transistors when needed.
Load
I don't know of any other fuzz having this characteristic.
Load changes the input impedance level, in a way that the pickup sees different load levels. This allows you to adjust the load to different pickups and, to compatibilize this pedal with the rest of your pedalboard.
One more specific characteristic that made me to choose this fuzz.
Tone
Most of fuzzes have a tone control that just cuts the highs, throwing them to ground. The Neo Fuzz increases the low end when rolling on to left hand or, increases high end when rolled on to right hand.
Body
One more unusual control in fuzzes. This knob controls the content in Mid frequencies of the sound.
To left hand, it seems to enhance mid-lows while, to right hand it seems to enhance mid-highs.
This control is highly dependent on the Tone knob. If Tone is all they way to left hand, Body hasn't effect.
Tame Switch
This 3-positions switch is the responsible of controlling the higher frequencies content.
In the middle position (off), nothing is being cut and, therefore, you get the brightess (or piercing) sound.
To the left (some), some is being cut, helping to tame the sound of bright guitars or amps.
To the left (lots), the high end is being drastically cut and, it's specially good for bright hi-gain amps.
This control is also highly dependent on the Tone control.
Sound
I've tested the fuzz alone, to check what can it do by itself and, to be sure I am getting the best fuzz tones.
Differently to other fuzzes, which they have some spot where they start to sound over-compressed and over-saturated, with excesive hard clipping, the Neo Fuzz was delivering a very dynamic sound, covering all gain levels (from a colored booster to a powerful fuzz) with spades.
Once the Bias was set up, the Load knob allows you to control the body of the effect, so we can achieve very different level of compression in the effect.
The four tone controls help you to achieve barely any kind of fuzz sound you have in mind, from dark and deep tones to bright and cutting trebles.
In some setting, I was achieving a sound very close to an Octavia effect (for a casual!).
Indeed, this is a very versatile fuzz, in the line of the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory but, with an important difference.
While the Fuzz Factory seems to be oriented to achieve "Freaky" effects (apart of the basis tone, that's excellent), the Neo fuzz seems to be oriented to achieve only useful variate sounds, without covering the extremes of the Fuzz Factory.
Video
Following video covers my experience while testing this pedal, in all the combinations that I was able to imagine.
It starts describing the characteristics of the unit, functions of each control and, continues with the step of finding the right Bias spot.
Once the Bias was set up, we check the Load knob and see how the body and overall sound changes.
Then, we go to analyze the several tone controls, seen extreme and middle combinations.
Once all controls were seen, there is a small series of riffs with different random settings, to check more clearly the different voices of this fuzz unit.
I am finishing the video checking the ability to clean the signal when rolling off guitar's volume.
As an additional note, I have to say that changes in tone are more notable in real world. It seems that recording and further audio transformations removed some of the sound nuances and, very specially in the high end zone.
Pedal Effects: Fulltone MDV2 Mini Deja Vibe 2 - Test
Introduction
Note: this blog entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around July / 2011. I am just revisiting it here.
The Vibe effect is a cousin of Chorus and Phaser effects. It's an old modulation effect type, that wanted to emulate the behavior of Leslie rotary speakers that were used for electronic organs that time.
Even belonging to same family of effects, the Vibe has its own and distinctive voice and, even that we can go closer with a Phaser, there is no way to get the exact Vibe sound like this.
You can hear this effect with total clarity in "Machine Gun" by Jimi Hendrix, or more subtlety in "Shine on You crazy diamonds" by Pink Floyd and, in most of themes of Robin Trower, by example.
I particularly love this effect.
As happens with most of vintage effects, to find a modern unit having THE SOUND is really complex.
My first try was Roger Mayer's Voodoo Vibe+ (ex Jimi Hendrix tech, among others). Indeed, the Voodoo Vibe is an excellent Vibe unit but, there are a lot of controls to tweak before achieving what you are after.
Also, it's an excellent Studio pedal but, its big size makes it not so comfortable for pedalboard use.
My second try was to look for an smaller unit, with less controls and, I've choosen the Vodooo Lab Micro Vibe, which had just the Chorus side of the Univibe original effect (the side I was interested on, anyway).
To be honest the Micro Vibe sounds to me very dark and, often its being lost in the mix (not the case of the Voodoo Vibe+) and, lacks I-don't-know-what in the sound.
My third try is this Fulltone MDV2 Mini Deja Vibe 2, which I am just discussing in this blog entry.
Presentation
As usual in Fulltone stuff, the pedal comes in a white cardboard box, with no pics, very anonymous.
Inside, the pedal wrapped in a plastic bag, a couple of paper sheets that are intended to be the "user's manual" and, some sticker to ad Fulltone for free.
This pedal looks like close to any Wah. The rocket is being used to regulate the effect speed and, rest of parameters are controlled with pots and switches.
The Intensity pot regulated the amount of effect that will be blend with the original dry signal. The more intensity the more wet and less dry signals.
The Volume pot is very useful to balance the output level, respect of the input level (something that also has the Voodoo Vibe+ and hasn't the Micro Vibe).
Additionally to this, there are two more trim pots inside, to fine tuning some characteristics (pulse of photocells, by example) but, better to leave stock settings (at least, until you are really familiar with the pedal).
The pedal looks solid and a tad rude, in the line of Fulltone pedals, which seems more interested in the sound than in the look.
Apart from the sound, which probably more differentiates this pedal from others is the possibility to regulate in real time the effect speed with the help of your foot.
Usually, Univibe units allow to link some external expression pedal to do the same (by example, the Voodoo Vibe+).
This is good ... and bad!.
It's very useful to be able to modify the speed in real time and, seems even better if such an expression pedal is already incorporated in the own pedal, as in the case of the MDV2. This is very interesting to save room in your pedalboard for other effects.
And, now, the bad side. If you have an external expression pedal, you can leave such a pedal in any position (any determined speed) and, when switching on/off the vibe effect, you will have same speed you left there.
The issue with the MDV2 is that, to switch on/off the effect, you should press the switch that is is the rear side of the rocket so, you cannot leave a determined speed, you need to "search" again the right speed when switching on the effect.
More weird even, the switch is of type "momentary off" and, that means that the unit will be switched off if the rocket stays over the switch by weight. The minimum movement of the rocket switches on the effect, what is a real mess.
Respect to sound, I have nothing wrong to say. In fact, it sounds awesome. Indeed, this Vibe effect sounds as it should. Instantaneously Machine Gun tone, complex, deep but, cutting the mix.
Note: this blog entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around July / 2011. I am just revisiting it here.
The Vibe effect is a cousin of Chorus and Phaser effects. It's an old modulation effect type, that wanted to emulate the behavior of Leslie rotary speakers that were used for electronic organs that time.
