Roadster Amp with el34's...

[Jmango]

Hey Folks,

I am sure this has been discussed here and I did a quick search but didn't find a specific topic.

My question is, can anyone articulate the difference in their Roadster having gone from 6L6's to el34's?

I am contemplating the switch. Love the Roadster the way it is so far (have had it a week at this point) but I do love the growl of 34's. I played a Road King II and remember channel 3 modern with 2 34's being awesome!

Any help or real life experience is appreciated.

-Jerry

 

[JW123]

Mango,

I go back and forth between a set of EL 34s and 6L6s in my Roadster.

The tone I go for is basically a JCM 800 sound or maybe Slash for example. The EL 34s get a little closer to the Marshall tone for me than the others. Last night I was switching tubes around in My Triple Rec, and the 34s lose a little topend on a clean sparkly channel. To my ears on distortion the 34s are not as muddy sounding as the 6L6s, they seem to have a little more mid and topend than 6L6s. I hope this makes sense,

On the other hand they dont make some huge dramatic difference to my ears, its a very small difference.

In your Roadster the EL 34s will really come to life on that Brit Channel voicing in channel 2. Think early AC/DC, it just lives there.

If you dont have a set of spare tubes for your amp, you probably need a set anyway so get a set of EL 34s as a spare set. If you already have a spare set I dont know if its really worth the money for the tonal difference. I seem to be able to dial in the tone I want with the eq controls on all my Mesas. It doesnt matter what power or preamp tubes I put in there. Just make sure you have some good tubes.

 

[TheBlackman]

When I had my combo i put some el34 in it and found the clean channel still good for my needs, the brit channel was freaking awesome, and i found ch3 & 4 had more unique sounds too. Basically is gave me three distict sounding drive channels moreso than the 6l6s did. I'm waiting for a matched quad to try in my new roadster head (since my combo dies...**** gigs with a gas powered generator!).

 

[155]

do it ! I love the 34's crunch and they dont seem as muddy, less bottom then the 6's depending on the music your playing , but for metal 34's all the way!

 

[Jmango]

Oh man... I see myself stopping at Guitar Denter on the way home to get 34's...

Thanks for the replys guys... Just cost me 42 bux...

Anyone else out there?

 

[CoG]

We put some SED =C='s in my buddy's Roadster combo a few weeks ago. The cleans didn't suffer too much although headroom on channel 1 dropped a good bit. Overall, yeah, everything everyone says is true-- controls the bottom end, lots of crunch, a bit more cut. We pretty much don't need to boost the amp any more, though we do play pretty loud so things are already boosted pretty good.

We also managed to get all four channels more or less volume balanced for the first time with cleans on 1/Brit, AC/DCish on 2/Tweed, all the heavy stuff on 3/Vintage, and a sort of Mark "R2" crunch sound on 4/Raw because we didn't really need a Modern-voiced channel. 3/Vintage is surprisingly "smooth" for a Recto.

If you are trying to get "THE" Recto rhythm sound, though, you'll probably need an EQ in the loop, though, the EL34s just don't have the BOOM in the bottom end.

 

[155]

+1 the eq is your friend

 

[Jmango]

We put some SED =C='s in my buddy's Roadster combo a few weeks ago. The cleans didn't suffer too much although headroom on channel 1 dropped a good bit. Overall, yeah, everything everyone says is true-- controls the bottom end, lots of crunch, a bit more cut. We pretty much don't need to boost the amp any more, though we do play pretty loud so things are already boosted pretty good.

We also managed to get all four channels more or less volume balanced for the first time with cleans on 1/Brit, AC/DCish on 2/Tweed, all the heavy stuff on 3/Vintage, and a sort of Mark "R2" crunch sound on 4/Raw because we didn't really need a Modern-voiced channel. 3/Vintage is surprisingly "smooth" for a Recto.

If you are trying to get "THE" Recto rhythm sound, though, you'll probably need an EQ in the loop, though, the EL34s just don't have the BOOM in the bottom end.

Interesting perspective. I assumed that the mid bump would be there, but I think I also thought that the recto bottom end would still be available via tweaking the eq on the amp itself - not an eq in the loop.

That said, MY definition of THE recto sound isn't the earthquake uber-scooped sound but more of a dark growl with a mid to stronger bottom end- if that can somehow be quantified into an audible value that properly conveys what I am trying to describe...

 

[CoG]

Interesting perspective. I assumed that the mid bump would be there, but I think I also thought that the recto bottom end would still be available via tweaking the eq on the amp itself - not an eq in the loop.

