VHT: Out with the Ultralead, in with the One Hundred

Bad.Seed

Well-known member
Some of you have been following my Ultralead thead. I got the amp from GC for $1300 shipped. I do love it but, the fact that it doesn't have KT88's was bothering me, and I didn't want to stick another $150 in it for new KT88's after I just retubed 2 different amps last month.

I was going to keep it and retube in the future, until I found a "One Hundred" model on reverb for $1000 shipped. From what info I found before purchasing, the One Hundred is the Precursor to the Ultralead, only it used 2 KT88's with a transformer from the 2150 power amp.

For $300 less, and brand new Genelex Gold Lion Kt88's in the power section, I figured fuck it. I'll A/B the two when they come in to make sure I made the right decision. But the UL with 6L6's honestly didn't sound great. Lows and low mids sounded muddy in comparison to KT88's, so I wouldn't use it much as is.

Anyways, here's the new girl. Hoping to have it early next week.



 

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There was a reason why Steven removed the KT88/6L6 switch........

UL is made for KT88 tubes. Mine is anything from what you described yours.

Anxious to hear your thoughts when you have both.
 
I’ll also be interested to hear the differences. I read this post on the Fryette forum a while back, and always wondered how big of a difference it made.

The "One Hundred" was the predecessor of the UL. Basically configured from the pre of the Classic head, 3 channels, and one output side of the 2150, thus two power tubes, using an output transformer from a 2150.

Tube config was:

Preamp, 1 Sovtek 12AX7WB, 3 Chinese 12AX7A.
Power amp, 1 Chinese 12AX7A, 1 Chinese 12AU7.
Power tubes: 98 wattss

Svetlana began having troubles and we only had Chinese KT88 to fall back on which didn't hold up well so we went to 4 power tubes and a modified output transformer to run 4 tubes.

This wasn't intended to be a massive gain amp, although a lot by the standards of the time. As things progressed we responded to requests for more gain and power amp saturation. We tried making the driver tube (12AU7) interchangeable to help tweak power amp distortion, but ultimately it created as many problems as it solved so that idea was scrapped in favor of a softer sounding driver stage. The new tube config was:

Preamp, 1 Sovtek 12AX7WB, 3 Chinese 12AX7A.
Power amp, 1 Chinese 12AX7A,
Power Tubes: 4 Chinese KT88.
Output power: 105 watts.

This was met by our beloved clan with either great enthusiasm or extreme anger. If you were in a band and wanted one just like the other guitarists, you either appreciated the difference and it worked well for the overall sound of the band, or you were pissed because yours was not as aggressive.

After a year of this, the UL went back to tow tubes in the drive/phase inverter stage, but with a difference. A new driver design using a 12AT7 in place of the 12AU7 for the driver. The idea being to restore the tightness and aggressive UL trademark but retain some of the fatness of the 12AX7 only style. By then the Sovtek KT88 became available and that became what is still the standard tube for the UL: New Tube config:

Preamp, 1 Sovtek 12AX7WB, 3 Chinese 12AX7A.
Power amp, 1 Chinese 12AX7A, 1 Chinese 12AT7.
Power Tubes: 4 Sovtek KT88.
Output power: 120 watts.

For those who liked the softer more saturated power amp quality of the 5 tube UL and wanted even more, the Classic head was redesigned using the 5 tube preamp config and renamed the CLX at the request of Mr. Hartley Peavey who owns the trademark for the use of Classic on guitar amplifiers. New CLX tube config:

Preamp, 1 Sovtek 12AX7WB, 3 Chinese 12AX7A.
Power amp, 1 Chinese 12AX7A
Power Tubes: 4 Svetlana EL34s.
Output power: 110 watts

Keep in mind that at the time all of this was going on, tube supplies were very erratic and unstable. The Tesla factory got bombed, or so they say, new 6550 designs were all over place in terms of quality and reliability, and we were constantly having to shift gears in order to maintain a performance level that depnded ontop quality tubes.

Obviously the tube scene has settled down and has been stable for quite a while now. As a result, there have been no major changes in the UL or CLX power plants since mid 97.
Last edited by support; 03-17-2011 at 05:53 PM
 
mnemonic":pt4l6el8 said:
I’ll also be interested to hear the differences. I read this post on the Fryette forum a while back, and always wondered how big of a difference it made.

That is the exact statement that I got my info from. I may return the Ultralead today just to free up the CC space, but I'd really like to A/B and see the differences.
 
Came in today. It's super clean! Genelex Gol Lion KT88's in the power section, and the guy even left the 2 spare preamp tubes in the holding clips. What a guy.

I literally plugged it in for 3 minutes to compare with my cl/50, but first impressions are, it's brighter and punchier than the cl50. Not quite as full, maybe a little more detailed than the 50 as well. But didn't get to crank it. Packed it up and an taking it to practice tonight. Will report back, but happy so far.
 
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