The Throatyest power tubes?

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richedie

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What do you guys think is the power tube that adds a throaty sound? I have heard VHTS, Bogners, Mesas, Diezels that all sound throaty. Then I was reading on the Bogner site they talk about EL34s adding a throaty-ness to the sound. Curious what you all think.
 
richedie":33ao8aju said:
What do you guys think is the power tube that adds a throaty sound? I have heard VHTS, Bogners, Mesas, Diezels that all sound throaty. Then I was reading on the Bogner site they talk about EL34s adding a throaty-ness to the sound. Curious what you all think.
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34's are hard to beat in my opinion, in most amps. A lot of it though depends on the pre-amp circuitry and the transformer output. I was just telling the guys on the Diezel board about my very short-lived 6550 experience in my VH4. They lasted only a few minutes of playing time and the 34's went right back in.

I don't care for any 6L6 voiced amp. But, my Elmwood M90 has two KT88's and that is one deep-throat biatch there now. But, it churns out about 630V from the transformer to drive the hell out of them.

All my opinion of course. You will get em all over the map with this topic.


Steve
 
steve_k":2gd8r624 said:
I don't care for any 6L6 voiced amp.
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:rock:
Same here EL34 for the win. I liked the KT77 in my JSX, I should've kept the tubes to try 'em in herbert... I still have the el34. but soon BYE BYE, I'm gettin all Tungsol EL34B, they have more meat apparently.
 
How can you say EL34's suck, and 6L6 rock? In EVERY application, in every amp possibility, in every circuit?

That's quite a generalization.
 
depends on amp.

depends on tube itself.

Depends on brand of tube.

etc.

I've heard throaty 6550's, throaty 6V6's, throaty EL34's, etc.
 
El34's Are great and bright, 6L6's work best in my Mark IV and most amps for me.
 
nah, I was just being sarcastic.

I tend to prefer 6L6 and 6L6 based amps though.
 
Throaty is a difficult word to describe in my opinion. I think of Pavarotti on one end and Chris Barnes on the other. Do you want power tube saturation without blowing your head off? Then you most likely don't want KT88's or 6550's. I personally like EL34's. :yes:
 
Any of you try E34Ls?

How about the SED EL34 v Tung Sol EL34B comparisons?
 
richedie":2wm6l9e2 said:
Any of you try E34Ls?

How about the SED EL34 v Tung Sol EL34B comparisons?
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I've run all three, JJ EL34L's, Tung Sol EL34B's and SED EL34's

The JJ's are the most aggressive, however I've had HORRIBLE reliability with JJ tubes in general from pre amp to power and refuse to use their power tubes, their pre amp tubes for the most part have been pretty good, I've only had ONE go bad and I've used a ton so I can't totally knock them. The power tubes however; I've had go bad on an all to frequent basis. Now when mixed with other EL34's in an amp they add some cool very aggressive articulate attack, but run by them selves I find them to cold and lacking in some mid frequencies, they also have a bit bigger and seemingly tighter low end.

The Tung Sol EL34B's I had great success with, they have a great crunch and very rock and roll sound, goto www dot dallasmarlow dot com the first song that comes up is Carbon Copy, that track was my Randall Lynch Box with Grail Module and tung sol EL34b's in the power section. They are articulate have a great crunch to them and an all around good tube. After running them pretty hard for a year none of them gave out, but they did lose quite a bit of top end, they really mellowed out BIG time after hard use which is pretty normal I would imagine.

SED EL34 =C= not the impostor fuckers that someone bought out the name to are great too, these tubes are in generally supposedly one of the most reliable out there. I've run them off and on in quite a few amps from DSL50, Lynch, and now my Diezel, I've only had ONE go bad, and it's probably just because it got worked hard and moved from amp to amp and all around a few times, it red plated and blew some fuses... From my understanding though, generally new production tubes are all around the bored pretty unreliable to some degree, just not made like they used to in the military spec days. These tubes are my favorite, they are the richest, most harmonically complex and just kind of have a magic to them that the other tubes don't have I'm not really sure how to describe it. I am currently running a new quad of them but the Black Sable kind which are cryogenically treated, I'm trying these out because supposedly they are more reliable after the treatment and get a better sound to them. I can vouch for them sounding better, they are much more balanced on the top end and not as harsh, plus they also have a really smooth crunchy grind to them, not quite as bighty as the normal kind and also they don't seem to be QUITE as high-fi sounding more natural if that makes sense. They seem to replicate the sounds of the instrument more than the other tubes I've tried with out coloring it to much.

My money I'd go for the SED EL34's they are the most expensive out of the bunch but also probably the most reliable and durable. I've heard many people say they last ages with no problems, which I know for a fact isn't the case with the EL34B's or the JJEL34L's, the EL34b's didn't blow up they just kind of slowly died so take it for what you will! In the end it's all up to your ears, theres so many factors to tone it's absolutely insane!!!

Best of luck,

Dallas
 
Man, I think everyone loves SED/Winged C/Svetlana/whatever they're called these days EL34s other than me.

I've tried them multiple times in multiple amps and I've always found them to sound bright, brittle, and harsh.

I like Electro-Harmonix EL34s. I find them to be a well balanced and reliable tube.
 
Tone is so subjective and ears change of the years too. I didn't used to be wild about them 6 years ago, I liked the JJ's better, but as time has gone on I like them more... maybe I'm more deaf... well I am more deaf, but maybe that's part of it, I guess it all just depends on what the sound we are chasing in our head is. Some people like more fizz, others more bite, others more grind, others more low end, and on and on so just play what you like and screw the rest :rock:
 
the throatiest tubes would not be 6550's or Kt88's

6550's distort simillar to the way 6L6's do, only their headroom is just sick high and were originally invented for bass amplifiers.

kt88's are large bottle pentodes. but again, huge headroom.

