Tubes working right on mini jubilee amp?

[Open lane]

Hi. I recently posted about this on the marshall forum but decided to post here to ask around. My mini jubilee amp needed just a little more gain with humbucking pickups and is relatively transparent with single coils with the gain dimed in comparison so i decided to order an OD as a boost. I'm very pleased with the result of the boost with the single coils. It increases the sustain and playability of my strat significantly.


Do you think that the transparency of unboosted single coils compared relatively (but not overwhelmingly) saturated humbuckers could indicate that something is wrong with the amps tubes or or is this difference normal?

If you suspect something finicky with the tubes, do you think i'm doing any harm to the amp by continuing to run it boosted?

Loving the boosted tone currently, it's just that the single coil lollar pickups aren't getting a great amount of gain/sustain without it and i want to make sure #1 i'm not harming the amp and #2 is their a potential issue with it at all?


Thanks for any opinions you can offer!

 

[zzmoore]

Re: Tubes working right on mini jubilee amp?

Not sure if i, exactly, follow what you are saying.
Without the pedal, were the Hums giving you a lot more Gain/Distortion than the Singles.?
Typically, that is "normal".....and the wingdings could be Way Lopsided when comparing the Hums to the Singles.
Hums are usually wound hotter than Singles are.
Some of the members here are VERY Up on pick-ups. If you mention what you are using, some of these guys will know the specs.

 

[Open lane]

Re: Tubes working right on mini jubilee amp?

Not sure if i, exactly, follow what you are saying.
Without the pedal, were the Hums giving you a lot more Gain/Distortion than the Singles.?
Typically, that is "normal".....and the wingdings could be Way Lopsided when comparing the Hums to the Singles.
Hums are usually wound hotter than Singles are.
Some of the members here are VERY Up on pick-ups. If you mention what you are using, some of these guys will know the specs.

Thank you!

Yes, without the pedal, getting significantly more gain with the humbuckers.

Ok, the single coil pickups that distort with a lot more transparency than the humbuckers are lollar (not sure of the exact model) and the humbucker i' comparing it to is an air norton 7. Sound normal?

 

[JeffB]

Re: Tubes working right on mini jubilee amp?

Are you saying you want the same kind of gain with the singles as buckers?

Air Norton is pretty hot. Most Lollar singles are very low output and will sound much clearer than humbuckers.

You can source a higher gain tube for v1, so that the singles gain out a bit more, but so will the humbuckers. You will probably need to compensate at the amp with the humbuckers then.

IMO, use the pedal for the singles. IME they tend to like a pedal boosting a distorted amp better than buckers and tons of preamp gain anyway. The clarity/narrow magnetic field helps to keep things from turning to mush.

 

[Open lane]

Re: Tubes working right on mini jubilee amp?

Are you saying you want the same kind of gain with the singles as buckers?

Air Norton is pretty hot. Most Lollar singles are very low output and will sound much clearer than humbuckers.

You can source a higher gain tube for v1, so that the singles gain out a bit more, but so will the humbuckers. You will probably need to compensate at the amp with the humbuckers then.

IMO, use the pedal for the singles. IME they tend to like a pedal boosting a distorted amp better than buckers and tons of preamp gain anyway. The clarity/narrow magnetic field helps to keep things from turning to mush.

Ok thank you. I just wanted to make sure it was not abnormal for the single coils to become signif less saturated than the humbuckers. Yes, with the OD pedal, i get the saturation that usually exists naturally for the humbuckers. I guess it's the dif in pickup output that creates the difference i noticed

 

[dystrust]

Re: Tubes working right on mini jubilee amp?

Ok thank you. I just wanted to make sure it was not abnormal for the single coils to become signif less saturated than the humbuckers. Yes, with the OD pedal, i get the saturation that usually exists naturally for the humbuckers. I guess it's the dif in pickup output that creates the difference i noticed

I have a Jubilee 2555 and my amp responds like that to vintage single coils compared to humbuckers. A clean boost will go a long way toward compensating for the low output of the singles. The way that you play the amp also makes a difference; I used to run the gain wide open when I first got mine, but I've adjusted how I play and only need the gain on 7 now.