Dougs Tubes.

[Humbility]

Nice guy. Emailed him. We went back and forth a few times.....make a long story short....my new tubes are on their way.

4 6L6SED Winged =C= SED 6L6GC
1 TS12AX7 Tung-Sol 12AX7 reissue
2 SHUG12AX7XC9B Shuguang 12AX7 9th generation, balanced.
1 SHUG12AX7C9 Shuguang 12AX7 9th generation
1 JJECC83HG High gain JJECC83S

Pretty excited. We shall see how it goes
I'll let you all know.

Hum

 

[inkwachemis]

dougs tubes is the best. I'll always get my tubes from him.

what tube u gonna put in V1? I think the tungsol may go best there. the JJecc83 may be too dark with your recto in the v1 slot

 

[David.W]

theres a thread dedicated to Doug somewhere in 'Tubes" i just got the same config. its great! Im gonna let him woo me with some el34's next time

check 'tubes'

 

[JerryFJA]

Doug does a great job of matching and testing. Great place to buy tubes.
Jerry

 

[domct203]

+1 for Doug.

Dom

 

[earachemyeye]

It's a Doug lovefest! He gets a +1 from me also. Very good tube setup for my Nomad.

Joe

 

[Humbility]

See.....so many of you claim to have good experiences with Doug. So I emailed him. He's SUCH a nice guy. Know his sh!t too. And man he got back to me SUPER fast. Dealing with him was easier than I had imagined. If all goes well, I too will buy my tubes from him from now on. Oh and +1 for going with EL 34's later on. I know that the dual can get some nice tones with the right EL's in there. But that will have to wait til next time. SO far so good though. They are on their way and he said it should take no more than 3-5 days since I live in Western Canada. We'll see.
Patiently waiting.

Hum

P.S. What was the general consensus as to the major improvements in tone? Experiences? Please share.

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

Just did almost the identical retube with Doug 2 weeks ago.

Loved the tubes, but the first Tung Sol I got was microphonic. Got a hold of Doug, and had a new one in 4 days! Great service, and I thank him for that! He had made a customer for life.

As for tonal improvements, I saw little in the Modern mode...personally, after recent tweaking, I find the mode completely useless, especially in a good band mix....others really make the recto a greater beast anyway.

The clean is amazing....sooo much better. Also, the Vintage modes just roar...punchy and crunchy, yet very defined and tight, which isn't something a recto does very often.

You'll enjoy the setup!

 

[Humbility]

LOL you know its funny. I have always heard the potential in the vintage mode. very juicy...but I always felt it was lacking something. Cut and punch. Last practice I was fiddling around with it a bit more. I was thinking at the time that if I could just get that mode to come to life for me that I know I could use it as my main overdrive channel. hopefully I will find it after I do the retube. I REALLY hope so. I just know in my heart that this amp....if things don't shape up, is not the one for me. The little things will gnaw at me until the bitter end. Like all of you I am sure, the search for the tone I hear in my head is out there. The single recto was the closest I have ever come to realizing it. And sometimes I feel like the dual was a smidge of a step backwards. But for now...I wait.
Hum

 

[inkwachemis]

Just did almost the identical retube with Doug 2 weeks ago.

Loved the tubes, but the first Tung Sol I got was microphonic. Got a hold of Doug, and had a new one in 4 days! Great service, and I thank him for that! He had made a customer for life.

As for tonal improvements, I saw little in the Modern mode...personally, after recent tweaking, I find the mode completely useless, especially in a good band mix....others really make the recto a greater beast anyway.

The clean is amazing....sooo much better. Also, the Vintage modes just roar...punchy and crunchy, yet very defined and tight, which isn't something a recto does very often.

You'll enjoy the setup!

yup! the vintage mode is where its at for the Recto. that mode actually sounds great with a set of el-34s in it. to tighten up that mode a bit more, add a clean boost in front of the amp

 

[Humbility]

Well .....the tubes from Doug finally came in.
First impressions:
1. WAY nicer, warmer clean channel. Smoother, nice warm subtle harmonics when you drive it a bit hard. Nice break-up. And nice warm round bottom end.

2. Channel 2 raw mode came to life like I've never heard. I jammed in this mode for a couple hours on Sat nite. Nice gritty overdrive. Kinda plexi-ish. Not truly of course but dime the gain and you can get this REALLY nice, "On the brink of completely coming apart" type of growl. Very fun mode for me now.

3. Vintage. This mode has also come to a new life considerably. I am not much of a solo or lead player. I am the only guitarist in a 3 piece band so....but this mode REALLY sings now. Much much better, smoother, punchier, fat fat fat. Thats all I can say really. In time, when I have it tweaked the way I want....this will be my main drive channel.

4. Modern...still feels big and juicy to me...maybe a little tighter in the low end...this mode REALLY only shines for chord work though. I imagine that is what a lot of other people find as well. Not "tight" per say, not compared to the vintage mode, but the type of music I play....its a good over the top aggressive sound.

As I play around more, I'll post results. Even clips if I get around to it.....for anyone that cares.

