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Post by flamesarewicked on Dec 3, 2021 19:49:12 GMT -5
After a long break I lucked up and gotten a 2006 model in trade.. oddly enough it’s another white head shell one. The guy I traded with got it off a guy that’s in the band Kutless (Christian rock band). That guy had it built for him and it’s even labeled on the back panel. “Built for James Mead by Scott Splawn….” Owner previous to me had his tech go through it and put new tubes in it. I assumed they would be EL34s since that’s what the majority of them have. Well this thing has 5881s in it. It sounds good but I plan to go back with some 34s. I’ve been told going to 5881s is a safe swap but had it been originally a 5881 amp, you can’t go to 34s without modification… please correct me if this isn’t true. The tag on the inside of the shell says it was originally built with 34s
With some searching I did see a bias tutorial on here and I read that it’s a fixed bias? I have a multimeter and don’t mind biasing it if needed.. can I just get a matched set of tubes and drop them in?
I’m thinking of ordering a black head shell and swap the chicken head knobs to Marshall style gold top knobs. Anyhow.. it’s a rock mo-chine as we all know.. good times will be had.
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Post by splawndude on Dec 5, 2021 13:12:13 GMT -5
After a long break I lucked up and gotten a 2006 model in trade.. oddly enough it’s another white head shell one. The guy I traded with got it off a guy that’s in the band Kutless (Christian rock band). That guy had it built for him and it’s even labeled on the back panel. “Built for James Mead by Scott Splawn….” Owner previous to me had his tech go through it and put new tubes in it. I assumed they would be EL34s since that’s what the majority of them have. Well this thing has 5881s in it. It sounds good but I plan to go back with some 34s. I’ve been told going to 5881s is a safe swap but had it been originally a 5881 amp, you can’t go to 34s without modification… please correct me if this isn’t true. The tag on the inside of the shell says it was originally built with 34s With some searching I did see a bias tutorial on here and I read that it’s a fixed bias? I have a multimeter and don’t mind biasing it if needed.. can I just get a matched set of tubes and drop them in? I’m thinking of ordering a black head shell and swap the chicken head knobs to Marshall style gold top knobs. Anyhow.. it’s a rock mo-chine as we all know.. good times will be had. Hey there. Not really sure on your situation to be honest. I thought the 5881 was more similar to a 6L6. The only modification to a Quick Rod amp for tubes that I am aware of the KT88 mod. Someone would have to solder another resistor (piggy back style) to make that happen. There is a thread on that somewhere on this site. If you are comfortable with opening up the chassis and not touching anything inside with your bare hands you could check. If there is no evidence of that mod then I would say you are safe to pop in some EL34s and move on. You need to take this advise with a grain of salt and double check my word. I'm not an amp tech or anything. As far as the new tubes would go most people would say you want your tubes in that 30 mA - 35mA range maybe a bit cooler depending on what you are going for. If you contact a reputable tube dealer and tell them what you want you 'may' not need to bias at all. For example, I ordered some JJ - EL34 II's from Eurotubes a year ago and Asked for 34mA and that is exactly what I got - and I checked. Hope that helps a bit. There is quite a bit more activity on the Splawn subforum at Rig-Talk and also the Splawn Facebook page. Worst case, send Scott an email or call him. If you do that, I would definitely look up the KT88 resistor mod and then look at your amp. |
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