Mesa triple recto preamp tubes (lasse, lolzgreg)

[amarshism]

Finally retubing my recto after 4 years. I use it for a modern death metal sound and play plenty of leads. What tubes do you guys recommend I put and in what positions and why? If you could suggest an online place to buy them would be even better.

If you need a reference thy art is murder in my sig.

 

[lolzgreg]

I've had a lot of luck with Ruby 12AX7 AC5 HG+ tubes for the preamp, as well as the Sovtek 12AX7LPS, as long as it's not in the cathode follower position, which is often V3 in many high gainers.


http://www.dougstubes.com/tonekits.html

I recommend Doug's Tubes tone kits. He is local to me, a great guy, and has great prices: Get the preamp tone kit (5) 12ax7 for the Mesa High Gain amp.


You can buy those tubes here, also: http://valvequeen.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=5&Itemid=5

 

[amarshism]

Thanks. Ordered the kit. Hopefully all goes well. Out of curiosity, how often should I be changing my preamp tubes with approximately 30hrs of use a week/how often do you change yours. I hadn't played my recto in about a year so didn't really have much to go by in how much the tone has shifted since I first bought it but I feel the low end is sagging quite a bit and it seemed less aggressive. I've just changed my power amp section so it will be interesting to hear the difference with new pre amp tubes. Thanks for the suggestion Greg.

 

[lolzgreg]

No problem dude. I'm not a gigging musician, and all of my amps get a pretty decent amount of rotation, so I change my power tubes roughly once per year or year and a half, and preamp tubes every two or three, unless they're going microphonic.

I for one have NEVER blown a power tube nor a preamp tube in any of my amps that I had retubed. I always change 'em before they go, but they're also shelved and do not leave the house.

For you, I'd recommend changing the preamp tubes once every two years. It's always a good idea to have a set of the same tubes around for comparisons sake.

If you're lucky, you can get your amp biased once, and then get a quad of power amp tubes with a near identical power rating as the last quad, so you do not need to rebias.

Boogie amps in general are all cathode biased, so they don't need biasing, but may benefit from installing a bias pot.

The best way to bias is with a scope, and check that the power amp section is not producing a distorted sine wave. In my opinion, that's more important than getting the MA rating higher. It depends on the tubes and the amplifier in question.

Also, Doug's Tubes is really a great source. Doug actually got together with a group of very particular and talented guitarists with various amps and brought a storage tote of preamp tubes with him to try different combinations for each amplifier to see what was considered "best" by near-unanimous vote.

Cheers,

-Greg

 

[bryan_kilco]

I've never personally played many amps with different types of tubes, but our other guitarist has a Dual Recto and he retubed with JJ's, I think from Eurotubes.....he got the high gain set (which is probably not needed in a Recto) but I think they sound pretty good.

My Mark IV has Sovtek 12AX7s in the pre and Groove Tubes for power.....fuckers lasted about 5 years now, but it's time....

Let us know your results!

 

[Fvlt]

My one Recto is currently loaded with a Tung-Sol in the V1 and the stock JJs in the remainder of the positions. I like the results enough that I don't want to mess with them any further.

My other Recto is currently loaded with all JJs. One of these days I'm going to swap the V1 in that one to a Tung-Sol as well to see if it responds the same.

For power tubes I usually prefer stock Mesa 6L6s or SEDs, however SEDs are getting pricey and I don't feel they're worth the extra cost. I prefer 6L6s to EL34s, however for EL34s I like JJ E34Ls as they give some of the EL34 midrange whilst retaining some of the 6L6 bottom end.

I expect to replace my power tubes every year or so in my main amp. I never replace the preamp tubes unless they fail or go microphonic.

 

[Bevosss]

for EL34s I like JJ E34Ls as they give some of the EL34 midrange whilst retaining some of the 6L6 bottom end.

My Recto got retubed with the JJ E34Ls also, the tech, who is an amp builder, claimed he got more power with them than the Mesa 6L6s. It lost a little bottom end, but made up for that with a great grindy midrange. I had no problems since with the JJs, alhough I've heard lots of unreliability stories about them.

I think the SED =C= EL34s are still favoured as the top EL34, also the Ruby STR EL34B and EL34BHT, the BHT being the more reliable overall.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

7025 Mullard RI in v1, second best would be TAD (chinese) 7025.
Sovtek LPS for the PI, Chinese for Loop, JJ for the rest.

=C= 6L6 for the poweramp.

 

[B36arin]

Bookmarked, this thread is gold!

 

[chrisonthebrink]

7025 Mullard RI in v1, second best would be TAD (chinese) 7025.
Sovtek LPS for the PI, Chinese for Loop, JJ for the rest.

=C= 6L6 for the poweramp.

This advice is absolute gold! I changed the tubes exactly as Lasse described on my Mesa Dual Rec (2010 reborn) and Peavey 6505 and both amps sound incredible. The most notable change was on the Peavey, it became really clear and detailed and the hiss/fizz it had is now gone.

Thanks so much for this!