KT-66 vs. EL-34

[BlueSnMettle]

He y'all,

I own a Carr Mercury that I bought about 5 years ago. I really dig the amp & the options available to me. It came with a KT-66 for the power supply, but have noticed now the new models have an EL-34. I'm pretty lame when it comes to tubes and thier function. I'm looking for a little more cut and grit out of the OD setting, will the EL-34 supply that or do I need to concentrate on the 12ax7, 12at7 & 12ax7, positions 1-3 respectively. I know I need to brush up on my tubes & I will. It's a fixed biased amp and I have no problem dialing it in with my volt meter. Thank in advance for you responses. Here's a linky to the Mercury. http://www.carramps.com/mercury.html

Peace,

Darrin

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: KT-66 vs. EL-34

He y'all,

I own a Carr Mercury that I bought about 5 years ago. I really dig the amp & the options available to me. It came with a KT-66 for the power supply, but have noticed now the new models have an EL-34. I'm pretty lame when it comes to tubes and thier function. I'm looking for a little more cut and grit out of the OD setting, will the EL-34 supply that or do I need to concentrate on the 12ax7, 12at7 & 12ax7, positions 1-3 respectively. I know I need to brush up on my tubes & I will. It's a fixed biased amp and I have no problem dialing it in with my volt meter. Thank in advance for you responses. Here's a linky to the Mercury. http://www.carramps.com/mercury.html

Peace,

Darrin

Does your amp have a switch on it to convert from KT66 to EL34 tubes? If not, I'd be really hesitant to swap them without having a tech do it for you. The pin configuration is somewhat different on these two tube types and just throwing the EL-34's in without changing anything is likely to cause serious problems.

Adding EL-34's will loosen the amp up a bit. I can only speculate on what they will do for the overall EQ of the amp though. Probably a slight decrease in the upper most section of the mids and a slight increase in the lower mids. Bass will likely tighten up a bit.

 

[jeremy]

Re: KT-66 vs. EL-34

a friend of mine has a mercury and tony bruno took it home and modded it. when it came back it had an el34. it sounded great, im not sure if it was any better but different for sure. tonal change will depend on what kt66 you have in there. some sound huge some dont.

you will need a tech to modify the amp a little to accept an el34

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: KT-66 vs. EL-34

I sometimes run my JTM45 with EL34's instead of KT66's. It's difficult to explain the tonal difference but there's a noticable difference. One isn't better than the other, just different. Once it's wired up for EL34 you can go back and forth between EL34 and KT66 with just a re-bias, but you must make sure that is EL34 capable first.

 

[BlueSnMettle]

Re: KT-66 vs. EL-34

Good news. The Carr Mercury is made to accept an EL34 with without modification. The newer Merc's in fact come stock with the EL34. Talked with the boys at Eurotubes an the have an E34L ("an EL34 on steroids") that sounds like it's going to do the trick for me. YES.:naughty:

Peace,

Darrin

 

[jeremy]

Re: KT-66 vs. EL-34

cool. im not surprised that they use el34's now. for a while there werent many good el34 choices but thats changed. you used to be able to get a great new production kt66 but my favorites have gone the way of the dodo