Just installed five Telefunken ECC83 NOS tube in my RK1...

[edgarallanpoe]

I am surprised bro. They are normally a big improvement in tone. At the very least, you should hear a major improvement in noise reduction.

These tubes are anything but dark sounding, not sure what that is all about. If anything, I find the Tele to be a bit strident in the top end.

Remember to give it some time, you will not notice all of the differences in a few hours. Let your ears adjust and give it about a week or so.

 

[disassembled]

It's just the amp I guess or maybe some sub par tubes. Once you start retubing to get the tone you are after then it's probably time to say bye bye (again). To me a retubing should only sweetin an amp not completely change it to do what a circuit change would (add highs, clean up lows, make it a better lead amp, etc).

Maybe it's time to sell the amp again and just stick with the MK IIII or go with a Solo 50 head instead of the RK.


Greg

 

[stokes]

Try them in your MKIII.Listen to them with the amp fairly clean for a while so you get a feel for any improvement.With a high gain setting you wont notice as big an improvement.Like edgar said,let your ears get used to them,and to take it a step further,I would listen to them clean for a while first,that is where they will really shine.When overdriving them the effect is lessened.I didnt want to burst your bubble and say this in the other thread,since you already purchased them,but unfortunately,if you tend to play your amps with a lot of distortion,it almost doesnt pay to pay so much for such fine tubes.I do use NOS tubes in my boogie,but when using the lead channel,with a lot of gain,JJ's will work okay,but I wouldnt use JJ's in any of my other amps which are lower gain amps.Try them clean for a while and when you get used to the feel,you will hear it more when you crank it,and if the amp sounds bad to begin with even the best tube wont fix it.

 

[Russ]

That is along the lines of my thoughts and would be remarks. Right on stokes.

High gain applications will not yield much tonal change going to NOS tubes. In fact, you could get higher gain in current production tubes provided you pay for the further screening for higher mu. Cleaner tones will showcase your NOS tubes. They get really complex tones sometimes. It all depends upon what you have them in. Some amps do not benefit from them any more than they would with a selected quiet tube.

From your tastes as shown and posted, I am under the impression that the best benefit you will get from them is that the Tele's will last a little longer than the junk they sell now unless you reserve them for when you play with cleaner settings.

Think of your preamp tubes as an intake and induction system for your engine in your amp. Putting a supercharger on a dog of an engine will not necessarily give the best results that supercharger will achieve. It might give some improvements but they might be better realized on an engine that could better appreciate them whether that be something altogether different or at least tuned to accept the supercharger.

Again clean through semi-driven tones are where you will appreciate NOS.

 

[phyrexia]

Nothing else in the setup that could be funky? Old power tubes?

 

[123thefirst]

The way NOS tubes handle dynamics is probably the biggest difference from modern tubes. If you've listened to a lot of material from the 70's you might recognize that sound. The tone is basically not too much different and I agree it's mostly at low and medium gain settings that you're likely to hear a difference.

The NOS tubes don't have the sparkle that for instance Russian 2 pre-amp tubes do. Instead they have a creamier, rounder clean character with a lot of thwack in the attack jack.

 

[Russ]

The NOS tubes don't have the sparkle that for instance Russian 2 pre-amp tubes do. Instead they have a creamier, rounder clean character with a lot of thwack in the attack jack.

Well put... :wink:

 

[Cowbell Fever]

Looks just like a telefunken U47........................with leather.

 

[Dutchman]

Try a funken in V1 an EH's in the rest. That way you would have the chimey clean and the EH's are bright in the gain stages im my Boogies.

Just a thought.

 

[Dutchman]

It's worth a try