tubes!!!

[horns666]

is midrange honk when you play palm muted rhythm parts and the sound is kinda sterile and goes "bump bump bump bump" instead of "chugga chugga chugga" ?

YES!

[kmanick]

tungsols are great in the V1 position in most amps. the RFT's that are popping up on the tubes sites now are supposedly even better (but more money)
http://thetubestore.com/rsdecc83.html
the Mesa guys love em.
The KT-77's are great EL34 tubes, but I lately have become a winged C fan myself of the ruby's (especially the 6L6's).
http://thetubestore.com/el341.html
the EL34B's are getting good reviews, but I asked Bob at Eurotubes about them and he had nothing good to say about them (not JJ's, you know).
http://thetubestore.com/tungsolel34.html
dougstubes.com has a good variety as well and you can get him on the phone if you have questions.
In my Mark III I'm using a mix right now of a tungsol, a high gain JJ, a Penta and
a Sovtek in the PI (they are good for that position) with winged C ruby 6L6's and JJ EL34's and my amp is sounding very kick ass.
I may throw in a pair of KT-77's in the outer slots to see what that gets me.
and I want to try some of those RFT's.

[horns666]

Nick, I bet you have that Mrk III screamin'. I really liked the clips of the JSX and Recto. They both sounded great!! I know my Uber would be right there with them.

We both go for the same kind of tone, and know how to get it..NM!!!

[kmanick]

Nick, I bet you have that Mrk III screamin'. I really liked the clips of the JSX and Recto. They both sounded great!! I know my Uber would be right there with them.

We both go for the same kind of tone, and know how to get it..NM!!!

Ya I think we do too Bill.
I'm hoping to find some time to record this weekend, I have
it dialed in pretty well now so I'm ready to go.

[roodyrocker]

Rudy..as far as pedals, John's friend "Mark" mods various stomps such as TS-9, SD-1 and ect. My friend Paul is in three bands and swears by Mark's modded pedal. He also favors a Maxon 808 or whatever their improved version of the TS9 is..but they cost about about 2 bills. Mark and John must stop over and check out my tone..with drums of course!!

Which one are you going to try with the Uber Bill? I wouldn't mind hearing what you think of a stomp in front of it. I must admit the thought of a distortion box in front of my Uber never crossed my mind before.

[Cleveland Metal]

So far, although Mark's pedals (from the modded ones to the ones he builds) are quite wicked and kick ass with like Marshalls etc, none sound all that great through my CAE3+se unless I just run the clean channel. That preamp just doesn't like stuff in front on the distortion channels at all... Limits its wide "HiFi" response and makes the amp sound cheaper and bandwidth limited. Even though Mark builds his pedals to have higher bandwidth than anything generally around.

Plus, the thought of needing a pedal with an uber expensive amp, bums me out... Mya end up being needed, but darnit, I spent a LOT money to NOT need a pedal, haha...

Reading this, you guys had me swappin a bunch of preamp tubes in that thing last night... I'm about ready to order some Tung-Sols and try them closer. Second guessing my first less than stellar experience with them and it will probably be a mistake. Note sure where else to go tho, I'm not happy with what I'm running right now.

The RFT's are friggin 37 a pop... Jeeeeeez....

Not sure what else to do. May go back to the NOS RCA 7025s again...

Hate this... haha...

[roodyrocker]

So far, although Mark's pedals (from the modded ones to the ones he builds) are quite wicked and kick ass with like Marshalls etc, none sound all that great through my CAE3+se unless I just run the clean channel. That preamp just doesn't like stuff in front on the distortion channels at all... Limits its wide "HiFi" response and makes the amp sound cheaper and bandwidth limited. Even though Mark builds his pedals to have higher bandwidth than anything generally around.

Plus, the thought of needing a pedal with an uber expensive amp, bums me out... Mya end up being needed, but darnit, I spent a LOT money to NOT need a pedal, haha...

Reading this, you guys had me swappin a bunch of preamp tubes in that thing last night... I'm about ready to order some Tung-Sols and try them closer. Second guessing my first less than stellar experience with them and it will probably be a mistake. Note sure where else to go tho, I'm not happy with what I'm running right now.

The RFT's are friggin 37 a pop... Jeeeeeez....

Not sure what else to do. May go back to the NOS RCA 7025s again...

Hate this... haha...