Even belonging to same family of effects, the Vibe has its own and distinctive voice and, even that we can go closer with a Phaser, there is no way to get the exact Vibe sound like this.
You can hear this effect with total clarity in "Machine Gun" by Jimi Hendrix, or more subtlety in "Shine on You crazy diamonds" by Pink Floyd and, in most of themes of Robin Trower, by example.
I particularly love this effect.
As happens with most of vintage effects, to find a modern unit having THE SOUND is really complex.
My first try was Roger Mayer's Voodoo Vibe+ (ex Jimi Hendrix tech, among others). Indeed, the Voodoo Vibe is an excellent Vibe unit but, there are a lot of controls to tweak before achieving what you are after.
Also, it's an excellent Studio pedal but, its big size makes it not so comfortable for pedalboard use.
My second try was to look for an smaller unit, with less controls and, I've choosen the Vodooo Lab Micro Vibe, which had just the Chorus side of the Univibe original effect (the side I was interested on, anyway).
To be honest the Micro Vibe sounds to me very dark and, often its being lost in the mix (not the case of the Voodoo Vibe+) and, lacks I-don't-know-what in the sound.
My third try is this Fulltone MDV2 Mini Deja Vibe 2, which I am just discussing in this blog entry.
Presentation
As usual in Fulltone stuff, the pedal comes in a white cardboard box, with no pics, very anonymous.
Inside, the pedal wrapped in a plastic bag, a couple of paper sheets that are intended to be the "user's manual" and, some sticker to ad Fulltone for free.
This pedal looks like close to any Wah. The rocket is being used to regulate the effect speed and, rest of parameters are controlled with pots and switches.
As the original Univibe, it has two modes: chorus and vibrato and, two sub-modes: modern and vintage.
Mode and sub-mode are selectable with the help of a couple of switches in one side of the pedal.
The Intensity pot regulated the amount of effect that will be blend with the original dry signal. The more intensity the more wet and less dry signals.
The Volume pot is very useful to balance the output level, respect of the input level (something that also has the Voodoo Vibe+ and hasn't the Micro Vibe).
Additionally to this, there are two more trim pots inside, to fine tuning some characteristics (pulse of photocells, by example) but, better to leave stock settings (at least, until you are really familiar with the pedal).
The pedal looks solid and a tad rude, in the line of Fulltone pedals, which seems more interested in the sound than in the look.
Operation
Apart from the sound, which probably more differentiates this pedal from others is the possibility to regulate in real time the effect speed with the help of your foot.
Usually, Univibe units allow to link some external expression pedal to do the same (by example, the Voodoo Vibe+).
This is good ... and bad!.
It's very useful to be able to modify the speed in real time and, seems even better if such an expression pedal is already incorporated in the own pedal, as in the case of the MDV2. This is very interesting to save room in your pedalboard for other effects.
And, now, the bad side. If you have an external expression pedal, you can leave such a pedal in any position (any determined speed) and, when switching on/off the vibe effect, you will have same speed you left there.
The issue with the MDV2 is that, to switch on/off the effect, you should press the switch that is is the rear side of the rocket so, you cannot leave a determined speed, you need to "search" again the right speed when switching on the effect.
More weird even, the switch is of type "momentary off" and, that means that the unit will be switched off if the rocket stays over the switch by weight. The minimum movement of the rocket switches on the effect, what is a real mess.
Respect to sound, I have nothing wrong to say. In fact, it sounds awesome. Indeed, this Vibe effect sounds as it should. Instantaneously Machine Gun tone, complex, deep but, cutting the mix.
Conclusions
From the sonical point of view, it's barely perfect.
From the operational point of view, I don't like how Fulltone solved the speed regulation and switching system. To me, this should be fixed to make it really usable.
From the operational point of view, I don't like how Fulltone solved the speed regulation and switching system. To me, this should be fixed to make it really usable.
Video
Following video isn't exclusively dedicated to such a pedal but, to its function integrated in my pedalboard and, therefore, will not explore the whole possibilities of this pedal but, can be of help to get the overall sound of this Vibe effect.
14 June 2013
Accessories: Phonic PPC9000E Power Conditioner - Test
Introduction
Note: This entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around July / 2011. I am just revisiting it here.
Amps and rest of studio gear are delicate electronics devices, that you should protect against irregularities in your mains source. Even that the standard for Power Conditioners in Audio seems to be Furman, their prices seem to be as really high for such a kind of device.
For a correct protections, just a Power Conditioner isn't enough. We need a Power Regulator also. Both should have some kind of transformer inside that can physically decouple the ground of our mains from the ground of our gear, to clean up a dirty ground.
Browsing an online store, my first impulse was to buy a Samson unit (a brand with some reputation and excellent relation quality / price but, absolutely forgotten by everybody) but, there were nothing in stock.
So, in the range of affordable power conditioners, I've found this Phonic PPC9000E, that has a Voltmeter and 3 protection levels, typical in this kind of devices and, very similar to those that Furman offers.
My goals
In such a case, best is to have some Voltage Regulator device (instead of a Power Conditioner), which will deliver a stable and filtered mains but, their price is really high and, maybe is a better idea to use some kind of UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply), with a nice capacity (between 5 and 10 KVA), not being so necessary to support a long offline time (running from batteries). But, UPS world is still more complex than expected.
Recently, I had seen a worker from the electrical company that was making changes to the electrical lines because, it seems that some neighbor was claiming about not having voltage enough at home.
That made me to think about, which quality of mains did I had.
So, I've expected that the voltmeter of this device would inform me about any irregularity in my voltage source.
I've decided to go for this unit because of two reasons.
First, the price. If it didn't worked at the end, I had wasted not so much money and, if it worked fine, I would save a lot of money.
Second, I've already have something else of this brand. I have a SPL Meter also by Phonic and, it looks a good device to me, with quality enough and nicely working.
Presentation
The unit comes packet in a cardboard box, commonly protected, as any kind of consume domestic electronics device. Inside also, an User's Manual in English, Chinese and Spanish.
It looks like solid and with an standard quality. It has not that "cheap Chinese" look. Seems as good as any other of my home's devices.
It has 10 output plugs, of the same type of those that we usually see in PC's monitors, videos, TV sets, etc. Those outputs are protected and, you activate them by pushing a frontal switch.
Additionally to those 10 protected outputs, there is one more output in the front, unprotected.
This device supports a maximum current of 10 Amps, situation that forces the device to shutdown, until we re-arm the device, with the corresponding frontal switch.
The device takes the room of 1U Rack and, can be inserted in any Studio Rack.
It has a couple of telescopic lamps (included), that can be lighted on via one more frontal switch and, which intensity can be regulated with a potentiometer.
