Re-tubing a Stiletto - Suggestions?

[Bill Warner]

In one of my previous threads someone (thanks memberzonly) had recomended possibly swapping out the pre tubes to help reduce the amout of "bite" that the Stiletto has. Being that I've played solid state amps for the last 20 years and the Stiletto is my first real tube amp, I'm at a loss for where to start or what to expect. I'm also not at all familiar with the various options that might be available.

I'm wondering if some of you out there might be able to give me some additional advice on which way to go or even what to stay away from. I need to educate myself on the various tube options.

A little background. The Stiletto, as the name suggests, has a different tone from the traditional dual and triple rectifiers and was disigned with the EL34's to cut through the mix. This thing sounds awesome and I love it but it's got a little too much bite for my taste even with modest eq'ing. I'de like to try to tame it a little but still maintain the basic tone it has. This thing has got to be the clearest/cleanest distortion I've ever heard.

Any suggestions, tips, hints, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[memberzonly]

Hi Bill,

Forgot to mention . . .

You can get some nice reviews of different types of tubes from the Watford Valves website. Plenty of good info to start. Also, Mike at KCA Amplification is a great reference and has a really good selection of NOS and current manf tubes.

NOS preamp tubes DO make a noticeable difference in this amp and it is worth a little cash to experiment.

One last thought . . . make sure that the power tubes that you have in the Stiletto are biased properly. You'd be surprised how far off amps tend to be an once the bias is set correctly . . . nirvana!

-j-

 

[Bill Warner]

Thanks again memberzonly! I'll definately check out the reference you mentioned and try to educate my self some more.

I also went the the eurotube.com site and e-mailed Bob there. With in a half hour he had replied with a few suggestions and was very helpful! I included his response below for those interested. Let me know what you think. I will definately be trying this out but I would also try out other options suggested in an attempt to get where I want to go.

Just a note on the tone I'm shooting for. My personal musical tastes vary quite a bit (jazz, r&b, blues, rock, etc.) but basically I'm a straight ahead Rock player. I'm more into the Foo Fighters and Green Day (minus the politics) tones as opposed to metal. The Stiletto gets me 90% there if I could just tame the cut/bite.

Anyway, heres what Bob at Eurotube had to say.

Yes I have had a couple (Stilettos) thru here and I have quite a few mail order Stiletto customers. The combination of all the gain in these amps along with EL34's and sovtek preamp tubes does make for what I call an annoying grainy tone. Anyway the Stiletto Deuce amps are like the rest of the big Mesa amps when it comes to bias, they are set cold and fixed. These amps are basically a Dual Rec voiced differently and setup strictly for EL34's so I use the JJ E34L's. The JJ E34L's provide a deeper low end and are more aggressive and punchy than an EL34 not to mention that the E34L is tighter and the difference in where they break up is only about 1/8 of a decibel.
The front end is also like a Dual Rec with five 12AX7's so I typically use four standard ECC83S's in V1 thru V4 and a current balanced ECC83S in V5 for the phase inverter. The other preamp option would be if you want any of the preamp tubes premium graded for gain which would run 2.50 more per tube. The high gain ECC83S's have about 10% more gain than standards which adds a bit of bite and a sharper dynamic but does not hurt the clean tone. The other attribute that these tubes have is a faster filament rise time which is great for an EVH, Malmsteen, Petrucci or Satrani type style and is also good for fast palm mute and metal styles. If you decide to use these I would use them in V1, V2 and V3 which would add 7.50 to the cost below.

The only other option if you run the amp in the tube rectifier mode is running the GZ34 rectifier tubes in place of the 5U4's. The 5U4's were built to supply enough voltage for a pair of 6V6's which are smaller tubes so this is why the dual and triple rec's sound so mushy in tube rectifier mode. By using the GZ34's which make just a little less voltage than when your in the solid state rectifier mode you get a less mushy sound but retain the tube rectifier sound. The GZ34's run 14.00 each.

A full retube with a matched quad of the JJ E34L's and five ECC83S's with one of them balanced for the phase inverter would run 90.00 and I can ship and insure the order by Priority mail for 7.00 with a 3 day delivery anywhere in the US.

If you decide to place an order you can do so online ( http://www.eurotubes.com/euro-order.htm ). This is a Comodo certified secure system, but please don't feel obligated to order online you are always welcome to just give me a call at 503-659-7401 to place an order personally. You can also place an order by FAX at 503-659-7385 All that's necessary is your shipping address and a VISA, MC, Discover or American Express number including the expiration date. If you decide to order by phone and you get my machine I'm probably in the studio retubing an amp so leave a number and I WILL call you back!

Thanks

 

[memberzonly]

Bill,

You may find that is the ticket. Bob is cool and very helpful but remember he **only** sells JJ's.

Mix it up among manufacturers.

 

[dylan7620]

bob is awesome! he saved my nomad, there was only one slight problem after putting in his tubes though..... i couldn't stop playing!! :lol: