JJ has the ECC83MG Preamp Tube. The MG stands for Mid Gain, do you get a lower gain Tube that's still a 12AX7..
My experience with AT7's in an AX7 spot is that they dull the fuck out of the tone..
Didn’t James Brown do the 5150 (Peavey) and Howard Caplan do the 5153?
I run 5751’s in V1 and V2 of my Splawn modded Marshall so I agree with getting a lower rated tube. IME going with an AU tube is too low and you lose liveliness.
I also have a 50W 5153 (6L6) and Kruse modded the head with a switch on the back to cut the red channel gain. I’ll need to pop the amp out of the chassis to see what that switch does but I usually run it w/o that activated so haven’t cared to see what it does.
I've had my stealth 100 6L6 for 8 months now and have rolled a bunch of tubes in and out of it, lower gain tubes dull out and thin out the amp. I ended up settling on Tung Sol in V1. NOS Shuguang in V2-V3, RFT's in V4 through V6, another NOS Shuguang in V7 and a Sovtek LPS in V8. I'm also running an ISP G string 2 out front and into the loop.
Also the gain pot on the blue channel acts as a boost to the red channel, so if you feel it's too over the top, completely roll back the gain on the blue channel. if you want all out brutality on the red channel, dime the gain on the blue channel. I've embraced the ferocity of the red channel
