anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

trevorus said:
I didn't respond here, because I am unfamiliar with this amplifier. Just thought I would say as much. I'll do some research.
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Which amp...BR never has said which Tweaker it is...

Also, I posted that I called Egnater and got a good answer straight from the source...
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

the guy who invented fire said:
Just called Egnater Tech Support (very nice guys BTW) they told me that since the amp is cathode biased that EL34's will run in the amp BUT they do NOT support it and warned me that the added current draw and extra heat the amp will produce that it can damage the amp...
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IIRC, EL34s require twice the heater current that 6v6's pull. I suspect that either the tubes or power supply would get unhappy.
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

aleclee said:
IIRC, EL34s require twice the heater current that 6v6's pull. I suspect that either the tubes or power supply would get unhappy.
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That's what I was getting at this morning...according to the RCA book the heater current of EL34's is 3 times that of 6V6's...

Of course that only matters if he is indeed talking about the Tweaker 15.
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

the guy who invented fire said:
Which amp...BR never has said which Tweaker it is...

Also, I posted that I called Egnater and got a good answer straight from the source...
Click to expand...

Any of them. Never had an Egnater. I know they're just like any other tube amp for the most part, nothing really new under the sun. Same would apply in any amp made for 6V6GT's, unless the stuff has been built to specifically handle it, it's always a gamble. Something like the THD Univalve/Bivalve series is. The issue also is the screen resistors are quite different on a 6V6GT platform. The 6V6GT generally has a 470 ohm screen resistor, the EL34 a 1K. This could cause some current issues.
 
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Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

trevorus said:
Any of them. Never had an Egnater. I know they're just like any other tube amp for the most part, nothing really new under the sun. Same would apply in any amp made for 6V6GT's, unless the stuff has been built to specifically handle it, it's always a gamble. Something like the THD Univalve/Bivalve series is. The issue also is the screen resistors are quite different on a 6V6GT platform. The 6V6GT generally has a 470 ohm screen resistor, the EL34 a 1K. This could cause some current issues.
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:smack:
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

Tweaker IS called the tweaker because of the switches... Which switches different variations of the vfm tone stacks. Essentially a tonestack with Marshall values, one with vox and one with fender. Bruce (Egnater, designer of amp) is of the opinion (as am I after dorking around with tubes) that putting el34's in an amp doesn't add 'Marshall' flavor and that a big hunk of the iconic sounds is actually the tone stacks... Both the values and where they are in the signal chain.

Yes, tubes make a difference, but it's just another small part of a bigger picture that gets way more hype than needed.

Example... My Egnater seminar amp comes loaded with el34's. put in 6550 and 'maybe' it's harder sounding? But that's mostly due to the classic Marshall 6550 sound has the 6550s biased COLD. Bias them where 6550's are 'supposed' to be dialed in at and viola... Warm guey spongey tone... And a stressed transformer and expensive tubes that sound fun to say.
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

In one of the Tweaker demos on YT, one user said that after a while, his tone became thinner after installing el34's. If I knew exactly what video it was, I'd post it, but I saw it a long time ago while doing research on the Tweaker 15, and I don't remember the name of the person who uploaded it. I hope that helps, though.
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

It blows my mind that this thread is still going...

I posted near the end of page one that I called Egnater tech support and asked them directly...

In short you can do it but they don't suggest and won't support it.

That should be enough for anyone...
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

trevorus said:
Funny how you reply like this with no information to back it. Same stuff as always.
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Lord...I love having to explain myself.

You said any of them in reference to any of the Egnater Tweaker amps but since onlyh one of them uses 6V6's your screen resister examples only hold water on the Tweaker 15.

However the biggest reason for the face palm is you are still discussion the idea of using EL34's in the amp after I had already posted what I was told by the folks at Egnater...it just struck me as odd.

As for your end line of "Same stuff as always" please enlighten me...

I'm just trying to be helpful here but lately with you all I've gotten is attitude both in public forum as well as unsolicited PMs from you full of attitude all of which is uncalled for...
 
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Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

Just clarifying from a numbers standpoint, which I said. Your entire reasoning is "because I said." Deal with it. People don't take that answer for granted. As far as the attitude, you bring it on yourself because you talk when you may not be entirely correct. You also tend to talk down to people.

, my screen resistor comment holds true for the 6L6 based Tweaker also. I'm unsure about the KT88 version at this point. I've not messed with those tube types yet.
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

trevorus said:
Just clarifying from a numbers standpoint, which I said. Your entire reasoning is "because I said." Deal with it. People don't take that answer for granted. As far as the attitude, you bring it on yourself because you talk when you may not be entirely correct. You also tend to talk down to people.

, my screen resistor comment holds true for the 6L6 based Tweaker also. I'm unsure about the KT88 version at this point. I've not messed with those tube types yet.
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I did supply numbers in post 12, I said 6V6's pull about a half amp (it's .49 if you want to be exact) and EL34's draw about an amp and a half (it is exactly 1.5 amps)...

I never once said in this thread or any other "because I said so" and never would...

I don't talk down to people either and I don't speak when I don't know things for sure.

I don't know what your issue with me is but it's clear you have one so let's just agree to disagree and let it go...no need to turn the forum into a pissing contest...
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

the guy who invented fire said:
That's funny because I didn't say any of that.

Let me try to clear things up a bit...

I said I don't know if it will work long term and here is why. Now, I don't have the exact numbers memorized but the 6V6's draw less than a half amp where the EL34's draw about an amp and a half...if you have 2 6V6's and go to 2 EL34's you can really tax the transformer and it might work long term (if the transformer is stout enough to handle the extra draw) but more than likely since the Tweaker is a budget amp that was designed to run a pair of 6V6's the tranny is NOT set up to be able to support the draw of a pair of EL34's. Now, even if the transformers won't support the extra draw of the EL34's the amp would run for a while...maybe minutes maybe days, maybe even longer but it would kill the transformer sooner or later and thats what I mean when I saw it might not work long term...

As for the tone I said that IMO it will not be worth it in terms of tone to make the change however the end user might disagree but I just don't personally see it making that much difference.

That clear enough for ya or do I need to start drawing pictures??
Click to expand...

See the BOLD section above from post 12...
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

I'm not sure whether this reminds me more of ducks moving graciously with furious paddling below the water, or someone digging a very deep hole and needing a ladder to get out.
 
Re: anyone tried el34s in a tweaker?

I gigged a Tweaker 15 combo for about a year. Personally, I wouldn't sub in EL34s (tech stuff aside) unless I wanted a distinctly more Marshall flavour - in my experience, with the normal tubes it did a great impression of the 3 main classes of amp it was trying to mimic, and I wouldn't really want to spoil that.
 
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