Educate me on tubes!

TheWinterSnow

TheWinterSnow

Den Mørke Natt
Oct 22, 2008
3,087
4
38
34
Sacramento, CA
So in another thread I posted the other day about cabinets and amps and all that jazz, I figured I would go from cheapest to more expensive.

So I am looking at tubes first. Was always satisfied with the JJ's in the preamp, but I am curious about maybe a tung-sol or an EH in the V1 slot, so I originally thought I would get the JJ 6l6's but I have heard much praise from the SED Winged C's. So naturally I am quite curious. Looking for something that has massive bite and roar, not looking for something overly soft or smooth, but rather more punch and bite.

So I have the JJ's and SED in mind, would like to stray away from the Sovtek WXT+ since thats what is already is in my amp and I am not satisfied. Maybe the fact that the tubes are about 15 years old, but they were biased beyond cold until i got my hands on them with the bias mod about 3 months ago and when they were biased they broke in as if they were brand new, so I really have new clue how far along in their life they are. I would take any other recommendations but I really don't want to hear (insert brand here) is what I use and they sound really good. I want details, harmonic complextion, overall tone, balance, clarity, warmth, bite/smoothness etc.
 
The SED Winged =C= are really good tubes. Good detail, and a balanced tone, I'd say. The JJ's will have a little more low end, but not be quite as detailed IMHO.

This is for your 5150, I presume?
 
you would guess right. a biased mod 5150 to be exact.

I would like more warmer low end since in my recordings low end does not exist, I am getting nothing but mids and really fizzy highs, so getting some warmth would be really nice as long is its still clear.

A lot of people say that the winged C's have a really smooth high end. Are they Implying that it is balanced (in tone an in saturation at high volumes) or that its softer?
 
Dunno which amp ya got, but in my 5150 I swapped out the Sovteks for Rubys and instant bite and punch. Unless the Sovteks were no good, had seen better days, but having the Rubys in has made a big difference.

Now my XXX on the other hand was swapped out with JJel34s and the Rubys replaced. Big difference heard at high volumes, more aggression, tighter characteristics, wish the 5150 could do the same!

EDIT; Woops, ya got in before me.
 
slayercannibalsuffohead said:
Dunno which amp ya got, but in my 5150 I swapped out the Sovteks for Rubys and instant bite and punch. Unless the Sovteks were no good, had seen better days, but having the Rubys in has made a big difference.

Now my XXX on the other hand was swapped out with JJel34s and the Rubys replaced. Big difference heard at high volumes, more aggression, tighter characteristics, wish the 5150 could do the same!

EDIT; Woops, ya got in before me.
Click to expand...

yea not really a fan of the sovteks that are currently in it right now, really no punch or clarity. I swapped out the tubes with some other WXTs from a spider valve that was in the house when i first picked up my 5150 and their wasn't a noticeable difference. Still can't tell if its the sovteks or if its the amp just yet but I can at least try the cheapest variable.
 
I really like Tung-Sol EL34b's. They have all of the tightness, low end, and muscle of 6L6's...but the crunch of EL34's. I've always found JJ's to be a little on the harsh side. I've bought a bunch of their kits as well as their individual tubes over the years...and they just don't really do it for me. Winged C's are awesome as well. In my humble opinion though, for maximum crunch and clarity as well as low end tightness and grunt, the Tung-Sol EL34b's are the way to go.
 
TheWinterSnow said:
A lot of people say that the winged C's have a really smooth high end. Are they Implying that it is balanced (in tone an in saturation at high volumes) or that its softer?
Click to expand...

A bit smoother in the high frequencies. They are not harsh, brittle, or grainy, in the highs, but the highs are there. The winged C's also have good harmonic content.
 
I've heard good things about the Tung Sol 6L6's, too. I never had the chance to try them yet, though.

The Ruby 6L6GC-MSTR's are good as well. They are a little more aggressive sounding that the SED's, but not quite as thick in the low mids.
 
