Retubing Mesa Dual Rectifier

S

SirZephyr

New Metal Member
Mar 29, 2008
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Tampere, Finland
I just bought old 2ch Dual Rectifier (rev g), and i'm about to retube it.

I allready have five new JJ ECC83S's for front end, but i'm still wondering what to choose for the poweramp.

Have anyone tried KT88/KT66 mix, that eurotubes recommends for drop tune metal players? i'm very intrested to hear something about these bastards..

https://ssl.eurotubes.com/cart/index.php?page=view_products&category_id=6&sub_category_id=29

Or should i go with standard 6L6GC's (probably JJ's)

EL34's seem to be little too thin, mid honky and piercing for my tastes, but i could be wrong.

i wish to get little more tightness and definition for the lowend, without losing it..

btw. i allready have Maxon TS808 on front of my amp, so the basic homework is done..

thank's for the answers!
 
There is a bit problem with KT tubes in Rectos due to their specific bias. My friend tried them, but the sound wasn't good. Besides of it you can damage your amp.

I have an old Rev F, and there are JJ's E34L (not EL34). It sounds absolutely crushing!
 
A friend of mine put the Eurotubes 6L6 kit in his Triple Rec and it's easily the best sounding 3-channel Rec I've ever used (besides the new version). So my first instinct is to advise you to grab the 6L6 kit.
 
Terminus said:
Step #1: BE CAREFUL

Shit can kill ya.
Click to expand...

Since when does changing tubes have the risk of death. I hope that was a joke.

To the OP, You could run 2 KT88s leaving the other two tube sockets unused, but the screen grid voltage would still be incorrect and would result in shortening tube life, but if you are willing to pay that much for tubes (KT88s aren't cheap) just to have them go out on you quicker, be my guest.

Personally I would recommend getting 6L6s, some =C= if you can.

dr.distortion said:
Besides of it you can damage your amp.
Click to expand...

That's not quite how it works.
 
I just spend few hours testing Dual Rec with EH EL34's (stock Cobra tubes). There was clear difference, but not as big as i had tought. Little less lowend, but it really didn't make it any tighter. Biggest difference was in midrange. Clean chanel was much worse with EL34s, so they are out of the question..

Still wanting to hear if someone have experiences, good or bad with the Eurotubes KT88-KT66 set. Don't believe they would damage the amp itself, cos' eurotubes seem to know what they are doing/selling...

offtopic, i'm finding hard time get used to rectifiers sound, after playing five years with 5150. It still stays in the house side to side with recto.
 
SirZephyr said:
Still wanting to hear if someone have experiences, good or bad with the Eurotubes KT88-KT66 set. Don't believe they would damage the amp itself, cos' eurotubes seem to know what they are doing/selling...
Click to expand...

No they don't, plain and simple. Bob years ago was banned from the Peavey forums by amp designer Roger Crimm (one of the main designers for the 5150) for continuously posting dangerous mods and telling people to ignore Roger when he warned them to NOT do those mods.

Basically KT88s won't be too happy in a Recto, as some of the biasing voltages exceed the maximum DO NOT EXCEED specifications of a KT88. KT66s sound very similar to 6L6s but have a looser low end, so really defeats the purpose to use them. Even worse KT88s will be horribly underpowered in a 120W amp in that configuration, resulting in what is considered unpredictable territory in terms of power deliverance to the load (cab)

Get some 6L6s and be done with it.
 
Not to be a total dick, but why on earth would anyone want to stick a tube that wasn't designed to go in an amp like the KTs? Is it just the need to be different?

Stock gear kills, why fuck with it? I have not replaced the tubes in a while and have put it off my mind, but decided to go look and yerp, I'm derping EL34s :lol:
 
My intrest to KT66/KT88 set rise from eurotube's description: This is a kit I put together for for drop tuned Metal players who want a "kill on contact" low end but who have out grown the scooped mid thing and need a good cutting solo voice.

But i really wanted another opinion about these tubes, and it seems that 6L6's are the way to go!

Now i'm thinking between JJ's 6L6GC AND SED =C= 6L6GC

=C= should have little tighter low end, and more pronounced mids and highs, which seem to be my cup of tea. The questions is: Are they worth 2x prize.

Has anyone A/B'd these fuckers side by side?
 
Sed =C= / winged C are the only way to go with rectifier imho...
Go for it (that what I have in my recto and I don't want put anything else).
 
Just wanted to chime in and say i re-tubed my 2001ish 3 channel dual rec about 6 months ago with the "Mesa Dual Rec KT88 - GZ34 - High gain pre option" kit from eurotubes. It slays imo. I am extremely happy with it. I was really worried about my amp potentially blowing up while i played it, due to the amount of people on the web saying that you shouldnt put kt88s in your rec. I can attest that this has not occured. I keep back of head settings on Bold, Solid State rec, and 6l6 bias. I only play this amp for about 8 hours a week at practice, but so far so good, and ive noticed no tonal degradation.
I would also encourage you to just call the Eurotubes guys on the phone and tell them specifically what you want to achieve and how you like to set the head up normally. I know that with the quad kt88 option that i chose, Im not supposed to put the head in el34 mode. They warned that it would be bad for the head, Explosions, Fire, ya know. So Im sure there are guidelines for which tube sets should work in which modes. But they are suprisingly helpfull folks. Good Luck.
 
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