preamp gut elegance

[thegame]

Olaf, I thik it's about time to reveal finest german 'kraut' work

Larry - Dino 3033 three channel Preamp


Larry - Jon Schaffer Signature Preamp


But I still love my X99 the most ....

Can you compare the sound of the Larry and Soldano preamps ?

 

[thegame]

say.. what preamp and power tubes do you use in your amps? Would you possibly know what tubes John Schaffer uses in his Larry amps?


Cheers

I believe he already mentioned Tungsram 12ax7s. I believe he uses NOS Tesla 12ax7s occasionally as well. RFT Siemens EL34s are the power tubes.

 

[Szar]

Who dat?

I believe that is the Black Tiger preamp....from none other than Duesentrieb!

 

[novosibir]

say.. what preamp and power tubes do you use in your amps? Would you possibly know what tubes John Schaffer uses in his Larry amps?

I believe he already mentioned Tungsram 12ax7s. I believe he uses NOS Tesla 12ax7s occasionally as well. RFT Siemens EL34s are the power tubes.

By principle it's right, what Gary said! Usually I'm supplying my DINO amps w/ NOS Tungsram ECC83's, except V2 (for the California sound), where I stuck in a NOS Tesla E83CC, because it gives the clean sound some more of this sweet chime. The output tubes already always are NOS RFT (Siemens) EL34's and I'll stick with it, as long as my stock this allows.

But Jon's amps now are quite different supplied. We've met us at the end of January for three days, as he's been here in Germany for rehearsing before the European IE tour. Besides that I've checked the four of his five DINO's, he brought over, we've tried some minor tweaks (to concretize the circuit for his JS Signature head, which will be introduced in summer) and we've tried out lots of different preamp tubes in different preamp spots.

Finally it has turned out, that we kept the tube's supplement as mentioned above, except for the input tube. As V1 Jon likes the NOS Valvo from the 60' best (not a Valvo labelled Mullard, but the 'real' Valvo). As for the PI tube he's decided for a Sylvania 12AX7 long plate, about which he's said, that it gives the amp some additional punch and makes it sound still bigger, but w/o loosing anything of its tightness.

Larry

 

[thegame]

By principle it's right, what Gary said! Usually I'm supplying my DINO amps w/ NOS Tungsram ECC83's, except V2 (for the California sound), where I stuck in a NOS Tesla E83CC, because it gives the clean sound some more of this sweet chime. The output tubes already always are NOS RFT (Siemens) EL34's and I'll stick with it, as long as my stock this allows.

But Jon's amps now are quite different supplied. We've met us at the end of January for three days, as he's been here in Germany for rehearsing before the European IE tour. Besides that I've checked the four of his five DINO's, he brought over, we've tried some minor tweaks (to concretize the circuit for his JS Signature head, which will be introduced in summer) and we've tried out lots of different preamp tubes in different preamp spots.

Finally it has turned out, that we kept the tube's supplement as mentioned above, except for the input tube. As V1 Jon likes the NOS Valvo from the 60' best (not a Valvo labelled Mullard, but the 'real' Valvo). As for the PI tube he's decided for a Sylvania 12AX7 long plate, about which he's said, that it gives the amp some additional punch and makes it sound still bigger, but w/o loosing anything of its tightness.

Larry

Welcome to Rigtalk Larry I hope you visit more often !
By the way, did you and Jon experiment with KT88s yet, to be used as an option on his sig. head ?

 

[Szar]

Anyone have any gut shots of the Theta from ISP? I'd like to see what it takes to put out 1100 watts.

 

[novosibir]

Welcome to Rigtalk Larry I hope you visit more often !
By the way, did you and Jon experiment with KT88s yet, to be used as an option on his sig. head ?

Thanks for the welcome, Gary

Let's see, what my time allows, but from time to time I'll hang out here also.
It's a nice board and I've seen, that my 'German special friend' does have his own forum here

As for the KT88's, Jon has had it in two of his DINO's for over a year now, but read by yourself, what he wrote about it among others:

I was also thinking of bringing the 2 KT88
heads over as well and having you change them back to EL34 heads, is
that something that is easy to do? I've found that though it is a
cool sound when it's blended with an EL34 head, it's not really
enough of a benefit and certainly when the KT88 heads are by
themselves I can't use them, so I'd rather just have them all EL34
again like before.

