Originally Posted by: RickBlackerI'm not aware of a higher gain tube preamp tube than the 12ax7. I'm a bit confused though. You said that you have more than enough gain and you run your gain on 2, yet you want more crunch. Well, wouldn't you just turn your gain up more?[/quote]
Yeah, I want to reduce the amount of available gain. Well, that's not necessarily true, I just have 60 or 70% I'm not using. It seemed matching capacity to requirement would be a good thing. Plus I think it would "open up" the drive channel, making it more crunchy.

Like a Jimmy Page sound would be more crunchy. Later day Santana would be more creamy. (...imo)

[Edit]Just thought of an analogy: Think of screen resolution. HD res gives you teeny tiny pixels for super smooth edges and definition. That's Smooth. A low resolution screen gives you sawtoothing and roughness. That's crunch.

...Maybe :D

Originally Posted by: RickBlacker
Also, something I read and makes a lot of sense. Put power hungry (less sensitive) speakers in your cab. They push your power tubes harder thus cause more breakup. [/quote]
This is as much an experiment with tubes as anything. That's a good idea, but would really only manifest when you were pushing the volume anyway, right?

Originally Posted by: RickBlacker
I've heard of folks removing a power tube, or two depending on how many you have. Will have to read up on 6V6 tubes. My 100w head is rather loud.

They are supposed to produce about half the output wattage. Maybe something for you to consider if your amp is really loud. Supposed to be interchangeable from what I've read, but probably confirm your plate voltage and the tube are compatible.

[QUOTE=RickBlacker]
Have you considered an attenuator? I just purchased one from Weber Speakers. It's being built now. Hope to have it in the next week or so.

Sweet! I'm going to see what the tubes do. They will change voicing and so I'm curious to see.

[QUOTE=RickBlacker]
I've read several times that matched tubes on preamps is total bogus BS. That it's not necessary, that only the power amp tubes benefit from this.

That's true. Supposedly you can mix and match power tube types (and this is actually a common practice), and even leave tubes out entirely.

I kind of don't understand what's the big dif with output tubes, but I don't want to challenge that one; I'll stick to matched sets. My friend has the JC 100 watt head and put a matched set in without amp biasing. His rig sounded awesome.