power tubes

[drew_half_empty]

well, the ruby's finally quit on me, sad day but eh, bound to happen sometime, right?

(this is all for my bassman, by the way)

anyhoo, i'm getting an upright bass soon, and it dawned on me that assuming i got a bass cab i could use my bassman head & play through that

obviously runnin all EH 12ax7's in the preamp there's no friggin way i could get the clean headroom i need, but i do have some gt 12ax7r's i can put in there, and i can pick up a 12au7 for the PI real easily, so that puts it 1 gain stage away from an svt

but about power tubes, i like the way the ruby's sound, i don't want any more bass or mids, maybe slightly less highs would be fine, i mean, they sound good, i can plug in my TS & get any tone i want, but i'll need something with higher headroom if i wanna put an upright through it

so, what power tubes should i be looking at?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: power tubes

Drew, I have, so far had really good luck with the TAD tubes...both the small (5881 style) bottle and the igger (STR) bottle. I like them a lot. There are also the Ruby SRT tubes that get good reviews and the new Tung Sol 5881 reissue...

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: power tubes

5881's are lower wattage so that's not what i'm looking for

I considered switching to 6550's & just pulling 2 when i play guitar, good idea? bad idea? what's all involved?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: power tubes

Is this a Bassman 135?

Personally I don't care for the tone of 6550's but you might...I find them to be to edgy in a bad way and lacking in mids. The Svet 6L6's are good for clean headroom and don't cost an arm and a leg.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: power tubes

no it's a 100, just jeff seal modded. With the ruby's in there, and whatever 12ax7's/12at7 he had in there, it was pushing 170 watts clean, never measured when it started breakin up, but basically i need to squeeze as much clean headroom out of it as possible. With mid output pickups it's staying clean till about 7, i just need to push that to 9/10, which the 12au7 will help quite a bit

basically the guitar tones i'm concerned with are stoner rock/classic rock and rockabilly. Bass tones i'm not concerned with because i'm getting an EQ & an upright preamp & stuff like that. My main guitar is that hotrails tele, and usually for playing live i dime the amp then set the TS for a clean boost at about 9 o'clock, so i don't add in any distortion or max out the clean boost, and i'm using a hot raill, so, all that in consideration.

and i never play without the TS

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: power tubes

GT6L6GE, but JJ 6L6's sound great and are dirt cheap.

 

[ES350]

Re: power tubes

An upright for rockabilly needs one thing, and classic rock guitar needs something else...Tom Yearsley used to use a big Traynor w/EL34's for upright and it kept up with Gonzalez, Larry Taylor used a Showman, other guys I know use SVT's. So---the hardest, cleanest power tubes that that thing can run (7581A) and a 12AY7 in the preamp. Of course, you could always just get a GK or some other SS amp for the upright and leave it at that.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: power tubes

well i'd love a gk 800rb but after i drop money on a cab there's no way i can afford one in the near future

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: power tubes

I've tryed 6550's in Bassmans before, and I don't think you will obtain much more clean headroom over a good clean 6L6. The transformers and power supply of these amps just work better with a 6L6 tube, than with 6550's. For actual bass usage the forementioned v1 12AY7 and 7581's was the solution for us too. Nonetheless, four NOS 7581's is a very expensive proposition! However, a good clean 6L6 properly biased will work just as good if not better than 6550's, in my opinion. Depending on the modds done, KT66's may be another viable option.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: power tubes

a 12ay7 in v1? i thought that was a volume killer?

in the PI i could understand it, but 12au7's are even lower gain so it'd make more sense to use one of them

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: power tubes

I tryed both Y's and U's in V1, and the Y didn't kill the volume much at all. It did make things cleaner though. The U's did kill volume big time, in any position. We ran a Y in V1, and the standard 12AT7 in the PI with 7581's for clean head room.