Rebel 20 - new tubes

[kingsryche]

I need more of a 2 channel amp now so I tried the Rebel 30 and LOVED the clean channel but just couldn't jive with the OD channel. Sounds good for what it is but for me it was a little too dark, bassy and vintage whereas I need more modern and "tight". So I decided to hang on to my Rebel 20 and get a high gain pedal to work as my "channel 2" (maybe the riot or severe). I just hate parting with the R30 because the clean channel is so chimey, full, sparkly and so on.

Then I started thinking, I have almost had my R20 for 2 years so maybe the right set of replacement tubes can breathe some new life and add some sparkle to the clean side of my R20. Has any R20 owners had some great results with new tubes? If so, what was the combo that really worked? Are there certain brands I should stay away from?

Thanks!

 

[BadBluesPlayer]

I have swapped all the tubes in my R20 out and have played around with different preamp tubes, including new ones and a bunch of old tubes. To tell you the truth, the differences are really imperceptible. I had a balanced tube in there for the PI and when it crapped out, I replaced it with the first old tube I saw in the box - like an old Panasonic or Realistic or something - and it sounded exactly the same - like a million bucks.

I changed out V1 and V2 with all kinds of different 12ax7's. Some were a little higher gain, but it really didn't make any difference.

I asked Bruce once about whether he had any specific tube recommendations and he told me that swapping out tubes really didn't make very much difference. I've tried a few different speakers and the speaker makes way more difference in the sound.