In my case, the unit is laying over a 4x12" speakers cab, feeding all amps and pedals.
Since the plugs aren't compatible with amp's plugs, I had to source some aerial adaptor cables, to connect everything there.
The front has a set of leds in three colors. Red for very low voltage levels, yellow for values between 210 and 220 and, green for values between 220 and 250 and, red again over 250V.
The accuracy of the voltmeter is of +/- 2V, more than enough.
Operation
The device is being plugged to any wall socket of your mains and, you connect each one of the gear to protect to any of the 10 available outputs. You switch on the switch to activate the filtering and, everything works transparently.
It was very curious to see how my mains voltage varies, constantly. Without going below 220V, there are very frequent oscillations between 220V and 240V.
What I am missing is a general switch. The voltmeter is always working, as soon as the device continues plugged to your wall socket so, to avoid any energy consumption you should unplug the device. Weird.
Till today, the protection circuit never jumped and, at least, I can see how consistent is the voltage I am receiving at home and, it's ok by now (I had doubts).
What I never imagined is that this device, that has not a system to decouple the ground, could clean the sound in any single way. Surprisingly, the sound of some engines (freezer, ...) that were inducing some noise in my amps seems to be over and, the pedal board, overall works more quietly.
Even that the manual specifies that it cleans the noise, in very different degrees, depending on the frequency ranges, I wasn't expecting a real change but, surprisingly, it seems to do something good.
Conclusions
A nice purchasing, considering performance, quality and price.
If you talk to some electronics guy, he would probably agree that Furman' stuff is highly overpriced and, there are some other cheaper alternatives of quality at lower prices, that correspond to well known brands in the industrial sector but, probably unknown for musicians.
If you wanted a best protection and a higher attenuation of electrical noises, you should go for a Power Regulator or an UPS, with a transformer that could decouple your mains ground from your gears' ground.
The equivalent of the Phonic PPC9000E in Furman is the model PL-PLUS CE. While the Phonic costs 85 Eur, the Furman costs 338 Eur (a huge difference !!!).
Samson had a device very similar to that PPC9000E but, with an slightly higher price.
Related to a Power Regulator, Furman has the model P-1400 AR E, that costs around 1125 Eur.
I am quite sure that you could find Power Regulators with similar characteristics in the industry, at lower prices but, even an UPS of between 5 to 10 KVA could be a good solution. You don't need a long batteries time, because you don't want to close a Server, you just want a consistent voltage, a good filtering and a right protection, that's all.
Update July, 17th 2011
Today, I've chased the ghost!.
As ever, I had reviewed the setting of every pedal and amp before starting my practices.
Everything was sounding great and, I was enjoying like a mad... until that, after one hour, more or less, I've noticed that everything started to sound thin, hollow, lifeless.
I thought: "what a strange, I don't feel tired, I am not bored but, this isn't sounding any good... are my ears or what?".
I've turn my head and saw that the Voltmeter was in the Red area!. I had a voltage below 200V!.
So, finally, my suspects were right. I've noticed that some days the gear was sounding awesome, while others every was sounding really bad and, none of my settings seemed to work.
Well, after this, I have arguments enough to claim to my power company, because they gave me a bad line and my gear suffers their lack of quality.
Also, a friend of mine went to my home and, he was surprised saying that everything was sounding really quiet and, asking me what I did. I've introduced him that Phonic unit and said: "this little boy, for 83 Eur is doing the job!".
Absolutely satisfied with this unit.
Note: This entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around July / 2011. I am just revisiting it here.
Amps and rest of studio gear are delicate electronics devices, that you should protect against irregularities in your mains source. Even that the standard for Power Conditioners in Audio seems to be Furman, their prices seem to be as really high for such a kind of device.
For a correct protections, just a Power Conditioner isn't enough. We need a Power Regulator also. Both should have some kind of transformer inside that can physically decouple the ground of our mains from the ground of our gear, to clean up a dirty ground.
Browsing an online store, my first impulse was to buy a Samson unit (a brand with some reputation and excellent relation quality / price but, absolutely forgotten by everybody) but, there were nothing in stock.
So, in the range of affordable power conditioners, I've found this Phonic PPC9000E, that has a Voltmeter and 3 protection levels, typical in this kind of devices and, very similar to those that Furman offers.
My goals
Far from thinking that this device could remove the noise in my signal, my goals were:
- To really know which voltage is reaching my amps (I was suspecting something wrong there)
- To protect amps and pedalboards from the common dangerous electrical alterations.
In such a case, best is to have some Voltage Regulator device (instead of a Power Conditioner), which will deliver a stable and filtered mains but, their price is really high and, maybe is a better idea to use some kind of UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply), with a nice capacity (between 5 and 10 KVA), not being so necessary to support a long offline time (running from batteries). But, UPS world is still more complex than expected.
Recently, I had seen a worker from the electrical company that was making changes to the electrical lines because, it seems that some neighbor was claiming about not having voltage enough at home.
That made me to think about, which quality of mains did I had.
So, I've expected that the voltmeter of this device would inform me about any irregularity in my voltage source.
I've decided to go for this unit because of two reasons.
First, the price. If it didn't worked at the end, I had wasted not so much money and, if it worked fine, I would save a lot of money.
Second, I've already have something else of this brand. I have a SPL Meter also by Phonic and, it looks a good device to me, with quality enough and nicely working.
Presentation
The unit comes packet in a cardboard box, commonly protected, as any kind of consume domestic electronics device. Inside also, an User's Manual in English, Chinese and Spanish.
It looks like solid and with an standard quality. It has not that "cheap Chinese" look. Seems as good as any other of my home's devices.
It has 10 output plugs, of the same type of those that we usually see in PC's monitors, videos, TV sets, etc. Those outputs are protected and, you activate them by pushing a frontal switch.
Additionally to those 10 protected outputs, there is one more output in the front, unprotected.
This device supports a maximum current of 10 Amps, situation that forces the device to shutdown, until we re-arm the device, with the corresponding frontal switch.
The device takes the room of 1U Rack and, can be inserted in any Studio Rack.
It has a couple of telescopic lamps (included), that can be lighted on via one more frontal switch and, which intensity can be regulated with a potentiometer.
In my case, the unit is laying over a 4x12" speakers cab, feeding all amps and pedals.
Since the plugs aren't compatible with amp's plugs, I had to source some aerial adaptor cables, to connect everything there.
The front has a set of leds in three colors. Red for very low voltage levels, yellow for values between 210 and 220 and, green for values between 220 and 250 and, red again over 250V.
The accuracy of the voltmeter is of +/- 2V, more than enough.
Operation
The device is being plugged to any wall socket of your mains and, you connect each one of the gear to protect to any of the 10 available outputs. You switch on the switch to activate the filtering and, everything works transparently.
