Newbie - Triple Rectifier tube question

[joe_da_pera]

Hello!
I've just got a used Triple Rectifier.
Sorry for this questions but i'm really new on this.

I'm getting a lot of feedback and noise on channel 2 and 3. On channel 1 the clean is OK.

The 6 tube 6L6 have light on them when the amp is turn on but the rectifier ones the 5U4G they get hot but i don't see any light on them. Is this normal on this tubes?

Can anyone show me a picture of the back of the amp turn on.

If i need to retube the amp what are the best tubes to use with this amp for big and heavy distortion sounds.

One more question... what's best use, the spongy power or the bold one?

Thanks, and sorry for this questions but this is a new world for me now.

 

[Platypus]

Welcome,

For your first problem, lots of feedback.. post your settings off the front of your amp and that might help us out better.. sometimes you can just be overloading something with controls. Second I would suspect a tube problem, so we should get that variable out of the way.

The rectifier tubes not lighting is completely normal.. if there was a problem you'd definetly know it as you'd blow a fuse almost instantly.

As far as a retube, there are a few sites out there that I can recommend:

www.dougstubes.com
www.eurotubes.com

Doug carries lots of brands, Bob from Eurotube carries only JJ tubes. I personally really like the JJ 6L6 tube myself but everyone's different so read the descriptions posted on the site and make a choice.

Not to discourage you from retubing (unless the tubes are old and you have to), but I recommend spending some quality time with the amp dialing in different tones and using different settings.. a lot of settings sound 'bad' on a Rectifier. Read the manual that came with it, if it didn't come with one go to www.mesaboogie.com and get it. Read it cover to cover, twice, upside down, whatever. Most product manuals suck and I never need them but Mesa's tone stack and overall operating is very counter-intuitive at first. Once you learn how the controls interact you can start getting better tones.

Your last question about spongy and bold. Spongy is great for that browned out type of gain, the bold is very aggressive, not as much give/sag and more modern sounding. The Spongy tends to be more vintage oriented in nature.

Good luck, and don't feel bad for asking questions, these aren't easy instruments to just pick up and operate blindly.

 

[joe_da_pera]

Hi,
My front setting on channel 3, the one i'm using is:

presence: 3 o'clock
master: 10 o'clock
gain: 2 o'clock
bass: 10 o'clock
mid: 11 o'clock
treble: 2 o'clock

I'm using it in the modern mode.

I don't know if this could be a problem affecting my sound, but i live in Azores islands and we run electricity at 220v. This head is 110v so i'm using a transformer in order to get the right power to it. Can this affect my sound and give me all that feedback and noise?

Thanks,
Tiago

 

[Platypus]

Your settings look fine to me, although your presence is rather high for my tastes

As far as the power thing.. this is a possibility but I'm not qualified to comment on the validity of that. Hopefully someone who knows can post for you