Bluesguitar
Active member
Hi all,
Since my first 2 posts were a question and then a whine, I thought I'd report some re-tube results.
Received my 2nd RM100PB head yesterday and already had new tubes waiting (nothing against the JJ's, they rock of course)....I'm just a tube geek and love to experiment. My 1st RM100P has 6L6's so I wanted this one loaded with KT77's.
Anyway, I ordered a matching quad of the new Genalex Gold Lion reissue KT77's from Tube Depot and 3 matching/balanced Tung sol gold 12AX7's.
I have an XTC and SL+ module in it for now and played extensively before the swap (I adjusted the Biasing to 33.0 on the JJ 6L6's before playing it). The head is running through a stock VHT Fatbottom 412 slant loaded with Eminence P50E's. Both test were run using an American standard Strat with Vintage noisless PU's in the neck position.
I hit the gain pretty hard because I like a very agressive electric blues sound.
With the stock 6L6's and JJ12AX7's the amp had a nice crunchy distortion, good low end, not muddy....just an all around fat, very usable tone.
I set the KT77 bias settings at 41.0 (as a reference).
With the Genalex reissues and tungsol preamp tubes, the sounds became a lot more desirable to me overall. The distortion settings, set identical, now have a creamier quality to them. I didn't lose any crunch, it just sounds smoother and more refined. I lost a small touch of extreme bottom end but gained some nice lower mid's (which is more preferable for me). Overall gain seems almost identical.
The head is very pleasing right now and I played the crap out of it after the change. It will be a while before the tubes are broken in, but overall I'm very happy with the change and would strongly recommend these re-issue PT's. All of this is just an opinion of course.
I know it's tough to throw down the money on something like these KT77's, but I have to admit, for what I do on guitar the change was worth every penny.
There ya go......I'll shut up for a while. I just have new guy syndrome!
James
Since my first 2 posts were a question and then a whine, I thought I'd report some re-tube results.
Received my 2nd RM100PB head yesterday and already had new tubes waiting (nothing against the JJ's, they rock of course)....I'm just a tube geek and love to experiment. My 1st RM100P has 6L6's so I wanted this one loaded with KT77's.
Anyway, I ordered a matching quad of the new Genalex Gold Lion reissue KT77's from Tube Depot and 3 matching/balanced Tung sol gold 12AX7's.
I have an XTC and SL+ module in it for now and played extensively before the swap (I adjusted the Biasing to 33.0 on the JJ 6L6's before playing it). The head is running through a stock VHT Fatbottom 412 slant loaded with Eminence P50E's. Both test were run using an American standard Strat with Vintage noisless PU's in the neck position.
I hit the gain pretty hard because I like a very agressive electric blues sound.
With the stock 6L6's and JJ12AX7's the amp had a nice crunchy distortion, good low end, not muddy....just an all around fat, very usable tone.
I set the KT77 bias settings at 41.0 (as a reference).
With the Genalex reissues and tungsol preamp tubes, the sounds became a lot more desirable to me overall. The distortion settings, set identical, now have a creamier quality to them. I didn't lose any crunch, it just sounds smoother and more refined. I lost a small touch of extreme bottom end but gained some nice lower mid's (which is more preferable for me). Overall gain seems almost identical.
The head is very pleasing right now and I played the crap out of it after the change. It will be a while before the tubes are broken in, but overall I'm very happy with the change and would strongly recommend these re-issue PT's. All of this is just an opinion of course.
I know it's tough to throw down the money on something like these KT77's, but I have to admit, for what I do on guitar the change was worth every penny.
There ya go......I'll shut up for a while. I just have new guy syndrome!
James
