[kotornut]

Some people think that changing tubes can make an amp sound drastically different. I wish I had a bridge to sell.

Yeah, I think driver tubes do make a huge difference, but power tubes of the same type of respectable brands, not so much. If I went from 5881 to KT88s then yes, a big difference. Or from Groove Tubes (just the first brand to come to mind) to some no name brand then yeah, but from a Mesa 6L6 to a Groove tubes 6L6, not so much. I had this debate with my former bandmate every time he thought he was getting better tone than I was by changing tubes, strings or whatever he could. And honestly people always gave me the compliments.

I don't mean that in arrogance I just mean that it's in a lot of dudes heads and it's completely subjective.

This guy did it with pickups the most. He bought these ultra expensive boutique PAF styled PUPs and was really excited, and then on our album a lot of people asked me what I was using. My stuff was just stock Gibson at the time.

Yeah, some things matter, but not as much as I think people think it does. Especially to the non-gearhead people that are listening.

 

[kotornut]

Whatever. It's your amp, not mine. :lol:

Don't own it anymore, but I never had any problems in 8 years. Not even a blown fuse. So there you are.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with mesa tubes. If the amp sounded great wehn you bought it, why would you need to change it?

 

[kotornut]

Odds are NOT slim of tubes from a different manufacturer having a drastically different transconductance! I don't know about 6L6's, but I've seen EL34's that, when substituted for another pair of EL34's would draw TWICE the current with the same bias voltage. This means the following in a non-adjustable bias amp:

1. If original tubes are biased properly and new ones are naturally "hotter" - they will be biased way outside of their acceptable range and when cranked they will glow red and eventually fail.
2. If the original tubes are biased cold, and the new ones are naturally "colder", the amp will be biased too cold which will lead to unpleasant crossover distortion in the power section.

Not putting in a bias pot is Mesa's way of getting you to buy their tubes over the lifetime of the amp. That's why some folks put in a bias mod.

When I bought my Mesa from the Mesa store in Hollywood. They told me that I didn't need to bias any tubes as long as they are either 5881 (6L6) or (EL34) tubes, it was a Rectifier. I asked them, "does brand matter," they said "no." Just the type of tube itself. I figure they'd know because that is a store just for Mesa and is owned by the factory, and the salesmen are Mesa employees.

Now just to add the whole info, that was about 10 years ago now, so things could have changed.