steve_k
New member
I know tube experiments make Peter cringe all over 
After 4 months or so with this particular VH4, I am finally getting around to messing with it, as I normally do. Takes me a while to get to this stuff.
So, I set off to see what makes this bad boy really sing. First, out came the Ruby's and in went the Gold Lion KT-77's. Biased them up to about 40, which is around 70% @ 400PV. Next, out came some of the Ruby preamp tubes. Sorry Peter, but I was finding some of the channels a little compressed at normal gain levels that I ran on the old VH4. I went through several swaps of tube combinations. Not bothered to much about Channel 1. So, I wanted to get some good Plexi crunch out of Channel 2, Channel 3 to burn like it always did and Channel 4 to be thicker and less compressed with a lot of thump and retain some of the articulation that you find on Channel 3.
Ended up as follows on the pre's:
V1 - NOS Tung Sol ECC83
V2 - Penta 12AX7 C9
V3 - NOS RFT ECC83
V4 - Penta 12AX7 C9
V5 - NOS Ei Yugi
V6 - Ruby HG
V7 - Matched/Balanced unlabeled 12AX7 C9
It took several manipulations and swapping V1, V3, V4 with a few tubes, mostly C9's and the NOS tubes to get there. I wanted a really cool tube in V3 to drive Channel 2, 3 and 4 and give Ch. 2 the crunch and hold channel 3 together. Needed something strong for V2 to keep Channel 4 together. V1 was the one that took several swaps, but I was looking through my top secret stash and found the brand new NOS Tung Sol from back in the day. It just brought another dimension to every channel in the amp. I even checked the clean channel and it is cool. V4 isn't so responsive, but I wanted a good solid tube there to round them all out.
Anyway, ole Blue is now a beast in the epic proportions we have come to expect from Peter. I left the amp on and running to let these tubes burn in for about 8 hours and will go back and recheck the bias. Will add some clips to this thread on Monday evening.
Steve
After 4 months or so with this particular VH4, I am finally getting around to messing with it, as I normally do. Takes me a while to get to this stuff.
So, I set off to see what makes this bad boy really sing. First, out came the Ruby's and in went the Gold Lion KT-77's. Biased them up to about 40, which is around 70% @ 400PV. Next, out came some of the Ruby preamp tubes. Sorry Peter, but I was finding some of the channels a little compressed at normal gain levels that I ran on the old VH4. I went through several swaps of tube combinations. Not bothered to much about Channel 1. So, I wanted to get some good Plexi crunch out of Channel 2, Channel 3 to burn like it always did and Channel 4 to be thicker and less compressed with a lot of thump and retain some of the articulation that you find on Channel 3.
Ended up as follows on the pre's:
V1 - NOS Tung Sol ECC83
V2 - Penta 12AX7 C9
V3 - NOS RFT ECC83
V4 - Penta 12AX7 C9
V5 - NOS Ei Yugi
V6 - Ruby HG
V7 - Matched/Balanced unlabeled 12AX7 C9
It took several manipulations and swapping V1, V3, V4 with a few tubes, mostly C9's and the NOS tubes to get there. I wanted a really cool tube in V3 to drive Channel 2, 3 and 4 and give Ch. 2 the crunch and hold channel 3 together. Needed something strong for V2 to keep Channel 4 together. V1 was the one that took several swaps, but I was looking through my top secret stash and found the brand new NOS Tung Sol from back in the day. It just brought another dimension to every channel in the amp. I even checked the clean channel and it is cool. V4 isn't so responsive, but I wanted a good solid tube there to round them all out.
Anyway, ole Blue is now a beast in the epic proportions we have come to expect from Peter. I left the amp on and running to let these tubes burn in for about 8 hours and will go back and recheck the bias. Will add some clips to this thread on Monday evening.
Steve
So far, Ventura told me that he loves regular high grade chinese in all sections, so that is all the input I have ever had about preamp tubes, plus, I would love to hear a blue tear it up haha!