EL34's have a distinct growl to them. someone posted earlier the very detailed differences different brands of EL34's which is cool.

what i recommend you do, is do what you think sounds right in your head and do some research other than listening to what someone else likes.

go visit a place called http://www.thetubestore.com

they have a vast selection, and describe in pretty good detail the effects of each type of tube that exist. excellent customer service and the prices are excellent. they order directly from factories and skip marketing price increases from companies like groove tubes.

they also match in quartets and the tubes i ordered were matched exactly to 23mA - standard optimum range for the tube itself. i run have been running them close to around 36mA without a single issue at all. excellent tone as well.


BTW - 6L6 all the way =P
 
Thanks guys! I need to get back to my roots - EL34s! I started playing an Egnater Mod 50 a few years ago and started with EL34s. I thought everything sounded great, clean to heavy. Then i started to hear people say the EGnater Mod 50 sounds better with 5881s and or 6550s so I have been experimenting. Most say you get a bigger, rounder sound and better cleans. I run a Fender Bassman clean channel. Personally, I don't think I notice a big difference in my clean with 5881s vs 6550s vs EL34s....small difference maybe! However, my priority is dirty tones and I bond way better with an amp with EL34s. I like thick singing mids for just about everything and a throaty sound.

If I get SED EL34 =C - how do I know they are the real thing? Black Sable? Are they hard to find?

I contacted Doug's tubes and I think he feels E34Ls are too bassy and that EL34s are better and provide better balance and mids. However, I hear guys raving about GT E34Ls.

I know a lot say they had reliability issue with EL34s in the Mod 50 and reliability issues with EL34s in general but I find I can't live without them...even if I played a Mesa Rectifier.

By the way Dallas, your tone rocks! Love that tune on your site! Can you combine tube amps on the Lynch box like the Egnaters? Is the Lynch Box made better, better components than the RM100? I assume it is a 100 watt head.
Is that the Lynch box rhythm and lead???? Is it a modded head or stock? What module is that?

That is the other thing, I was thinking of getting a 100 watter like the RM100 so I could combine the power tubes or use the 5881s for clean and the EL34s for dirty, etc.......but honestly I think I am fine with EL34s for it all. LOL. A good friend of mine says EH EL34s are the most musical.
 
richedie":1k04snxe said:
If I get SED EL34 =C - how do I know they are the real thing? Black Sable? Are they hard to find?

I contacted Doug's tubes and I think he feels E34Ls are too bassy and that EL34s are better and provide better balance and mids. However, I hear guys raving about GT E34Ls.

I know a lot say they had reliability issue with EL34s in the Mod 50 and reliability issues with EL34s in general but I find I can't live without them...even if I played a Mesa Rectifier.

By the way Dallas, your tone rocks! Love that tune on your site! Can you combine tube amps on the Lynch box like the Egnaters? Is the Lynch Box made better, better components than the RM100? I assume it is a 100 watt head.
Is that the Lynch box rhythm and lead???? Is it a modded head or stock? What module is that?

That is the other thing, I was thinking of getting a 100 watter like the RM100 so I could combine the power tubes or use the 5881s for clean and the EL34s for dirty, etc.......but honestly I think I am fine with EL34s for it all. LOL. A good friend of mine says EH EL34s are the most musical.
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The real EL34 SED's are called Wing =C= can't miss them! They are not hard to find just a little bit more expensive about $50 a pair, the black sables are here http://www.tubedepot.com/bsct.html

Thanks man much appreciated! If your referring to mixing power tubes? Yes you can mix two differen't pairs, I've currently got it set up with 6L6's and EL34's at the same time, honestly I can't say I'm that wild about it... it's just different, you kind of get a thicker blended tone but I like the rawness of one set more you know?

The Lynch Box is not made better than the regular RM100 however it does have a mid frequency tweak in the actual amp circuitry the others don't have from what I understand, kind of like the kirk hammet has a low end tweak.

The rhythm is just the grail module, I think we tracked it only twice, but there may have been a 3rd track down the middle with a different guitar... but I don't think so. It was a 421 and a Royer ribbon mic on my marshall cab of v30's, the amp is 100% stock and so are the modules. The lead was the Mr. Scary module and I used just a normal crybaby with it, and all of that was tracked with a LP classic stock pick ups 498/500.

Hope that answers your questions!

Dallas
 
richedie":hpcld24j said:
What do you guys think is the power tube that adds a throaty sound? I have heard VHTS, Bogners, Mesas, Diezels that all sound throaty. Then I was reading on the Bogner site they talk about EL34s adding a throaty-ness to the sound. Curious what you all think.
Click to expand...

I realize that different tube types have different characteristics, but the voicing/circuitry is going to have far more to do with "throatiness" than the actual tube used.
 
Bob Savage":1hklmwhm said:
richedie":1hklmwhm said:
What do you guys think is the power tube that adds a throaty sound? I have heard VHTS, Bogners, Mesas, Diezels that all sound throaty. Then I was reading on the Bogner site they talk about EL34s adding a throaty-ness to the sound. Curious what you all think.
Click to expand...

I realize that different tube types have different characteristics, but the voicing/circuitry is going to have far more to do with "throatiness" than the actual tube used.
Click to expand...



yup,..

and whenever someone uses a descriptive word like "throatyness" it's open to interpatation..

how many times does the word "brootz" get used?...and from what i have heard it has a million different meanings!

what i consider "throaty"...someone else will consider "mushy"...
 
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