nomad 55 El 34s or 6l6s

[mikeonfire]

hi guys im new on here but been using boogies a long time now!!!ive an opportunity to get a nomad 55 1x12 back that i sold a while back-i didn really like it but someone told me that swapping out the 6l6s for el34s really makes the amp sound great-i liked the cleans but the drives were a bit nasal and weak for me-any thoughts?anyone using one with the el34s?any help would be greatly appreciated!-my main guitars are a rosewood necked prs mccarty and a 61 reissue sg -two real fat,smooth sounding guitars so im not looking for recto distortion just some kind of grunt thats useable!!thanks!!!

 

[Koreth]

I have a Nomad 100 that's running JJ E34Ls. I'm presently quite happy with the overall sound of the amp. The amp came loaded with brand new JJs by the previous owner, and I've only in the past couple months started playing regularly at rehearsal/gig volume, so there's been no need for me to change out the tubes yet. The amp sounds fine with the EL34s, but I've been wanting to try some 6L6GCs to see if I can get some more clarity and sparkle out of my cleans and back off the mids (which the Nomad has plenty of) to fit in the mix a bit better.

FWIW, unless you're playing at earbleed volumes, the power tubes have less influence on the amp's sound than the preamp tubes. If you find the drive channels' nasal and weak, try changing out V1, V3, and V4, with different tubes, as these are the tubes which run the drive channels. The Nomad responds well to vintage tubes. I'm rather happy with a Matsushita in V3 and a GE longplate in V4

 

[earachemyeye]

I also use JJ el34's. Mine came with stock 6L6 tubes which are great for sparkling cleans. They also voice the amp closer to the Recto when gained up IMHO. I've also tried "winged C" type which I thought were better than stock and Sovtek "5881" 6L's which I thought were muddy sounding. I settled on 34's and a pre tube selection of my own. The pre-amp tubes really do make a difference. Currently, I'm using a Chinese in V1, JJ V2, Russian V3, Chinese V4 and balanced long plate for PI (V5). The 34's shave some of the sparkle off the clean channel and compress the tone a little more but I like the way they sit in the mix overall. I always seemed to get buried in the mix with the 6l's. I've heard KT77's give the best of both worlds but I haven't tried those...yet. Let us know what you find. It's always nice to hear what others are hearing. Don't forget to turn the master up to about noon. The amp really sings there. You'll have to set your channel volumes down of course. Or NOT :twisted:

Joe

 

[mikeonfire]

thanks guys!!!!!!mite try the kt77s always loved those big coke bottle tubes!!!

 

[timowens]

I just recorded some clips with my Nomad using the stock 6L6 tubes and some EL34 tubes out of a Marshall TSL60. All settings and recording setup was the same, the only difference was I swapped out the tubes and set the bias switch. What surprised me was that the EL34’s really tightened up the low end on the Hi-Gain tones, you can’t really hear it in the recording for some reason, but it did. You can hear more of a difference with clean tones, as least I can.

The guitar I used was a Strat copy with a Humbucker-Humbucker configuration. For the Hi-Gain tracks I only used the bridge PU, for the clean tracks I first used the bridge, then the bridge and neck, and lastly the neck pickup.

The clips can be heard at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=1007794&content=music
You might want to download the clips and then open them all at once so you can quickly switch between them to hear the difference. This is one of the cases where the recording doesn't capture every little difference that you can hear live but you can hear the difference. I will be ordering another set of EL34's, I like them.

 

[earachemyeye]

Thanks Tim! I really liked ALL the comparison clips.

Joe

 

[timowens]

No problem, I have really enjoyed doing test like these since I got my studio up and running. Most of the time the test results pretty much confirm what I've read over the years but sometimes you just gotta hear it for yourself to appreciate it. Thanks for listening to them.