Stiletto Retube

[joe187]

Hi,

I bought a used Stiletto Deuce Series I off of Dave Weiner from this board a couple of weeks ago. Its a gorgeous blue maple head made specifically for him, You can see pics here:

http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=19736

I would like to change out he tubes and see what I can get for different tones. Nothing wrong with the existing - it rocks, but I can't leave well enough alone. Gotta screw with stuff. I have a lot of exprience with JJ Tubes. They are a great company and I have their tubes in a lot of my other gear, but I'd like to see what else the world has to offer. What would you recommend as the best tube for this amp?

Thanks

Joe

 

[recto-robbie]

Hello Joe,, nice amp,, I remember when you bought it.
Anyways ive tried quite a few different tubes in my deuce.
I cant really say that I didnt like any of them but honestly I found the mesa 447's the least desirable.
Ive had good luck with the SED =c= el34's and the Mullard el34 reissues.
My favorite to this day and the tubes I decided keep in my amp are the
JJ KT77's. These are my favorite so far.
Honestly you need to try them. To me they are a mix between el34's and 6l6's. Do a search on this forum for the KT77'S and you will find a lot of reviews and peoples thoughts on them in their stilettos.

 

[srf399]

Anyone tried the RUBY EL34BSTR's in the Stiletto yet? That is what Doug at Doug's Tubes recommended to me. I'm looking for more of an Eric Johnson sound though. Can you describe the sound of the two EL34 types you've mentioned?

 

[MesaENGR412]

Wow...that's a BEAUTIFUL head man, and you got it for a steal!!! That flamed maple is astonishing.

-AJH

 

[Charlie]

+1 for the KT77's....

 

[BMarchant]

Hi Joe187,
I own a Stiletto Deuce and a Lone Star Classic. A few things about the Stiletto Deuce stage I. The high end can be nasty, and the fluid drive can be unusable. What I did to fit this is I replaced the power tubes with GT E34LS #7s. These added tight bottom end, and made the fluid drive usable. Then I replaced the pre amp tubes with GT 12AX7M tubes. The Boogie tubes are Russian, which can have a very brittle high end. The 12AX7M's have a more balanced tone, removing the excess high end.

If you do a search for the tube primer by Myles S. Rose at www.guitaramplifierblueprinting.com He explains about all of the different tubes and what to expect from them.

-Bmarchant

 

[nor]

Throw an EQ into the loop.

I was getting ready to retube because of the oft-mentioned ice-picky highs and tubby Fluid Drive. I tossed a BBE 411 into the loop - taa daa!!! My Deuce is a raging freaking beast!

Now when the time to retube arrives, I can make decisions based on want instead of need, lol. Those KT77's do seem cool, but now that I've got the EL34 sound dialed in I'll prolly stick with those.

 

[Rocky]

I have talked to Rich at Mesa about the effects loop on a Stiletto....adding a pedal in there adds a little more gain to the sound. He suggested I back t he loop level to about 2:00. I like the results of his suggestion.

As for output tubes: I put JJ E34L power tubes in my Stiletto and it sounded like somebody put a wet blanket over the amp. I'm NOT a JJ fan at all....I've tried their tubes and they all sound fat but I prefer the sound of a tube that doesnt need to diet.

My Stiletto currently has a set of STR 450 Mesa tubes and it sounds amazing. The reissue Mullards (get a set that wants 440) sound amazing in every Stiletto I have tried them in.

For preamp tubes mine is currently running an old Telefunken 12AX7 in V1, a JAN Phillips 12AX7A in V2, a gold pin Tung Sol 12AX7 in V3 and Chinese Mesa 12AX7As in V4 and 5.

 

[mrt]

Throw an EQ into the loop.

I was getting ready to retube because of the oft-mentioned ice-picky highs and tubby Fluid Drive. I tossed a BBE 411 into the loop - taa daa!!! My Deuce is a raging freaking beast!

Now when the time to retube arrives, I can make decisions based on want instead of need, lol. Those KT77's do seem cool, but now that I've got the EL34 sound dialed in I'll prolly stick with those.

Yes!!! Thats what I did. With a EQ you can really shape the tones and cut the high's.

 

[JAZZGEAR]

Hello Joe,, nice amp,, I remember when you bought it.
Anyways ive tried quite a few different tubes in my deuce.
I cant really say that I didnt like any of them but honestly I found the mesa 447's the least desirable.
Ive had good luck with the SED =c= el34's and the Mullard el34 reissues.
My favorite to this day and the tubes I decided keep in my amp are the
JJ KT77's. These are my favorite so far.
Honestly you need to try them. To me they are a mix between el34's and 6l6's. Do a search on this forum for the KT77'S and you will find a lot of reviews and peoples thoughts on them in their stilettos.

Interesting..... as I hated the JJ KT77s in my Deuce II, and preferred the stock Mesa tubes (though the clean channel sounded much better with the KT77s)...But I didn't get this amp for clean tones :wink:

 

[recto-robbie]

Its funny how opinions vary. Jazzgear hated the jjkt77's but I and many think they are the best in the stiletto, jazzgear also prefers the stock mesa el34's,, im assuming the 447's which in my opinion are the worst.
The next time the mesa 447's see the inside of my amp will be the day its being shipped to the person that buys the amp from me.
I have tried a bunch of different el34's in my deuce,, my next favorite would be the Mullard reissues then the SED =c=,, I didnt care much for the JJE34L'S though.

Anyways jazzgear,,, what was it that you didnt like about the kt77's in the deuce?
I wonder if its possible for the same line of tubes made by the same manufacturer to sound much different?

 

[srf399]

Sound is so subjective... I rant sometimes about the sound I like but others here would likely hate it. I have only tried the STR 450's in my 50 Watt outer sockets and I thought the STR 447's sounded better! LMAO I'm going to try them again though. I'm afraid of trying the KT77's cause I don't want my amp to sound like a 6L6 amp. I want a smooth and hazey EL34 sound. I'm going to try a graphic eq in the loop as well.

 

[srf399]

I've been running my loop level about 1 o'clock. I find the loop levels a little confusing. Being that it is in series the loop level on the back increases the signal to the power amp when increase thereby pushing the power section more?

WARNING: Another rant coming on! LMAO

The other thing I noticed when I was playing on Sunday was that so far I have been mainly using the Fat Clean and the Tite Gain.... Sunday I used channel 1 Crunch with the gain around 1 with the presence down to about 8 and the treble around 10 and it was an amazing soloing voicing. Was woody and very articulate. The sound guy was different than the guy two weeks ago and he came up to set up the mic and said "I noticed something different about your sound and that it had really improved the last time he saw me play (he was watching last time but not doing sound) He said " I noticed a big improvement in the sound over your old amp. The MKIV didn't suit my style yet this amp won't be everyones cup of tea either. I was trying to get something out of the MK that is wasn't designed to do and all the knobs in the world couldn't change the basic voicing of the amp. This amp gets more of a spanky hazy woody thing going on whereas my MKIV was more of a Fender on steroids. If I was doing a Santana tribute or newer heavy metal I'd likely prefer the MKIV but I'm liking the expressiveness of the Stiletto. You can scratch a string during a solo on this thing and it sounds good! You know... the hick up sounds Vai gets between runs? I'd do those on my MKIV and it would sound like I made a mistake! Now people are going...oooh...ahhhh LMAO. Just goes to show how sound is extremely subjective and how important it is to find the right amp for your playing by actually getting out and playing ALL of the different amps out there with your own guitars. The only problem for me now is the setting I'm playing in live... it's like circling in the parking lot at a mall with a Ferrari!!! LMAO