StreetRod blew! Bummed...

[splawndude]

I 100% agree that everyone's ideal tone is going to be different. It's subjective right?

That and we all play different types of stuff. I'm not as into the higher mids, bright, 'klank', tone that the Splawns are widely known for. That said, I grew up and still love to this day the VH, Ratt, Dokken, Poison, WS, tone.

I'm really into the doom, stoner, metalcore, stuff right now. Therefore, I think JJ's more darker, rounder, warmer characteristics appeal to me more. I like them in my Rectoverb too, but honestly, I have a host of preamp tubes in teh Recto right now. I don't even remember what is where. I purposely did somewhat of a 'blind' tube roll about 6 months ago on that amp and forced myself to go with what sounded best preamp tube wise vs what I 'expected' to sound best. Pretty sure there is a Chinese Pre in there somewhere.

Lastly, I wouldn't say that Scott designed his amps around Chinese tubes. They may be what is more readily available though these days and sound great to him and obviously many other people too. That is a guess though. Never actually asked him.

[cvogue]

And the reality is that power tubes don't affect the tone as much as the preamp tubes. I've got a mix of preamp tubes in my SR, some Chinese ones that came with the amp, a JJ and maybe an EH. I did some tube rolling and found something that I really liked.

I've had a love/hate thing with JJ preamp tubes, they sounded like a muddy mess in my old Peavey Classic 50, they sounded wonderful in my Blackstar HT-40. I did put JJ EL84's in my Classic 50 and they sounded really good though, not a huge difference (again power versus pre) but a richer tone.

Can't wait to get it back!

[gtrjunior]

Splawndude...I agree that the amp probably isn’t designed around the tubes, per se...


Cvogue....you might be surprised at how the tone changes with different power tubes. I know I was. But yes, preamp tubes have a bigger effect.

[cvogue]

Feb 14, 2020 13:14:37 GMT -5 gtrjunior said:

Splawndude...I agree that the amp probably isn’t designed around the tubes, per se...


Cvogue....you might be surprised at how the tone changes with different power tubes. I know I was. But yes, preamp tubes have a bigger effect.

Can't wait to find out!

[cvogue]

OK, just fired it up and took a test run...

WOW it sounds nice! gtrjunior you're right it did change the tone, not a huge amount but absolutely noticable. It's fuller but not woofy. Just nice and rich while still retaining the nice edge at the higher frequencies.

A few points...

I used to use a 10 band EQ in the loop... I had it dialed in for my old tubes but had it off... turned it on and it sounded terrible! It sounds great with out it so I'll keep it on the board for a while in case I want to do some tweaking but it would be nice to free up some real estate on my pedalboard. gtrjunior didn't you do the same thing at one point, I remember someone doing that, removing the EQ from the loop since it just wasn't needed.

I can use gear 2 again! Before it was way too woofy/bassy. I stuck with gear 1 and went between OD1 and OD2. Now with the new tubes gear 2 sounds fantastic!

I'm really pleased. The basic Splawn tone was always there but the new tubes just give it an "oomph" that it didn't have before.

[gtrjunior]

Yes I did use a 10 band at one point.
This was right around the same time I discovered my wah was sucking tone. Once I removed the wah, the amp came alive and I found I didn’t need the eq anymore.

[cvogue]

Also the highs are better than before, was just playing around with it again (how could I not?!)

The highs I used to have to use the EQ to get are now natural and sound better, I mean REALLY good. And I've got old manky strings on my guitar! Well not terrible but not new by any stretch.

I'm stoked. 

[splawndude]

So glad to hear things are rocking.

It is funny how sometimes changes like this can just wake up an amp or wake up your perspective on your amp. I love it. It something I really like about guitar amplification in general. I think I've brought this up in the past but sometimes I purposely do something different just to kind of wake things up a bit. New pedal. New tubes. New strings.

Putting new strings on a guitar is one of my favorite things. I give the board a nice cleaning too. Nothing crazy. .0000 steel wool for the frets mainly. A tad bit of Dr Stringfellow. Then some new DR Tite Fit .11s. Almost as fun as preamp tube rolling.

But you mentioned strings and stretching above and it reminded me to say....always! always! always! stretch your strings before final wind down/tuning.

[cvogue]

Ya know I've heard that power tubes going "bad" is a very gradual thing. They age slowly and you really don't notice it until you get new ones. I had the stock tubes in there and I've had the amp for about 3 years. Played it probably 5 hours a week on average. Not that they were terrible before the one blew but I'm thinking they might have been getting tired!

[splawndude]

That and the bias drifts over time.

[cvogue]

Feb 15, 2020 23:21:01 GMT -5 gtrjunior said:

Yes I did use a 10 band at one point.
This was right around the same time I discovered my wah was sucking tone. Once I removed the wah, the amp came alive and I found I didn’t need the eq anymore.

Yup, been there done that too regarding the wah.  But we've had that discussion before!

What's nice is that if necessary I can plug straight in, put a cable in the loop to use the loop volume control and I'm off and running with great tone!  I'll use my pedalboard just for effects, not as part of the basic tone.  Kind of a nice relief!

[cvogue]

Was just doing some more playing with the amp, of course it sounds great and all of the Splawn tone is back, including that "unforgiving" aspect of it! These things are incredibly articulate. I think the old tubes/bias drift as mushing things up a bit. Time to hit the woodshed and play some more, bummer!