Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL34's?

[Stratman]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

Good luck with modern KT66's. Most are just 6L6's in a bigger bottle but none of them sound like a GEC KT66. About 15 years ago i paid 300 dollars for pair of grey glass KT66's that were still NIB. Ive tried every new KT66 that comes on the market and they just dont quite cut it.
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I absolutely agree with this statement I have two sets of balanced GEC KT-66 tubes and have tried even other copied brand of KT-66 tubes… The excellent tone of the GEC KT-66 tubes just are not there in the copies.

 

[Stratman]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

You forgot the 0.015 cap.

You mean 0.033 not a 0.015… cap.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

Rhythm/neck pickup. Really, technically, it's not necessary at all. Just don't turn your tone knob all the way down. Turn it like 2/3 of the way down.

that's not really the same. the cap value has to do with the frequency where you roll off. a .05 with the tone at 4 is not the same as a .015 with the tone at 0.

 

[theWalrus]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

that's not really the same. the cap value has to do with the frequency where you roll off. a .05 with the tone at 4 is not the same as a .015 with the tone at 0.

How do you know the cap in Eric's 335 neck pickup? Unless you worked at Gibson when they reproduced it, took apart the Guitar Center one in the vault, or was his tech... hard to tell. He had great tone even with the Firebird with different pickups and those banjo tuners.

I think it's more reasonable to stick with similar amps/tubes and playing technique than go that far.

Having said that, I must acknowledge my 335 sounds "thinner" then the Les Paul. And I'm pretty sure it's due to the capacitors (black beauty vs. bumblebees) and the hollow body.

I absolutely agree with this statement I have two sets of balanced GEC KT-66 tubes and have tried even other copied brand of KT-66 tubes… The excellent tone of the GEC KT-66 tubes just are not there in the copies.

I don't know man... saying that is like "I only date Playboy cover models." Don't get me wrong: it means you have good taste. They are very nice, but hard to find, expensive to maintain, etc. To me, maintaining GEC's in an amp would be like keeping up with a drug addiction. I'm not doing that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the JJ KT66 experiment with some nice NOS tubes.

Here's a GEC vs. Valve Arts comparison from Metropoulos amps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuEOts7PfYA

I'm not even crazy to get valve arts. No data sheet available = poor quality standards. Even in that case, Valve Arts are not that bad in good hands:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbC8pWwjIEY

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

You really cant tell crap from that youtube video. the compression when uploaded to youtube kills most differences.

You can put lipstick and wigs all you want on your blow up doll its still not the same as the real thing... thats what it boils down to. Never heard anyone claim that chasing tone was cheap.

If your going crazy enough over the details to worry about the cap value then the difference between nos and new tubes certainly matters and its a very real difference.

Another difference that you might be missing that is also very real is the difference between running the amp at 110 or on 220...

 

[theWalrus]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

You really cant tell crap from that youtube video. the compression when uploaded to youtube kills most differences.

You can put lipstick and wigs all you want on your blow up doll its still not the same as the real thing... thats what it boils down to. Never heard anyone claim that chasing tone was cheap.

If your going crazy enough over the details to worry about the cap value then the difference between nos and new tubes certainly matters and its a very real difference.

Another difference that you might be missing that is also very real is the difference between running the amp at 110 or on 220...

Gotta love the forums, right? :laugh2:

I may try a GEC KT66 at some point just to feel the difference myself, but honestly I doubt any serious guitar player cares to an extreme about that. It's more of a collector thing.

Cream had a reunion in 2005 and Clapton was playing his regular strat + tweed amp rig. Still great sound-wise, but not in the improvisations.

I guess I got my question answered. Thanks.

 

[Jeffrec]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

Woman tone? More like clapton-hands tone..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

+1 for his usual lead tone back then. However, it's easy to get "woman tone" by rolling back the tone control

 

[jeremy]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

How do you know the cap in Eric's 335 neck pickup? Unless you worked at Gibson when they reproduced it, took apart the Guitar Center one in the vault, or was his tech... hard to tell. He had great tone even with the Firebird with different pickups and those banjo tuners.

I think it's more reasonable to stick with similar amps/tubes and playing technique than go that far.

Having said that, I must acknowledge my 335 sounds "thinner" then the Les Paul. And I'm pretty sure it's due to the capacitors (black beauty vs. bumblebees) and the hollow body.

what you quoted me saying has nothing to do with your response. I didn't mention the cap value in his guitar, just that the value of the cap matters when rolling off the tone.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

I was comparing the 2 tubes in the exact same amp with the exact same preamp tubes, I tried them at different bias settings... Its not the same as a real GEC KT66. Are they bad sounding tubes? No they arent but they arent the same thing as original NOS tubes.

Did you read the review of it? Nothing i said went against it. For me if a tube can take up to 12340932432v doesnt matter if it doesnt cop the tone of the original tube its suppose to mimic. Its a fine tube buts not an equal to a GEC KT66. Yah dig?

Oh well, I suppose that's why the NOS GEC's run for 5 bills.

 

[theWalrus]

Re: Cream-era Clapton tone with JMPs (after the 45/100's): Superlead with KT66 or EL3

I've got my answer folks. Thanks