When I was replacing the screen grid resistors that blew out i noticed that the two outside tubes are wired in a way that would accept EL34's, as everyone claims that putting EL34s in a 5150 would cause problems, but i doubled checked and it looks like the wiring is EL34 capable. I am curious about trying out EL34's but worry about if the PT could handle the 3A current from the EL34 heater current. I also worry about the 34's not having the same balls or aggression as the 6l6's. Really love the 34 sound, especially along the lines of KSE (when they were using the cobra) and Behemoth, and even the earlier linkin park, before I was really into metal I was really digging the el34 Marshall tone crunch of LP
 
bump, nitro, get back in here with your EL34 knowledge.

I was looking over the 3 channel recto. Going over all the features its pretty obvious how limited the 5150 truly is, with the recto having silicon and tube rectifier and power settings (bold and spnongy) as well as the different voicing that change the eq curve of the presence control, along with the ability to run just about every type of power tube on the face of the earth. Maybe gassing for a recto soon, would love to mix EL34's and KT88's, but still have to run through my variables with the fiddy

EDIT: i was playing last night and realized that the huge problem in the amp is that the mids sounds way to round and way to harsh. Could be the old power tubes, however, I think it really has more to do with the resonant frequency of the cab being too high and in the wooly range, it needs to be deeper and lower to give more chug.
 
You should buy my triple recto ;-) price also includes a full set of EL34's and 6L6's
 
I would prefer a dual, and even so i literally don't have ANY money right now. but a full set of both tubes would be fucking killer.

EDIT: Also your in the UK, i am in America, don;t feel like having to replace the PT.
 
^intersting, that would be a decent combo once you get the bias mod on it. I notice that the bias mod adds more warmth to the sound and tames the 12k+ fizz.
 
they are all fixed biased stock, you have to mod them. its just a matter of removing the resistor and soldering a pot. The pot is a 10k ohm and you connect a 5.1k resistor to it on of the terminals and then trip the wiper to any outside terminal. Connect a wire from the outside terminal not connected to the resistor and then solder the resistor and the wire (the outside terminals) to where the original resistor was.

You have to know what resistor you are looking for, but if you google search "(amp) bias mod" there is usually a bunch of tutorials with schematics and pictures whoing you where that resistor is at and specifically step by step. IF you look for 6505 bias mod there is a PDF that Jerry from FJA mods made and he has some pictures of what to do.

With my bias mod that I did, i used a full sized pot and drilled a hole into the chassis so that the knob is external and i odn;t have to remove the chassis out from the box to make adjustments. makes life easier
 
TheWinterSnow said:
they are all fixed biased stock, you have to mod them. its just a matter of removing the resistor and soldering a pot. The pot is a 10k ohm and you connect a 5.4k resistor to it on of the terminals and then trip the wiper to any outside terminal. Connect a wire from the outside terminal not connected to the resistor and then solder the resistor and the wire (the outside terminals) to where the original resistor was.

You have to know what resistor you are looking for, but if you google search "(amp) bias mod" there is usually a bunch of tutorials with schematics and pictures whoing you where that resistor is at and specifically step by step. IF you look for 6505 bias mod there is a PDF that Jerry from FJA mods made and he has some pictures of what to do.

With my bias mod that I did, i used a full sized pot and drilled a hole into the chassis so that the knob is external and i odn;t have to remove the chassis out from the box to make adjustments. makes life easier
Click to expand...

sweet, cheers for the info!! im waiing to get mine back, stock it sounds fuckin awesome and i was getting great mic'd tones from it, so it will be one of those things after ive had it a few months and i fancy changing the bias!!
 
yea I ran through different bias settings last night, and the cold settings the 5150 flavor holds sounds really thin when you hear one properly biased. Though they get a bit more mid heavy and can sound wooly, i think if you find the best bias spot with whatever cab you are using, you can get a much thicker, crunchier sound.

The thing that is bothering me about my setup is how unnatural the mids sound. Still trying to figure out what it is but in the process I am beginning to gas for a dual recto.

oh and heres the Jerry PDF

http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/peavey/modnotes/fja_5150_bias_mod.pdf
 
yeah to each his own. used to not be a fan of the rectos, but the idea of being able to run just about any tube I want, have sag control and variable channel voicings i think that i would be able to fine tune my tone better.
 
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