Best tubes for a Peavey Triple XXX

[WashburnX50]

Alright, I might be lookin to retube my Triple XXX here shortly, I'm just looking for opinions on different power and preamp tubes. I want something that doesn't change the sound too much, I would like slightly tighter low end, and less "icepick-y" highs. I also would like to know how to bias this amp, from what I have heard the external bias test points on the amp measure the wrong thing??? I just want to make sure I don't hurt anything in my amp.

P.S. Not a tube related question but I still want to know. I disconnected my reverb tank to pull out the chassis of my amp (it's a 212 combo BTW)to get at the tubes easier and I forgot to hook it back up. When I fired it back up, I was messing with the reverb know and noticed it acted almost as a presence knob, similar to how if you are on the Crunch channel and turn the volume knob on the Ultra channel it has an increase in presence and vice versa. I like the tone I get this way and just want to know if keeping the tank disconnected could hurt anything, I doubt it but I still figured I'd ask people more knowledgeable than I.

Thanks -

Scott

 

[roadifier]

I think the thing is with out the reverb tank is, since it is disconnected it is re introducing the signal back somewhere acting like negative feedback loop. something like that...

 

[WashburnX50]

I think the thing is with out the reverb tank is, since it is disconnected it is re introducing the signal back somewhere acting like negative feedback loop. something like that...

Pardon my ignorance, but can that damage my amp in any way? I want to keep this thing up and running for as long as possible, I can't afford another one, haha.

 

[roadifier]

I think the thing is with out the reverb tank is, since it is disconnected it is re introducing the signal back somewhere acting like negative feedback loop. something like that...

Pardon my ignorance, but can that damage my amp in any way? I want to keep this thing up and running for as long as possible, I can't afford another one, haha.

No it won't damage your amp, I've done it with my amp too, never hurt it.

 

[WashburnX50]

I think the thing is with out the reverb tank is, since it is disconnected it is re introducing the signal back somewhere acting like negative feedback loop. something like that...

Pardon my ignorance, but can that damage my amp in any way? I want to keep this thing up and running for as long as possible, I can't afford another one, haha.

No it won't damage your amp, I've done it with my amp too, never hurt it.

Ok, cool. I like the sound it gives me, it opens up the highs a little bit. Either that or I am going insane, haha

 

[roadifier]

I think the thing is with out the reverb tank is, since it is disconnected it is re introducing the signal back somewhere acting like negative feedback loop. something like that...

Pardon my ignorance, but can that damage my amp in any way? I want to keep this thing up and running for as long as possible, I can't afford another one, haha.

No it won't damage your amp, I've done it with my amp too, never hurt it.

Ok, cool. I like the sound it gives me, it opens up the highs a little bit. Either that or I am going insane, haha

Thats what it did for me, It made it clearer, and having it footswitchable for me was cool

 

[just42dave]

I got plenty of tubes whatcha want??

 

[deadweight]

I found putting a lower gain tube (i used a jan phillips 5751) in V1 to tame the gain a tiny bit and KT77's for power tubes sounded best in my XXX

 

[WashburnX50]

I found putting a lower gain tube (i used a jan phillips 5751) in V1 to tame the gain a tiny bit and KT77's for power tubes sounded best in my XXX

KT77's huh? Might have to check them out, what kinda sound did they help give it? Also, anyone ever have EL34's in a Triple XXX? How'd that sound?

 

[deadweight]

I liked 6L6's in the XXX for the low end and cleans sounded better to me, I found the amp sounded crunchier in the distortion with EL34's but suffered a bit on clean. The reason I liked the JJ KT77's was it seemed to be a cross of the two where the cleans sounded like the 6L6's and the distortion sound was close to the EL34's.

 

[WashburnX50]

I liked 6L6's in the XXX for the low end and cleans sounded better to me, I found the amp sounded crunchier in the distortion with EL34's but suffered a bit on clean. The reason I liked the JJ KT77's was it seemed to be a cross of the two where the cleans sounded like the 6L6's and the distortion sound was close to the EL34's.

Other than the jan phillips 5751, what other pre amp tubes were you running?

 

[deadweight]

pretty sure i just had JJ ecc83's in the other spots

 

[WashburnX50]

pretty sure i just had JJ ecc83's in the other spots

Hmmmm... I may just give that a shot.Sounds like it could be a good combo. Thanks for the info!

 

[primerib]

I have JJ KT77's in my Triple X and it sounds incredible!

 

[bigangryguitar]

I had a XXX for a couple of years and after a lot of experimenting I would agree with the kt77 suggestion or el34's for that matter. I actually thought the cleans were better with the e34l's I had than with 6l6gc's. I also put a 12at7 in v1 and v4 and that made the amp breathe a little better for sure.