Retubing a Rivera: SED EL34 vs. JJ E34L vs.?

jet66":348honak said:
Received my order from Valve Queen today. Ordered online at 9:30 Tuesday night, they were waiting for me when I got home today. I went with the SED's, and boy do they sound good. Also got some opinions from her on a few pre-amp tubes I hadn't tried before, so I picked up a few different flavors to try out. Excellent personalized service, she's very knowledgeable about her products and discriminating about what tubes she'll carry, and meticulous on the matching and testing. Highly recommended for anyone else looking for another source of tubes.
Thanks again! I really appreciated your email and I am glad that you are happy. Enjoy! :thumbsup:
 
Heritage Softail":edrkdmd7 said:
My K Tre is in need of some fresh globes as well. So did you look to brighten it up a bit? Interested in what preamp tubes you went with. In your experimenting which ones had the most cut?

Thx,

Softail
I don't know how good my baseline was as far as that goes, I think the tubes in it may have been a bit long in the tooth. I put a new HG+ in V1, and it definitely had some bite. I tried a Sovtek 12AX7WC in V1, just to see how it sounded. Not nearly as hot nor dynamic, so it went back to V2, for now. The amp calls for Wx type tubes, among others, for V1, 2, and 4, as I'm sure you know. I am assuming those spots are cathode followers, because the manual* was pretty specific about what NOT to put in those sockets. I haven't had the opportunity to do much swapping above that at the moment. I've got a couple of old Telefunkens, and a handful of GE, Sylvania, and the odd RCA I want to try in some of the spots. The SED's in the power section definitely added more bite and cruch vs. the JJ E34Ls that were in it. The clean definitely has a lot of spank to it now, and the notch option is sounding much sweeter now. It was a little 'hollow' before. (It was all JJ EC83S in the pre section.)

*Mine is a 2-channel Ktre, the only manual on the Rivera site is for the new 3-channel. Do you have a 2-ch, and if so, do you know where I can find a manual in .pdf? I haven't had much luck searching the web. I'm mainly interested in the tube socket designations, as far as what is channel 1 gain, channel 2 gain, etc. V1 for input and V5 for PI are the only two spots that I am positive of what they cover.

Oh, and I'm not certain I am getting the full effect of the amp with this cab. (Avatar Contemporary.) I'm beginning to think that although it sounds OK, I think it could sound better. Three different heads in, all very different, and I'm noticing some unpleasant mids with higher gain that just may be common with the cab. (Tried two totally different sets of speakers in it, too.)
 
ldm":c2hb1g9r said:
Thanks again! I really appreciated your email and I am glad that you are happy. Enjoy! :thumbsup:
It was a pleasure doing business with you. In about a month or so, I'll probably look at getting another quad. Either something different to experiment with, or a second set of SED's. I like to have a full backup set on hand, and I'd rather not rely on the old tubes for that purpose in this case.
 
jet66":3mzzlew9 said:
Heritage Softail":3mzzlew9 said:
My K Tre is in need of some fresh globes as well. So did you look to brighten it up a bit? Interested in what preamp tubes you went with. In your experimenting which ones had the most cut?

Thx,

Softail
I don't know how good my baseline was as far as that goes, I think the tubes in it may have been a bit long in the tooth. I put a new HG+ in V1, and it definitely had some bite. I tried a Sovtek 12AX7WC in V1, just to see how it sounded. Not nearly as hot nor dynamic, so it went back to V2, for now. The amp calls for Wx type tubes, among others, for V1, 2, and 4, as I'm sure you know. I am assuming those spots are cathode followers, because the manual* was pretty specific about what NOT to put in those sockets. I haven't had the opportunity to do much swapping above that at the moment. I've got a couple of old Telefunkens, and a handful of GE, Sylvania, and the odd RCA I want to try in some of the spots. The SED's in the power section definitely added more bite and cruch vs. the JJ E34Ls that were in it. The clean definitely has a lot of spank to it now, and the notch option is sounding much sweeter now. It was a little 'hollow' before. (It was all JJ EC83S in the pre section.)

*Mine is a 2-channel Ktre, the only manual on the Rivera site is for the new 3-channel. Do you have a 2-ch, and if so, do you know where I can find a manual in .pdf? I haven't had much luck searching the web. I'm mainly interested in the tube socket designations, as far as what is channel 1 gain, channel 2 gain, etc. V1 for input and V5 for PI are the only two spots that I am positive of what they cover.

Oh, and I'm not certain I am getting the full effect of the amp with this cab. (Avatar Contemporary.) I'm beginning to think that although it sounds OK, I think it could sound better. Three different heads in, all very different, and I'm noticing some unpleasant mids with higher gain that just may be common with the cab. (Tried two totally different sets of speakers in it, too.)

Dig it.... there is no manual... I called Rivera and talked to a tech. He said they have not finished it yet.... sounds funny eh?

But the clean channel notch on my amp effects both channels, the tech said it should not. Just wonder how yours works.

The SED's sound interesting. I like a bit of power amp distortion and edge of distortion like with non-MV mashalls. I am hoping that running 2 tubes and a plate will get me close to that. The hi-gain on that KT is beastly. Is it even more outrageous with your new tubes?

I have been hitting the clean ch with an OCD and it is working pretty good. Getting good early Rush out of the clean channel.

Peace ....

Softail
 
Yes, I was running the gain at 7-8 on the knob before, now I'm down around 5-6. I don't think the notch affected my dirty channel... I can't play any more tonight, but I will verify it tomorrow. I've got an OCD on my board, and it sounds great with the clean, with the notched pulled out too. I've got mine on Lo, with the gain down below noon. Does some nice dirty blues rock. This is my first full-on EL34 amp, so I can't really comment on how it stacks up to a Marshall non-MV. The clean stays clean pretty high up, though. It does get some break up to it around 5, but it's quite loud.

They haven't finished the manual yet? :confused: Mine has a date of 12/14/06 on the chassis... :LOL: :LOL:
 
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