MKIII pre tube question

[Helping Friendly]

Hey phriends so as some of you know I sold my old Zappa amp and got a loaded Purple stripe head. I can't tell you how much I live this amp! I don't think I will ever part with it. So responsive and smooth. Just killer.

I want to ask some of you Mk3 owners about any tube experiments or journeys you have been through and what kind of results or preferences you have. Mainly preamp tubes (V1-V5). I have read alot about what people like in their boogies on the boogieboard forum and got alot of good info there. But I can't help to think that most of them are in to Metal. So what's be good for them might not fit "my" bill. I am into jamband (phishy) type tones as most of us are here, so would love to hear what you guys suggest.

For instance, over at the boogie forum people swear by Tungsol in V1. This is what I have in there now but I am curious on tring a 12at7. I think someone here spoke about swapping lower gain tubes in the Mk3 and got a more articulate tone from it. IIRC it think it was shocked and persuaded?? 
On the boogie forum most also swear by NOS RFT (12ax7) in V3. Many of them say that is the absolute best tube for that spot. Last night I pulled the trigger on one out of curiosity and bought into the hype. I will let you know how it performs when it arrives.

So if you have tried lower gain tubes or have any other good info on the pre section I would love to hear about it. Would love to see a list of what was trialed and what results it entailed. I thought heard that Trey was using 12at7 on V1 at one point but does anyone know for sure??  I would just want to get the most clean timbre I can get with alot of dynamics. Nah mean? Thanks!

[Heady Jam Fan]

I think Trey used an AT7 in V1 of his Deluxe Reverb, but I've never heard that for his Mesa. It's possible he does though. I tend to prefer AX7s in both amps, though a good AT7 beats a crappy AX7, and NOS AT7s are relatively cheap. Having said that, I've only used NOS tubes in my vintage amps, and stick with Ruby tubes in my Mesa. There is a member who hasn't been active for a while who was using a NOS Mullard AT7 in V1 of his Mesa and said be really dug the sound.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[Helping Friendly]

I think Trey used an AT7 in V1 of his Deluxe Reverb, but I've never heard that for his Mesa. It's possible he does though. I tend to prefer AX7s in both amps, though a good AT7 beats a crappy AX7, and NOS AT7s are relatively cheap. Having said that, I've only used NOS tubes in my vintage amps, and stick with Ruby tubes in my Mesa. There is a member who hasn't been active for a while who was using a NOS Mullard AT7 in V1 of his Mesa and said be really dug the sound.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

Right on Heady.. I figured you'd be the first to chime in 
I'm going do some experimenting so I can post my results in case there is someone else interested.  Are you still digging EL34's in your Mark? I tried both, and I think I am partial to 6L6's. I first tried 2 Winged C's El34's and 2 Winged C's (SED) 6L6's. It was good. But then I pulled the EL34's and popped in 2 NOS JAN Phillips 6L6's to make all 4 tubes 6L6's and I like this tone better. Even in "class A"  the Phillips sound tighter to me, especially in the bass dept. Me likes tight bass. "Slappin de bass"

Also Heady, I see awhile back you sold an ebtech hum eliminator. Did it work for you? I just bought one but it hasn't shipped yet. I am getting some buzz now that drives me nutz! I'm goin to see if the ebtech works. If not, I'm thinking a ISP Decimator II G-String. BUT the thought of a noise gate scares me. I have only read good things about this particular one though..

[Heady Jam Fan]

Right on Heady.. I figured you'd be the first to chime in 
I'm going do some experimenting so I can post my results in case there is someone else interested.  Are you still digging EL34's in your Mark? I tried both, and I think I am partial to 6L6's. I first tried 2 Winged C's El34's and 2 Winged C's (SED) 6L6's. It was good. But then I pulled the EL34's and popped in 2 NOS JAN Phillips 6L6's to make all 4 tubes 6L6's and I like this tone better. Even in "class A"  the Phillips sound tighter to me, especially in the bass dept. Me likes tight bass. "Slappin de bass"

Also Heady, I see awhile back you sold an ebtech hum eliminator. Did it work for you? I just bought one but it hasn't shipped yet. I am getting some buzz now that drives me nutz! I'm goin to see if the ebtech works. If not, I'm thinking a ISP Decimator II G-String. BUT the thought of a noise gate scares me. I have only read good things about this particular one though..

Lately I've been using my SFDR more than my Mesa - it has plenty of headroom with my Badcat Unleash and is much lighter than my Mesa. I tend to like creamier sounding, midrange-focused power tubes that compress a bit more like 6V6's and EL34's, while 6L6's sound a bit clinical or sterile and their frequency range is too extended, especially in the bass IMO. I do love the punchiness of 6L6's though and I kinda miss that when using smaller tubes, so I've had my Mesa in the SimulClass setting for the past few months. I don't remember if I ever tried my Mesa with 4 6L6's - I know Trey's amp has 4 6L6's installed, but it's on the "Half-Power" setting, so he's only using 2 of them (leaving the other 2 installed maintains the bias of the amp, and might affect the impedance the transformer wants to see, but I'm not certain about that second part in the half-power setting). The question is whether Trey's amp is SimulClass or not since a lot of the SimulClass long heads were marked Half-Power rather than Class A.

