DR retube help!

[Malin]

Well I'm asking for help once again guys!



I bought the amp used a couple of months ago and the owner said he changed the tubes not too long ago. Anyway, I have the stock Mesa preamp tubes and I'm rocking JJ 6L6's for the power section.



Now I want to make up my own little cocktail. So far I know eurotube can give me a **kit** but I want to know where to buy my tubes and wich brand does what. I know I'm asking for a lot here but I'm sure I'll get some good information.

Wich power tubes should I buy (I won't go with the EL34..I'm sticking with the 6L6)



For preamps...the choices are crazy! JJ, EH, Mullard, Sovtek, Tung-Sol...



Now keep In mind I'm using the DR for my rhythm sound and I want a killer chugga sound with plenty of gain!

 

[espboogie123]

I currently run SED Winged C 6L6s, with pure mesa preamp tubes w/ the v1 being a spax7. If I don't run mesa pres, I generally I run tung sols in v1, and a mix of chinese in others. JJs seem to darken every amp I've had so I stay away unless I want more gain. Dougs tubes can recommend you a mixture of tung sols, chinese tubes like penta labs, Shuguang and sovtek lps for phase inverter. I would never install pure JJ tubes. They are good reliable tubes, but darken amp.

 

[fluff191]

The Doug's Tubes kit is great sounding, but throw away the JJ in V2 for an EH. JJ pre's are awful IMO and greatly reduce gain in some positions.

 

[ElectricTurkey4369]

I dont have much experience with preamp tubes, but im currently using JJ's and they are certainly dark. Im also looking for some different kinds of preamp tubes for the V2 and V3. Im pretty much sold on the tung sol for V1 since pretty much everyone loves it :lol:

 

[fluff191]

Yeah the Tung-Sol is a great starting point in V1. Put EH's in the rest of the positions and you will be good to go.

 

[Neptical]

...If your starting out with new tubes ( not NOS), EH works great in the preamp in just about all the Boogies I've owned ( Mark series & Recto series). Then throw in those Winged =C='s for the power tubes and you will find some pretty sweet tones to be had. That's as close to 'sweet' as I've ever been in the new school tube country.

~Nep~

 

[domct203]

The EH are a good sounding current production tube, but most don't handle the cathode follower positions well ( V3 & V5 in the Dual ). If you start having volume swells / dropouts suspect those positions first.

The =C= are always a good power tube choice IMO.

Dom

 

[fluff191]

The EH are a good sounding current production tube, but most don't handle the cathode follower positions well ( V3 & V5 in the Dual ). If you start having volume swells / dropouts suspect those positions first.

The =C= are always a good power tube choice IMO.

Dom

Mesa told me the cathode follower positions are V3 and V4 when I asked them what positions the Russian tubes should not go.

 

[94Tremoverb]

In the standard Dual Rectifier, V3 and V4. V3 is the channel 2/3 tone stack driver (or both channels in the 2-channel Rectifier), V4 is the FX loop driver, both of which have one half as a cathode follower. V5 is the Phase Inverter.

Personally I would keep Russian tubes (especially standard Sovteks) out of the PI position too. The cathode-voltage failure problem isn't really an issue (it's only ~50V as opposed to ~200V in the other two positions), but in my opinion they muddy the sound of the amp.

 

[domct203]

Sorry for the confusion. I guess I've got my Roadster on my mind LOL.

The cathode follower positions in the Dual Recto are V3 & V4.

Dom