It was very curious to see how my mains voltage varies, constantly. Without going below 220V, there are very frequent oscillations between 220V and 240V.
What I am missing is a general switch. The voltmeter is always working, as soon as the device continues plugged to your wall socket so, to avoid any energy consumption you should unplug the device. Weird.
Till today, the protection circuit never jumped and, at least, I can see how consistent is the voltage I am receiving at home and, it's ok by now (I had doubts).
What I never imagined is that this device, that has not a system to decouple the ground, could clean the sound in any single way. Surprisingly, the sound of some engines (freezer, ...) that were inducing some noise in my amps seems to be over and, the pedal board, overall works more quietly.
Even that the manual specifies that it cleans the noise, in very different degrees, depending on the frequency ranges, I wasn't expecting a real change but, surprisingly, it seems to do something good.
Conclusions
A nice purchasing, considering performance, quality and price.
If you talk to some electronics guy, he would probably agree that Furman' stuff is highly overpriced and, there are some other cheaper alternatives of quality at lower prices, that correspond to well known brands in the industrial sector but, probably unknown for musicians.
If you wanted a best protection and a higher attenuation of electrical noises, you should go for a Power Regulator or an UPS, with a transformer that could decouple your mains ground from your gears' ground.
The equivalent of the Phonic PPC9000E in Furman is the model PL-PLUS CE. While the Phonic costs 85 Eur, the Furman costs 338 Eur (a huge difference !!!).
Samson had a device very similar to that PPC9000E but, with an slightly higher price.
Related to a Power Regulator, Furman has the model P-1400 AR E, that costs around 1125 Eur.
I am quite sure that you could find Power Regulators with similar characteristics in the industry, at lower prices but, even an UPS of between 5 to 10 KVA could be a good solution. You don't need a long batteries time, because you don't want to close a Server, you just want a consistent voltage, a good filtering and a right protection, that's all.
Update July, 17th 2011
Today, I've chased the ghost!.
As ever, I had reviewed the setting of every pedal and amp before starting my practices.
Everything was sounding great and, I was enjoying like a mad... until that, after one hour, more or less, I've noticed that everything started to sound thin, hollow, lifeless.
I thought: "what a strange, I don't feel tired, I am not bored but, this isn't sounding any good... are my ears or what?".
I've turn my head and saw that the Voltmeter was in the Red area!. I had a voltage below 200V!.
So, finally, my suspects were right. I've noticed that some days the gear was sounding awesome, while others every was sounding really bad and, none of my settings seemed to work.
Well, after this, I have arguments enough to claim to my power company, because they gave me a bad line and my gear suffers their lack of quality.
Also, a friend of mine went to my home and, he was surprised saying that everything was sounding really quiet and, asking me what I did. I've introduced him that Phonic unit and said: "this little boy, for 83 Eur is doing the job!".
Absolutely satisfied with this unit.
30 May 2013
Accessories: Socket Tester
Introduction
Following with the overall info I was discussing in my previous article: http://hermeticoguitar.blogspot.com/2013/05/accessories-how-to-troubleshoot-noise.html, I made myself with a Low Voltage Detector and a Socket Tester.
The Low Voltage Detector came before and, I tested it on the whole rig, confirming that everything was ok, what probably meant that I had a good ground at home. But I was waiting for that Socket Tester to see if that was really true and, if I had all my gear correctly plugged and... I had some surprise!.
Socket Tester
It was harder than expected to get an European Socket Tester for 220V but, I've finally found one I liked in UK, here: http://www.groundology.com/earthing/accessories.
Since, I have an extension sockets rule plugged to the wall socket, then a Phonic 9000E Power Conditioner, then a air schuko cable for each amp and, for one more extension rule, where I plug my two Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus to feed pedal effects, and one more extension rule to plug the Zoom Q3HD recorder, I had several spots to test.
I've started with the wall sockets and they had good readings. Then, I've tested the first extension rule and, realized that isn't the same to plug your cord in one or the other way. To have Line (Hot) and Neutral (Cold) in the right side, you have to properly plug your cords.
Look at this picture:
You know that your plugs make the ground contact with two lugs but, see that one of those is bigger and, has some hole (for an eventual prong). This side should be up, when plugging it in your socket.
If Line and Neutral are in the proper position and you have a valid ground, the three leds will light .
As soon as your Line and Neutral are swapped, just the right led will light.
Ok. On the wall socket, everything was correct. Then, I've realized that the cord from the extension sockets rule had also that bigger ground so, I plugged that cord with that bigger ground on top and, then, I've read rule' sockets.
You can plug the tester up or down and, you have different readings. In one direction you get the three leds light and, in the other, the right led alone so, there is just one correct way to plug any other thing to that rule!.
I saw that I had my Power Conditioner reversed so, I flipped the cord's plug to plug it in the rule in the right way.
From the Power Conditioner, I've got 8 outputs with an aerial cord ending in a schuko female. I had to test every output cord to determine how to correctly plug the three amps there. I had some reversed, also.
In one of those aerial cords I have one more extension sockets rule (for my pedalboard) and, once more, I had some plugs facing one direction and others facing the opposite one, some were correctly plugged, some were reversed!.
Finally, in that extension rule, I've got one more extension rule plugged, for the recorder and, sockets worked in the opposite way as the previous rule!. What a nice!.
Well, it was easy and quick to do all this, thanks to that awesome inexpensive device.
I don't know how important can be that you swap Line (Hot) and Neutral (Cold) and, if it has any real impact in tone (as any phase issue), as the lack of ground or grounds with different potential have (if some electrical schooled mate wants to chime in, he/she will be very welcome!) but, at least, now I am 100% sure that everything is "in-order" and, that I did everything it was on my hands to get rid of electrical issues.
For sure, I will bring with me this little device to my next gig.
Following with the overall info I was discussing in my previous article: http://hermeticoguitar.blogspot.com/2013/05/accessories-how-to-troubleshoot-noise.html, I made myself with a Low Voltage Detector and a Socket Tester.
The Low Voltage Detector came before and, I tested it on the whole rig, confirming that everything was ok, what probably meant that I had a good ground at home. But I was waiting for that Socket Tester to see if that was really true and, if I had all my gear correctly plugged and... I had some surprise!.
Socket Tester
It was harder than expected to get an European Socket Tester for 220V but, I've finally found one I liked in UK, here: http://www.groundology.com/earthing/accessories.
Since, I have an extension sockets rule plugged to the wall socket, then a Phonic 9000E Power Conditioner, then a air schuko cable for each amp and, for one more extension rule, where I plug my two Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus to feed pedal effects, and one more extension rule to plug the Zoom Q3HD recorder, I had several spots to test.
