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.)