What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

[Hot _Grits]

Hi all,

Well, after this weekend I have major victoria GAS. I played several models, but was most taken by the deluxe clone. though I did find myself wishing for a touch more headroom...

So, does anyone know if you can get a bit more headroom and volume out of a tweed deluxe by subbing 6l6s and rebiasing? -or do you start having to look at uprating transformers, modding the circuit etc?

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

Turn up the negative feedback??

 

[Scott_F]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

If you want to look at the differences in the circuit, you can look at the kit pages over at the weber vst site.

If you need a bigger tone, more headroom, just get the 35watt version of tweed and have it in cathode bias and you'll be very close to where you want to be.

The Deluxe sort of is what it is type of thing. Lack of headroom can be an issue, but with the right speaker, you can maximize the headroom.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

Turn up the negative feedback??

There is no NFB in the 5E3. In fact, in amps with NFB, disconnecting it seems to increase the overall volume.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

Thanks, Scott and Rid.

-Yeah, a simple speaker swap would be cool, as the amp is so amazing sounding in the first place. Any recommendations, and how much clean headroom/volume improvement can I expect?

 

[Scott_F]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

If you're worried about it now, don't buy it. A more efficient speaker would help obviously, but if you plug a humbucker equpped guitar in to it, it's going to distort.

I was playing one this weekend, put a Mojo Greenback into it. I thought it had decent clean headroom. But, I was in my small shop area and I don't play live. So, it's going to be a personal opinion.

If you love the tone, you can always mic it.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

But, its' SUPPOSED to distort early and often! That's the beauty of the amp.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

yeah, totally. And micing is an option.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

Grits: If you want to put 6L6's in it all you have to do is pop a set in there and it's done!

The Vicky's come with reissue jensens which, IMO leave a lot to be desired but are OK...the best sounding Tweed Deluxe I have ever tried had a Celestion blue in it but if you're gonna be cranking all the time that speaker won't last long...maybe the Weber Blue Clone woudl be a better bet or the new Celestion Gold, but like the BLue the Gold cost big money...another good speaker in a Tweed Deluxe is a G12H30...the H30's are also 100db efficent so that helps the over all volume right there.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

...ah, after looking into the range, the double deluxe sounds like a good way to go. Anyone played one?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

...ah, after looking into the range, the double deluxe sounds like a good way to go. Anyone played one?

I played one very breifly once...not long enough to really make any big desicions on it.

My first impressions are this...being cathode biased and with no NFB loop (like a regular deluxe) it breaks up pretty quickly BUT because it's actually 30 watts (with a 5Y3) or 40 watts (with a GZ34) and runs 2 12's it can get a LOT louder.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

Grits: If you want to put 6L6's in it all you have to do is pop a set in there and it's done!

Christain, Are you sure about this? 6L6's may draw a bit more filament current from the PT. The output impedance of a 6V6 OT may vary from a 6L6 OT. Granted it will work with 6L6's, But how long ? or safely? It's hard to say for sure without looking at a spec. sheet.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

Christain, Are you sure about this? 6L6's may draw a bit more filament current from the PT. The output impedance of a 6V6 OT may vary from a 6L6 OT. Granted it will work with 6L6's, But how long ? or safely? It's hard to say for sure without looking at a spec. sheet.

I know that 6L6's pull more current and I have put 6L6's in a Tweed Deluxe before with no issues...I don't know the numbers on the PT right off the top of my head but let;s say this...Neil Young has been using 6L6's in his Tweed Deluxe(s) for years and as far as I know his are all stock...

Like I said I don't know the numbers rigt off but Imbetting it'll be fine.

 

[Curly]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

...ah, after looking into the range, the double deluxe sounds like a good way to go. Anyone played one?

I have one, and it's a great amp.

as far as putting 6L6s in a 5E3, at least in my Mission kit, you need to bump one of the resistors from 5 watts to 10 watts.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

I have one, and it's a great amp.

as far as putting 6L6s in a 5E3, at least in my Mission kit, you need to bump one of the resistors from 5 watts to 10 watts.

30 or 40 watt setup? -How's the clean headroom?

 

[Scott_F]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

A lot of folks would call the double deluxe the perfect amp.

 

[jeremy]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

i gig with my celtic 5e3 fairly frequently in smaller clubs. i have a eminence red fang which is sorta their take on the alnico blue, very efficient and handles 30w. with any alnico speaker you wouldnt be able to put in 6l6 tubes or even jj 6v6's since they would hit the cover on the magnet.
ive also been running mine with a 5v4 recto tube which pushes the power tubes from 330v to 362v giving a little more high end and maybe more headroom.
the tone control adds a little gain above 8 or 9 but the real key to clean headroom imo is the normal channel volume control assuming that you are plugged in bright 1. 12 to 8 is where i usually run it. at 12 you get the least mids and the cleanest tones, the grind and mids increase as you roll it back to 8 or so which seems to be the peak raunch.

the double dlx is a very cool amp

 

[Curly]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

30 or 40 watt setup? -How's the clean headroom?

30 watt setup, which is really like an original 5E3.

since I'm not playing out, I can't really comment on the clean headroom in a gig situation.

to me, the double deluxe, just like a tweed deluxe, is all about warm crunch, lots of harmonics, and sustain.

 

[ES350]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

Yep---the impedance is different, the draw on the PT is cutting it close, and the benefits are marginal. I've replaced several PT's in original 5E3's (including one of mine) where the failure may have been from running 6L6's, so it does happen.

If 12 watts (the output of a 5E3 on a good day) isn't enough, don't use one. If you want to run 6L6, upgrade the iron...

 

[Scott_F]

Re: What's involved in 6l6-ing a tweed deluxe?

The FFG refers to the 5E3 as having 15 watts. In case anyone is interested. That site is usually pretty accurate on this type stuff. It's what you do with them I guess that counts. The Franklin amp I build is 15 watts on paper, but you'd swear it was 20+.