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Post by gasp100 on Feb 14, 2021 15:00:39 GMT -7
I run my Maz 18 very clean and I'm digging the tones. push the mids and play with the cut and you can go from fairly scopped blackface to more tweed/vox chime and sparkle. It also seems to take my overdrive pedals "pretty good". I do feel like with the master up around 10-11 oclock everything fills out nicely, but that is getting loud. I did more testing today and with the VOLUME up at noon or higher, MV on 9-10 oclock it is very raspy. I have tried a few different speakers and I don't think it's my cab. I'm wondering if I need to retube or something, although this is a fairly new build (2/20). It just seems the overdrive could definitely be smoother and more rich. It is a bit grating, kind of hollow. I assume with the Master up more it might fill out, but something seems a bit off. I have compared to my recollections of the Jetta and that gain came on later, but was smooth and articulate and very full and rich sounding. Is there something like preamp tubes that I should look at closer? The amp is so close to being a perfect clean amp AND cleanish amp AND maybe a more rock machine, but the raspiness is getting to me; what do y'all think? I know the mark II has addressed a number of earlier complaints so I'm wondering if my amp needs a checkup? I really don't want to bail on it because I know it has the goods!
I should mention with the volume control around 9 oclock it's clean, anything above and that grating raspiness starts to cloud the cleans when on the HI input, so I have even moved to the LOW input to get more satisfying overall cleans. But, it's pretty expensive for just a clean platform and I would really like to get the most out of the amp!
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Feb 14, 2021 15:09:49 GMT -7
Swapping preamp tubes can help dial in "your" sound. Even just swapping V1 and V2 with each other might make a difference. Also the PI tube will effect preamp tone, since the MV is after that stage. Try some different tubes. I am really happy with my 18 NR MKII, it gets fantastic overdrive tone. Tubes will make a difference, but I always end up with the stock tubes that Doc recommends. You may just have a weak tube.
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Post by gasp100 on Feb 14, 2021 15:17:28 GMT -7
Thanks! I will give it a shot! I'm testing now with MV low and the volume dimed, it sounds super "crackley" almost like tones of ghost notes, but I can tell the killer overdrive is in their if that makes any sense?
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Post by gasp100 on Feb 14, 2021 15:41:24 GMT -7
So I pulled all the tubes, swapped (ie. changed positions of) the JJ preamp tubes and the "nos" power tubes and just reset the recitfier. I think you are onto something because the gain came on much slower / smoother with volume about half the way up. Way less gain and way less broken (literally) sounding this way. With the master pretty low and the volume/gain up much higher it's still pretty shrill and raspy and I'm actually wondering which tube (or half of tube?) provides the main gain stage? Obviously with the master low and gain very high I need to accept some hollowness and that it's not going to be as full and rich as with the master up a bit, but this is something else.
I'm going to replace the preamp tubes as I assume the gain character comes from them vs. the power amp tubes and the power amp tubes are supposed to be these NOS military spec tubes that last longer then standard EL84's. I assume that is the best path forward? I may get a full replacement set just so I have backups of everything (probably have to grab EL84's) but will only replace the preamp tubes for now.
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Feb 14, 2021 17:44:14 GMT -7
Remember that whenever you've got the preamp cranked to the max and the MV low to where it's choking the output tubes that you probably can't expect to get mind numbing rock tone... You're not driving the output section or the speaker enough to get that great crunch going on. You need to let the amp breathe, Z amps are built for the stage.
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Post by runninwiththerevil (Matthew) on Feb 15, 2021 7:47:14 GMT -7
Generally speaking I have found Z's more responsive to tube swaps than other amps I've had. In the Maz I found found it to really take on a specific character depending on what is in V1, but V2 to some extent as well. I would have never spent the money to get a GE-Jan 12ax7, but I bought a used amp that had one. I really like the Maz 18 with that in V1 and will likely spend the money going forward to have one in V1 when this one bites it. I'm certainly not disagreeing with Dave, because what he's saying about the power tubes is absolutely right. Just sharing my experience with playing around with the preamp.
To that point, I like the 6n14n's that got put in when I had the Mothership do the Mkii update, but it had some el84 Mullards in there prior that sounded really nice as well. I have a Maz 38 coming to me this week and all I know is that it had el84's. At the price I got it for I don't expect them to be anything special. I will probably be getting a set of 6n14n's if the base tone isn't comparing to my Maz 18 right away.
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