EL34 vs 6V6 vs EL84 tone?

[bluefoxicy]

I've gotten my amp to sound "good" now and I'm not liking the E34L I put in there (EL34 with bigger low end says Eurotubes...). It's a good tube, it has a smooth tone, I made it overdrive nice, but it doesn't seem to have the same bite as an EL84.

 

The EL84 seems to distort highs a lot more.. or respond to them more. The E34L doesn't have that quality and doesn't seem to be so versatile... I'm thinking of trying a 6V6 to hit a middle ground, because the E34L is a smooth sounding tube, honestly isn't that bad, just doesn't give me what I need.

 

I've started yanking the bitmo stuff out of there and using my own adjustments... C1 0.022uF/0.0015uF switch, going to build my own tone control too (single dial, 2 caps, voltage divider). I'll reuse that stuff later... the amp was actually GREAT before, so I'll rebuild the last iteration in a new head. I might change that tube to a 6V6 or EL84 permanently... if that turns out to be the problem. I've also considered switching C2, having a 0.0010uF/0.022uF output, to see if I can mess with the E34L that way.

 

Of course I can't immediately blame a tube when I'm using a Marshallized component set, now can I? :|

 

Any comments here?

[bluefoxicy]

Okay, a 6V6 sounds FAR superior to an E34L in this application. It's got a little wider bottom, a nice crunch. I like it for blues (using an Electro-Harmonix, but looking into a Tung-Sol) but too much headroom in my current configuration. Not so impressed with overdriving my 12AX7 that much either... I think I'll raise the grid leak from 470k to ... 50% higher? about 700k? Should give me the tone I'm liking (100% volume) at about 2/3 volume.

 

Right now it's slightly underbiased too (about 14.5W instead of 14W) ... I think. I need to actually measure voltages and do some math.

 

Sick: I could feasibly work a second octal socket, 6V6 into this, and double the dynamic range for every tone; the E34L takes twice the power. Might need to raise the signal a bit more, I'm not sure how the signal propagates to parallel circuits... I'd rather push-pull something like that though.