Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

[B2D]

Hey people. Retube time for the Legacy is coming up and I was thinking of going with 5881 power tubes this time, as the amp can accept them via the bias switch. I'll probably have the local Carvin shop zero in the bias anyways to get the best sound and max tube life anyways, but still...

I've only played two amps with 5881 tubes. The Suhr/CAA OD100 and the Soldano SLO100.

Every clip I've ever heard of a Soldano has been fabulous but the Soldano I tried stunk... must've been a bum amp (though I think at $3500 for a head being sold at a store only accessable by appointment there should be no such thing). All the other sound/video clips/album examples I've heard of SLO's have been waaaaay cool.

The Suhr OD100 was bar none the loudest, fattest, richest guitar amp I'd ever heard. Ever. Seriously. It takes the Bogner concept but goes towards a more Fender direction, and it's about the same price point as well. Frikken AWESOME amp. If you get the chance to play one do not pass it up.

...but those are $2500-$3500 amps and we're talking about an $800 Legacy here. :lmao:

Sooo.... anyone had any experience with 5881's? I ran a search and didn't find very much. So what's up with these? Pros? Cons? Talk to me.

 

[thucydides]

Re: Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

My personal preference is EL 34s over 5881s. The one amp that I've used both in is a Marshall JCM 900. The EL 34s are way better in that rig.

Try the Carvin forum also. Quite a few Legacy players there.

carvin.com

 

[krankguitarist]

Re: Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

If you go 5881's, I wouldn't go with sovteks. My KRANK came with a set of those, and they were grainy, flabby, and lifeless.

In fact, i'm about 85% sure that those tubes are a majoirty of the reason KRANK gets such a bad rap .

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

Before you buy some, ask Chops if you can pull the 6L6's out of his amp, switch your head to 6L6, and put them in, then play it for a few minutes, after hearing it with your EL-34's. You'll see the difference right away, and Russ doesn't have to worry about anything. As soon as you hear them, simply pop them back into Russ's amp. If he worries about his tubes or bias, there's nothing to worry about. As soon as they go back in his amp, it'll be like he never took them out.

I'd do this before buying them, because Russ's amp was designed around 6L6's and your Legacy was designed around EL-34's. This 10 minute experiment will tell you right away, and I'd be interested to hear the results.

I've heard amps that can take either, and some like them, and some don't. Try it out.

 

[B2D]

Re: Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

My personal preference is EL 34s over 5881s. The one amp that I've used both in is a Marshall JCM 900. The EL 34s are way better in that rig.

Try the Carvin forum also. Quite a few Legacy players there.

carvin.com

I've always gravitated towards EL34s for distortion and 6L6 for clean. I'm pretty traditional in that sense. I'm just rooting around in other areas to see if there's any tonal "diamonds in the rough" to be found.

My rig hasn't undergone any real major changes since July '05, when i got the Legacy. Lately I'm feeling the need to tweak again.

If you go 5881's, I wouldn't go with sovteks. My KRANK came with a set of those, and they were grainy, flabby, and lifeless.

In fact, i'm about 85% sure that those tubes are a majoirty of the reason KRANK gets such a bad rap .

The Legacy came with sovtek pres and Electro Harmonix EL34s, which I quickly disposed of got GT gold series 12AX7R's and EL34R's, also Gold series. HUGE improvement. I don't think this amp likes Sovteks very much. Strangely enough... the Sovs found a happy home and sounded KILLER in the local rental shop's JCM800.

What are you using now and how do you like it?

Before you buy some, ask Chops if you can pull the 6L6's out of his amp, switch your head to 6L6, and put them in, then play it for a few minutes, after hearing it with your EL-34's. You'll see the difference right away, and Russ doesn't have to worry about anything. As soon as you hear them, simply pop them back into Russ's amp. If he worries about his tubes or bias, there's nothing to worry about. As soon as they go back in his amp, it'll be like he never took them out.

I'd do this before buying them, because Russ's amp was designed around 6L6's and your Legacy was designed around EL-34's. This 10 minute experiment will tell you right away, and I'd be interested to hear the results.

I've heard amps that can take either, and some like them, and some don't. Try it out.

Russ' amp uses two tubes, mine uses four in the power section. I have a 1/2 power switch, but I'm not sure how it runs the tubes (i.e. cuts two of them out of the circuit or what, but the tubes all stay lit in that mode). I suppose I could pull all the EL's and run the amp on the inner two tubes and the 50W mode to be safe. Think that'll work?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

Oh yeah, I forgot. I thought Russ's amp was a Showman with 4 6L6's. Oops.

I still think you should find someone that'll loan you 4 6L6's. Tube distributors never take tubes back, once they've been sold. It's possible that the amp sounds better with EL-34's, so it'd suck to buy a set of 6L6's for nothing.

Check out my biasing thread. You should buy a volt/ohm meter and bias tool, so you can do this stuff yourself. It's not difficult, and you'd be surprised at what an adjustment can do. Sometimes, you don't even need to change tubes, you just need to tweak the bias a little, and it almost sounds like you popped new tubes in.

 

[B2D]

Re: Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

Oh yeah, I forgot. I thought Russ's amp was a Showman with 4 6L6's. Oops.

I still think you should find someone that'll loan you 4 6L6's. Tube distributors never take tubes back, once they've been sold. It's possible that the amp sounds better with EL-34's, so it'd suck to buy a set of 6L6's for nothing.

Check out my biasing thread. You should buy a volt/ohm meter and bias tool, so you can do this stuff yourself. It's not difficult, and you'd be surprised at what an adjustment can do. Sometimes, you don't even need to change tubes, you just need to tweak the bias a little, and it almost sounds like you popped new tubes in.

I really do need to invest in one of those and learn how to use it.

The tubes in there are 18 months old and noisy/microphonic to boot... I run the amp fairly hard with a fair amount of attenuation as well, so the tubes are probably worn to the point where the amp could really benefit.

 

[krankguitarist]

Re: Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

What are you using now and how do you like it?

I've got a quad of JJ/tesla 6l6GC's in there...I like those a whole lot better. They're much deeper and tighter sounding than the sovtek 5881's, and don't have the harsh, grainy high-end that the sovteks have.

Some people think the JJ/tesla 6l6gc's are a bit too dark though...I dunno, I guess it all depends on what amp you put em in.

I got the same in my 68 showman reverb right now. They're workin great in there too :fing2:

 

[B2D]

Re: Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

I've got a quad of JJ/tesla 6l6GC's in there...I like those a whole lot better. They're much deeper and tighter sounding than the sovtek 5881's, and don't have the harsh, grainy high-end that the sovteks have.

Some people think the JJ/tesla 6l6gc's are a bit too dark though...I dunno, I guess it all depends on what amp you put em in.

I got the same in my 68 showman reverb right now. They're workin great in there too :fing2:

Legacys are very loud and bassy and thick, but I wouldn't call them dark per se. The Carvin guys tend to know their product very well and apparently the Legacies perform very well with JJ's. I plan on retubing with those when i make a decision.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Thinking of retubing with 5881s - anyone had any experience?

My latest favorite 5881 new production tube is the Tung Sol reissues. They are tasty good. Jeremy has a set in his Aislinn. I'm not sure if Greg has those in his or if he's running the TAD 6L6WGB's. (another great option for you)