That said, MY definition of THE recto sound isn't the earthquake uber-scooped sound but more of a dark growl with a mid to stronger bottom end- if that can somehow be quantified into an audible value that properly conveys what I am trying to describe...

There's still the same problem where if you dial up the bass using the amp EQ, it gets muddy and really affects your volume balance with other channels. It's not as bad with the EL34s but there's less bass available overall. An EQ in the loop is the way to go for really aggressive tone modern metal shaping with a Recto anyway.

I think one thing that happened is that tastes changed over time, if you listen to 90s Recto tones like Soundgarden, Tool, Korn, etc. the bottom end is actually pretty flubby compared to a lot of more "modern" tones but that went along with the sound at the time.

 

[hfisher3380]

Count me amongst the minority here - but I've tried EL34s (as well as the closely related KT77s) in my roadster a few times and just am not that crazy about it. Yes, the crunch on channel 2 Brit is better but to me it's not a night and day difference and like they suggest in the manual I do find the other channels suffer. I have a Splawn Quick Rod for EL34 crunch and because I'm spoiled by that sound I just don't find the EL34 crunch on Brit channel 2 to be very convincing. I prefer to run the amp for its intended purpose - 6L6, with pristine cleans in channel 1 and Recto grunt in channels 3,4. I can do OK with crunch tones in channel 2 Brit with 6L6's - as long as the treble and gain are dialed way up. Also, depending on the type of crunch I want, I can add a bit of a boost in front from my Fulltone OCD. In fact, I think I can get more convincing crunch tones from my OCD (at around 12:00 on boost and drive) into clean channel 1 with 6L6s than I can with no OCD on channel 2 Brit with EL34s.

I do encourage everyone to at least try it though - to each his/her own!

 

[Jmango]

Count me amongst the minority here - but I've tried EL34s (as well as the closely related KT77s) in my roadster a few times and just am not that crazy about it. Yes, the crunch on channel 2 Brit is better but to me it's not a night and day difference and like they suggest in the manual I do find the other channels suffer. I have a Splawn Quick Rod for EL34 crunch and because I'm spoiled by that sound I just don't find the EL34 crunch on Brit channel 2 to be very convincing. I prefer to run the amp for its intended purpose - 6L6, with pristine cleans in channel 1 and Recto grunt in channels 3,4. I can do OK with crunch tones in channel 2 Brit with 6L6's - as long as the treble and gain are dialed way up. Also, depending on the type of crunch I want, I can add a bit of a boost in front from my Fulltone OCD. In fact, I think I can get more convincing crunch tones from my OCD (at around 12:00 on boost and drive) into clean channel 1 with 6L6s than I can with no OCD on channel 2 Brit with EL34s.

I do encourage everyone to at least try it though - to each his/her own!

Man, you're not alone... Since I originally posted this thread, I got a quad of EL34's and tried them. What a wash. I really didn't like them at all.

Sux. Brand new quad of Mesa 34's. Piss the cash away.... Piss it away...

 

[R_ADKINS80]

Count me amongst the minority here - but I've tried EL34s (as well as the closely related KT77s) in my roadster a few times and just am not that crazy about it. Yes, the crunch on channel 2 Brit is better but to me it's not a night and day difference and like they suggest in the manual I do find the other channels suffer. I have a Splawn Quick Rod for EL34 crunch and because I'm spoiled by that sound I just don't find the EL34 crunch on Brit channel 2 to be very convincing. I prefer to run the amp for its intended purpose - 6L6, with pristine cleans in channel 1 and Recto grunt in channels 3,4. I can do OK with crunch tones in channel 2 Brit with 6L6's - as long as the treble and gain are dialed way up. Also, depending on the type of crunch I want, I can add a bit of a boost in front from my Fulltone OCD. In fact, I think I can get more convincing crunch tones from my OCD (at around 12:00 on boost and drive) into clean channel 1 with 6L6s than I can with no OCD on channel 2 Brit with EL34s.

I do encourage everyone to at least try it though - to each his/her own!

Man, you're not alone... Since I originally posted this thread, I got a quad of EL34's and tried them. What a wash. I really didn't like them at all.

Sux. Brand new quad of Mesa 34's. Piss the cash away.... Piss it away...

Man, It took me a good 2 weeks to burn in my Mesa EL34's to the point of where they sound good. I couldn't stand the way they sounded right off the bat. I just happened to be at my buddies house one night with my amp and we popped his burned in 34's in my amp and I was blown away. I immediately put mine back in and suffered through the burn in on them and now it's killer with the 34's in there.