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Topic: Using 12ay7 in a Mesa DC 3 |
Paul Sutherland
From:
Placerville, California
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Posted 18 Nov 2012 7:10 pm |
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I have a Mesa DC 3 combo amp that I sometimes use with my Supro lap steel. The amp works great for getting a real old time sound on the clean channel, and a great overdriven sound on the other channel.
But the amp has a lot of hiss at idle. An amp tech suggested that I could substitute a 12ay7 in the number one pre-amp position, in place of the stock 12ax7. Apparently the lower gain of the 12ay7 reduces the noise and makes the clean channel cleaner. Has anyone actually done this? Any thoughts or suggestions.
PS: I've replace all the pre-amp and power tubes and am quite confident that a bad tube is not causing the excessive hiss. Perhaps I just don't really want a high-gain amp. |
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Tim Marcus
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 18 Nov 2012 9:02 pm
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High gain means high hiss... Kind of the way it is. Usually that gets covered up by distorted guitar.
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Milkmansound.com |
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Ivan Funk
From:
Hamburg Pennsylvania, USA
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Stephen Cowell
From:
Round Rock, Texas, USA
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Posted 19 Nov 2012 6:31 pm
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Best part of the 12AY7 is that you can often find super NOS tubes, whereas the 12AX7's have all been picked through. I found a Tung-Sol 12AY7 at a ham-fest and it's my main pre tube now.
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Too much junk to list... always getting more. |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 19 Nov 2012 7:42 pm
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I used a 5751 in a Mesa Nomad 45. It was the perfect choice for that amp - with a 12AX7, even the clean channel had a bit of the usual Boogie midrange honk, but the lower-gain 5751 made it sparkle more like a classic Fender clean channel, leaving the crunch channel to honk and I essentially never used the scream channel.
It cannot hurt to find some preamp tubes of various types to try in different amps. The gain 'rules' can be useful to some extent, but there's nothing like just trying a dozen preamp tubes of different types and listening to the results. |
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