different tubes for my Nomad 45?

[nomad45]

hey Mesa fans, I have a nomad 45 with the "de-muddy" mod. I used to be into getting heavy, humbucker tones, but have been playing my strat 90% of the time lately and traded my friend for his Deville 4X10. (just for a month to experiment). I liked to use an OCD infront of the 4X10 with my strat. but im getting the urge for my mesa again...
I have really been curious about putting a lower gain preamp tube(s) in like a 12AY7, 12AU7, etc....i guess in V1...

So i wanted to see if anyone had experience with lower gain tubes in the nomad 45, or just info on how lower gain tubes will effect the tone.

I pretty much have a robin trower sound & Eric johnson type dirty with Gilmour type lead sound in mind.
I am thinking i want lower gain tubes, so i can get a bluesier sound with out turning the gain or volume(s) down. like, still pushing the the tubes hard for the "tube tone" but not have all the distortion.
hope that makes sence.....

 

[212Mavguy]

I've used 12at7's with great success in V1 or the first position of a multi tube preamp channel of a couple of my amps, the old stock ones (not necessarily new!) are the nicest sounding. Try to find a couple of 12at7wa, wb, or wc from Sylvania or JAN Philips, gray plates. They will have the kind of tones you want. You might also like finding one of those 12at7w_ in balanced triodes to use for the phase inverter position. A good choice for a dark sounding amp or cab would be a GE 6201. That tube has a very bright upper mid and top. A very fat, smooth, and almost gooey tone set emanates from the Mullard CV 4024.