Removing tubes to reduce wattage...

[sistine35]

I have dual rec 3 channel.. and im looking to reduce some of the power to get a good tone at lower volumes for band practice... I drain out the drummer and the singer cant hear himself.. however im very anal about tone and i dont want to lack it.. in any situation even if it is practice... i didnt spend money to sound bad...



can you remove two of the tubes to reduce the amp to 50 watts?

 

[JamesD]

yes, if you read in the manual it goes over what tubes to pull. I do believe it is 2 power tubes and 1 Rectifier tube though. Goodluck!

 

[Mr.Hetfield]

the two center tubes and put it in tube mode and remove one of the rectifier tubes

 

[petejt]

A friend of mine did that with his Dual Recto and it sounded awesome, just "quieter". He played a Paul Gilbert song (and solo) at a concert and it was cool. I think he took out the two outer power valves.

 

[Guitarzan]

the two center tubes and put it in tube mode and remove one of the rectifier tubes

The manual specifically says to do this folks. Any deviations could jeopardize your amp. +1 to reading your manual.

 

[Platypus]

Not to rain on the parade here but the difference won't be worth it.. you're still going through an output tranny expecting 100W. I'd be willing to bet you could barely tell the difference in a blind test.. not to mention it won't affect your volume level at all.

 

[stokes]

Pulling two power tubes will cut out put in half.Pulling one rectifier will increase power supply sag and drop the volts.The OT doesnt expect to see anything but what you put into it.If you only put 50watts into it thats what you will get out of it.It doesnt create watts it is designed to handle a max amount of power,if you put less power into it you will get less out.When pulling two tubes the expected speaker impedence will change,i.e.if 4X6L6 with an 8ohm spkr.is optimum then for 2x6L6 optimally you would want 16ohm spkr to keep the same tube efficiency.But that is not a hard and fast formula let your ears decide.Gotta disagree with Platypus' observations.Although its true cutting the watts in half wont cut the volume in half the difference will be noticeable.Ever A/B a 50 watt Marshall with a 100watt?Big difference.

 

[Platypus]

Pulling two power tubes will cut out put in half.Pulling one rectifier will increase power supply sag and drop the volts.The OT doesnt expect to see anything but what you put into it.If you only put 50watts into it thats what you will get out of it.It doesnt create watts it is designed to handle a max amount of power,if you put less power into it you will get less out.When pulling two tubes the expected speaker impedence will change,i.e.if 4X6L6 with an 8ohm spkr.is optimum then for 2x6L6 optimally you would want 16ohm spkr to keep the same tube efficiency.But that is not a hard and fast formula let your ears decide.Gotta disagree with Platypus' observations.Although its true cutting the watts in half wont cut the volume in half the difference will be noticeable.Ever A/B a 50 watt Marshall with a 100watt?Big difference.

Try it and get back to me

If you're implying that removing 50 watts from a 100 watt tube amp will give you the same sound as an actual 50 watt tube amp then I'll politely disagree with you.

 

[stokes]

No two amps sound exactly the same.The only significant difference in the 50watt design and the 100watt design with two tubes pulled to give 50watts would be the inflected impedence on the OT secondary.I never said it would sound the same.We are talking power output- 50watts is 50 watts.On my SOB when you switch the 100/60 switch to 60 you lift the cathodes on the middle 2 tubes essentially the same as pulling 2 tubes the volume difference is huge.Playing in your bedroom you may still think the 60 watt is mega loud but in a band situation the difference is big.