gribbly
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- Feb 22, 2014
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Hi all,
First post to the forum. Apologies if I break etiquette out of ignorance - pls correct me!
Anyway, I just bought a second-hand Roadster 1x12. The age/condition of the tubes is unknown to me. This is my first Roadster, so I don't have a direct comparison (although I've owned an Express 25+ for a while, and know it well). I play a Fender Deluxe Strat with N3 HSS pickups.
The problem I'm having is that channel 2 sounds very flat and dead.
Channel 1 sounds good but not great (could just be that I haven't got it dialed in yet)
Channel 3 sounds *amazing*, I am already addicted to the crunch I'm achieving.
Channel 4 sounds great too.
Compared to 1,3 and 4 channel 2 sounds really weak and thin and cardboardy. I'm assuming it's old tubes.
Here's my question: How would an experienced Roadster owner go about re-tubing this amp? I have budget to completely re-tube the thing (and in fact have ordered the tubes to do so from Mesa Boogie, they should arrive mid-week). But I want to learn to do it right, and I want to save any good tubes to have in hand as spares.
So I'm after recommendations to how to proceed with the re-tubing. Pre-amp tubes first? In what order? My initial thought was to try and locate any pre-amp tube(s) specific to Channel 2, but I get a little confused when I look at the tube replacement chart (p37) in the manual. I see one 12AX7 in the V1 position. But then the table says:
V1A - Input Stage
V1B - Second Gain Stage
What is V1A and V1B? AFAIK there's only one tube in position V1... so what is A and B?
Similarly, there's a V2A (CH 1/CH 2) and a V2B (CH 3/CH 4)... is that one tube or two?
Should I be replacing V2 first to see if it revives Channel 2?
Should I just go ahead and re-tube the whole **** thing (5U4Gs included) and just get it over with?
Should I be looking at the 6L6s first?
Thanks in advance for any help/insights.
First post to the forum. Apologies if I break etiquette out of ignorance - pls correct me!
Anyway, I just bought a second-hand Roadster 1x12. The age/condition of the tubes is unknown to me. This is my first Roadster, so I don't have a direct comparison (although I've owned an Express 25+ for a while, and know it well). I play a Fender Deluxe Strat with N3 HSS pickups.
The problem I'm having is that channel 2 sounds very flat and dead.
Channel 1 sounds good but not great (could just be that I haven't got it dialed in yet)
Channel 3 sounds *amazing*, I am already addicted to the crunch I'm achieving.
Channel 4 sounds great too.
Compared to 1,3 and 4 channel 2 sounds really weak and thin and cardboardy. I'm assuming it's old tubes.
Here's my question: How would an experienced Roadster owner go about re-tubing this amp? I have budget to completely re-tube the thing (and in fact have ordered the tubes to do so from Mesa Boogie, they should arrive mid-week). But I want to learn to do it right, and I want to save any good tubes to have in hand as spares.
So I'm after recommendations to how to proceed with the re-tubing. Pre-amp tubes first? In what order? My initial thought was to try and locate any pre-amp tube(s) specific to Channel 2, but I get a little confused when I look at the tube replacement chart (p37) in the manual. I see one 12AX7 in the V1 position. But then the table says:
V1A - Input Stage
V1B - Second Gain Stage
What is V1A and V1B? AFAIK there's only one tube in position V1... so what is A and B?
Similarly, there's a V2A (CH 1/CH 2) and a V2B (CH 3/CH 4)... is that one tube or two?
Should I be replacing V2 first to see if it revives Channel 2?
Should I just go ahead and re-tube the whole **** thing (5U4Gs included) and just get it over with?
Should I be looking at the 6L6s first?
Thanks in advance for any help/insights.