Hiberna Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 What would happen if i bought an amp with 4 EL34s and swapped two out for two L6Ls. so id have two EL34s and two L6Ls. providing i bias it all and such, what id end up with is a mixture of lovely smooth distortion with some bite from the EL34s. is this right what i presume? or would i end up just blowing it?
rafaelh Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 I guess anything's possible. Although I belive it would be more involved than just biasing. On Fender amps with 6L6s for example you'd have to remove a resistor from the tube socket pins and ground it....or something like that. Can't remember. I remember reading somewhere that EL34s require more heater current than the 6L6s also. If it's possible with the Randall RT2-50 I guess it can be done....although it has the different tubes on two seperate channels and I don't know if they blend them. Some of the electronic gurus here will help better, but even with my lack of knowledge here I'd say if possible it'll definitely be more involved than just swapping the tubes and biasing...I'm thinking.
Robo Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 With some amps, they are setup for such, my Boogie MarkIII for one. Others would need quite a bit of modification.
m-theory Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 You'd have to watch what it does to the output. If an amp is designed to run four of either, that's the tube that the output transformer is designed to work with. Technically, you could certainly rewire two of the sockets, although you'd likely have to swap some component values around the two you're swapping, but that wouldn't necessarily mean that the output transformer would be happy with the change. No way to know that without some careful design up front and a signal generator/scope to see what the amp looks like before and after the changes. I personally don't think it'd be at all worth the effort, but that's just me. It's 6L6, btw.
Hiberna Posted February 22, 2009 Author Posted February 22, 2009 Heres the fun part, the kind of amp i wana do this to is a Bugera 333XL, and heres some more to thicken the plot; it has a switch so you can swap out all your four EL34s for four 6L6s. Im mad i know but i have this vision (Well i mean it as a metaphor) of a sound thats smooth yet got bite at the same time. Personally if it was me that had made the amp id have put 4 EL34s and 4 6L6s in there and given the player some options of which specific ones he wanted to use. Like just the four EL34s or just the 6L6s or two EL34s and two 6L6s or all eight for some serious heavy sound. id also use 4xECC83s for the preamp, i like the tone of them plus they're a little different to all the AXL12s being used in everything nowadays. id stick in a line6 pod X3 pro rack in there too for ultimate versatility and ultimate sound tweekage too but now im just fantasizing.
cGil Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 So take the easy button way! Just pop in a quad of JJ KT77's, flip the switch to EL34, and you're all set. They've been reported to have the cleans of the 6L6, and the grind of the EL34. The KT77 is sort of a crossover tube with the best tones of both worlds. Gil...
m-theory Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Heres the fun part, the kind of amp i wana do this to is a Bugera 333XL, and heres some more to thicken the plot; it has a switch so you can swap out all your four EL34s for four 6L6s. There's probably nothing in that Bugera that would be useable, or worth using for a custom build. I'd say a scratch build would be a better choice. Base upon your description, a Dumble clone (Fuchs or kit) might provide what you're looking for. Im mad i know but i have this vision (Well i mean it as a metaphor) of a sound thats smooth yet got bite at the same time. What you're looking for isn't just overdriven output tubes. It's the overall design of the amp, from input to output. id also use 4xECC83s for the preamp, i like the tone of them plus they're a little different to all the AXL12s being used in everything nowadays The 12ax7 is the American designation for the European ECC83, in the same way that the 6CA7 is the American designation for the EL34, and the 6BQ5 is the American designation for the EL84. Different 12ax7s can sound markedly different, however, and it's certainly worth experimenting with different flavors, particularly in the V1 slot. id stick in a line6 pod X3 pro rack in there too If you built the amp right, the last thing you'd want to do is muck up the tone with something with a modeler.
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