Tube amp questions ( long post)

I just bought a used Peavey Classic VT 2x12 combo tube amp, my first tube amp ever. Mostly bought for the power that Peavey is known for as I have a great dsp that I use and sounds great on any amp I use. But.. I have searched the net and asked around and can't seem to get a straight answer on these questions, any help is appreciated.


1.) This amp has 2 6L6 gc's in it and I have no idea if they are good or not. The amp sounds muddy on any overdrive setting but can I attribute this to the fact that this amp wasn't designed to have a crisp distortion or that the tubes are bad? Can I test them with my fluke multimeter?

2.)Is there a set of 6L6's that I can buy that will guarantee me a kick a$$ distortion? I mean something that I can play heavy stuff with like Metal and Punk.

3.) Are there any cheap (money wise) mods I can do or have someone do to this amp? I have checked all around the net and can't seem to find anything. What I would like to be able to do is drop the dsp I use and just go straight to the amp as it has some great built in fx (chorus like phaser and nice reverb) but like I said earlier the distortion sux for heavy stuff. The sustain of this amp is incredible btw!

Well that's all I have for now any help is much appreciated.

The 6L6's are the same tubes Fender uses. I think. If they are then yes, they are very good tubes indeed. If a channel isn't performing properly, you may want to bring it in for a small tune up, or even replace the tubes. You can buy a pair of good quality tubes for like $50(canadian).

Sounds good so far. The tubes that are in it have no name whatsoever in them or on them. I think they are the originals. There are so many brands out there for 6L6's I'm confused. All I want is a set of tubes that have maximum distortion and sound fat.


It also seems that Peavey opted to go with solid state pre-amp on this model. I was hoping that it had 12ax7's but oh well.

Hey Oldpunker (cool name !)
Tubes do where out and if you change them you may want to consider re-biasing them. I don’t know a lot about this however there are people at this site who do. Lordofthestrings is probably a good bet. This may do wonders for the tone of your amp. I had a friend who changed the valves on his JCM900, he nearly blew all of our heads up ! !

I never understood why companies made Solid state pre-amps. I thought when they were tube, everything was tube.Whats teh benefit of going with solid state pre-amp?

Originally posted by Dr_simon
Hey Oldpunker (cool name !)
Tubes do where out and if you change them you may want to consider re-biasing them. I don’t know a lot about this however there are people at this site who do. Lordofthestrings is probably a good bet. This may do wonders for the tone of your amp. I had a friend who changed the valves on his JCM900, he nearly blew all of our heads up ! !

Thanks, it's been my internet screen name for years. Yeah I read about biasing I guess if the tubes arent matched that it will sound like kaka. I'm so new to tube amps cos I've been a solid state junky my whole life but I think I have been awakened to a whole new world here.

Originally posted by Tele Master
I never understood why companies made Solid state pre-amps. I thought when they were tube, everything was tube.Whats teh benefit of going with solid state pre-amp?

I'm not sure. I know I've tried a few amps that were the other way around with 12ax7's as the pre-amp and the rest solid state. Not sure what some companies were (are) trying to accomplish.

'Muddy' sound is one of those subjective things that mean different things to different people. To me, all 6L6 amps sound a bit muddy. And 5881's have so much mud on 'em they blow bubbles, IMO. Other folks love 'em.

Anyway, this looks like a job for an experienced tech. Tube amps operate with voltages that can [u]KILL YOU DEAD!!![/u] :eek: (I hope I got enough emphasis on that).

The transistor/tube debate has raged ever since transistors became commercially available. If you use the search button at the upper right of this page, you can tap into dozens of threads on this topic. (I oughtta know, I was ragin'n'ranting along in most of 'em)! :D

So is there a time when you should get your head serviced? I just bought a JCM 2000 DSL Marshall stack. I don't have any problems with it at all but when should I think about re-biasing the tubes or replacing them? Is it something that should be serviced every year or two or do you just keep going until something goes wrong with it? I would hate to be in the middle of a gig and have it freak out on me :P.

Thanks,

I guess I should mention that this is a used stack which is why I am asking.

Originally posted by oldpunker
[i]I've tried a few amps that were the other way around with 12ax7's as the pre-amp and the rest solid state. Not sure what some companies were (are) trying to accomplish.

Me 2, I had a hybrid valve / trannie Marshall combo (Valvestate II 65R).

It sucked and has been sold !

Originally posted by hogar
So is there a time when you should get your head serviced....

Oooooh the joke-line opportunites presented by that opening!! :D

Seriously, you should have it checked out by a good tech at least every two years, more often if you play for a few hours every day. As tubes age, their characteristics shift, and the bias settings need to be tweaked to keep the tubes healthy.

My Ampeg VT-22 is now into it's second year on a set of Groove Tubes that replaced the originals. It's been seeing a lot of use, so I'll check it out sometime this month. My VT-44 still has the original tubes in it, but then it doesn't get used much, so I'm not worried about it. You'll hear stories about amps that are still going strong on the original tubes after twenty years, but these amps have either not been played much over that period of time, or they have deteriorated slowly enough that the player hasn't noticed the change, and they would sound dramatically better with a fresh set of properly biased tubes.

Note that we're talking about the power tubes - the output section. The preamp tubes operate in ways that don't beat them up the like the power sections do, and the circuits are designed to adjust the biasing on their own, without the need to tweak anything. If a preamp tube 'goes bad', another tube gets stuffed into the socket. No prob.

Power tubes wear out gradually, and since they are usually being pushed into distortion, it can be hard to tell when they're due for service. If you really notice the improvement after adjustment, you probably should have done it a bit sooner.

ROFL.. didn't even think about the opening :P Thanks for the input lord. I play atleast an hour a day.. more on weekends.. and since it is used I guess taking it in for a check-up couldn't hurt. Thanks again.