I hear ya, like I said, I never thought of a distortion pedal in front of my Uber and in fact still have no plans on trying one. However the tube issue with amps is like fine tuning a race car, if you own one you're always wrenching on it. The masses still drive the solid state no maintainance required grocery getter amps, err cars, err both

[nateb]

Plus, the thought of needing a pedal with an uber expensive amp, bums me out... Mya end up being needed, but darnit, I spent a LOT money to NOT need a pedal, haha...

I use to think the same thing. that is why I loved the uber so much. The thing abot it though, Cleveland is that you really should at least give it a shot. I was so surprised what it did for the attack and responsiveness of the amp when I brought the gain down to about 2:00-3:00 and threw a tubescreamer infront of it. It really brought the attack and responsiveness and brought a whole new game into that amp that I didn't realize was there. It was great without the stomp infront of it but, even better with it. A friend of mine is picky as fuck about tone. He was even blown away by it.

-Nate

[Bengal65]

One word. Eurotubes! Those guy's have been the best. I have been retubing vintage Fenders with NOS RCA blackplates and the whole nonsense. Spending mega bucks on NOS tubes. Totally nuts. Recently, I started using Eurotubes JJ's. I have nothing but praise for their products and excellent customer support. Bob has visited and spent time with the JJ factory and the quality is excellent. www.eurotubes.com.

[Cleveland Metal]

Sadly, I've tried a few pedals on the CAE. They seem to of course work nice on ch 2, which is like the lesser channel, the "marshall 800" Channel. It wakes it up nicely. Still not what i need.

On the ch 3 (lead) it doesn't play well with pedals. Just gets outta control. That channel is just way too distorted regardless of setting. And it's like a smooth fuzzy distortion. Not like a good crunchy metal distortion. I use a preamp to give it edge and definition, and that sorta does well.

And I've certainly tried some nice pedals. My friend Mark is an design engineer that does some nice things to the typical pedals. Better freq response, quieter, different voicings, etc. and also builds his own that are pretty nice. They work great with everything else, haha... The CAE3+se just isn't real cool with them.

[ken361]

One word. Eurotubes! Those guy's have been the best. I have been retubing vintage Fenders with NOS RCA blackplates and the whole nonsense. Spending mega bucks on NOS tubes. Totally nuts. Recently, I started using Eurotubes JJ's. I have nothing but praise for their products and excellent customer support. Bob has visited and spent time with the JJ factory and the quality is excellent. www.eurotubes.com.

these guys have some decent stuff http://www.tubemonger.com/

[Dave L]

I´ve actually gotten good tones from the EH EL34´s in my TBR1. Not as good as the Winged C´s that ended up in my Knucklehead, but definitely solid tone on the cheap with zero issues. As for preamp tubes, I´ve had good results with various mixes of new Tungsols, EH, Mesa Boogie (don´t know what they were before the relabel, and although they sound good I have had reliability issues with them) and Ruby.

[Endrik]

Sadly, I've tried a few pedals on the CAE. They seem to of course work nice on ch 2, which is like the lesser channel, the "marshall 800" Channel. It wakes it up nicely. Still not what i need.

On the ch 3 (lead) it doesn't play well with pedals. Just gets outta control. That channel is just way too distorted regardless of setting. And it's like a smooth fuzzy distortion. Not like a good crunchy metal distortion. I use a preamp to give it edge and definition, and that sorta does well.

And I've certainly tried some nice pedals. My friend Mark is an design engineer that does some nice things to the typical pedals. Better freq response, quieter, different voicings, etc. and also builds his own that are pretty nice. They work great with everything else, haha... The CAE3+se just isn't real cool with them.

John, have you tried Xotic pedals? I swear by them... check out AC Booster or BB Preamp... no fizz, buzz or solid state-ish characteristics.
http://www.xotic.us/effects/

that being said I don't know how well they work with rack units (pedals usually don't work well with rack preamps n'stuff) but they do miracles with regular amps... tons of A list session pros are using them.

here's Tim Pierce demoing the AC Booster http://www.xotic.us/mov/Tim_AC.mov

[Learn Guitars]

This is a great informative thread. I have considered retubing my DSL Marshall, but it still sounds dam good. I may do it this spring with a break in our schedule. It appears to be something I can do myself, except for the biasing. There are local guys, but from what I have experienced with them, is they have their own opinion on what is best for my amp. Most of that opinion is prob based upon profit margin ater mark-up. So kind of a rock in a hard place. Dont know if I could get them to do the biasing after tube installation.

[kmanick]

get a bias probe and do it yourself.
Once you have the probe it's a piece of cake.