I can't really remember if the Hum Eliminator helped at all - I don't think it did, but it only solves a very specific problem thats uncommon for simple serial rigs (more common in parallel, multi-amp setups). The HumX can help with power issues, but mine has never made a difference - I just keep it around in case I play a bar with really crappy power. I've tried a handful of Noise Gates like the ISP, but I always get annoyed with the fact that gates only eliminate noise when you aren't playing, so the background hum gets more obvious when you play a note. I'd rather just live with a bit of noise and either turn down my guitar, turn off my TS, or turn on my tuner when not playing. I also tried the EHX Hum Debugger and it makes a metallic reverb-like noise in the background that drove me insane - it would be an incredible pedal otherwise. Lastly, the Carl Martin Noise Terminator works pretty well - it seems to work like the EHX without the metallic reverb sound in the background, but the higher you turn up the noise reduction, the lower your output volume so the pedal needs to be after a pretty loud pedal or in an amp's effect loop (but if you put it in an effect loop, it sometimes eliminates reverb!). The Carl Martin seems like it could be a great pedal, but seems like a prototype - they need to add a boost that linearly counteracts the volume loss. At this point, I managed to get enough of the noise out of my rig and I'll live with the noise that remains.

[Helping Friendly]

Right on Heady.. I figured you'd be the first to chime in 
I'm going do some experimenting so I can post my results in case there is someone else interested.  Are you still digging EL34's in your Mark? I tried both, and I think I am partial to 6L6's. I first tried 2 Winged C's El34's and 2 Winged C's (SED) 6L6's. It was good. But then I pulled the EL34's and popped in 2 NOS JAN Phillips 6L6's to make all 4 tubes 6L6's and I like this tone better. Even in "class A"  the Phillips sound tighter to me, especially in the bass dept. Me likes tight bass. "Slappin de bass"

Also Heady, I see awhile back you sold an ebtech hum eliminator. Did it work for you? I just bought one but it hasn't shipped yet. I am getting some buzz now that drives me nutz! I'm goin to see if the ebtech works. If not, I'm thinking a ISP Decimator II G-String. BUT the thought of a noise gate scares me. I have only read good things about this particular one though..

Lately I've been using my SFDR more than my Mesa - it has plenty of headroom with my Badcat Unleash and is much lighter than my Mesa. I tend to like creamier sounding, midrange-focused power tubes that compress a bit more like 6V6's and EL34's, while 6L6's sound a bit clinical or sterile and their frequency range is too extended, especially in the bass IMO. I do love the punchiness of 6L6's though and I kinda miss that when using smaller tubes, so I've had my Mesa in the SimulClass setting for the past few months. I don't remember if I ever tried my Mesa with 4 6L6's - I know Trey's amp has 4 6L6's installed, but it's on the "Half-Power" setting, so he's only using 2 of them (leaving the other 2 installed maintains the bias of the amp, and might affect the impedance the transformer wants to see, but I'm not certain about that second part in the half-power setting). The question is whether Trey's amp is SimulClass or not since a lot of the SimulClass long heads were marked Half-Power rather than Class A.

I can't really remember if the Hum Eliminator helped at all - I don't think it did, but it only solves a very specific problem thats uncommon for simple serial rigs (more common in parallel, multi-amp setups). The HumX can help with power issues, but mine has never made a difference - I just keep it around in case I play a bar with really crappy power. I've tried a handful of Noise Gates like the ISP, but I always get annoyed with the fact that gates only eliminate noise when you aren't playing, so the background hum gets more obvious when you play a note. I'd rather just live with a bit of noise and either turn down my guitar, turn off my TS, or turn on my tuner when not playing. I also tried the EHX Hum Debugger and it makes a metallic reverb-like noise in the background that drove me insane - it would be an incredible pedal otherwise. Lastly, the Carl Martin Noise Terminator works pretty well - it seems to work like the EHX without the metallic reverb sound in the background, but the higher you turn up the noise reduction, the lower your output volume so the pedal needs to be after a pretty loud pedal or in an amp's effect loop (but if you put it in an effect loop, it sometimes eliminates reverb!). The Carl Martin seems like it could be a great pedal, but seems like a prototype - they need to add a boost that linearly counteracts the volume loss. At this point, I managed to get enough of the noise out of my rig and I'll live with the noise that remains.

I agree about how it sucks that gates only kill noise when not playing. The other night I had a hiss that I could still pick out while playing. That was super annoying. But I found out why last night thank god!. It was a cable coming out my tube buffer.  So now things are manageable. Except the other day my neighbor ran a power saw while I was playing and I heard the rev of the saw through my speakers! So I must have some crummy power issues in my hood. I was hoping the Hum eliminator would help that but I guess that the humx i need. I have all my pedals powered by 2 isobars but the boogie is strait in the wall. Maybe I'll grab another iso for the boogie. Thanks for the info bro!

Also would still love to hear if anyone has done some tube swapping in their Mk3's. You have to forgive me. I'm still in the honeymoon phaze as they say. BUMP!

[Heady Jam Fan]

I agree about how it sucks that gates only kill noise when not playing. The other night I had a hiss that I could still pick out while playing. That was super annoying. But I found out why last night thank god!. It was a cable coming out my tube buffer.  So now things are manageable. Except the other day my neighbor ran a power saw while I was playing and I heard the rev of the saw through my speakers! So I must have some crummy power issues in my hood. I was hoping the Hum eliminator would help that but I guess that the humx i need. I have all my pedals powered by 2 isobars but the boogie is strait in the wall. Maybe I'll grab another iso for the boogie. Thanks for the info bro!

Also would still love to hear if anyone has done some tube swapping in their Mk3's. You have to forgive me. I'm still in the honeymoon phaze as they say. BUMP!

Glad to hear you figured out the noise - I know it can be a pain in the ass! I think the HumX would be more likely to fix your chainsaw problem than a Hum Eliminator. Another ISOBAR might do the trick as well, but note - the ISOBAR power supplies have 4 isolation transformers that can actually cause a lot of noise if they are too close to your rig. Make sure that isn't a problem too!

I was in the honeymoon phase with my MKIII for years!

[Helping Friendly]

Thanks Heady!

I was in the honeymoon phase with my MKIII for years!

I can see this happening. lol