Power tube combos for Herbert

[BPage]

Hello everyone. I'm new here so try not to crucify the newbie. I recently purchased a MK1 Herbert and want to immediately re-tube. I play super fast death/grind/blackmetal stuff and was thinking about a combo of KT77 and 6L6WXT (or variant thereof). My question is what positions to put them in? I like my Lows-noon, Mids-noon to 3/4 and highs- 1/4 to noon. I currently use my Jackson PS-4 and Soloist which both have active EMG 81's so I have quite a bit of high end. So which positions should i put the KT's and 6L6's in to maximize the grind? Not looking for too much low end chugga chugga stuff. I play fast and like note clarity. I want to emphasize that I'm not trying to scoop out my low end at all but trying to clarify that lows aren't my main concern. I like maximum sizzle with articulation. One last thing...If any of you think I'd be better off with 6550's or some other power tube please say so. I realize most of my distortion is coming from my pre-amp tubes. I bought some nice Golden Lion 12AX7'S for them. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

[BPage]

I play through a stack of Line 6 Spider Valve 4x12's loaded with Vintage 30's.

 

[1meanplexi]

Great question. Throw this question up on the Diezel forum. You will get quite a few responses ! You could also do a search here on RT for Diezel Herbert/tubes.

 

[RJF]

First off, congrats on buying one of the most bad ass amps out there. For what it sounds like you want from it, note clarity with upper end sizzle, I would do a sextet of KT77's. The 77's are a very clean and clear sounding tube. They seem to tame fizziness in amps that have a lot of it, like a Framus Cobra for example. I know mixing and matching different pairs of tubes is an option with the Herbert and probably sounds like fun, but I don't think you'll be disappointed with all KT77's. I personally didn't like EL34's in mine. I had Winged C 34's and it was overly compressed.

 

[1meanplexi]

First off, congrats on buying one of the most bad ass amps out there. For what it sounds like you want from it, note clarity with upper end sizzle, I would do a sextet of KT77's. The 77's are a very clean and clear sounding tube. They seem to tame fizziness in amps that have a lot of it, like a Framus Cobra for example. I know mixing and matching different pairs of tubes is an option with the Herbert and probably sounds like fun, but I don't think you'll be disappointed with all KT77's. I personally didn't like EL34's in mine. I had Winged C 34's and it was overly compressed.

This^^^^^!

I have the 77's in my Herbie and his description is right on point .

 

[BPage]

Thank you so much RJF and 1meanplexi! I will try the sextet of 77's for sure. What do you think of the Golden Lions to match my pre-tubes? Everyone always swears by JJ's but I think they are a bit overrated. What do you run?

 

[BPage]

1meanplexi, where is the Diezel forum you were mentioning? Can you provide a link? Thanks again. As I said, I'm going to try the sextet of 77's but I would also appreciate other suggestions that may come on this Doezel forum you suggested.

 

[BPage]

I've never been a fan of EL34's and the British fizz. Any tube amp I ever had was equipped with 6L6's.

 

[1meanplexi]

Thank you so much RJF and 1meanplexi! I will try the sextet of 77's for sure. What do you think of the Golden Lions to match my pre-tubes? Everyone always swears by JJ's but I think they are a bit overrated. What do you run?

My pleasure.

JJ for the power and a mix of ruby and JJ's for the pre's. The nice thing about preamp tubes is that there is no skill involved in swapping them out. Matching the pre's to the power is NOT necessary. And for the love of god stay away from the overpriced NOS, cyro preamp tubes. Some people may disagree with that statement but it really is snake oyl.

The most critical preamp tube(s) is going to be the V1 and phase inverter positions.

 

[1meanplexi]

1meanplexi, where is the Diezel forum you were mentioning? Can you provide a link? Thanks again. As I said, I'm going to try the sextet of 77's but I would also appreciate other suggestions that may come on this Doezel forum you suggested.

Go to the home page here on RT and look for Diezel. Click on it and you will have a wealth of info to scroll through. !

 

[HerbieBoogie]

Wasn't everyone going gaga over putting 6550 tubes in there Herberts once upon a time? Was that just a passing fad?

 

[tlingen]

KT77's sounded best to me also back when I had my Herbert.

 

[mincy]

I have a sextet of JJ KT77s in my Herbert and overall have been very happy with it. Very balanced, nice punch, good note definition at high gain, more thump in the low end than just EL34s, not as sterile sounding as all 6L6s can be. Not much bad to say about them.

For what it's worth, I previously ran a quad of =C= EL34s with a pair of =C= 6550s. If I had to do it over, I'd buy those instead of the KT77s. Something about the combination of the two that just worked for me. The problem was finding the =C= tubes these days. The 6550s really made a difference in the low end response of the amp, IMO. The downside, the amp ran so hot with just a pair of 6550s in it, I could fry an egg on the top.