Verellen Devices Octal Solid State Tubes

[TheGreatGreen]

Ok, opinions on the TONE WARS guy aside, he's demoing the Verellen solid state tube drop in replacements in a Dual Rec and honestly it's pretty impressive.



Timestamps for the tubes vs octal shootouts: 7:40 for the MT15, 13:59 for the Dual Rec.

https://www.verellendevices.com

https://www.verellendevices.com/faq

My first instinct is to say I hear a very slight difference, but really it's nothing you couldn't mostly EQ out with a little work. Probably has something to do with how the tubes more closely follow the impedance curve of the cab if I had to guess. The TONE WARS guy did say he noticed that the octals were louder. Maybe that's doing something to the way youtube is compressing the audio as well.

I'll also say that these will probably work best with modern amps where the power tubes are supposed to behave more like a high end stereo system to cleanly reproduce the preamp. I doubt it would work quite as well in vintage style amps like plexis or JCM 800's where cranking the power tubes saturates and darkens the amp in a nice way. HOWEVER, with my SL68, I've found that even if I turn the post phase inverter master volume way down to the point that power tube saturation is no longer happening, if I go back and fourth between clips of the cranked master SL68 vs clips of it turned way down, and get kinda surgical with EQ, I can round off the highs and get pretty close to the cranked tone, at least in terms of overall EQ signature. Of course it won't have quite the same dynamic response with edge of breakup tones, but still, closer than you'd think.

Either way, overall it's a really fucking cool concept for use with more modern amps, and I plan to pick up a pair or two sometime in the near future.

 

[BeZo]

Who on here got them and was supposed to report back? I just remembered I was waiting for that.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Who on here got them and was supposed to report back? I just remembered I was waiting for that.

Not sure. I do think this is a WAY better direction for SS technology to move compared to fully SS amps though.

I think the traditional way SS technology was adopted was a mistake. It was basically “yeah all those old tube amps? You don’t like those. Here are some entirely new, untested, unproven SS amps with circuits and designs nobody has any reason to give a shit about. Surely that will win over guitar players who are in no way mostly conservative about their gear.”

Dropping solid state replacement components into tube sockets and being able to keep the amp circuits we all already know we like seems like such a smarter way to do things.

 

[Rackman]

I listened to a few of the A/B videos. I'll give them solid credit for doing those, even though I didn't particularly like what I heard.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

It also occurs to me that you could use these things as daily drivers for practicing and playing at the house while you save your real tubes for recording and playing live.

 

[thegame]

Of course the difference will be minimal to non existent in a Recto. Not exactly the most revealing amp when it comes to tube swapping. The Marshall vids on their website are not impressive, unfortunately.

 

[motorboy1]

$300 a pr

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Here's the Marshall Super Bass demo on their site, loaded with 6550's:





Same amp, same setting, but with Octals:




No comment on whether the tone is good, that doesn't matter in this context. The tubes sound better, but I will say it's closer than I thought it would be. Close enough to make me think that if you could get it sounding good with tubes, you could probably get it sounding good with the Octals.

I still hear the tubes following the cab's impedance curve while the Octals don't, but it's a lot closer than I thought it'd be. It's pretty apparent they'd work best with more modern amps but I'm surprised to see how they sound even in vintage amps.