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previous: John De Luca Steve,Thank you for answering m... -- 9/23/1997 1:36 PM	View Thread

Re: EL84 amps

9/24/1997 5:32 AM
Steve Keay	Re: EL84 amps Hi John,,, I have experimented with different preamp tubes in several different amps and its a hit or miss situation. Seems to work out for me better in some amps than in others. Right now I use a 12au7 in the first gain stage of my Princeton amp and love it. It matches up well with that amp and the OD pedals I use with it better than the stock 12ax7. Try it. Also try it in different stages too. Might find something you like better. It is just the gain factor that you are tweaking. You can dig around this web site for the gain of all the different tubes. As far as the DIY project you mentioned, I am a newbee to this DIY thing so I'm not qualified to comment on that. I'm not familiar with the Hilgen amps. There are probably some "adjustments" you can make to your Peavey amp to get more head room (like swapping out preamp tubes) but the EL84 is by nature a dirty, raunchy, Marshally type tube so it will be tough to get the Fendery type "shimmer" I think you are refering to. Another option would be to rebuild the amp with 6v6's. I believe your transformers and such would be a decent match for them. It would involve research and work but would be cheaper than buying a second amp. Jim Kelley amps that I've checked out in the past used 4 6v6's I think and those are some sweet sounding amps!!! Lets not forget that Jimmy Page used this little tiny amp (Supra I think) to get the monstorous sized tone on that classic first Zepplin album. I think the Supra amp used little 6v6's also. Its a great tube... Best luck with it... Steve K

9/24/1997 5:32 AM

Steve Keay
email

Re: EL84 amps

Hi John,,, I have experimented
with different preamp tubes in
several different amps and its
a hit or miss situation. Seems
to work out for me better in
some amps than in others. Right
now I use a 12au7 in the first
gain stage of my Princeton amp
and love it. It matches up well
with that amp and the OD pedals
I use with it better than the
stock 12ax7. Try it. Also try it
in different stages too. Might
find something you like better.
It is just the gain factor that
you are tweaking. You can dig
around this web site for the
gain of all the different tubes.
As far as the DIY project you
mentioned, I am a newbee to this
DIY thing so I'm not qualified
to comment on that. I'm not
familiar with the Hilgen amps.
There are probably some
"adjustments" you can make to
your Peavey amp to get more head
room (like swapping out preamp
tubes) but the EL84 is by nature
a dirty, raunchy, Marshally type
tube so it will be tough to get
the Fendery type "shimmer" I
think you are refering to.
Another option would be to rebuild
the amp with 6v6's. I believe
your transformers and such would
be a decent match for them. It
would involve research and work
but would be cheaper than buying
a second amp. Jim Kelley amps
that I've checked out in the past
used 4 6v6's I think and those
are some sweet sounding amps!!!
Lets not forget that Jimmy Page
used this little tiny amp (Supra
I think) to get the monstorous
sized tone on that classic first
Zepplin album. I think the Supra
amp used little 6v6's also. Its
a great tube...
Best luck with it...

Steve K