Egnater Vengeance pre tube position

[C1-ocaster]

Well, I traded in the Bogner Alchemist.
It is a very nice amp, but I really wanted more of the Egnater clean tone.
Got a great trade in at GC.
There was one last new demo Egnater Vengeance head for $500 full warranty.
So I bought it and even got the 3yr all covered warranty for like another $97.

I looked up the manual for the amp and it's got basic info and good info on biasing, but I need to know the pre tube positions and what they are in th circuit.
V1 and V2 are obvious as is the phase inverter, but what do the other 3 do?
I think 1 is for the effects send and another may be for effects return, that leaves 1 for added gain, but which one?
It's not for reverb cause the verb is digital.

If anyone knows the pre tube positions please post.
This head has Ruby 6L6's pre and power, yet Eggies website and manual still say it comes with EL34's.
They really need to get on the ball and fix that.

 

[C1-ocaster]

Interesting pre tube selection in the Vengeance.
All are 12ax7.
V1 and V2 are TungSol also stamped with "Egnater" on them.
V3, V4, V5, and the phase inverter are Ruby tubes also stamped with "Egnater".
Power tubes are Ruby 6L6's.

I put in JJ's "high gain" pre's in V1 and V2, and a high gain balanced in the phase inverter position.
And in power tube 1 & 2 I put in SED winged C 6L6's.
Bias recommendation is between 60mV to 70mV. The Ruby 2 & 3 were about 67mV, so right in range.
The winged C's however were showing 113-114mV!

In the 120 watt mode I played around and set both tube sets to 70mV and tested.
I tried 80mV and 50-55mV. I liked 60-63mV the best for both sets in the 120watt mode.

In the 60 watt mode the amp only uses power tube 1 & 4, which are the winged C's I put in.
When the amp is set to 60 watt mode those tubes bias goes up anywhere between 3-5mV.
I had set 1 & 4 at 67mV but in 120 mode they went up to 71-72mV, a bit over spec.
Setting those tubes at 63mV, to keep them under 70mV in 120 mode, the bias then drops to around 58mV.
Since I'll be using the 60 watt mode almost always I decided to set bias at 62-63mV and to me it sounds the best there with either power tube.

This is a great sounding amp, and there are a number of tonal options to adjust to get a decently wide variety of tones.
I have my B52 AT100 head also and I'm comparing one against the other.
The Vengeance has more tweaking adjustments, but the AT100 is a very nice amp as well.
Cleans and grit are great on both, with the vote going to the Vengeance for it's slightly warmer and rounder clean tone.
But if they weren't both sitting here the AT100 is fantastic.

High gain goes to the B52 AT100 cause it just has more gain along with great articulation. The Vengeance as well is very articulate, but for a high gain amp it's really not 'that' high gain.
Quiet at highest gain goes to the Vengeance, as it's nicely quiet at high gain. The AT100 has a bit more hiss, but the AT100 is using cheaper pre and power tubes, and I haven't biased it yet.

If I didn't get the Vengeance for $500 I'd say the AT100 is the better deal as the Vengeance is not twice the amp, in fact they are very close, and it would come down to smaller tonal details not big ones.
Not sure if I'll keep the Vengeance, it's too close to the AT100, which BTW Egnater also designed.

I'm still thinking the Peavey JSX would be a more different flavor.

 

[jayd41]

A couple tips from a fellow Vengeance owner.
There is a switch behind your output transformer, I like it better in ODV mode but mine was in ODS from the factory.
Don't be shy with the presence and resonance controls. I have found that the amp really comes to life with both controls past 2 o'clock.
So far 6550s are my favorite tube I've tried in the power section.
Still waiting to get the ok from Bruce before I try KT88s.

I went through a phase where I wasn't overly impressed with mine, and then I did the above things and hooked it up to a v30/t75 equipped cab and that was the ticket. The egnater elite 80 speakers also sound excellent with this amp.

Enjoy it! It is a monster when it's dialed in!

 

[C1-ocaster]

A couple tips from a fellow Vengeance owner.
There is a switch behind your output transformer, I like it better in ODV mode but mine was in ODS from the factory.
Don't be shy with the presence and resonance controls. I have found that the amp really comes to life with both controls past 2 o'clock.
So far 6550s are my favorite tube I've tried in the power section.
Still waiting to get the ok from Bruce before I try KT88s.

I went through a phase where I wasn't overly impressed with mine, and then I did the above things and hooked it up to a v30/t75 equipped cab and that was the ticket. The egnater elite 80 speakers also sound excellent with this amp.

Enjoy it! It is a monster when it's dialed in!

Thanks for the recommendations.

I'm liking the amp with the rebias and the SED 6L6's.
Now I'm going to mess with pre tube rolling, especially since I mistakingly used V5 as the V1 position.
Right now V1 has the lowest quality 12ax7's I have, the Electro Harmonix.

I emailed Eurotubes and am thinking of getting a pair of of 6AC7 and a pair of KT88's.

Would you happen to know which pre tube position does what?

 

[C1-ocaster]

A couple tips from a fellow Vengeance owner.
There is a switch behind your output transformer, I like it better in ODV mode but mine was in ODS from the factory.
Don't be shy with the presence and resonance controls. I have found that the amp really comes to life with both controls past 2 o'clock.
So far 6550s are my favorite tube I've tried in the power section.
Still waiting to get the ok from Bruce before I try KT88s.

I went through a phase where I wasn't overly impressed with mine, and then I did the above things and hooked it up to a v30/t75 equipped cab and that was the ticket. The egnater elite 80 speakers also sound excellent with this amp.

Enjoy it! It is a monster when it's dialed in!

ODS/ODV, interestingly mine is set to ODS from the factory.
According to B. Egnater the ODS uses and electronic circuit for high gain that "closely duplicates" a tube over drive.

What I read from that is that ODS is a solid state circuit for overdrive/ODS.
Valve overdrive/ODV should be the default setting.

I tried it switching it back and forth, but didn't spend much time with it at all, as I was changing tubes and biasing and testing for tone.
I'll play with that switch more to note differences.