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Topic: What's your favorite preamp tube for steelguitar? |
Marty Holmes
From:
Magnolia ,TX USA
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Posted 4 Oct 2010 4:26 pm |
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| I am just curious what everyone's favorite preamp tube is in there amp for pedal steel guitar tone as far as a 12AX7,5751,7025,ecc83.Everyone's feedback is most greatly appriciated thank you Marty. |
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Bill Moran
From:
Virginia, USA
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Posted 4 Oct 2010 7:14 pm
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Don't know about the 5751 but the 12AX7, 7025 and the ECC83 are the same now days ! I just use a 12AX7 JJ . Seems ok to me in a Black Box or a Fender Twin.
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Bill |
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Ron Randall
From:
Dallas, Texas, USA
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Posted 4 Oct 2010 7:35 pm
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12ax7 or 12ay7 for a little less gain in the house.
Gig time 12ax7. |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 4 Oct 2010 8:28 pm
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Depends on which preamp tube position you're talking about. But for tone, I usually focus most on the critical first gain-stage preamp tube.
For that, for pedal steel in a blackface or silverface Fender amp with Reverb - 5751, which has a slightly lower gain than a 12AX7. 12AY7 sounds good too, but somehow I generally gravitate to 5751 most of the time.
But it depends on the guitar and specific amp, to me anyway. I try one of each and pick the one that sounds best. In fact, I may go through 20-30 tubes before I find the one I like best. Broke the rules with my silverface Princeton Reverb, where the best sound was from a NOS Made-in-Holland Amperex ECC83 (12AX7) in the first preamp position. Dunno why, but it just sounded head-and-shoulders above everything else in my stash - in fact, I went to a friend's music store, tried all of his and bought it specifically for that amp. But 5751 in my other Fender BF/SF amps, I think mostly 60s or 70s GEs.
Ears trump - brands or even tube types don't necessarily dictate what works best. My opinion, of course. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 5 Oct 2010 6:51 am
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I agree with Dave.
I play through a Blue Tube II preamp and I put a 5751 tube in it some years ago. |
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Tommy R. Butler
From:
Nashville, Tennessee
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 12 Oct 2010 7:52 pm
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Do you guys have a favorite 5751? New? Old? I haven't messed with them much recently in a steel preamp. I've been on 12AX7's. The 5751 I tried sounded a bit too clean or "icy", but I don't recall what the setup was. I think it was an EH tube.
Brad |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 13 Oct 2010 5:29 am
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Brad, I haven't cared for the newer 5751 tubes I've tried, but I only tried a few different ones - didn't like 'em in my old Fenders, didn't go back. Most of mine are NOS, various brands - GE, I think I have a couple of Raytheons, there may be others.
Speaking for myself only, I can frequently try different examples of even the exact same tube type/brand and find that different amps prefer different specific tubes. When I get a new tube amp, I may try literally dozens of tubes in various locations before I settle on something. I tend to make zero assumptions about what is going to work in a particular amp - if I get in and the 12AX7s are too gainy, I move down in gain, and conversely with the lower-gain tubes. But I am frequently surprised at what sounds good or bad in a particular application. |
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Mark Lavelle
From:
San Mateo, CA
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Posted 13 Oct 2010 9:28 am
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| Dave Mudgett wrote: |
| ... I can frequently try different examples of even the exact same tube type/brand and find that different amps prefer different specific tubes. When I get a new tube amp, I may try literally dozens of tubes in various locations before I settle on something. |
I've had the same experience with my own amps (I've designed & built half a dozen). The same 12AX7 that sounds perfect in one amp will often be mediocre in other amps, and every pair of power tubes in a cathode-biased push-pull amp will sound a little different.
FWIW, for clean tones I like a pentode (6AU6, EF86) as the 1st tube, but you have to find one that's not microphonic...
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http://www.harmonicappliances.com/ |
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