Triple Rec with EL34's

[RGT]

Hey Boogie lovers!

I am the proud owner of a stock three channel Triple Rectifier. What kind of tonal change should I expect by switching to stock Mesa EL34 power tubes?

 

[ltd2recto]

Less bass, more mids. EL34 make the rectos sound better IMO.

 

[R_ADKINS80]

My experience is not really less bass, but tighter bass. Also the mids are alot more crunchy and the high end is alot more tame than with 6L6's.

 

[manicsix]

EL34 make the rectos sound better IMO.

+1

After using EL34s, I will never go back to using 6L6s.

 

[rectocaster]

@ manicsix. What type of music do you play, cause I have the same question, or anyone who like EL34's. What types of music do you play?

For me, I have 6L6's, and I play a lot of blues oriented stuff. Would the switch help me? I like a nasty tone, plus have a BBE Sonic MAX to tighten everything up.

 

[manicsix]

@ manicsix. What type of music do you play, cause I have the same question, or anyone who like EL34's. What types of music do you play?

For me, I have 6L6's, and I play a lot of blues oriented stuff. Would the switch help me? I like a nasty tone, plus have a BBE Sonic MAX to tighten everything up.

Hey rectocaster, I play a range of music from RHCP, tool, faith no more, deftones, CoB, so I enjoy both heavy tones and light overdrive with single coil pups, compressor & chorus pedals.

I'd say go for the EL34s, they are definitely nastier. :mrgreen:

 

[droptrd]

Heres my take on EL34s in a recto based on my experiance with them. Its not a super noticable difference IMO. Tightens the bottom a bit and makes an already bad clean channel worse. The bias is too low for the 34s to really do their thing. My last recto (rev G)had a bias reading (current draw) in the low 20's inthe EL34 setting. Should be in the high 30's for my taste. The 6L6 setting was around 14mA. This is why I ran my 6L6s in the EL34 setting. But I will say that it spealed alot more when high levels of gain was used. I always ran my gain around noon anyway - then used a boost when needed. Much more responsive feel and a warmer, crunchier mid range. Also brought new life to the clean ch.

Sorry for getting off track

 

[mikey383]

Heres my take on EL34s in a recto based on my experiance with them. Its not a super noticable difference IMO. Tightens the bottom a bit and makes an already bad clean channel worse. The bias is too low for the 34s to really do their thing. My last recto (rev G)had a bias reading (current draw) in the low 20's inthe EL34 setting. Should be in the high 30's for my taste. The 6L6 setting was around 14mA. This is why I ran my 6L6s in the EL34 setting. But I will say that it spealed alot more when high levels of gain was used. I always ran my gain around noon anyway - then used a boost when needed. Much more responsive feel and a warmer, crunchier mid range. Also brought new life to the clean ch.

Sorry for getting off track

:?

Mesa recommends running EL34s with the tube rectifier because they run hot. That will drop the voltage down, so in turn the bias drops. You must have had a low grade of '34, or were using spongy. I stuck a set of E34Ls in my DR and they were biased at almost 60mA with bold/diodes.

 

[RGT]

Heres my take on EL34s in a recto based on my experiance with them. Its not a super noticable difference IMO. Tightens the bottom a bit and makes an already bad clean channel worse. The bias is too low for the 34s to really do their thing. My last recto (rev G)had a bias reading (current draw) in the low 20's inthe EL34 setting. Should be in the high 30's for my taste. The 6L6 setting was around 14mA. This is why I ran my 6L6s in the EL34 setting. But I will say that it spealed alot more when high levels of gain was used. I always ran my gain around noon anyway - then used a boost when needed. Much more responsive feel and a warmer, crunchier mid range. Also brought new life to the clean ch.

Sorry for getting off track

:?

Mesa recommends running EL34s with the tube rectifier because they run hot. That will drop the voltage down, so in turn the bias drops. You must have had a low grade of '34, or were using spongy. I stuck a set of E34Ls in my DR and they were biased at almost 60mA with bold/diodes.

This subject is great for me droptrd; you're right on track. Explain spealed please. I generally only put the gain up to around noon or 1:30 for chan3-modern and less on the other two channels. I'm currently using the stock 6L6's (biased to 6L6's) with spongy and tube rectifier selected, because it sounds best like that to me and the amp is noisy otherwise. I really like the piano like qualities of the clean channel, but when it starts to break-up at high volume it's not so nice. Will I have less headroom with the EL-34's, or will the break-up just be more gradual?

Also, does anyone know how much volume is really lost on a Triple-Rec when using Spongy/Tube? Should the amp still have more volume than a Dual-Rec set Bold/Diodes?

 

[droptrd]

Heres my take on EL34s in a recto based on my experiance with them. Its not a super noticable difference IMO. Tightens the bottom a bit and makes an already bad clean channel worse. The bias is too low for the 34s to really do their thing. My last recto (rev G)had a bias reading (current draw) in the low 20's inthe EL34 setting. Should be in the high 30's for my taste. The 6L6 setting was around 14mA. This is why I ran my 6L6s in the EL34 setting. But I will say that it spealed alot more when high levels of gain was used. I always ran my gain around noon anyway - then used a boost when needed. Much more responsive feel and a warmer, crunchier mid range. Also brought new life to the clean ch.

Sorry for getting off track

:?

Mesa recommends running EL34s with the tube rectifier because they run hot. That will drop the voltage down, so in turn the bias drops. You must have had a low grade of '34, or were using spongy. I stuck a set of E34Ls in my DR and they were biased at almost 60mA with bold/diodes.

Explain spealed please.

Typo sorry. Meant to say sqealed.