In a different post someone mentioned Mr. Wronski runs EL34s. After much searching I found the info in the "top 10" section. I love Vox AC30s and amps of that ilk, but also love Fender amps, and I was wondering what kind of mods it takes to be able to run "british" tubes in a Fender amp. Can you go back and forth without much work, or is it a "mod it and leave it situation?" A bandmaster or bassman, or heck a nice deluxe would fit into my life rather quickly if the answers to this question make it sound easily doable! I did poke around a bit before asking, but haven't found anything here or any other site I go to. Thanks.

I'm basically saying I like "EL" tubes. I also don't want to make it sound british, I just want to split the difference, and make a "hairier" bassman tone... Clearly I need to talk to a tech... Check that, a really really really good tech...

Jake, in case you haven't noticed, I don't care what anybody here thinks, HOWEVER, I do respect each individuals different experiences and knowledge base. I personally have my own experiences and knowledge base, and I am WAY too old for hero worship.

Some folks here are about as tech savy as they get! I was asking a technical question to find out if it is even worth taking the steps to find and talk to a capable technician about doing it, or if it's so complicated that they would put a garlic necklace around their neck and start flinging Holy Water at me...

Since I first picked up a guitar in '75, I've owned Fender deluxes and twins, Vox AC15 and AC30s, Roland JCs, Marshalls, and at least a half dozen cute little no name amps from the 40s and 50s. That's not counting the acoustic amps I've gone through. I know what they sound like. I don't particularly want to own more than two amps. You are a self confessed "amp guy". Me, I like guitars. I'd rather own more guitars and I want exactly what I said, a Bassman tone with more hair on it. I play lots of stuff and an amp that can handle everything from Cake to Link Wray, to lightnin hopkins(through an old dry acoustic with vintage dearmond soundhole pickup) and old Johnny Guitar Watson without pedals is my goal. I use Guitars like pedals. I have piercing icepick guitars, and I have smooth dripping buckets of warm honey guitars... That's how I like to alter my tone.

I don't particularly want to "sound" like Dave. As I said, whether you believe it or not, I've already gotten a passable tone for that. And when I listen to Dave, his tone is irrelevant to me. I listen to his masterful picking. His precision and ability to seamlessly throw in polyrythms, shifting back and forth between straight 16s and triplets, "turning the beat around" reminds of me of people like Bob Brozman. Very rare in the electric world. Not to sound pretentious, but I'm sure alot of people are unaware of what he's actually doing. Like Chuck Berry, there's more going on than you think if you aren't careful. The melody is often deceptive. I don't particularly want to play like Dave by the way. I like more space in an arrangement. As the king told Mozart in "Amadeus", there are too many notes for me...

So anyway, It sounds like more of battle than I want to enter, and the new Mesas are going in the direction I want. Not quite what I want yet, but it's only a matter of time before someone nails what I'm looking for...

Peace Brother, I know what I want, I just need to find it...

I don't use el34 tubes, I use e34l. It's a Euro style 6ca7 that has 20% more headroom than a el34. I use the new JJ, and have some of my amps using Tesla e34l, which is basicaly the same thing. I've been having the best luck buying JJ e34l from GrooveTubes.

My Super Reverbs {except one} use the e34l power tube, but the amps have other changes, too. The bias is very "turned on", and approaclass class A. This, along with the grid resistor{I think} value being different which would normally cause cross-over distortion, but has other good qualities. The amps have a special mod the prevents them from being capable of producing cross-over distortion, so the bias can be set wherever my tech finds the sweet spot. This configuration gives the clean single note a more robust sound, to quot my tech.

Even without all the trickery, the e34l is a cool power tube that gives me a little more power, has smoother overall tone where the bass does not boom so much as with a 6l6.

I even made Pete Curry a believer when he had them installed n his '61 Bandmaster combo amp with the JBL D130. The Telefunken 12ax7's don't hurt either. YMMV

What about an AC50 head? a rare head to find.

-Kyle

Beyond The Surf YouTube channel
Beyond The Surf Instagram
The Verbtones @ Instagram
The Verbtones @ Facebook
The Verbtones @ bandcamp

Hmmm....

Would an EL34 even fit in a bassman? I'm going to say no...

badash
Clearly I need to talk to a tech... Check that, a really really really good tech...

Badash really really bad choice of words we all need to be more laid back
Daulshowman is a kickass Engineer/amp tech, back in the day I was always emailing him on advice and he comes through with the info you need an awesome help when I was starting out with my amp ventures and repair, there are plenty of excellent amp techs/guitar techs here @ SG101 and Dualshowman aka Matt is one of them and DGG of Gomezamps and there's probably even more that we haven't even discovered in this forum or that have come forward yet, we need to give these fine folks a chance and have them express thier expertize and then research then make your call before you offened others that are in the trade in making a living from servicing amplifiers or just say nothing keep the insults to your self and thank them for the feedback if its not to your liking or what you wanted to hear move on, the worst thing is to make enemies and you don't want that my friend in any place, were here to learn and to help others learn and to share the things we know about amps and guitars and most of all the music... not to be-little or bash or to even put down but to help each other out.

Piece man

-Kyle

Beyond The Surf YouTube channel
Beyond The Surf Instagram
The Verbtones @ Instagram
The Verbtones @ Facebook
The Verbtones @ bandcamp

Last edited: Apr 11, 2007 23:22:59

diceophonic

badash
Clearly I need to talk to a tech... Check that, a really really really good tech...

Badash really really bad choice of words

Kyle, see my answer above. I should have said GO TO a really really good tech to HAVE IT DONE. I'm only restating it here in case you and Dual don't see the above message!

JakeDobner

badash

JakeDobner
Hmmm....

Would an EL34 even fit in a bassman? I'm going to say no...

Little late there Jakester. Two answers have already established that...

I'm talking height wise. I think they are too tall. Have other responses included that fact?

Dude you kill me! Seriously, as you hep kids say, "I'm feelin' you bro!"

We've moved on now Jake. The post has been redirected to how much of an asshole I am. See you're a history major, and we're now talking current events.