Higher Screen Resistor Values - Tried It?

8/27/2000 2:38 AM

Reverb

Higher Screen Resistor Values - Tried It? Fellow Ampagers,     I am going to ask a question that was part of "Blue Lyne's" thread which was mostly ignored. He was asking about increasing the value of the screen resistors in his 6V6 amp and the resulting effect on the sound. The responses he received between others flaming each other seemed to be oriented toward what would happen electrically, meaning "less screen current" and "lower screen voltage". We all intuitively know this will happen, but on this board I thought we are most concerned with good tone as the end result.     Recently, I completed a custom Bandmaster Reverb chassis (former boat anchor) that is now in a 2x10" combo cabinet very loosely based on a Fender blackface amp with reverb. It is using 2x6L6 tubes, solid-state rectification (New Sensor Blackface Bassman power tranny), a New Sensor Bandmaster-style output tranny, and reissue Jensen 10" speakers. I have repaired, designed, and built many tube amps over the years, but with this one I installed 2.4k screen resistors just as a test.     I must say that this amp sounds very good at low volume and full band volume. I did not notice any difference in tone really from a Fender amp using 470 ohm screen resistors. This amp is still in the final tweaking stages, so I don't have numbers to share with you all, but I was surprised that the tone was not all that different from other Bandmasters/Bandmaster Reverb I have heard using 470 ohm resistors.     Has anyone done an A/B tone test with normal Fender screen resistor values (470 ohm) versus increased values (say 1k and up) on the same amp? I am interested to know if anyone thinks I am way off here, or if higher values sound better/different/worse than stock values to you.     Thanks in Advance,     Reverb