As it stands....I'll buy tubes from Doug again.

Hum

 

[joepopp]

Doug consulted me for my .50 Caliber retube. He suggested a mixture of stuff. I bit the bullet and got the expensive Mullard for my V4 (12AT7). It sounds WAY better than it did before and Doug understood the sound I was looking for and recommended tubes to fit. The guy knows his stuff! Why can't there be more Dougs in the world?

 

[GLydian]

++++++1 for Doug.
Having lot of recommendations from Rig-Talk people I bought tubes for my Mark IV form Doug. He was a very nice guy and got time to explain stuff I wanted to know. And had a good idea what I was asking. Tubes came fast and packed nice. They sounded really nice in my amp.

 

[Guitarzan]

Read the other Doug's threadHERE.

 

[6L6C]

Nice guy. Emailed him. We went back and forth a few times.....make a long story short....my new tubes are on their way.

4 6L6SED Winged =C= SED 6L6GC
1 TS12AX7 Tung-Sol 12AX7 reissue
2 SHUG12AX7XC9B Shuguang 12AX7 9th generation, balanced.
1 SHUG12AX7C9 Shuguang 12AX7 9th generation
1 JJECC83HG High gain JJECC83S

Pretty excited. We shall see how it goes
I'll let you all know.

Hum

For a while I have not been happy with tubes that I have got so I have been doing research into what everyone else is using there is a fair amount of views for sure and some of them polar opposites, which makes it more confusing. Then I tripped across this thread by Humbility and the thing that caught my attention was all the different tubes Doug was using in the preamp section. It’s not the first time I seen it but I just found his mix interesting. I also found out Doug was only 10 miles away from me, so contacted him talked to him and went to his place to pick up some tubes. BTW I have a Mesa Boogie Mark IV and ended up getting the same configuration as Humbility.
I explained to Doug I have not been happy with 6L6’s in a while (I use to get the Mesa 6L6C) but have not seen them in a while, so for a while I have been using the (2) 6L6’s (2) EL34’s to give the sound a different flavor. But had the itch to go back to (4) 6L6’s. And after yesterday so glad I did! My amp has never sounded better, ever in the 14 years I have owned it!

 

[recto-robbie]

I have to agree with all of you about dougs tubes,, I have ordered from him a few times and got off the phone feeling confident I made the right purchase. I now own 2 or 3 sets of el34's and 6l6's bought from doug over the last couple years,,,I like to swap them around when my sound gets old to my ears or just for a different sound all together. I recently received some kt77's and TAD 6L6 WGC'S from him that I cant wait to try out,,,he highly suggested the TAD'S. Im currently using some
SED el34's I bought from him a while back and have been loving the sound out of my ROV so much that the new tubes will just have to wait.
He also recommended the penta labs 12ax7 preamp tubes,,they are a specially selected lot of the chinese 9th gens. I also cant wait to try them out but im loving the tung-sols he recommended before...its nice to know when my sound gets stale ive got something else to mess with.

 

[6L6C]

I have to agree with all of you about dougs tubes,, I have ordered from him a few times and got off the phone feeling confident I made the right purchase.

Since I had the pleasure of meeting he and seeing what he does it goes way beyond knowhow. Doug loves this stuff and is forever tweaking. I was talking to him for a while and getting the tour (bit of a gear head) It’s a combination of knowhow, experience, and an artist touch (in this case ears).
I still can’t believe the best kept secret was 10 miles away from me!

 

[recto-robbie]

yea lucky you,,,id trade one of my guitar centers within 10 miles from me, there are 3,,,,for a dougs tubes any day.

 

[6L6C]

yea lucky you,,,id trade one of my guitar centers within 10 miles from me, there are 3,,,,for a dougs tubes any day.

Hey Robbie
I like you have 2 Guitar Centers and 1 Sam Ash within 10 miles of me and Doug is way more important.
It’s like I found lost gold or something. So I do hear you and do consider myself lucky. I just can’t I have not heard of him before, makes me feel like a weenie, I’m usually very up on this stuff.

 

[Silverwulf]

Yeah, ressurecting an old thread I know. I spoke with Doug for the first time this week. Seems like a nice enough guy, but regardless of what amp I talked about, he always preached the same tube configuration above that he recommends to everyone. So, I asked why he chose that configuration, wanting an explanation as to why he choose particular tubes for particular slots, and his rationale was..."Because what happens if I sell you a set of 5 of the same tubes and you don't like how it sounds?" My response was "Then it will take me a lot longer to figure out what particular tube I'm not liking"... :lol:

So then we were talking about the Stiletto, and I asked him for his opinion on good tubes for the Stiletto. That was when he was recommending 6L6's to me for some reason. I explained the Stiletto doesn't use 6L6's, and then he asked about flipping the bias switch. So then I asked him if he was even familiar with what the Stiletto was, and he wasn't up to speed on it. I did find it curious that he would recommend tubes for an amp he had no knowledge of.

Anyway, he seemed like a nice enough guy, but I was looking for a little more explanation as to why he chose the tube sets he did. I may try a set in the future.