I've started with the wall sockets and they had good readings. Then, I've tested the first extension rule and, realized that isn't the same to plug your cord in one or the other way. To have Line (Hot) and Neutral (Cold) in the right side, you have to properly plug your cords.
Look at this picture:
If Line and Neutral are in the proper position and you have a valid ground, the three leds will light .
As soon as your Line and Neutral are swapped, just the right led will light.
Ok. On the wall socket, everything was correct. Then, I've realized that the cord from the extension sockets rule had also that bigger ground so, I plugged that cord with that bigger ground on top and, then, I've read rule' sockets.
You can plug the tester up or down and, you have different readings. In one direction you get the three leds light and, in the other, the right led alone so, there is just one correct way to plug any other thing to that rule!.
I saw that I had my Power Conditioner reversed so, I flipped the cord's plug to plug it in the rule in the right way.
From the Power Conditioner, I've got 8 outputs with an aerial cord ending in a schuko female. I had to test every output cord to determine how to correctly plug the three amps there. I had some reversed, also.
In one of those aerial cords I have one more extension sockets rule (for my pedalboard) and, once more, I had some plugs facing one direction and others facing the opposite one, some were correctly plugged, some were reversed!.
Finally, in that extension rule, I've got one more extension rule plugged, for the recorder and, sockets worked in the opposite way as the previous rule!. What a nice!.
Well, it was easy and quick to do all this, thanks to that awesome inexpensive device.
I don't know how important can be that you swap Line (Hot) and Neutral (Cold) and, if it has any real impact in tone (as any phase issue), as the lack of ground or grounds with different potential have (if some electrical schooled mate wants to chime in, he/she will be very welcome!) but, at least, now I am 100% sure that everything is "in-order" and, that I did everything it was on my hands to get rid of electrical issues.
For sure, I will bring with me this little device to my next gig.
Pedal Effects: Buffer me, darling
This is a very short reflexion about how few do we now about our gear.
A friend of mine and me are preparing an occasional gig we have in few days.
He went home for a couple of days to work on the several songs for this gig and, used my gear.
He'd bring with him his loved Gibson Les Paul Standard, which I was really expectant to hear in one of my amps. Because of that darker tone of an LP, I've recommended him to plug it to my Night Train amp, while I was plugging my Stratocaster in my Princeton Reverb.
I've asked him, if he was clear about which effect pedals to use and, he answered me back that he had no idea on what to do and that he preferred to work with the guitar plugged straight to amp.
I said: "ok, let's start working on these songs. Let me hear your guitar and, we will decide later".
The only things he'd bring with him were the guitar and a guitar cord. Ok.
As soon as we started to work on songs, I've realized how bad his guitar was sounding. I was thinking: "this doesn't sounds as an LP should, this sounds muddy, dark and distant. We have to give some life to that axe".
I said: "ok, ok, let's stop and fix that axe, please. I cannot stand it anymore. Let me see what do we have here... don't tell me you are using one of that Planet Wave cables!".
I've explained to him the importance of using a low capacitance cable to avoid loosing high end (as happened) and, I wanted to demonstrate him that, even with a high capacitance cable, every guitarist has a nice tool to bring back the whole guitar' sound to life: a buffer pedal.
I went with him to my pedals stock (those that I've used some day but still didn't resold) and choosen a few pedals for him. I've choose the Mad Professor Red Ruby Booster to bring back to life that LP.
The Red Ruby Booster is an awesome buffer and booster pedal that incorporates also a Treble booster. A high quality tool that will bring back to life any guitar.
We tried it and a wide smile was drawn in his face. "Now, this actually sounds killer".
I said: "wait, we aren't still done. Don't you feel your sound is very 'in-your-face'?. We need to push back a bit the sound of your guitar in the mix. Let me add this delay pedal".
And I've added the Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay at the end.
His smile was still wider: "Man, that sounds as Heaven now".
I said: "Ok. We are done with your cleans. Let see what we can do for your crunch and distortion".
I've choosen the Mad Professor Little Green Wonder, an awesome overdrive, based on the Tube Screamer thing but, with enhanced tonal control. "This will bring you a nice crunch for blues and will help to make your guitar to cut the mix when necessary".
His smile was touching both ears, now.
Finally, "let's choose something for your soloing stuff. Here you are Wampler's Pinnacle. Try it alone and, then stack that Little Green Wonder before and... enjoy it!".
Man, that axe was sounding really killer. It remembered me to Slash or Bonamassa. What an incredible sound. I was thinking: "I will end buying some real Gibson Les Paul, some day. That sounds incredible good!".
The paradoxical thing is that this guy is a killer player. In fact, he teaches other guitarists about music, scales, techniques and so on. It was so strange to me to see how much he know about the instrument and how few about the rest of the tools that a guitarist have that we agreed: "ok, you teach me in musical stuff, I will teach you in sound stuff, ok?".
In previous entries, I've already discussed about the importance of cables and that they really make a difference but, even with bad or good cables, sometimes, the only way to restore the full signal strength and frequential content of your guitar is to use a quality Buffer pedal. That was the clearer example I've ever seen with my own gear.
I highly recommend Wampler Decibel+ and Mad Professor Red Ruby Booster as two of the best buffer/boosters on the market. Mad Professor's one is even more versatile, since it includes a Treble Booster, a Booster and a Buffer, while the Decibel+ has a Buffer and a Booster.
Carl Martin's one has also nice comments but, honestly, I didn't tried one so, I cannot opine.
Please, don't leave your axe to sound weak, muddy, dark, distant and poor. Make yourself with a quality Buffer pedal and leave her to shine.
Note: a low quality buffer can be worst than leave the cable alone!.
If you still don't understand why, I recommend you to read my article The Cost of the Cup of Tone.
A friend of mine and me are preparing an occasional gig we have in few days.
He went home for a couple of days to work on the several songs for this gig and, used my gear.
He'd bring with him his loved Gibson Les Paul Standard, which I was really expectant to hear in one of my amps. Because of that darker tone of an LP, I've recommended him to plug it to my Night Train amp, while I was plugging my Stratocaster in my Princeton Reverb.
I've asked him, if he was clear about which effect pedals to use and, he answered me back that he had no idea on what to do and that he preferred to work with the guitar plugged straight to amp.
I said: "ok, let's start working on these songs. Let me hear your guitar and, we will decide later".
The only things he'd bring with him were the guitar and a guitar cord. Ok.
As soon as we started to work on songs, I've realized how bad his guitar was sounding. I was thinking: "this doesn't sounds as an LP should, this sounds muddy, dark and distant. We have to give some life to that axe".
I said: "ok, ok, let's stop and fix that axe, please. I cannot stand it anymore. Let me see what do we have here... don't tell me you are using one of that Planet Wave cables!".
