Van Noord
New member
I was inspired by a video I watched and wanted a more raw and percussive tone from my Fireball 100.
I was feeling like the tone was tight and mean but sort of round, fat, dark and too compressed. So I wanted to see what I could do about it.
I started swapping tubes in the 1st and 2nd preamp spots.
The amp sounded great right away with the LPS in spot #1. Just such a great balance of mids, highs and lows. It was really smooth, dark and compressed before. Sounded cool, but I just wanted to get more openness and raw edged clarity.
It was plenty clear before especially at high gain settings, but I think the Chinese input tube was just adding too much roundness and smoothness to the amps voice.
I then ended up surprisingly putting the EH in the 2nd spot.
In my experience the EH tube is usually thin and trebley, but it just worked great in the Fireballs gain spot. I guess because the amp is so huge and dark sounding, so the tube works really well in it.
So, now the amp has all Russian glass in the preamp:
1st Sovtek LPS
2nd EH
3rd EH
4th EH
These were the tubes used and results compared to the smooth, fat, high gain stock ENGL ECC83 in spot 1 & 2.
-Sovtek LPS 12AX7 - high gain, little compression, open, raw & clear.
-Mesa Chinese 7025 - less gain but still aggressive and clear.
-Mesa Russian 12AX7 - somewhat bland in comparison.
-Electro Harmonix 12AX7 - edgy, clear, tight and punchy.
-Old VHT Chinese 12AX7 - Similar to stock ENGL.
It just goes to show that every tube has it's place in an amp or certain preamp position.
Don't write off a tube because it sounded thin, dull or too dark in your amp. Because that tube WILL work in a differently voiced amp. One tube may sound uninspiring in one spot, but may also end up sounding near perfect in the very next position.
I was feeling like the tone was tight and mean but sort of round, fat, dark and too compressed. So I wanted to see what I could do about it.
I started swapping tubes in the 1st and 2nd preamp spots.
The amp sounded great right away with the LPS in spot #1. Just such a great balance of mids, highs and lows. It was really smooth, dark and compressed before. Sounded cool, but I just wanted to get more openness and raw edged clarity.
It was plenty clear before especially at high gain settings, but I think the Chinese input tube was just adding too much roundness and smoothness to the amps voice.
I then ended up surprisingly putting the EH in the 2nd spot.
In my experience the EH tube is usually thin and trebley, but it just worked great in the Fireballs gain spot. I guess because the amp is so huge and dark sounding, so the tube works really well in it.
So, now the amp has all Russian glass in the preamp:
1st Sovtek LPS
2nd EH
3rd EH
4th EH
These were the tubes used and results compared to the smooth, fat, high gain stock ENGL ECC83 in spot 1 & 2.
-Sovtek LPS 12AX7 - high gain, little compression, open, raw & clear.
-Mesa Chinese 7025 - less gain but still aggressive and clear.
-Mesa Russian 12AX7 - somewhat bland in comparison.
-Electro Harmonix 12AX7 - edgy, clear, tight and punchy.
-Old VHT Chinese 12AX7 - Similar to stock ENGL.
It just goes to show that every tube has it's place in an amp or certain preamp position.
Don't write off a tube because it sounded thin, dull or too dark in your amp. Because that tube WILL work in a differently voiced amp. One tube may sound uninspiring in one spot, but may also end up sounding near perfect in the very next position.
