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Swapping Tubes

2K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  bammbamm 
#1 ·
Hey guys, another power tube thread. Just have a couple of questions

I love the sound my F-100 gets with its sovtec 6l6's. But i just need to know. what other tubes can fit instead of 6l6's???

has anyone ever switched the stock tubes with different model tubes??

Would there be any bias involved with using totally different tubes???

how bout EL84's compared to 6l6's? are they the same size so will they retrofit?? How bout tone? Do the El's have more tone and distortion than a 6l6's??

thanks
 
#2 ·
Any 6L6 from Mesa, EH, JJ, MULLARD, you name it, they will fit.
Not 84's, I think 34's can, but you need to check your owner's manual.
Either way, I'd suggest not messing with it, you're not experienced so unless you've got money to spend, take it to someone who can better inform you.

The 6L6's are going to be bigger and badder than 84's anyway.

100 Watts is a lot for a bedroom amp. Maybe look into a power soak?
 
#3 ·
34(i think) wont work apropriately, even though the pin pattern and the setup in the circuit is the same, its a completely different voltages on all the pins, it needs a minor rewire and a differnt bias setup

you can rebias with 6550 tubes, if they fit with your socket retainer or claw can be added, but you need to boost your input to get that 6550 headroom so you essentially wouldnt need the preamp section on the head you are using becasue the output of the preamp(circuit voltage) is too low to make the 6550 tubes scream. but sending a preamp setup with a tube stage at the end into the effets loop would do the trick
 
#6 ·
i kinda get what you guys mean. ill check my manual again to see. i just have been having a hard time finding that information.

oh yea. just another quick question. what do the 12AX7s do?? what are they on an amp for?? do they contribute to the distortion?? or the clean??
 
#13 ·
i kinda get what you guys mean. ill check my manual again to see. i just have been having a hard time finding that information.

oh yea. just another quick question. what do the 12AX7s do?? what are they on an amp for?? do they contribute to the distortion?? or the clean??
Seriously, do some reading before you start messing with your amp, you shouldn't be touching it, man. Not to sound rude, but you should just play it and enjoy it. Your lack of experience will cause you to fry your amp, and you aren't going to get any 1 line answers here that magically give you the key to the holy grail of tone.

If you're not getting the tone you want out of it, re-read the user's manual, Mesa gives some great examples and they know what they're talking about. If you still can't dial in a good tone, then rethink your amp.
 
#8 ·
12ax7 is a preamp tube

it is what the signal goes through and it enherently controls the smaller chole tranny that send signal voltage to the power tubes that control the power transformer

and depending on what 12ax7 you have you can either accentuate the cleans, or you can drive the gain up to get all out ballz distortion. usually high gain tubes that are used for distortion have inherent charachteristics that make them sound cleaner at high gain structures, and other 12ax7 tubes sound great at lower gain structures and completely mudd out at higher gain applications

whats is in it now??
 
#9 ·
Changing preamp tubes can have a BIG impact on tone. Sometimes more than changing the output tubes.
I've heard you can put 6v6's in place of 6L6's. This would bring down the wattage and probably give you more saturation. I wouldn't just plug them in though. You'd have to do some research and bias the amp for sure.
 
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