Music&Chaos
Well-known member
It's late, so forgive any mistakes or typos here:
I found the best tube combo(s) for my amp recently and I was surprised! (Though I guess I shouldn't be)
I have a Rivera Clubster Royale Recording Top. 25w. 3 12ax7, 2 6v6's. Tight and punchy as can be. Anyway, this amp has a Modded Fender Blackface style clean and a Drive channel w/ a boost. The clean has that massive headroom and huge cleans but not nearly as harsh on the top end and has a bass that can be large but is tight.
The drive channel is just beautiful. The punch and tighness is paired with touch sensitive dynamics and clarity. I recently rolled a number of NOS and reissue tubes in the amp. Preamp and output section. I had never been into NOS tubes but tried a Mullard and was wowed at the change compared to the number of other tubes I was using.
To skip a very, very long story short; I tried a mix of CBS/Hytron long plates, Mullards of all sorts, RCAs of every year, Sylvania, Amperex, etc.
These tests were ran with RCA blackglass 6v6's. Leaving these in this amp.
Pre amp tube time.
I tried so, so many in here and....RCA Black plates won for all 3 positions. Dead quiet too, even with gain and volume cranked. Lucky!!
The last tubes I thought I would dig in the amp are Black Plate RCAs, as I assumed they would be like the grey plates. Don't get me wrong, I like RCA long grey plates for certain spots, but these present a lot of bass and treble with not as much mids and I find myself always leaning toward a very aggressive mid bite and snap w/ a very present bass.
I ended up getting a Black Plate from a guy, just to try after taling about my amp. I really liked it in V1, so I ended up grabbing a backup. These don't sound like other RCA tubes. The bass, middle, and top are ALL present, unlike that smoothed off top end a Mullard would have (Though that sound is very desirable).
Well, I popped that backup into v2, which also feeds the reverb tank and loop and....the clarity is unreal. You can hear every little detail of a reverb or delay. The extended top/bottom end and clarity is astounding.
Next thing ya know....I HAD to know. Ran RCA black plates in all 3 preamp positions and WOW. When I played the first note, my wife was stunned, as she had heard me before tube rolling. I was also stunned. In 15 years she has never had THAT reaction and I've never had really 'bad' tone or anything, I've always gotten compliments but....this is unreal. I would not have believed it unless I had went through it all myself.
These black plates in this amp are insane. The harmonic frequencies and beautiful fullness and three-dimensionality of the sound is really wonderful. You feel the notes in a way that is just different. The gain always stays clear and crisp, as the BPs are not squishy at all. I did end up rolling through a number of different ones in different spots, as each has its own slight sonic charatcersitics of a slightly sweeter top end, slightly more bass, etc.
Cleans are stunning. Bass is MASSIVE and the top end is absolutely extended into the heavens if you want it to be. The mids are very present, organic, and musical. These tubes take and present effects like no other. I'd say this is the best tube for heavy rock/metal and fuzz. No matter how much distortion and fuzz you hit it with, stays tight and sweet.
I did not expect to have a box of NOS tubes from the 50s for this amp but... here we are. Now that I've heard it in all of it's glory, how could I go back?
BTW reading this you may think this amp sounds like a classic fender. Again, it has it's own thing going on with a drive kinda like a Bad Cat but much smoother and less raspy. Like a marshall met something else, Idk. Not that terrible fender distortion.
The clean channel is not that Mid-scooped sound you get from Fenders. I kinda hate that sound. Really loud but since mids are cut, the notes are...hidden or something to my ear? The clean on this amp is much more robust with a health mid mixed in off the bat but I also find the presence control to dial those in, which was not quite as expected.
Anywho, all this is to say, try different tubes in your amp! Or the same tubes in different spots!
I found the best tube combo(s) for my amp recently and I was surprised! (Though I guess I shouldn't be)
I have a Rivera Clubster Royale Recording Top. 25w. 3 12ax7, 2 6v6's. Tight and punchy as can be. Anyway, this amp has a Modded Fender Blackface style clean and a Drive channel w/ a boost. The clean has that massive headroom and huge cleans but not nearly as harsh on the top end and has a bass that can be large but is tight.
The drive channel is just beautiful. The punch and tighness is paired with touch sensitive dynamics and clarity. I recently rolled a number of NOS and reissue tubes in the amp. Preamp and output section. I had never been into NOS tubes but tried a Mullard and was wowed at the change compared to the number of other tubes I was using.
To skip a very, very long story short; I tried a mix of CBS/Hytron long plates, Mullards of all sorts, RCAs of every year, Sylvania, Amperex, etc.
These tests were ran with RCA blackglass 6v6's. Leaving these in this amp.
Pre amp tube time.
I tried so, so many in here and....RCA Black plates won for all 3 positions. Dead quiet too, even with gain and volume cranked. Lucky!!
The last tubes I thought I would dig in the amp are Black Plate RCAs, as I assumed they would be like the grey plates. Don't get me wrong, I like RCA long grey plates for certain spots, but these present a lot of bass and treble with not as much mids and I find myself always leaning toward a very aggressive mid bite and snap w/ a very present bass.
I ended up getting a Black Plate from a guy, just to try after taling about my amp. I really liked it in V1, so I ended up grabbing a backup. These don't sound like other RCA tubes. The bass, middle, and top are ALL present, unlike that smoothed off top end a Mullard would have (Though that sound is very desirable).
Well, I popped that backup into v2, which also feeds the reverb tank and loop and....the clarity is unreal. You can hear every little detail of a reverb or delay. The extended top/bottom end and clarity is astounding.
Next thing ya know....I HAD to know. Ran RCA black plates in all 3 preamp positions and WOW. When I played the first note, my wife was stunned, as she had heard me before tube rolling. I was also stunned. In 15 years she has never had THAT reaction and I've never had really 'bad' tone or anything, I've always gotten compliments but....this is unreal. I would not have believed it unless I had went through it all myself.
These black plates in this amp are insane. The harmonic frequencies and beautiful fullness and three-dimensionality of the sound is really wonderful. You feel the notes in a way that is just different. The gain always stays clear and crisp, as the BPs are not squishy at all. I did end up rolling through a number of different ones in different spots, as each has its own slight sonic charatcersitics of a slightly sweeter top end, slightly more bass, etc.
Cleans are stunning. Bass is MASSIVE and the top end is absolutely extended into the heavens if you want it to be. The mids are very present, organic, and musical. These tubes take and present effects like no other. I'd say this is the best tube for heavy rock/metal and fuzz. No matter how much distortion and fuzz you hit it with, stays tight and sweet.
I did not expect to have a box of NOS tubes from the 50s for this amp but... here we are. Now that I've heard it in all of it's glory, how could I go back?
BTW reading this you may think this amp sounds like a classic fender. Again, it has it's own thing going on with a drive kinda like a Bad Cat but much smoother and less raspy. Like a marshall met something else, Idk. Not that terrible fender distortion.
The clean channel is not that Mid-scooped sound you get from Fenders. I kinda hate that sound. Really loud but since mids are cut, the notes are...hidden or something to my ear? The clean on this amp is much more robust with a health mid mixed in off the bat but I also find the presence control to dial those in, which was not quite as expected.
Anywho, all this is to say, try different tubes in your amp! Or the same tubes in different spots!
