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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Dec 4, 2017 17:19:44 GMT -7
I had my Z-Lux out night before last for a pretty big Christmas Concert, and it sounded good. No problems, but today I hooked up my Air Brake and was experimenting with it when I noticed a little rattle. I had a Phillips Mini-Watt ECC83 in V1 and it was a little microphonic, so I swapped it out with a brand new JJ ECC83S.
The Phillips was a pull from an old organ that I've had in my stock for years, waiting for the amp to use it in, and it's been in the Z-Lux for a year or so.
It's amazing what a change this made. The amp opened up and got dimensional again. I wouldn't have ever noticed that the old Phillips was struggling until I changed it and it just went up two levels in tone quality. Clearer mids, crisper trebles without being glassy or hard, tight bass. Love it.
Now I'm glad that I ordered up a half dozen JJECC83S's while Tube Depot had them on the Black Friday weekend sale. I'm going to do some more tube swapping tomorrow, starting with the Therapy. I expect that I'll be replacing some old glass in it too.
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Tubes
Dec 5, 2017 8:32:33 GMT -7
Post by scottunzicker on Dec 5, 2017 8:32:33 GMT -7
I had my Z-Lux out night before last for a pretty big Christmas Concert, and it sounded good. No problems, but today I hooked up my Air Brake and was experimenting with it when I noticed a little rattle. I had a Phillips Mini-Watt ECC83 in V1 and it was a little microphonic, so I swapped it out with a brand new JJ ECC83S. The Phillips was a pull from an old organ that I've had in my stock for years, waiting for the amp to use it in, and it's been in the Z-Lux for a year or so. It's amazing what a change this made. The amp opened up and got dimensional again. I wouldn't have ever noticed that the old Phillips was struggling until I changed it and it just went up two levels in tone quality. Clearer mids, crisper trebles without being glassy or hard, tight bass. Love it. Now I'm glad that I ordered up a half dozen JJECC83S's while Tube Depot had them on the Black Friday weekend sale. I'm going to do some more tube swapping tomorrow, starting with the Therapy. I expect that I'll be replacing some old glass in it too. Man, those vintage tubes are the best... until they're not. I had a similar experience with my '66 Super. After years of slogging around Austin, I just wasn't "feeling" it any more. I'd done the requisite power tube changes, which always spruced it up (I'm a fan of the JJ 6L6GCs), but presumed since I had vintage glass in the preamp, I couldn't do any better (had an RCA blackplate in V2, the driver for the reverb/trem channel). Just on a lark one day while waiting for downbeat, I popped in a spare Mullard reissue 12ax7 and VOILA. The grunt and spank was back! So while they're good, I still think the old stuff sounds best, but when they fade, the newer production stuff is darned close. Cheers!
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Post by mudman on Dec 5, 2017 8:40:52 GMT -7
Had the same thing with an rca that went bad. Just lost volume and oomph.
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