I retubed my Handsome Devil head

[kiteman]

and wow, my researches paid off. :)

For the preamp I used the Tung-Sol new production tubes and for the poweramp the Sovtek EL84M tubes.

Before the job I had Mullard RIs in it. They were certainly sweet sounding, bright and chimey. I have worn them out as I'd just noticed when the new tubes are louder than these.

From my researches, the Tung-sol was considered the most musical sounding tube and the Sovtek is military grade which is good for hi-fi applications. The Sovtek is tight and does not break up early so there's plenty of headroom from it.

In a way, my amp sound like a hybrid, tubed preamp and SS poweramp. The tone is not bright nor is it dark, it's buttery. :)

[Spudman]

So did you just use 12AX7s in the pre?

[kiteman]

No, I put 'em all in. :)

[kiteman]

Hmm... the preamp sounds pretty tight and lots of headroom just like the poweramp (have both the level and drive knobs and experimented).

I know we have SS amps that try to sound like a tube amp but I guess I made my tube amp sound like an SS amp (flat response?). Why would I do that? Simple, it's transparent to the pedals. Makes my pedals sound truer to the modeling.

When I plugged the guitar straight to the amp it reminds me of my Blues Jr amp I had (loaded with Mullard RIs). Lots of clean. :)