duhvoodooman
May 10th, 2006, 08:20 PM
Just for grins, I decided to retube my Delta Blues. Wanted to have a full set of backup tubes on hand anyway, so this was a good opportunity to experiment a bit.
I bopped over to Eurotubes.com (http://www.eurotubes.com/index.htm) and found that they offer a variety of JJ Tesla retube kits for popular amp types, including the Peavey Classic/Delta Blues line of amps. Depending on the sound you're looking for, they offer several different tube combos, consisting of a quad of matched EL84 power tubes and various iterations on the three preamp tubes. The Classic 30/50/Delta Blues amps come with three Electro Harmonix 12AX7's as the stock preamp tubes. Depending on what you're looking for as far as headroom vs. distortion/gain characteristics, Eurotubes offers combinations of JJ ECC83S (12AX7 type, nominal gain=100), ECC832 (12DW7 type, a hybrid tube that's like half a 12AX7 and half a 12AU7, which has a gain of only 20) and ECC81 (12AT7 type, gain=60) tubes. Being lower gain models, these latter two give less volume & distortion and more clean headroom. The character of the distortion seems to change somewhat, too, being less harsh.
I chose the "Blues" option, which consisted of two ECC83S's in the first and last preamp tube positions (V1 & V3) and the ECC832 in the middle (V2) position, which is the gain tube for the lead channel. Eurotubes describes the Blues option tube package as follows:
"A matched quad of the JJ EL84's in a hotter grade along with a standard ECC83S in V1, an ECC832 in V2 to drop the gain and give a very natural blues tone and a graded ECC83S with a high current output in V3. These give a smoother tone that is great for Blues."
The tubes came today, so I popped them in the DB tonight and tested them out. The ECC832 certainly had the advertised effect. Volume and degree of distortion were reduced markedly. But even with the gain cranked way up, I could notice a smoother, rounder tone than the stock 12AX7 had given.
I also had a spare JJ Tesla ECC83S tube I'd bought a few months back for my VOX AD30VT, so I popped out the ECC832 and put the hotter ECC83S in, to compare the two head to head. Volume and distortion increased substantially (as did noise!), and the distortion took on a sharper edge. So while the ECC832 would be great for blues, this tube is probably better for a more aggressive rock tone. Certainly, it's better for shear volume, if that's a consideration!
I recorded some short audio clips with both tube setups, using both my Les Paul and my Strat. For the LP clip with the hotter ECC83S, I turned down the post-gain setting to get volume similar to the ECC832 clip. I recorded the same short riff three times in each clip, once at each of the three pickup selector settings.
For the two Strat clips I used a little different approach. To equalize the volume between the two, this time I backed off the gain ("Pre") setting. This not only reduced the volume but also tamed the distortion some. Still, I think you can hear the difference in the character as well as the degree of the distortion between the two clips. Crank up the volume a bit when you listen to them, so that you can hear the character of the distortion more clearly. Keep in mind that I'm dealing with fairly low levels of distortion ("overdrive" would probably be a better description) throughout this exercise.
Here are links to the four clips:
Strat with ECC832 in V2 (http://duhvoodooman.com/audio_clips/Strat_ECC832.mp3)
Strat with ECC83S in V2 (http://duhvoodooman.com/audio_clips/Strat_ECC83_S.mp3)
LP with ECC832 in V2 (http://duhvoodooman.com/audio_clips/LP_ECC832.mp3)
LP with ECC83S in V2 (http://duhvoodooman.com/audio_clips/LP_ECC83_S.mp3)
Let me know what you hear when you listen to them!
For now, I'm leaving the ECC832 in, so I can play around with it some more. If I need more distortion, I can always stomp on the ol' Bad Monkey....
I bopped over to Eurotubes.com (http://www.eurotubes.com/index.htm) and found that they offer a variety of JJ Tesla retube kits for popular amp types, including the Peavey Classic/Delta Blues line of amps. Depending on the sound you're looking for, they offer several different tube combos, consisting of a quad of matched EL84 power tubes and various iterations on the three preamp tubes. The Classic 30/50/Delta Blues amps come with three Electro Harmonix 12AX7's as the stock preamp tubes. Depending on what you're looking for as far as headroom vs. distortion/gain characteristics, Eurotubes offers combinations of JJ ECC83S (12AX7 type, nominal gain=100), ECC832 (12DW7 type, a hybrid tube that's like half a 12AX7 and half a 12AU7, which has a gain of only 20) and ECC81 (12AT7 type, gain=60) tubes. Being lower gain models, these latter two give less volume & distortion and more clean headroom. The character of the distortion seems to change somewhat, too, being less harsh.
I chose the "Blues" option, which consisted of two ECC83S's in the first and last preamp tube positions (V1 & V3) and the ECC832 in the middle (V2) position, which is the gain tube for the lead channel. Eurotubes describes the Blues option tube package as follows:
"A matched quad of the JJ EL84's in a hotter grade along with a standard ECC83S in V1, an ECC832 in V2 to drop the gain and give a very natural blues tone and a graded ECC83S with a high current output in V3. These give a smoother tone that is great for Blues."
The tubes came today, so I popped them in the DB tonight and tested them out. The ECC832 certainly had the advertised effect. Volume and degree of distortion were reduced markedly. But even with the gain cranked way up, I could notice a smoother, rounder tone than the stock 12AX7 had given.
I also had a spare JJ Tesla ECC83S tube I'd bought a few months back for my VOX AD30VT, so I popped out the ECC832 and put the hotter ECC83S in, to compare the two head to head. Volume and distortion increased substantially (as did noise!), and the distortion took on a sharper edge. So while the ECC832 would be great for blues, this tube is probably better for a more aggressive rock tone. Certainly, it's better for shear volume, if that's a consideration!
I recorded some short audio clips with both tube setups, using both my Les Paul and my Strat. For the LP clip with the hotter ECC83S, I turned down the post-gain setting to get volume similar to the ECC832 clip. I recorded the same short riff three times in each clip, once at each of the three pickup selector settings.
For the two Strat clips I used a little different approach. To equalize the volume between the two, this time I backed off the gain ("Pre") setting. This not only reduced the volume but also tamed the distortion some. Still, I think you can hear the difference in the character as well as the degree of the distortion between the two clips. Crank up the volume a bit when you listen to them, so that you can hear the character of the distortion more clearly. Keep in mind that I'm dealing with fairly low levels of distortion ("overdrive" would probably be a better description) throughout this exercise.
Here are links to the four clips:
Strat with ECC832 in V2 (http://duhvoodooman.com/audio_clips/Strat_ECC832.mp3)
Strat with ECC83S in V2 (http://duhvoodooman.com/audio_clips/Strat_ECC83_S.mp3)
LP with ECC832 in V2 (http://duhvoodooman.com/audio_clips/LP_ECC832.mp3)
LP with ECC83S in V2 (http://duhvoodooman.com/audio_clips/LP_ECC83_S.mp3)
Let me know what you hear when you listen to them!
For now, I'm leaving the ECC832 in, so I can play around with it some more. If I need more distortion, I can always stomp on the ol' Bad Monkey....