Expansive VS Compressed tones

[Quencho092]

I was fooling around with my bandmaster and found that i really like the middier more expansive tone of the mullard 12ax7-M reissues over NOS 5751. I guess the 5751 sounds more compressed and i lose some of the detail and woodiness of my strat. It sings when turned up though, i love it for leads.

I find that fender amps tend to have a very smooth semi-compressed tone, but have great lower mids, bass, and treble.

I figure that's why hendrix got such awesome clean tones with his marshall plexi. More EXPANSIVE, less compressed preamp stage i would think.

What tubes would you guys recommend to achieve a woodier, less compressed tone? Do KT66's sound less compressed due to their flatter EQ response vs regular 6l6's? What other preamp tubes deliver an open 'porous' tone so to speak?

 

[flank]

Re: Expansive VS Compressed tones

as far as hendrix clean tones....for studio..he used the range, from plexis to fenders, to sound city amps

and his live clean tone was never exactly "clean" in my opinion....

i think i remember reading some of his plexi heads had different tubes swapped in, for a cleaner tone at higher volume.....it might have been KT66s

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Expansive VS Compressed tones

they were KT66's. The authentic hendrix plexi head that was auctioned off recently had kt66's in it.

How do you like your twin? How would you describe its tone?

 

[flank]

Re: Expansive VS Compressed tones

my twin is messed up....its only got one JBL speaker in it......all 4 power tubes are different brands and probably not matched or biased right...... it makes weird noises which stop when you pound on it......one of the channels is not really working, and the vibrato doesnt work either.....looking past all of that, it sounds awesome lol.......its not a typical twin though

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Expansive VS Compressed tones

mine does the thing where you gotta hit it for it to stop making noise too. I can't figure it out....