Fender Amp Help

[Mojoe01]

Okay, so I've had a Fender Dual Showman Reverb for about 4 years now. The guy I bought it from said it was anywhere from a 71-73. I don't really know, never cared enough to look into it. It sounds great, that's good enough for me. Well 4 years later, the tubes have finally blown. (I know, 4 years!) I've never changed them in this one. (I have a Bluesbreaker too, so I split my time on the amps quite a bit). Anyway, onto the questions...

First, what are good tubes for this? It's weird, because as I said i also have a Bluesbreaker, and there are a million and one threads on what tubes are good for it, etc. The Dual Showman Reverb, not so much. So just stick with standards? Also, I can just pull the outside pair of power tubes and run it at half power, right? Can I do anything similar with the 6 preamp tubes? When I first got the amp, I used the vibrato a lot. It has since lost it's novelty, and I really don't care if it's there or not. Can I just save some $ and skip a tube? If so, which one would I be cutting out of the mix?

Thanks for any help you guys can offer! (And sorry for the lack of form to the questions!)

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Fender Amp Help

Good tubes for a Dual Showman reverb...try the big bottle TAD tubes or the big bottle Tung Sol reissues, if you want to save a few bucks and still get good tubes try the Sovtek 6L6 WXT or whatever it's called.

Can you pull half the tubes, yes...just remember only the outside 2 OR the inside 2 but never the left 2 or right 2...

Preamp tubes...if you don't use that channel and don't plan to then don't put tubes in it...

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Fender Amp Help

mine has JJ's in the pre and power & sounds pretty good

 

[Mojoe01]

Re: Fender Amp Help

Thanks! And thanks for the speed of the responses!

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Fender Amp Help

Among recent production, I like =C= 6L6GC for most 6L6 applications, especially Fender amps. Change the 12AT7 closest to the power tubes when you change the power tubes. I wouldn't even mess with the remaining pre-amp tubes unless there's an obvious problem with them, especially if they are old USA/West European production.