Stock Tubes, LSS?

[SixStringThing]

Hi
My name is Ryan, Im new to this board and the whole boogie thing. I am getting a mesa on Monday, an LSS. Its a birthday present, for several years I imagine. I compared it with a couple other amps I had my eye on (twin reverb, bad cat,new fender super sonic) and found I prefer the LSS by far. I love the sound of it with the stock tubes. However, I still haven't tapped into the gain channel that much. What I want to know it: is anyone running stock tubes on an LSS, and do you still get that sweet, singing sustain and rich harmonics with the drive on? I think I would rather just run it on stock tubes for now, because I've heard they are quality and I really liked the tones I got with them, even when I didn't really understand the amp that well and I only played on it for a short time. Anyone who still plays the stock tubes, or anyone who didn't like them and had them replaced, any help here would be great. I searched the board for this topic, and found a few similar posts, but nothing that came out and answered my questions. BTW: Im looking for great clean Wes Montgomery tones, to nice fusion John Mclaughlin/Scott Henderson tones, to screamin' blues, to warren haynes. I hear this amp handles everything nicely, just looking for opinions.

 

[Boogiebabies]

Hi Ryan,


My name is Ed and I am a Boogieholic.

Honestly, you can play with preamp and power tubes for years untill you get the sound your looking for. I would rather tell you now than give you false hope. In most cases your ears will be happy for a day or two then your tone will totally change and never return again. Then you mess with more tubes until you get close and it dissapears again. To start, I would buy a few different brands of preamp tubes and power tubes and expiriment with what mix makes you happy. It does not matter if they are all the same manufacturer or not. I mix and match and pray that due to some barometric pressure change or increased solar wind activity my tone stays where I want it.

Have fun and enjoy your Boogie and dont forget to try a boost pedal to slam the preamp. Most amps will only produce a finite amount of gain and need a push to scream.