12DW7 in V2

[phillygtr]

Just bought a new Dual Rectifier 3-channel and love it. But like most guitar dweebs, I can't help but wonder about tube substitutions.

I don't play very heavy gain stuff and would like to tame some of the gain a bit in the amp (outside of just backing off the gain & treble controls). I have an NOS 12DW7 tube (1/2 12AX7, 1/2 12AU7). I'm thinking this would be a good tube to use because it would be the same up to the V2A position, but the V2B would be lower gain and that would cascade through the rest of the amp. Plus V2A would have some NOS 12AX7 mojo.

Any thoughts? Has anyone experimented with this in V2? I've heard of people using it in V3 so I may experiment with that too.

 

[phillygtr]

OK, just tried it. Sounds pretty good on channels 2&3, lot lower gain on Vintage & Modern mode, but the Raw mode is totally useless now.

Also surprisingly there was a significant volume drop on the Green (clean) channel that I wasn't expecting.

Here's what I'm thinking - maybe the 12DW7 isn't working and the V2A (2nd input all channels) is not working. Is that possible? If V2 is completely dead will, it still pass a signal to V3/V5? If that tube were missing altogether would the amp still sound?

Do you think that's what's going on?

 

[phillygtr]

OK, I put my amp back stock. I still think the 12DW7 in V2 can be cool, but I'll need a better tube to really try it.