I've explained to him the importance of using a low capacitance cable to avoid loosing high end (as happened) and, I wanted to demonstrate him that, even with a high capacitance cable, every guitarist has a nice tool to bring back the whole guitar' sound to life: a buffer pedal.
I went with him to my pedals stock (those that I've used some day but still didn't resold) and choosen a few pedals for him. I've choose the Mad Professor Red Ruby Booster to bring back to life that LP.
The Red Ruby Booster is an awesome buffer and booster pedal that incorporates also a Treble booster. A high quality tool that will bring back to life any guitar.
We tried it and a wide smile was drawn in his face. "Now, this actually sounds killer".
I said: "wait, we aren't still done. Don't you feel your sound is very 'in-your-face'?. We need to push back a bit the sound of your guitar in the mix. Let me add this delay pedal".
And I've added the Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay at the end.
His smile was still wider: "Man, that sounds as Heaven now".
I said: "Ok. We are done with your cleans. Let see what we can do for your crunch and distortion".
I've choosen the Mad Professor Little Green Wonder, an awesome overdrive, based on the Tube Screamer thing but, with enhanced tonal control. "This will bring you a nice crunch for blues and will help to make your guitar to cut the mix when necessary".
His smile was touching both ears, now.
Finally, "let's choose something for your soloing stuff. Here you are Wampler's Pinnacle. Try it alone and, then stack that Little Green Wonder before and... enjoy it!".
Man, that axe was sounding really killer. It remembered me to Slash or Bonamassa. What an incredible sound. I was thinking: "I will end buying some real Gibson Les Paul, some day. That sounds incredible good!".
The paradoxical thing is that this guy is a killer player. In fact, he teaches other guitarists about music, scales, techniques and so on. It was so strange to me to see how much he know about the instrument and how few about the rest of the tools that a guitarist have that we agreed: "ok, you teach me in musical stuff, I will teach you in sound stuff, ok?".
In previous entries, I've already discussed about the importance of cables and that they really make a difference but, even with bad or good cables, sometimes, the only way to restore the full signal strength and frequential content of your guitar is to use a quality Buffer pedal. That was the clearer example I've ever seen with my own gear.
I highly recommend Wampler Decibel+ and Mad Professor Red Ruby Booster as two of the best buffer/boosters on the market. Mad Professor's one is even more versatile, since it includes a Treble Booster, a Booster and a Buffer, while the Decibel+ has a Buffer and a Booster.
Carl Martin's one has also nice comments but, honestly, I didn't tried one so, I cannot opine.
Please, don't leave your axe to sound weak, muddy, dark, distant and poor. Make yourself with a quality Buffer pedal and leave her to shine.
Note: a low quality buffer can be worst than leave the cable alone!.
If you still don't understand why, I recommend you to read my article The Cost of the Cup of Tone.
Pedal Effects: The Wah effect
Introduction
Note: this entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around July / 2011. I am just revisiting it here for its possible interest.
The Wah is one of the very few pedal effects which effect can be regulated dynamically in real time while working and therefore, is a nice tool to add our personality to our riffs.
It isn't a fool-proof pedal and, gets some time to get something of interest from it but, it worth the try.
But, what do we know about Wah?.
What a Wah does
A Wah is a Filter type of pedal. Basically, it is a band-pass filter that reduces the gain of those frequencies over and below a certain band of frequencies, generating a peak of gain in the center of that band.
Imagine that you get a parametric equalizer and you put at max the center frequency control and, you go steps down symmetrically with frequencies at right and left, until you leave some kind of triangle.
The center position will have a big bump in the corresponding frequency, while those frequencies under zero will be clearly rolled off (highs and lows).
More or less, this is what happens in a Wah but, with a bell shape, instead of a triangular shape and, with the particularity that this bell shape can be "transported" right and left with the help of the rocket of the pedal.
When the note we are playing in our guitar resonates with the center frequency selected in the Wah is, where we get that typical Wah sound.
Guitar Wahs usually move in a range of frequencies between 400 Hz and 2,2 KHz, but not all Wahs sound the same. Why?.
Behind that range, the width of that peak band is limited. That width is known as Q in Equalizers and, that's why you will see some wahs having a Q-Control knob. Small Q values give you notch frequencies while higher Q values will distribute the peak to frequencies closer to the notch frequency (resonance peak).
Other wahs can have just some Q presets and a switch to choose one of them but, usually most of wahs work with a single Q that gives it's own signature sound.
This pedal was born with the goal to emulate a muted trumpet, during the golden years of Jazz and Swing bands, maybe to fire out the trumpeter and leave the guitarist to do all the job.
Classic Wahs
Three are the models that created trend in Wah world: the Vox Wah, the Cry Baby and the Clyde McCoy Wah by Thomas Organ.
All them were born between 1966 and 1968.
The circuit of those were very basic. A couple of transistors, one inductor, a few resistors and caps... that's all. From those components, the "Magical part" was always the Inductor.
First Vox Wahs very produced in Italy and, they used Fasel inductors, because they were really cheap.
As often happens with musical gear, that cheap components produced some kind of asymmetrical clipping, with even harmonics, that sounded very musical. Since they were cheap components, they were noisy and, they were very prone to catch RF noise and, even to dial a Radio Station!.
Paradoxically, they are the most wanted nowadays.
Those first units had a warm and vocal voice, quite well human. Something that disappeared when they switched to new inductors (even of the same brand). That is the Wah sound I can remember and, the one that seems so difficult to achieve in modern Wahs.
There are a lot of mods around but, probably, no one like Roger Mayer, that was continuously enhancing Jimi Hendrix' pedal effects (among other well known guitarists) better knows this effect.
Roger Mayer sells the Red Lion kit, that you can throw in any basic Cry Baby and, that should incorporate all those modifications that he did for Hendrix.
Wah voices
Well, it seems that in the whole electric guitar world, a sonic war remains, with two well defined sides: British and American sounds.
As always, the explanation it's gave by the big Ocean that divides Europe and America. Each side used those components available at lower cost in their respective Continent, which produced two very distinctive voices.
Morley pedals are a good representative of the American Inductor.
They sound more aggressive, less vocal but, second to none.
It's Steve Vai' sound, by example.
In pedals with both inductors, this is usually identified as the "Red" inductor.
The Fasel Inductor is the voice of Jimi Hendrix Wah, by example.
In pedals with both inductors, it's usually identified as the "Yellow" one.
As everything in music, it's just a matter of taste to use the more adequate to each particular situation.
Some models of Wahs incorporate both inductors and, allow you to choose the American or British voice with a switch.
The Vox Big Bad Wah (Satriani) has both voices, as well as the MXR Custom Audio Wah, among others.
Other discussion level would be how much that voices sound as the originals.
