Well .. after a day with my new Roadster with the stock 6L6's, I swapped them out with some EL34's. *RUBY's*
The manual states the Brit mode will benefit with El34's, but it also states the other channels will suffer. I had a Dual rectifier in the past, and much prefered the 6L6's in it ... not so with the Roadster ..
My Obvservations with the 6L6's ..
Channels 1 and 2 do Clean to dirty. The CLEAN is awesome. .. period. But if you add any gain to them, it gets muddy. You really have to CRANK the amp, .. GIG levels to get Channels 1 and 2 to open up with gain. I was shooting for a gainy/grainy blues sound. Didn't work. Adding pedals to drive them didn;t work so well either. Tubescreamer, Guvnor, Boss BD-2, Barber Drirect Drive, and LTD .. Boss SD-1, .. you get the picture. Most of the pedals sounded pretty cruddy. Just brought out a Low Mid muddyness.
Enter EL34's. *RUBY's* The EL34's did not make Channel 1 and 2 sound weaker" .. like the manual states. They sound good, they are clean .. a little brighter. Same Character of the channels are there. But .. still, adding amp gain, not as bad. .but still a little funky. .. broke out the pedals, and Bammo .. they work. Sounds great, pedals sounding like advertised, and I am happy. .. nice and crunchy, .. not muddy.
Now, channel 3 and 4. 6L6's. . gave the classic Recto sound. But I will add, it was very Boomy. The EL34's really smoothed the amp out., and added a ton of saturation .. I also added a tungsol in V1. I was running the gain at about 1:00-2:00 with the 6L6's .. With the EL34's, I can crank more gain, and the amp likes it .. Very High Gainish .. very nice.
so .. Either I got some generic *less than par* 6L6's with my new Roadster, .. or the Roadster just flat out LOVES EL34's ..
my opinion. .. peace.
The manual states the Brit mode will benefit with El34's, but it also states the other channels will suffer. I had a Dual rectifier in the past, and much prefered the 6L6's in it ... not so with the Roadster ..
My Obvservations with the 6L6's ..
Channels 1 and 2 do Clean to dirty. The CLEAN is awesome. .. period. But if you add any gain to them, it gets muddy. You really have to CRANK the amp, .. GIG levels to get Channels 1 and 2 to open up with gain. I was shooting for a gainy/grainy blues sound. Didn't work. Adding pedals to drive them didn;t work so well either. Tubescreamer, Guvnor, Boss BD-2, Barber Drirect Drive, and LTD .. Boss SD-1, .. you get the picture. Most of the pedals sounded pretty cruddy. Just brought out a Low Mid muddyness.
Enter EL34's. *RUBY's* The EL34's did not make Channel 1 and 2 sound weaker" .. like the manual states. They sound good, they are clean .. a little brighter. Same Character of the channels are there. But .. still, adding amp gain, not as bad. .but still a little funky. .. broke out the pedals, and Bammo .. they work. Sounds great, pedals sounding like advertised, and I am happy. .. nice and crunchy, .. not muddy.
Now, channel 3 and 4. 6L6's. . gave the classic Recto sound. But I will add, it was very Boomy. The EL34's really smoothed the amp out., and added a ton of saturation .. I also added a tungsol in V1. I was running the gain at about 1:00-2:00 with the 6L6's .. With the EL34's, I can crank more gain, and the amp likes it .. Very High Gainish .. very nice.
so .. Either I got some generic *less than par* 6L6's with my new Roadster, .. or the Roadster just flat out LOVES EL34's ..
my opinion. .. peace.
