Re: 2xEL34 Franklin?
I'm hoping to get a bit of that Matchless Lightning preamp mixed up with a cathode biased EL34 output. Not sure of the results, but I heard a Matchless Clubman one time at Jeff Seal's shop that was one of the most outstanding amps I've ever heard. I still think a lot of the magic is in the transformers. So, I'm working on getting the real deal. If they are not available, I'll probably stick with the JTM45 ones that I"m using in the Edana. They are pretty darn nice as well.
I say EL34's break up any sooner. It's pretty dependent on the circuit in question. This amp will have a lot more clean headroom, but I still want it to distort at reasonable volumes. I'm going to try it with the Lightning controls first, so it'll have Vol, Bass, Treb and a Master Vol. I think it will work nicely. I'm also going to try to effectively put in an FX loop. We'll see how that goes.