Appart from that Inductor, that produces the foundational voice of the Wah, there are other characteristics that give to each wah model their own entity.
The Sweeping Range, is that ramp witch which each pedal sweeps the available range of notch frequencies.
Some pedals have a shorter or longer ranges, some work very stepped between frequency changes, some work very linearly along the range, some work in a logarithmic way.
At the end, the rocket of your wah is moving a pot inside the case to select the notch frequency. The own characteristics of such a pot (taper) would determine how the effect will behave. A linear pot will produce a linear sweep, while a logarithmic pot will produce a logarithmic sweep, by example.
Well, we can discuss over other components but, those two are the one with higher impact in a Wah.
If you are thinking on to buy a wah, forget Cliches.
Many people ends buying a Dunlop Cry Baby or a Vox 847, just because those are the two more often recommended in forums (for people that even never tried both!).
The truth is that, most of the people having such pedals and that really use them, ended applying some extra mod to them, to make them more useful (we will talk below about some of their issues).
Being one of the few personal expression tools available, the best you can do is to try absolutely every Wah model you can (forget Brand and Model, just try it!) and, to choose the one with the more convincing sound and sweep range (who cares about which inductor it has, which Q or which sweep range!) and, be sure it's compatible with the rest of your pedal board.
If it happens that your election was the expensivest wah then, bad luck.
If it happens that your election was the cheapest wah around and that when you say in forums "I am using the Shitdelux Wah" nobody seems interested, what's wrong?. Works for you?. Go ahead!.
In my particular case, the Wah type that I like more is the Clyde type and, from those I was trying, the Real McCoy RMC4 Picture Wah gives me the closer sound and closer sweeping range. It's also a fuzz friendly wah, what helps in a pedal board loading a vintage fuzz.
Switching and effect control systems
The typical way to switch on and off the effect is a pedal switch at the end of the rocket. By pushing hard the pedal, you actuate on the switch, switching on or off the effect (something that occurs in the higher frequency range of the wah sweeping).
The typical effect regulation control was an specially designed pot, which shaft is enclosed in a teeth gear, linked to your pedal's rocket.
Your rockets closes or opens the pot, moving the notch frequency to lows or highs.
This pair of mechanical systems are the natural option in most of wahs but, they have some drawbacks.
Usually, the pot is the piece that usually goes wrong first and, you will end changing it during your pedal's wah at least once.
Also, that switch, after lots of switching looses its smoothness.
That made some of the makers to look for more creative ways to switch on/off the effect and to regulate it.
Morley released some Wahs that were regulated with the help of quiet photo-resistors. It has also some models, like the Bad Horsie 2, that switch on the effect as soon as we step on the rocket (in the low frequencies range), without needed to push any switch and, as soon as we release the rocket, this goes back to its original position (up), switching the effect off.
Roger Mayer's Vision Wah is using a photo-resistor regulation system, also. It switches on and off in a similar way as any traditional wah but, instead of using an electro-mechanic pedal switch, is using a quiet electro-magnetic switch.
Whitout any doubt, the most curious system from all is the one by Z.Vex. His Probe Wah uses some kind of copper platform that works in a way similar to the antenna of a Theremin so, you regulate the effect depending on how close your foot is of that plate, without any physical contact.
The Wah in effects chain
Even that there are no fixed rules in Music, the Wah it's often placed in two very different spots in the chain: before or after gain pedals (fuzz, distortion, overdrive). Results are very different in one and the other way.
I like it more before gain pedals. After, the effect sounds very exaggerated.
Additionally, since the Wah corresponds to a very old design, many of Vintage Wahs and historical-correct clones or reissues of those have impedance issues and, can be true tone-suckers. Therefore, a typical mod for such pedals is to correct the impedance levels, with the help of some buffer.
Nowadays, there are good Boutique Wahs, that are very close to the original ones in sound but, that incorporate some enhancements that make that wahs to better suit any pedal board. Wahs with an internal buffer are usually known as fuzz-friendly and, allow you to put the wah before the fuzz, without affecting the tone of your loved vintage fuzz. Examples are the Real McCoy ones or the Fulltone's Clyde.
Sure, more modern Wahs designed from scratch got rid of that kind of issues, from the beginning.
In case of vintage Wahs, their natural place is to be the very first pedal in your effects chain (if you don't have also a vintage germanium fuzz). In other position, they can sound weak, thin and harsh.
Auto-Wah
Lazybones' Wah.
The notch frequency varies automatically following the envelope of the input signal. By example, the picking strength regulates to where the notch frequency moves to.
The Mu-Tron III by Musitronics was the first Auto-Wah (or Envelope-Follower Filter) available to the public, around 1972.
It was followed by Doctor-Q, Zipper, Bass Balls and Y Triggered Filter by Electro-Harmonix.
While the typical Wah seems more associated to Rock, the Auto-Wah is more often associated to Funky.
Video
When I'm ok of my meniscus torn, I will try to do a comparison between several Wahs.
(note: that comparison was previously published in this English version here: 3 Wah comparison )
In the meanwhile you can hear how the Real McCoy RMC4 Picture Wah sounds in this video. I am sorry, but my knee doesn't allows me a better demo.
Note: this entry was already published in my old Spanish version of this blog, around July / 2011. I am just revisiting it here for its possible interest.
The Wah is one of the very few pedal effects which effect can be regulated dynamically in real time while working and therefore, is a nice tool to add our personality to our riffs.
It isn't a fool-proof pedal and, gets some time to get something of interest from it but, it worth the try.
But, what do we know about Wah?.
What a Wah does
A Wah is a Filter type of pedal. Basically, it is a band-pass filter that reduces the gain of those frequencies over and below a certain band of frequencies, generating a peak of gain in the center of that band.
Imagine that you get a parametric equalizer and you put at max the center frequency control and, you go steps down symmetrically with frequencies at right and left, until you leave some kind of triangle.
The center position will have a big bump in the corresponding frequency, while those frequencies under zero will be clearly rolled off (highs and lows).
More or less, this is what happens in a Wah but, with a bell shape, instead of a triangular shape and, with the particularity that this bell shape can be "transported" right and left with the help of the rocket of the pedal.
When the note we are playing in our guitar resonates with the center frequency selected in the Wah is, where we get that typical Wah sound.
Guitar Wahs usually move in a range of frequencies between 400 Hz and 2,2 KHz, but not all Wahs sound the same. Why?.
Behind that range, the width of that peak band is limited. That width is known as Q in Equalizers and, that's why you will see some wahs having a Q-Control knob. Small Q values give you notch frequencies while higher Q values will distribute the peak to frequencies closer to the notch frequency (resonance peak).
Other wahs can have just some Q presets and a switch to choose one of them but, usually most of wahs work with a single Q that gives it's own signature sound.
