THD Yellow Jackets in a Dual Caliber

[user 9010]

I've been kind of curious to see if anyone's ever tried the THD Yellow Jackets in a DC-5 or DC-10 before. I think the question has been asked, but not answered. I'm wondering if I can get a Mash-All kind of sound if I plug in some Yellow Jackets and EL34s or more Voxy with EL84s. I understand that it won't be exact, of course, but I'm very intrigued to give it a go.

Also wondering whether it how much less output I'll have with it. THD claims a 50 Watt Marshall will put out about 20 watts.

Has anyone here tried them out?

 

[Monsta-Tone]

I have a set, but have not tried them in my DC-10. It would probably lend more of a Marshall flavor to the amp.

You would not notice a huge drop in volume though. Human hearing is not linear.

You will notice though that the power tubes will actually break up and give some power tube distortion. This is something that I have never been able to do with the DC-10, make the power tubes distort. It is just far too loud to be in the same room when this happens.

 

[user 9010]

I have a set, but have not tried them in my DC-10. It would probably lend more of a Marshall flavor to the amp.

You would not notice a huge drop in volume though. Human hearing is not linear.

You will notice though that the power tubes will actually break up and give some power tube distortion. This is something that I have never been able to do with the DC-10, make the power tubes distort. It is just far too loud to be in the same room when this happens.

Thanks Monsta!
I imagine it would be harder to note a volume drop in a DC-10. With 100 efficient Boogie watts pumpin' through that thing, since my DC-5 can still blow away a ballroom. On a few rare occasions I've had the luxury to pump this sucker to 10, and good god, it sounds face-melting awesome!:twisted:

I'm going to try out a pair to see what happens. I don't want to mimic a Marshall, but I would like to get a similar sound.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

:lol: Battleships are not safe when the DC-10 is on. That thing is mercilessly loud. It sounds really good a higher bedroom volumes too!

I bet you will notice a difference in tone more than the difference in volume, but you never know.


I'm running E34L's in my Heartbreaker. It's my Marshall type amp, but built better and better sounding! :lol:

 

[gonzo]

i like the Groovetubes substitubes better than the YJ's.

better sound, better build.

 

[Fxrs]

i like the Groovetubes substitubes better than the YJ's.

better sound, better build.

I have some I used in my DC-5 for a short while. I liked what they did for the rythm channel, lead, eh...not so much. Made the rythm a little spongier and greasy, lead just reached the mud level quicker. My band plays WAY too loud, even w/6L6's, I'm about maxed.(Gain 6-7,t7-8,m5-8,b0-3,p5-7,r0, master 5, output@3. GEQ is always on, modified "V". Anything more, it just kind of gets unpleasant)

 

[user 9010]

i like the Groovetubes substitubes better than the YJ's.

better sound, better build.

I have some I used in my DC-5 for a short while. I liked what they did for the rythm channel, lead, eh...not so much. Made the rythm a little spongier and greasy, lead just reached the mud level quicker. My band plays WAY too loud, even w/6L6's, I'm about maxed.(Gain 6-7,t7-8,m5-8,b0-3,p5-7,r0, master 5, output@3. GEQ is always on, modified "V". Anything more, it just kind of gets unpleasant)

The rhythm channel is what I would want them for, and I'd be happy if they took the power level down a bit for home recording. I may have to check out the substitubes.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Charles Reeder]

Hey:

I've tried the YJs in my DC-5. They DID make a noticeable volume drop in my particular DC-5. In the case of my particular amp however it was overdriving the EL84s too much! It was getting really muddy way too soon...so I replaced the 12AX7 phase inverter with a 12AT7 and it sounded much better. I liked the tone but I would not actually say it sounded like either a Marshall or a Vox.

Although there is no mention of doing this in the manual...I put some 6V6s in it and I REALLY liked the results. The new JJ and Electro Harmonix 6V6s are supposed to be able to handle the voltages and so far I've had no problems at all using them in my 6L6 amps. Once again I did get a substantial volume drop using the 6V6s and got some great tone too.

Charles

 

[Monsta-Tone]

Charles,

Did you plug the speaker into the 4 ohm tap when you did this? The LSC manual suggests this and it makes a huge difference tone wise.

 

[Ken j]

Smicz Amplification a company that I think is no longer in business made an adaptor that dropped your amp to about 2 watts. They were called Tube TADs. Here is a link to a Harmony Central users review: http://reviews.harmony-central.com/...t/Smicz+Amplification/TAD-2+Tube+Adapter/10/1
I don't know if you would be able to find a used set. I am sure that these would lower a DC-10. On the other hand would it be possible to run just two YJs in either the inner or outer power tube sockets?

 

[Charles Reeder]

Charles,

Did you plug the speaker into the 4 ohm tap when you did this? The LSC manual suggests this and it makes a huge difference tone wise.

Greetings:
An excellent question!
Originally I DIDN'T...as I first tried this before I had gotten my Lone Star. However, after I got my Lone Star and read the manual I went back and re-tried both the EL84s (in Yellow-Jackets) and the 6V6s in the DC-5, using the 4-ohm jack. In BOTH cases it improved the tone...but in my particular DC-5 the EL84s (in the Yellow-Jackets) still got muddy too fast for me. I had liked the 6V6s before trying the 4-ohm jack; but they showed the most improvement in tone when using the 4-ohm jack...they 'warmed up' nicely.

Charles

 

[blacklight_uk]

I love my DC-5's clean channel but would love to be able to properly saturate the power tubes with the lead channel. However I find that with the gain above about 2, the cleans start to break up. I'm using hot single coils on both of my guitars, so even through a Fender Twin i'm getting crunchy cleans!

What i want to know is how much a set of yellow jackets would affect my clean headroom. Could i just set the gain as low as possible and then use the channel volume to get where i need to be?

Also, a little off topic but how in theory does cranking both channel and master volumes affect tone? Does it saturate both preamp tubes and power tubes? If so - what is the tone like from that?

I'd love to get your guys' ideas on this

 

[Monsta-Tone]

It makes a huge difference using the 4 ohm tap. I hated the LSC when I 1st tried it with 6V6's. Then, I remembered to swap the speaker jacks and the amp just sounded so much sweeter.



The Yellow Jackets will definitely affect the headroom.

Those must be some hot pickups, because I've been using humbuckers on mine all along and have the gain on the clean channel at about 6.

One thing to remember is that the tone knobs greatly affect the amount of breakup you will get.

Here are my clean settings on my DC-10, using a stock McCarty which has fairly hot vintage sounding pickups:
Gain: 6
Treble: 6
Middle: 5
Bass: 7.5
Presence: 3.5
Reverb: 6
Master: 4

I get this great Twin Reverb chime and warmth out of the amp with this setting. There is just a little breakup if I dig into the strings. If you want it cleaner, turn the Gain to 4 and the Master to 6.


If you crank the Master, then the Gain will have a great affect on the volume of the channel. I don't usually turn it past 6 because the pick attack becomes really noticable.