Mesa - Tubes - El/6l6 - question :-)

[7StringofAblicK]

I have 6l6s in my Dual rec right now. I love the tone, but I've heard of people running them with the EL84 button engaged to get them to run harder. Is this something that people do or did i mishear/read something?

If this is possible, what are the pros and cons? I think I heard it drains some of the tube life - but fuck it

 

[mnemonic]

i think i may have read something to that effect on Eurotubes

i'm gonna look to see if i can find it again

edit- here is his page about mesas, i gave a quick skim through but didn't see anything, i might have missed it

euro-n

second edit- ok i think i found it near the bottom

Now about that pesky bias question. Dual Rec's are a unique amp because of the different settings available with the "spongy" and "bold" settings along "6L6" and "EL34" settings and the "solid state" and "rectifier" modes. Since a KT88 will draw almost twice the natural plate current that an average 6L6 draws your bias will go up! An average E34L will draw only about half the natural plate current that an average 6L6GC draws. When a DR customer calls me and is looking for an improvement in his clean tone and an improvement in dynamics I will often recommend using the JJ 6L6GC's in a cooler grade and running in the "EL34" mode which will get a DR to draw about 32 to 40mA per tube depending on whether it's run is SS, REC, Bold or Spongy. This gets the bias much closer to where it actually belongs when using a cooler grade of 6L6.

 

[noodles]

^Siggy did exactly this with a Dual Rec he had. I'll go bug him to post his thoughts.

 

[siggy14]

It depends on what you like, if you prefer pre amp distortion you probaly will not like it as much. If you prefer power tube distortion you will love it. But i find most people that like the dual rec's prefer pre-amp distortion so they are usually not as happy with it.

If you want a nice in the middle do yourself a favor and get the bias mod done so this way you can set it to how you like, either slightly cold instead of way cold like mesa ships them, or hot if you prefer power tube distortion.

On a side note, the guy from vodoo amps has verified that the newer mesa's are shipping with a hotter bias since everyone complained about it so much.

 

[Leon]

On a side note, the guy from vodoo amps has verified that the newer mesa's are shipping with a hotter bias since everyone complained about it so much.

all mesa amps?

 

[Drew]

On a side note, the guy from vodoo amps has verified that the newer mesa's are shipping with a hotter bias since everyone complained about it so much.

Nice! Do you know roughly when they switched over? My Rect-o-verb is rather recent, I think - all the cataloge info and whatnot is from this year, anyway, and it was still sealed in the box with the Recto - so I think I might have just lucked out.

 

[noodles]

It must have been in the last couple of years. The difference between the RK1 and my Roadster is pretty apparent.

 

[7StringofAblicK]

I mean I like the cleans on the Dual right now, and I like the distortion - but I guess what would change about the distortion's tone? Would it become more sharp and edgy, or warmer?

I had El34's in my last Dual rec and I loved how it sounded. I didn't a/b the two so I can't tell the difference between the two as far as tubes go (and since they are both different beasts). All I know is I use the bass on almost zero and I crank my mids up to about 2/3 o'clock. Maybe I need to change over to EL's with this one, too.

 

[Zepp88]

Hmmm....I should try running my 6L6 with the EL34 bias As long as it won't seriously harm things..

 

[siggy14]

well the trick is you have to order them from eurotubes, he finds 6L6's that would be super low if they were run in the normal 6L6 posistion, this way when they are fun in EL34 they are right bias. If you take normal 6L6's they might draw to much current in which case you will start blowing fuses.

Hmmm....I should try running my 6L6 with the EL34 bias As long as it won't seriously harm things..

 

[Zepp88]

hmmm....they're matched rubys ordered from Musicians Evil Friend.

 

[siggy14]

See this thread from voodoo forum where trace says so on 8/4/05. By the way if you have any questions about bias mod trace answers all he can on the forum, he is a good guy and cares about his customers and answers the best he can.

Dual rectifier Mod

Nice! Do you know roughly when they switched over? My Rect-o-verb is rather recent, I think - all the cataloge info and whatnot is from this year, anyway, and it was still sealed in the box with the Recto - so I think I might have just lucked out.

 

[Drew]

Cool, thanks man!

 

[siggy14]

Um if you get your butt up to alexandria, va in the next few days you can here mine. But I have my Dual rackmount on ebay right now that has those tubes in it. So once it sells they go with it.

hmmm....they're matched rubys ordered from Musicians Evil Friend.