New KT77's in my Friedman JJ100 - video inside

[Bad.Seed]

Got my jj100 retubed an biased with JJ kt77 power tubes this week. What a world of difference. The amp seemed weak and cold with the stock tubes, and I never totally bonded with it. I took it to my tech, who said it was biased very cold and the tubes had been pretty well used. The amp now has way more fullness and thump overall. Mids sound rounder and not quiet as aggressive, but the aggressiveness is still there, and the amp sounds tighter overall.

Here's a super rough and dirty playthrough with some thrash rifding, just plugged in and went with no warmup, so it's even sloppier than normal, but at least the amp sounds great

 

[mooncobra]

nice man.

 

[V2a]

I love the JJ KT77

 

[MetalHeadMike]

Nice thrash riffage dude! The mids reminded me a lot of the Savage 120 I had I'll have to throw in the headphones and listen again.

I put Kt77s in several amps (Splawn QR, Uber Rev blue) and really liked the results.

 

[napalmdeath]

KT77's worked well in my Runt 50, and ESPECIALLY well in the Helios 50 I had. I use nothing but, in EL34-based amps. My favorite tube.

 

[Bad.Seed]

Nice thrash riffage dude! The mids reminded me a lot of the Savage 120 I had I'll have to throw in the headphones and listen again.

I put Kt77s in several amps (Splawn QR, Uber Rev blue) and really liked the results.

I put the KT77's in my Quick rod and it made that fatten up in a very similar way. The Quickrod was already thick sounding, but the KT77's just added to that without taking away clarity. I'm sold on this tube. I waited years to try them out and now I wish I hadn't!

 

[Bad.Seed]

KT77's worked well in my Runt 50, and ESPECIALLY well in the Helios 50 I had. I use nothing but, in EL34-based amps. My favorite tube.

How do you feel they altered the Runt 50? I've actually been curious about picking one up as a more portable option for pracices and such. My guitarist and I have to drive 3.5 hours to practice and back in a mid size-sedan, so we enjoy big amps in small packages! haha

 

[Detroit1973]

KT77's worked well in my Runt 50, and ESPECIALLY well in the Helios 50 I had. I use nothing but, in EL34-based amps. My favorite tube.

How do you feel they altered the Runt 50? I've actually been curious about picking one up as a more portable option for pracices and such. My guitarist and I have to drive 3.5 hours to practice and back in a mid size-sedan, so we enjoy big amps in small packages! haha

Where is your practice spot? seems like a long drive, but i bet it's worth it. Fuck! I know it's worth it since i watch all your videos all the time.

 

[Bad.Seed]

KT77's worked well in my Runt 50, and ESPECIALLY well in the Helios 50 I had. I use nothing but, in EL34-based amps. My favorite tube.

How do you feel they altered the Runt 50? I've actually been curious about picking one up as a more portable option for pracices and such. My guitarist and I have to drive 3.5 hours to practice and back in a mid size-sedan, so we enjoy big amps in small packages! haha

Where is your practice spot? seems like a long drive, but i bet it's worth it. Fuck! I know it's worth it since i watch all your videos all the time.

We live in Erie, PA. 2 of our members live in Altoona, PA. We have spots in both cities, and usually rotate every 2 weeks to keep it fair. It's a lot, but it's also the most cohesive and motivated band I've been a part of, so it really doesn't bother me to have to make the drive once a month. We're already getting small label offers, big show and festival offers, talks of a small European run at the end of the year, etc... so it's been well worth the effort so far.

 

[Ventura]

Nice riffage nice tone

Maybe I didn't catch it on the first read but what brand of 77s did you use?? (EDIT: Caught it - the JJs, peace)

I've been a fan of the GL-77s for quite some time now - usually always taking the place of stock EL34 tubes once the stock tubes fizzle out. Gold Lion 77s are dope, and, for something similar but slightly different, the newer model JJ E34L is a decent tube that gives a little more headroom and low end amp dependent. Sounded monstrous in my Rev.2

 

[maddnotez]

Sounds pretty insane. How is the low end on this? Doesn't seem very thunderous would be my only critique

 

[Bad.Seed]

Sounds pretty insane. How is the low end on this? Doesn't seem very thunderous would be my only critique

This was originally my main complaint with the amp. It sounded really thin and harsh when I first got it. No balls. Turns out, the PI tube was weak, so I swapped in a replacement and the amp came alive some more, but still felt it was missing a lot of lower frequencies.

The KT77 was kind of my last ditch effort to get the speakers moving. It may not reflect in my recording, but it now has plenty of balls, and can really push some air when the tubes get warm. I used it at band practice last weekend annd I used to have to dime the bass, and I also had my tech put in a "resonance" control in the amp shortly after I got it, which also used to stay dimed. with the new tubes, I pulled resonance back to about 7, and the bass on the eq back to 6. Even then, it was still pushing some serious low end. Competes with my Splawn QR all day now, which has an unreal low end response for a Marshall style amp.

 

[maddnotez]

Good to know, thanks. Never tried 77's but I'm window shopping for a future purchase and the JJ or Friedman in general is in the top 3.

Was worried about the low end or it not being "brutal" enough for the type of metal I play but this clip is very nice. Those thrash chords (1,4,1) sound amazing on this.

 

[romanianreaper]

Years ago I put KT77s in my Splawn Competition and it added what I needed in the places I wanted it to. Low end was tighter and there was more of a focus on the low mids than the mids in general. Really rounded out the amp and gave it a tad more modern tone.

 

[napalmdeath]

KT77's worked well in my Runt 50, and ESPECIALLY well in the Helios 50 I had. I use nothing but, in EL34-based amps. My favorite tube.

How do you feel they altered the Runt 50? I've actually been curious about picking one up as a more portable option for pracices and such. My guitarist and I have to drive 3.5 hours to practice and back in a mid size-sedan, so we enjoy big amps in small packages! haha

They made both a bit morr aggressive, tightened up the low end, and relaxed the high mids. The Helios wasn't really a bright, high mid-voiced amp, but it certainly made it a bit more aggressive and punchier. It came stock with JJ El34's, and biased cold. KT77's and biased properly made that amp punchy as hell.

 

[311boogieman]

Video does sound good. That JJ mini vid Chippy did is pretty eye opening too. Would have to try one in person.

Years ago I put KT77s in my Splawn Competition and it added what I needed in the places I wanted it to. Low end was tighter and there was more of a focus on the low mids than the mids in general. Really rounded out the amp and gave it a tad more modern tone.

I think this is what I'm going to do next

 

[maddnotez]

Where is your gain set? Sorry if I missed it.

 

[Bad.Seed]

Where is your gain set? Sorry if I missed it.

I guess it would have been smart for me to mention settings.

I was playing on the BE Channel, boosted with an MXR 77. All the pickups used in the video are relatively low PAF style pickups.
Settings on the amp were Bass - 7 Mids - 6 Treble - 5 I don't remember where the volumes were, but it was not quite band volume overall. "Resonance" at 6 and presence was areound 7. Gain was set around 7.5, as the BE channel definitely has less gain than the JBE, but I prefer the openness of the BE Channel.

I was hooked up to both cabs pictured, Diezel 412RV w/ V30's on the left, and Marshall MF400 w/ K100's on the right.

 

[maddnotez]

Awesome, thanks.