As we've met us in January at rehearsing, he concretized a bit more and said, that the KT88's though they seem to make the sound bigger in the lows and also do have some more highs than the EL34's, that he nonetheless doesn't like it in the band context, where their frequencies contradict with the bass drum and the bass in the lows, with the snare and the cymbals in the highs. Played alone at home - nice, but not in a band context! Moreover he's been missing the nice, raunchy and complex mid range, the EL34's do have - and the KT88's are lacking.

So I've changed back his heads to all EL34 again, altough for Jon I've used a very powerful selection of it with a fairly strong plate current.

Larry

 

[novosibir]

... experiment with KT88s yet, to be used as an option on his sig. head ?

Aah - forgot to go into this.

The Jon Schaffer Signature Head will have two individual bias sections, where you can pre adjust 'your' quads of EL34 and KT88 (or two different quads of EL34's, or each a quad of EL34's and 6L6's, aso.), so that you then can swap them easily anytime back and forth just by the flip of a switch

Larry

 

[Bash_Man]

As we've met us in January at rehearsing, he concretized a bit more and said, that the KT88's though they seem to make the sound bigger in the lows and also do have some more highs than the EL34's, that he nonetheless doesn't like it in the band context, where their frequencies contradict with the bass drum and the bass in the lows, with the snare and the cymbals in the highs. Played alone at home - nice, but not in a band context! Moreover he's been missing the nice, raunchy and complex mid range, the EL34's do have - and the KT88's are lacking.

So I've changed back his heads to all EL34 again, altough for Jon I've used a very powerful selection of it with a fairly strong plate current.

Larry

Hmm.. interesting. What about trying some KT77s?

 

[novosibir]

The reason, why I haven't tried KT77's at all you can read here:

http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4315

Ok, it's been 3 years since that and maybe they've changed something in the meantime...
... but my experiences w/ JJ's have been so bad after this review, that I really couldn't sleep quite, when I'd have supplied a pro's amp w/ JJ's once again!

I've had so many dead JJ EL34's during the year after my review, almost always after 2-6 weeks of use, also with JJ pre's, that I nearly have deleted the name JJ out of my memory! JJ's ? !

Larry

 

[thegame]

As we've met us in January at rehearsing, he concretized a bit more and said, that the KT88's though they seem to make the sound bigger in the lows and also do have some more highs than the EL34's, that he nonetheless doesn't like it in the band context, where their frequencies contradict with the bass drum and the bass in the lows, with the snare and the cymbals in the highs. Played alone at home - nice, but not in a band context! Moreover he's been missing the nice, raunchy and complex mid range, the EL34's do have - and the KT88's are lacking.

Larry

I know exactly what he means ! BUT.... I wonder how much of his observations are based on the fact that he uses G12T75 loaded cabs exclusively. To the best of my knowledge he does. In other words, if Jon was using more midrange dominant speakers like V30s, Greenbacks, then the KT88s might have worked better in a band context. Its all a matter of balance IMO.

As great as the tone is he's getting from your amps, I can't help but think it'd be even better with a speaker other than the G12T75. I certainly loved the DINO with both V30s and G12-65s.

Anyway, just a friendly observation

 

[Bash_Man]

The reason, why I haven't tried KT77's at all you can read here:

http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4315

Ok, it's been 3 years since that and maybe they've changed something in the meantime...
... but my experiences w/ JJ's have been so bad after this review, that I really couldn't sleep quite, when I'd have supplied a pro's amp w/ JJ's once again!

I've had so many dead JJ EL34's during the year after my review, almost always after 2-6 weeks of use, also with JJ pre's, that I nearly have deleted the name JJ out of my memory! JJ's ? !

Larry

Thanks Larry. I see what you mean. I do know some people have had bad experiece with JJ tubes. I've been using their power tubes for a number of years now and havent had a problem. Everything from 6L6s, EL34/E34Ls to KT77s that I currently use in my Splawn Nitro.

I guess the tone thing overall is a personal taste in what you hear and how it sounds to your ear. I my self been likeing the JJ KT77s. I find they add the needed tightness and clarity with highgain that I was never able to get with EL34s. Maybe I havent tried a good set of EL34s, but I've tried the JJ EL34s, Mullard EL34s, SED EL34s. All at the end to my ears kinda sounded lacking in the clarity and tightness department that I like about the KT77s. Any EL34s recommendations that wont break the bank?


Cheers