Thursday, May 10, 2018

OMG So I got a new toob amp. What should I do now, Trashed?

Hey Trashed! I just bought my first proper tube amp! Whadda I do now?

There are a few things I would look into for most amps and just universally in GENERAL. I can't talk about every amp in all of hell and creation.

The first thing to do is to buy some tubes. I cannot advise on power tubes because that is too broad, simply due to different biasing methods for different amps. I don't want to delve in too deep. 

However, I will say that right now my personal go-to power amp tube is the JJ E34L. Read the last sentence again. E34L, not referring to EL34. E34L's have the British bite with a rounder and fuller bottom end. To illustrate how much I like them, I probably have TEN amps loaded with them. To take that further, I am POSITIVE I have over a dozen brand new ones in my shop.

I LOVE KT88's, but they are expensive as hell. I have them in my Splawn Nitro, Splawn Pro-Mod and Fryette SIG:X. They are quite ballsy. They are not as easily interchangeable as the others, or example with Splawn, it involves removing or adding a resistor (which requires draining filter caps and soldering). 

IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING INSIDE AN AMP, LEAVE IT ALONE, PAY SOMEBODY IF YOU HAVE TO, MUCH BETTER THAN BEING DEAD.

For EL84, go JJ. They are cheap and sound great. Again, I swear by these suckers. I probably have them in every EL84 amp I own. HOWEVER,  I don't have many amps that take EL84's. IMO no competition for JJ here.

Preamp tubes are a bit easier. get how many of 12AX7 you want after some research plus three more, a combination of 12AT7, 5751, AND get a different variety.

"OK Trashed, I done got me some backup tubes. What now?

Clean out the tube sockets, jacks and tube sockets with DeOxit or another quality contact cleaner.

"Got it Trashed, what now?"

Now turn it on.

There is a common misbelief that you need to put the amp on standby and wait. That is not important. Flip the switches however you feel inspired.

Looking for a heavy or metal tone? Nine times out of ten you want an overdrive pedal (Tubescreamer, etc). Lotsa' options.

EQ's are always good to fine tune the tone in the effects loop.

Then just fire it up and raise some hell!

One more thing that is misbelief is that you can't touch tubes with fingers out or the earth explode. Don't worry about it.

Here are another few random thoughts.

Tubes are more sensitive to damage if you move/bump/jostle a hot amp.

NOS tubes can be great, but make sure you get them from a reputable place that tests them.

If you have spring reverb, be careful moving it and if you take it off, they can cause some issues. IF you are getting too much jangle, wrap it carefully in a towel.

Trashed OUT! Cheers to all!

2 comments:

  1. What tubes do you have in your Orange?

    My dark terror comes stock with really shitty no-name chinese el84s but I bought mine used, and whoever owned it before me put an entire set of JJs in (both preamp and power tubes)

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    Replies
    1. Hey Haszen!

      When I buy a new amp, I replace all of the tubes, likely with JJ's. I will mess around a few minutes swapping around V1 and PI, but that at the most. i literally bought 50 JJ 12AX7's last time (total in tubes was about $1k) and have slowed down on buying amps as of late.

      I would just go JJ all the way, Hazen.

      CHEERS!

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