Newer Marshall amps and tubes
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Posted on Mar 24, 2005 08:00 am
Autumn Design
living in the comatorium
Member Since: Mar 23, 2005
Ive been playing with a Marshall TSL 100 for almost a year now and it sounds great, but i want to try and get different distortion tones to come right from the amp. i want to try new tubes, but before i spend a fortune i want to get some feedback as to different tube types and how they sound. (it currently has EL84's and 6L6's)
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af_analogcrazy canuckMember
Since: Nov 25, 2004
Mar 24, 2005 11:42 am I have an early 90's JCM 900...I took the Sovtek tubes out of it and put an entire set of groove tubes in it, sounds very different...I found it brought out more of the guitars natural tonal qualities, smoother gain.
Keep in mind it's your pre amp tubes that determine your tone, not your output tubes, but if you are going to change some of them, why not change them all.
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Mar 24, 2005 11:58 am I haven't seen too much tube reference bantered about here, but I'll chime in with my .02$us
You mentioned EL84 and 6L6, I'm guessing you meant EL34. Not familiar with that particular amp, I'd guess that there's 4 EL34, or 4 6L6 in the output section. Svetlana was making some well-regarded EL34s, but they had to change the name to something with a winged C logo. (can't remember off hand). If you have sovtek, or groove-tubes in there, this may be a decent improvement. If there's JJ in there, you may not notice much diff, i've heard they are good as well. If you're a real tone hound, you could shell for siemens, or mullards, but I don't think it'd be worth it as the TSL is pretty involved in changing the sound via circuitry, so you'd probably not notice the diff much.
There's also KT66 (used in the early JTM45 and some later models) as well as the KT88 (higher power than the KT66). Some marshall owners will only use 66s in their amps.
As far as the 6L6 family, there's the 5881 which was common in Fender bassman's (the forerunner of the marshall amp). These would offer a sound more tamed and (arqueably) more refined. I'd say, overall, the 6L6 family will give you a more tamed, smoother distortion than the EL34 family. I think the 6051 is a higher power version of the 6L6 line. ALso, there's some people who purchase high-power (read old NOS) 6v6 tubes in their marshalls for a different, lower power sound.
If you're really interested, there's the marshall forum page - www.vintageamps.com - that has lots of old threads you can peruse through.
Remember as well, when changing tubes, it's very recommended to re-set bias. Even though some people say it's not important, the proper operating range for a tube should be sought after to get a good sound range, as well as good life.
Also, beware, there's lotsa deadly volts inside a tube amp. Putzing around inside can kill you, maim you, send you to the hospital, etc. even when it's unplugged. Caps can hold hundreds of volts for a very long time.
hth
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Mar 24, 2005 12:02 pm A couple of things:
Groove Tubes buy all of their tubes from Sovtek and only brand the ones that pass their QA...so Groove Tubes are Sovtek tubes. I don't think that there is going to be much of a difference in tone between the two. Actually, lots of tube brands just buy Sovtek tubes and rebrand them (Russia is one of the few countries that even still manufactures vaccum tubes. I think China is one of the others).
And the power tubes absolutely DO affect tone just as much as your preamp tubes, maybe even more. When you crank up a tube amp's master volume, that's when the power tubes start to distort and add their own (much smoother) distortion. When you crank up the preamp gain, all you get is that nasty scratchy beehive sound that you can get out of any solid-state practice amp.
Here's one place where you can learn about tubes: www.thetubestore.com/
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Mar 24, 2005 12:02 pm partially true, analog, preamp tubes do greatly affect the tone of your signal, but the power section dictates the sought-after tube distortion sound. It all can have noticable effects on your overall sound.
A note about groove-tubes, they are only re-branded tubes from other manufacturers. They just slap their silk-screen logo onto the tube, match them bias-wise (that's the number) and sell them as their own.
Not necessarily a bad thing, but something a consumer should be aware of.
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Mar 24, 2005 12:05 pm lol pj, nice simul-post :)
