Has Anyone Heard/Tried Mesa Dual Rec With KT66/88's?

[Flavatrocious]

I may be purchasing an old school Dual rec with a tube kit from Eurotubes consisting of KT66's and KT88's.

I was just wondering if anyone has heard or knows anything about how this sounds or even if its good/bad for the amp?

The 66's are in the middle with the 88's on the outside.

Let me know.

 

[glpg80]

88's are basically the euro version of the 6550, so expect a large clean headroom tube sound from them that are hard to push into overdrive

the 66's are the true pentode version of the triode 6L6 tube group. so they are more effecient sounding 6L6's

if you like the 6L6 sound over EL34's, then expect amazing cleans from the tube and a very loud and powerful sound.

as far as the amplifier itself goes, not sure. but in a 5150 like what Bob did ive heard that it sounds awsome.

wouldnt hurt to try! let us know how it goes

 

[steve_k]

I may be purchasing an old school Dual rec with a tube kit from Eurotubes consisting of KT66's and KT88's.

I was just wondering if anyone has heard or knows anything about how this sounds or even if its good/bad for the amp?

The 66's are in the middle with the 88's on the outside.

Let me know.

Go to a site http://www.eurotubes.com and find the tube substitution page or somewhere in there. Jay did a lot of experimenting with Mesa's and has a lengthy write up about running 88's and 66's in a Dual Rec. He explains how this can work out, with Mesa's being self-biasing and with the tube/SS rectifier option selection and the spongy/bold selection. Mesa's have relatively low output trannies and he goes to some trouble to explain how this works with the higher output tubes. I didn't try it, but he can tell you. Email him, nice guy too if you need any more info. I bought lots of JJ's in the past from him when I used them.

Steve

 

[Erock]

seems like kind of a waste, even with all the options selected, without an adjustable bias, there is no way those KT88 are going to be running at the proper bias range. My friend ran that integrated quad that Eurotubes sells in his 5150, and it ended up popping an SGR. Not sure I would trust using them long term.

 

[glassjaw7]

No, but I've been running KT77's (el34 mode) in mine for a few years now. I must say, it sounds way better than the stock tubes. The bias is up around the right level now. Much smoother and punchier sound.
-I'm also using GZ34's for my rectifier tubes-tightens up the low end

 

[Flavatrocious]

Well, to my surprise the recto sounded fuckin' brutal. Its pretty clean cosmetically which is always nice. The tubes definitely give it more whack and tightness which was always my main gripe with this amp. I love the old skool rectos but they always lost all their great characteristics due to the fact i tune down stupid low, drop b-flat. Initially i tried various boost pedals with the amps when i had them the first time around but they lost all that great tone that i love from them because of the pedals. I dont think they like really low tunings. I even tried different guitars out and always found that it was just the simple fact of the low tuning. Going down that low sucks the tone from the amp. My rectos were equipped wth 6l6's. Happily tho, this combo seems to work really well with this amp, especially us dropped tuned bastards. Also, i picked up a Barber direct drive the same day i got the amp and it just makes the amp sound fucking incredible. This pedal works insanely well with this amp. The amp sounds good shooting straight from the channels, turn on the direct drive and it just gets even nastier, heavier and still stays butthole tight

I think the GZ34's help tighten things up aswell.

So now i wanna hear a triple with all KT88's

We'll see...

 

[stephen sawall]

I have put all KT66 in my Tremoverb. It made it huge sounding. The cleans and lead stuff was better. But it made the chunk stuff a bit looser. My favorite tubes in the amp are almost 20 year old 6CA7. Of the new-stuff I have tried I like the JJ KT77 best for me.

I was thinking about trying KT88 in the amp and called MESA a few times ..... everyone I talked to there told me it was a bad idea. The KT88 that Bob uses is so far off it's normal spec that it is not even acting like a KT88. The rating is very far off the normal range of the amp and is stressing the amp. That he runs amps on the extremes of there range of parameters. Something about this is a way for him to sell off his stock that is not in the normal range for that tube.

This is just what I was told .....I never put KT88 in a DR.

I should say I have been to Bobs home a few times and have a number of tubes from him .... very nice person. I have played on a number of amps he set up. (tubed and biased) All were running hot. This gives them a lot of punch.

 

[Racerxrated]

...

 

[steve_k]

seems like kind of a waste, even with all the options selected, without an adjustable bias, there is no way those KT88 are going to be running at the proper bias range. My friend ran that integrated quad that Eurotubes sells in his 5150, and it ended up popping an SGR. Not sure I would trust using them long term.

this ^^^

I tried it. The chassis got so damn hot, it worried me. And, at the end of the day, it didn't do much for the output of the amp.

 

[stephen sawall]

I've been using Mesa 6L6 STR420 in my Tremoverb most of the time for the last several years. For me these are the best tubes for using the full range of gain from clean on up...5881, 6CA7 and EL34 are the only other tubes I use in it anymore (rarely).