This pedal was born with the goal to emulate a muted trumpet, during the golden years of Jazz and Swing bands, maybe to fire out the trumpeter and leave the guitarist to do all the job.
Classic Wahs
All them were born between 1966 and 1968.
The circuit of those were very basic. A couple of transistors, one inductor, a few resistors and caps... that's all. From those components, the "Magical part" was always the Inductor.
First Vox Wahs very produced in Italy and, they used Fasel inductors, because they were really cheap.
As often happens with musical gear, that cheap components produced some kind of asymmetrical clipping, with even harmonics, that sounded very musical. Since they were cheap components, they were noisy and, they were very prone to catch RF noise and, even to dial a Radio Station!.
Paradoxically, they are the most wanted nowadays.
Those first units had a warm and vocal voice, quite well human. Something that disappeared when they switched to new inductors (even of the same brand). That is the Wah sound I can remember and, the one that seems so difficult to achieve in modern Wahs.
There are a lot of mods around but, probably, no one like Roger Mayer, that was continuously enhancing Jimi Hendrix' pedal effects (among other well known guitarists) better knows this effect.
Roger Mayer sells the Red Lion kit, that you can throw in any basic Cry Baby and, that should incorporate all those modifications that he did for Hendrix.
Wah voices
Well, it seems that in the whole electric guitar world, a sonic war remains, with two well defined sides: British and American sounds.
As always, the explanation it's gave by the big Ocean that divides Europe and America. Each side used those components available at lower cost in their respective Continent, which produced two very distinctive voices.
Morley pedals are a good representative of the American Inductor.
They sound more aggressive, less vocal but, second to none.
It's Steve Vai' sound, by example.
In pedals with both inductors, this is usually identified as the "Red" inductor.
In pedals with both inductors, it's usually identified as the "Yellow" one.
As everything in music, it's just a matter of taste to use the more adequate to each particular situation.
Some models of Wahs incorporate both inductors and, allow you to choose the American or British voice with a switch.
The Vox Big Bad Wah (Satriani) has both voices, as well as the MXR Custom Audio Wah, among others.
Other discussion level would be how much that voices sound as the originals.
Appart from that Inductor, that produces the foundational voice of the Wah, there are other characteristics that give to each wah model their own entity.
The Sweeping Range, is that ramp witch which each pedal sweeps the available range of notch frequencies.
Some pedals have a shorter or longer ranges, some work very stepped between frequency changes, some work very linearly along the range, some work in a logarithmic way.
At the end, the rocket of your wah is moving a pot inside the case to select the notch frequency. The own characteristics of such a pot (taper) would determine how the effect will behave. A linear pot will produce a linear sweep, while a logarithmic pot will produce a logarithmic sweep, by example.
Well, we can discuss over other components but, those two are the one with higher impact in a Wah.
If you are thinking on to buy a wah, forget Cliches.
Many people ends buying a Dunlop Cry Baby or a Vox 847, just because those are the two more often recommended in forums (for people that even never tried both!).
The truth is that, most of the people having such pedals and that really use them, ended applying some extra mod to them, to make them more useful (we will talk below about some of their issues).
Being one of the few personal expression tools available, the best you can do is to try absolutely every Wah model you can (forget Brand and Model, just try it!) and, to choose the one with the more convincing sound and sweep range (who cares about which inductor it has, which Q or which sweep range!) and, be sure it's compatible with the rest of your pedal board.
If it happens that your election was the expensivest wah then, bad luck.
If it happens that your election was the cheapest wah around and that when you say in forums "I am using the Shitdelux Wah" nobody seems interested, what's wrong?. Works for you?. Go ahead!.
In my particular case, the Wah type that I like more is the Clyde type and, from those I was trying, the Real McCoy RMC4 Picture Wah gives me the closer sound and closer sweeping range. It's also a fuzz friendly wah, what helps in a pedal board loading a vintage fuzz.
Switching and effect control systems
The typical way to switch on and off the effect is a pedal switch at the end of the rocket. By pushing hard the pedal, you actuate on the switch, switching on or off the effect (something that occurs in the higher frequency range of the wah sweeping).
Your rockets closes or opens the pot, moving the notch frequency to lows or highs.
This pair of mechanical systems are the natural option in most of wahs but, they have some drawbacks.
Usually, the pot is the piece that usually goes wrong first and, you will end changing it during your pedal's wah at least once.
Also, that switch, after lots of switching looses its smoothness.
That made some of the makers to look for more creative ways to switch on/off the effect and to regulate it.
Morley released some Wahs that were regulated with the help of quiet photo-resistors. It has also some models, like the Bad Horsie 2, that switch on the effect as soon as we step on the rocket (in the low frequencies range), without needed to push any switch and, as soon as we release the rocket, this goes back to its original position (up), switching the effect off.
The Wah in effects chain
Even that there are no fixed rules in Music, the Wah it's often placed in two very different spots in the chain: before or after gain pedals (fuzz, distortion, overdrive). Results are very different in one and the other way.
I like it more before gain pedals. After, the effect sounds very exaggerated.
Additionally, since the Wah corresponds to a very old design, many of Vintage Wahs and historical-correct clones or reissues of those have impedance issues and, can be true tone-suckers. Therefore, a typical mod for such pedals is to correct the impedance levels, with the help of some buffer.
Nowadays, there are good Boutique Wahs, that are very close to the original ones in sound but, that incorporate some enhancements that make that wahs to better suit any pedal board. Wahs with an internal buffer are usually known as fuzz-friendly and, allow you to put the wah before the fuzz, without affecting the tone of your loved vintage fuzz. Examples are the Real McCoy ones or the Fulltone's Clyde.
Sure, more modern Wahs designed from scratch got rid of that kind of issues, from the beginning.
In case of vintage Wahs, their natural place is to be the very first pedal in your effects chain (if you don't have also a vintage germanium fuzz). In other position, they can sound weak, thin and harsh.
Auto-Wah
Lazybones' Wah.
The notch frequency varies automatically following the envelope of the input signal. By example, the picking strength regulates to where the notch frequency moves to.
The Mu-Tron III by Musitronics was the first Auto-Wah (or Envelope-Follower Filter) available to the public, around 1972.
It was followed by Doctor-Q, Zipper, Bass Balls and Y Triggered Filter by Electro-Harmonix.
While the typical Wah seems more associated to Rock, the Auto-Wah is more often associated to Funky.
Video
When I'm ok of my meniscus torn, I will try to do a comparison between several Wahs.
(note: that comparison was previously published in this English version here: 3 Wah comparison )
In the meanwhile you can hear how the Real McCoy RMC4 Picture Wah sounds in this video. I am sorry, but my knee doesn't allows me a better demo.
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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