I agree with the idea of doing some tube rolling. The first preamp tubes i had in mine were from thetubestore.com's "preferred series". they were 7025's, which, of course are low noise 12AX7's. I have a snekay suspicion that these are relabled TAD's and are therefore either relabled Shuguang 12AX7-B or Sovteks, most likely the Shugaungs, since their internal structure is identical. They sound very nice and clear, but were a bit too sterile for my taste. I put one in my C-Lator in place of the stock JJ and it made a world of difference. It is much quieter, brighter, and has even more of that "3D"-ish sound that the c-lator is touted to bring. As far as V1 and V2 go, basically, experimentation is the way to go.

My two faves in V1 depend on which speakers i am using. With the Deltas, and prolly with the California and Michigan when i get em i love GE Long Plates from the late 50's and Early 60's. very nice and warm and detailed, and well balanced, ans a nice amount of drive when the clean channel is pushed. With the 1265's a like the Telefunken Ribbed plates. Also very nice and warm and balance, but with extended high frequencies to make up for the exterme warmth of the 1265's.

In V2 i also like the GE Long plates or the Telefunkens, depending on the speakers. When i was running the JAN Phillips 6L6WGB's in the power section, which sound awesome, but don't last long in the OTS , i like the GE Long plates in V1 regardless of speaker choice, and a JAN GE 5751 in V2. This combo yielded the sweetest sound; full deep tight bass, nice singing but not overbearing mids, and enough highs to be present with the 1265's. Sadly, again the 6L6WGB;s just can't take the voltage of the OTS, more the Screen Voltage than the Plate Voltage, oddly enough. I have considered adding VVR to the power section of the BM just so i can run em, but that would be crazy, right?? 

In the power section i tried the aforementioned 6L6WGB's, some older Sovtek 6L6/5881's (which are neither 6L6's or 5881's), that i have a stash of from when i was running my Sovtek head most of the time, and TAD 6L6WGC's. So far i'm diggin the TAD's. Again, TAD's are relabled Shuguangs, but they sound great, have not drifted a bit, and are very affordable! I just ordered a set of Tungsol "Reissue" 6L6GC's, just to see what they are all about.

Like Stephen i tend to buy all my tubes from Mike@ kcanostubes.com. He is a great guy, and tests his tubes well, and can even give you advice on what you may like based on your tastes and setup. I've only had one tube go bad from him, but in fairness it was an ANOS (used) tube from the 1950's, and it had been in my Ampeg Jet, which is a great amp to find if your tubes are microphonic, have a tendency to be microphonic, or to make your tubes microphonic  it's so bad i call it the tube eater, and i think that it contributed greatly to that tube's demise, so you can buy from Mike without worrying too much 


Gregg

Boy, you guys have been busy typing. Also, thanks for the comments on my clips.

To give some specifics on the setup at the time of the clip I posted. I plugged directly into the amp. It was done before I had the C-lator and I was using a Kleinulator. It has a delay in the loop and a reverb pedal. But no post processing at all. At that time I didn't have any NOS tubes and it was just Tung Sol 12AX7's in the preamp and TAD 6L6 wgc str's. I find these tubes to be quite nice and would recommend them as a great cost effective meat & potatoes tube set. I have since put a RCA Grey Short Plate in V1 and that really made things nice. The clip is using a combination of single coils and humbuckers (PRS 513) and yes, the "creamier" the O/D the "humbuckier". That's not a word, but it is now. I would suggest playing with some humbuckers sooner than later. Not so much that great sounds can't be achieved with single coils, in fact there's certain tones that can only be gotten with single coils. It's just that you will get a taste of just how sensitive the front end is to different signal levels and how this drives the amp.

As far as the amp getting smoother after 25 hrs, yes it has, but it has always been a subtle thing at most. One thing that I have always said is "less is more" with these amps. But another thing I had to break myself of, was thinking that using other O/D pedals or whatever would somehow be sacrilege or something. Basically, I'm not beyond wanting some over the top distortion now and then, which the HRM by itself is not exactly going to get without getting into the fizzy area. (although, I have gotten it to be damn close to over the top without fizzy's at higher volumes) My setup now consists of a Compressor > Xotic BB preamp for a clean boost or a bit beyond that > modded tube screamer > Univibe > Amp. I use the gain/drive pedals to cascade along with the amp O/D to get every level of O/D I want.

Another thing that helped me was when I stopped trying to get it to sound like clips I heard and just let it sound like the the amp it is. There are so many variables that play a role in duplicating certain sounds that it can be overwhelming. Once I did this I all of sudden realized it was sounding a lot closer to that Dumbly sound than I had thought before.

I agree with the others that if you're using all JJ's that it could be some of the problem. I have always felt the JJ's were a bit too gainy for this amp. When I first built the amp and didn't want to waste brand new tubes in case I blew it up, I put some older Mesa Boogie tubes I had from a Rectifier, which I assumed were higher gain Chinese preamp and power tubes. It was impossible to get it to not sound harsh. Now I will admit it was brand new, but as soon as I felt it was safe, I put the tube I use now and it immediately was on the right road. 

Stick with it, and try some different guitars if you can, just to get more of a feel for the subtle differences things can make.

P.S.
oh, and on the EVM12L or S. I got to play through an EVM12S a while back and I must say that is was a really nice sound and I see why so many like them. They really can handle anything these amps can throw at them and they also compress (or something) in a very musical way. It wasn't enough to make me run out and have to have one right that minute, but someday I probably would like to have a cab with one or two.

I'm glad i'm not the only one who drives the clean channel and boosts it on the BM. To me, the OD channel is like an added bonus, but i really like using a clean boost on the clean channel driven hard. quite a sound!

Just managed to source a EVM12L thats been reconed.

Looking forward to picking up the speaker up this weekend!

The Tubes are soon to be purchased.

Ahh, that sounds like a good direction to head. Keep us updated.

Hmm, did you have Nik install a half power switch on yours? On a 100w the half power works really nicely, as it drops two of the tubes out instead of being pentode/triode. If not you can pull two of the tubes, either the inside two or outside two, I can't remember which, this can take some of the loud out.

Also, do you switch your PAB all the time when you used the OD? If not you are going through both tonestacks and can make the HRM trimmers seem like they are less effective.

As far as the conversion goes, I'm not sure how simple it is, because the OD section and PI of the BM is a lil different, so bear that in mind. Just food for thought.

Gregg

Cool. Just out of curiosity, what kind of speakers are you running with your BM?

Gregg

On a side note, I'm getting awfully close to getting the right tones on the OD channel, and I think the speaker change with the tube rolls will get me even closer. Not having much joy with the PAB engaged with the OD at the same time though. Sounds flabby/muddy with it engaged..... Also struggling to keep the cleans good while I'm happy with the OD. Much of the OD tone shaping comes from the drive from the clator which smooths out the OD when rolled up, but it also affects the clean channel. Odd, as I though this affected only the input signal going into the pedals via the FX loop?