Rect-o-verb Preamp Cocktail Party

[Pig Muffin]

This forum is extremely helpful so far, I just want to say that.

I have been seeing a lot of the preamp tube swapping going on. Now for my style of music – melodic metal or metalcore does anyone playing this style of music have a v1-v5 cocktail that they like? I am satisfied with my cleans (v1 correct?), but want to put some performance mainly on channel 2 modern gain. Any ideas? I don’t crank the gain to much, because I like to be able to distinguish a lot of individual alternate picking notes.

 

[Addictedtokaos]

just use quality tubes, EHX or JJ 12ax7s. Ive been down your road and found nothing but snake oils.

V1 is important. Its your input stage (beginning of your signal). So you want a high quality tube like a Tung-sol (gold not necessary), the others you just need quality tubes like I said above.


However, I noticed a difference in powertubes. I hate TADs (never tried the short bottle), I use Sovtek as I find them best bang for your buck. Winged Cs are awesome but a lil pricey.

 

[Blaklynx]

You can try a 5751 preamp tube in V1. It has 70% gain value of an AX7. The rectos have plenty of gain on tap so this tube is pretty good. I have it in V1. Try different brand 5751's (NOS and new) because as you know, they'll all have their own character and what may suit me may not suit you. They aren't that expensive.

A Sovtek 12AX7 LPS in the PI position is very good. Try a 12AT7 in the PI as well; many use an AT7 in the PI. Experiment with the Sovtek 12AX7 LPS in V1, too; some say it's not recommended simply because it may become microphonic quickly due to the long plates vibrating from the speaker/cab. Try it.

For power amp tubes, the JJ 6L6 tubes are very good as are the Winged C. For EL34's the Winged C are excellent; I have these in my amp now, previous was the JJ 6L6. I just prefer the EL34's but have to admit the 6L6's were really good, too. For your style of music, I think EL34's may be the ticket.

My preamp tubes are:
V1-5751 Sylvania (or GE?? - I can't remember, need to check)
V2-JJ 12AX7 ecc83
V3-JJ 12AX7 ecc83
V4-JJ 12AX7 ecc83 (reverb)
PI-Sovtek 12AX7 LPS

Power: Winged C EL34

The JJ give a slightly darker tone but I don't mind that. Some people don't like the JJ's for this reason. I use an OD and EQ out front and an EQ in the loop to tailor my tone anyway.

Google; rectoverb preamp tubes

Hope this helps.