Class5 Marshall... Tube swaps?!

[KBliss]

I hope to someday try this:

Groove Tubes (made by Sovtek) has a series rated for when it distorts:
8-10: Hard to distort
5-7: Medium
1-4: Easy to distort

... Which means at some threshhold it won't go louder, just distort: so ya trade volume for distortion.

I wanna try an EL-84 rated at, say, 4 in one of those Marshall Class 5 heads: cuz they are really loud, (seriously, ) but don't distort until 8.
Do you know of anybody trying this?

Or has anybody put a 12au7 in a Class 5?

 

[JeffB]

Re: Class5 Marshall... Tube swaps?!

I've run a bunch of tubes in mine. Including JJs of varying "hardness". they make a low power version too. Just grab some mullard reissues. They break up smoothest and fastest, and are a bit quieter. And they sound better than JJs if you want vintage style tones. Ive rolled old and new tubes in the preamp and nn old Jan 5751 in v1 works best out of everything I tried.

BUT. It still will be loud at the point of breakup. Its a typical NMV amp. Off or Loud.