Half power / Pulling tubes

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Anonymous

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I've got a Diezel Einstein, but I guess the question applies to other models too.

How safe is it to pull a pair of tubes out? I play at low volume (and am a cheapstake)
Should I pull the tubes, pull the tube fuse or both?
Guess I should use half impedence too for speaker out.

How about the sound? Does it affect it very much? I've done it with other amps without the tone being affected too much.

Thanks
 
Pappa doesn't recomend as was said.I have a 100 wtt Einy and have been using it with 2 pulled for over a year.I live in a mobile home so I just don't need the power.First you must pull either the 2 inside tubes or 1 from the outside ends,i.e. 1 &4.Second remeber your impendance ,I.e. a 8 ohm cab is set to 4 or 16ohm 8.The overall effect is you get a bit more sag.Always listen to pappa ,but I've had no problems and love the way it sounds.When I play out I pop in the second Pair and change the oms back to proper settingg.Oh and another thing to consider is the tube bias.I checked the tubes with my tech and a meter and when you run only 2 the bias will go up a bit.I simply set the bias a littel cold so it's not to high with just 2.Hope this helps. :rock: Steve
 
There are other ways around this problem.
Try a set of Yellow Jacket tube replacements with the octal converter. No need to re-bias, lowers the wattage to 9 watts per tube. For a 100 watter, you will need 4 Yellow Jackets, which will lower your RMS wattage to 36 watts. I also have a set of Smicz Tads which are the one watt version, but no longer in production. I got my VH4 down to 4 watts. It was amazingly loud, even at 4 watts. I used this when playing in places that demanded extremely low volumes, and it actually allowed me to open up the amp more and get really great tone.

The Yellow Jackets at 36 watts, should be fine for lower volume applications. They can be used along with one pair of regular power tubes as well. They run in Class A. Using one set of YJ's with regular power tubes gives you both class A/B and Class A operation at the same time.

If you still wish to pull two additional tubes, you can get the amp down to 18 watts with the lower impedance settings.

Due to the YJ's being EL-84's, the sound may change a bit, but nothing that judicious use of your EQ settings cannot correct to your personal taste.

I have found this method to be preferrable over power attenuators, which Peter does not like.

http://www.yellowjacketstc.com/
 
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