All 6L6 tubes or 6L6 and EL34's?
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Justice1988
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mix. EL34 is more musical to my ears. 6L6 sounds more spaced out, more low end, less harmonics and gain than the EL34.
gts
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Seanboy said:
Assuming your MkIII is a Simul if not get tohose El34's out of there...
All 6L6's: Deeper more rounded tone with more low end.
El34's will get you some high end bite that can be nice. But typically they have less lows.
However if you use some good EL34's like old Sylvania's or perhaps current production Winged C's (=C=),
you can get the bite of El34's while maintaining some of the low end.
Preference is in the ear of the beholder.
Experiment, find out what your preference will be.
Justice1988
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gts said:
I'll concur on the Wing C being a top notch EL34.
However doug highly recommended these tubes for EL34 for my mark III.
http://www.dougstubes.com/power-tubes/el34-kt77-6ca7/ruby-el34-bstr.html
I'm buying a matched pair next month. Along with Ruby 6L6MSTR's and cocktail tone kit for the preamp.
If you don't have simul class, I would just stick with all 6L6. But my problem with 6L6 is that it has such a large space to the sound, you are depending on all preamp gain pretty much(unless you really crank the hell of the amp). Thats why I like the 5881's better because they are more compressed. If you have simul class, by all mean please throw in two EL34's. It is even recommended by mesa for reliability. The sound of class A EL34 is simply amazing to my ears.
JOEY B.
Well-known member
Sylvania STR-416 in the outer sockets of a Simulclass Mark series Boogie. Often imitated, never duplicated, or so they say. 8)
I'm currently using Ruby EL34BSTR's and Ruby 6L6MSTR's. I ordered them online, but didn't specify they were for a Mark III, both sets are matching sets, did I need to specify that I was using them for a Mark III whereas its a fixed bias? Or are all the EL34BSTR's and 6L6MSTR's the same?
Oh.. And it is a Simulclass.
Oh.. And it is a Simulclass.
Okay.... Here's the issues im having with my Mark III no stripe. Ive owned it now for a little less than a year. I read so many posts about how much everyone loves their mark III's, I'm just not feeling the love.. At first i thought maybe it was just my inexperience of knowing how to dial it in. Ive read hundreds of posts about settings and I've tried almost all of them. I can get a sound that sounds okay, but not incredible. Ive replaced all the power tubes with Ruby's, but haven't replaced the preamps. The preamps that are in it now is JJ 12AX7 in V1, and all the rest are Mesa 12AX7's. I dont know how long they have been in there. The lead channel is the one im not happy with. There's way too much brightness and its too fizzy. Im going to try the C30 mod and see if that helps. When i try to get a thick crunch it gets mushy and loses definition. Any suggestions or help? Im about to sell this dang thing!
Thanks
Sean
Thanks
Sean
screamingdaisy
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Seanboy said:
What kind of sound are you going for (rock, metal, jazz, blues, etc), and are you trying to use the lead channel as a lead channel or a high gain rhythm channel?
What speaker/cab setup are you using?
Take a look at the Mesa 12AX7s. Do they say Chinese, Russian, or Russian 2 on them? Or do they say nothing and like identical to the JJ ECC83 you have in the V1?
The power tubes should have been selected to fall within Mesa's bias specs. If the tube spec is written on the side then contact the vendor and confirm if it's correct for use with a Mesa amp.
Seanboy said:
I know exactly what you are talking about. I have a green stripe, but my problems don't seem that bad. The FIZZ I will put money on the JJ in V1. Replace that with a high gain tung sol.
TBH, I never really liked the black stripe. All the clips I have heard on it. The purple onward sound noticeably better. My green stripe seems to share some of your complaints. Actually just the fizz part. I also have a high gain JJ in the V1. Very fizzy tube. However, I have no issues hitting the sound I want even though I am due for a new set of tubes.
Is this a head? Combo? style of music?
I pulled the JJ from V1 and replaced it with a Mesa SPAX7 that I had, I think it helped a little bit, maybe ill have to try the Tung Sol 12AX7.
The amp is a combo with the EVM-12L speaker, the type of music I typically play is classic rock, rock and metal. And I mainly just keep the amp on the lead channel.
The preamp tubes just say Mesa 12AX7, they don't say where they were made.
The amp is a combo with the EVM-12L speaker, the type of music I typically play is classic rock, rock and metal. And I mainly just keep the amp on the lead channel.
The preamp tubes just say Mesa 12AX7, they don't say where they were made.
A
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screamingdaisy
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Seanboy said:
Honestly, I never liked the EVM-12L. I found it bright, stiff and kind of bland sounding. Supposedly it was originally marketed as an upgrade for jazz and country players. It lacks the Celestion mid hump and breakup that's typically associated with rock guitar. I usually unplugged the combo speaker and plugged the amp into a V30 loaded 4x12.
If the tubes are just marked 12AX7 that typically means they're JJ.
Plug it in to a closed back 2x12 or 4x12. Makes all the difference in the world. I was about to sell my MkIV combo because it had a real ratty thin sound. I plugged it into a 4x12 and what a difference. I ditched the combo cab and converted it to a head and have never looked back.
With my two mark II´s RFT 12ax7 had huge impact on taming fizzy highs, the also have great bottomend, on the other hand new production Tungsols sounded thin and steril.
When I got the first c+ it had all stock new production tubes, the sound was steril, bright and not much full bottom end, I then replaced the tubes with 2 philips 7581a 6L6 and two mesa 416 el34, for preamp tubes I ran 3 RFT`s and Tunsgsram 12ax7 in V1;V2 and it was a night and day difference.
When I got the first c+ it had all stock new production tubes, the sound was steril, bright and not much full bottom end, I then replaced the tubes with 2 philips 7581a 6L6 and two mesa 416 el34, for preamp tubes I ran 3 RFT`s and Tunsgsram 12ax7 in V1;V2 and it was a night and day difference.
JOEY B.
Well-known member
Open back combo amps and classic rock do not blend well to my ears. Not enough "punch" to the sound. It's all about the dynamics. The type of cabinet is just as important as the speaker itself. Some speakers are more suited to open back, sealed, or ported cabinets. 8)
Out of the Mark III Owners manual:Seanboy said:
NOTE: In the past, MESA/Boogie advertised the "interchangeable power tubes" feature of the Mark III Simul-Class. We told players
that they could use either EL-34's or 6L6's in the outer (Class A) power sockets. However, in recent years we've observed a much
greater reliability factor with the use of EL-34's in these outer sockets, with much fewer incidents of tube failure. Therefore, today we
strongly recommend using EL-34's in the outer sockets and 6L6's in the inner sockets of your Simul-Class Boogie.
Don't know. I've never run my Mark IV with 6L6s only. I like having the EL34s in there for two reasonsSeanboy said:
1) I can run in "class A" and use only the EL34s and (2) Simul-class sounds so good with the two tube types.The breakup on EL34s is just different enough that I want to keep the option of using just them. It would be kind of neat if the Mark IV had an option where you could switch to only the 2 inside tubes. That would give you the best of both worlds.
PS: If you do make the change, let me know what you think of it.
Thanks for reading.
