Re: [Harp-L] Switching tubes for easier breakup...

[Mojo Red <harplicks@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Steven,

I'm no expert, so don't take this as gospel truth.
Hopefully others with a better grasp of this stuff
will help straighten you out. 

When I talk about swapping tubes, it generally is
with the goal of avoiding feedback and creating a
little more "head room" rather than specifically to
make for easier breakup. 

If you can crank up a your amp a little higher
before you reach the feedback threshold the tubes
get a chance to work a little more and express
their coolest characteristics and you have more
play in your settings before hitting the feedback
threshold. 

We generally play around with the pre-amp tubes as
opposed to the power tubes or rectifier tubes. Most
amps have more than one pre-amp tube, and you can
play around with swapping one, two or more of
those.

The 12AX7 preamp tubes so common in amps offer the
highest boost to the signal, so we sometimes swap
out 12AY7 or others with less of a gain boost
before the signal hits the power tubes. Generally
you'll want to start experimenting with the preamp
tube farthest from the power tube and work your way
in. Different combinations provide different
results with different amps.

One rule of thumb that an amp tech told me - don't
mess around with swapping out the last preamp tube
(the one closest to the power tubes). Not sure why,
but I didn't doubt his word. 

Good luck!

Harpin' in Colorado,
--Ken M.



--- stiv whiskywine <thepinkcrickets@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Hey
>  
> When you guys talk about switching tubes from
> 12ax7 to something that will breakup easier, are
> you guys switching every one of the preamp tubes
> or just 1 ? What would happen if you just
> switched one?  Man, I need to get hip to gear!
>  
> Steven Campos
> (annoying links)



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