Tube Classification Thread

[BustedWah]

I just ordered a new Overtone (very excited!) and I started wondering what tube would give me a sort of Gilmourish OD but still retain the awesome clean of this amp.

That got me thinking that if you guys are willing, it might be cool to all post our experiences with different tubes and the clean and OD sound that you got out of them like so:

Manufacturer:
Tube type:
Headroom:
Clean sound:
OD sound:

You can separate power tubes and preamp tubes if you want. This might be too much work for some people but it might be cool to have all our experiences in one thread.

[wyatt]

I'm not saying they don't make a difference, but this is what i consider tube rolling at it's most anal retentive.  Our ears hear something relative to what they are adjusted to.  So, one tube can sound entirely different each time you turn your amp on.  By all means I believe people should see what works best for them, but the amp's voice isn't the tubes but the tone stack, that's why a AC30, AC50 and '60's SS Voxes all sound like a Vox despite their different power tubes (or lack thereof).  Trying to voice an amp with tubes is like trying to make vanilla ice cream an entirely different flavor by adding rainbow sprinkles or chocolate jimmies.  But to go by someone else's opinion and ears is pointless because it's a floating reference that can't be pinned down. 

Now, all this said...you're barking up the wrong tree for Gilmour OD from an amp.  Gilmour's OD sounds are enitrel pedal driven.  Fuzz Face and Big Muff Pi.  His amp is always set clean, and he uses Hiwatts, which are so tight and bright and loud, there can blow heads off at 30 paces.  D*mble tone is not Gilmour tone, IMHO.  You want "Time," set the amp to a bright clean tone and stomp on a silicon Fuzz Face, you want "Sorrow," set the amp to a bright clean tone and stomp on a Big Muff Pi.

[hywelg]

Have to agree with wyatt, OTS with 6L6's is very little different to OTS with El34's. You wont change the character of an amp with different tubes, just do a little fine tuning, getting a little more or less of what you like/don't like.

For the OD channel V2 is what you need to mess around with, you can get some quite different sounds by changing to 5751's Ay7's or whatever. Downside is that you will lose gain on OD channel and you might not be able to marry clean and OD channel volumes without changing V1 aswell, and then you lose overall volume and you'll not get your powertubes driving the same if you turn it up. Lots to play with, but its pretty good out of the box (after a good burn in), pedals are where its at if you want very different sounds and the clean channel does these really well. Pedals only work OK ish on OD channel if its not set to a highish gain already.

[JohnE]

I am going to go with the advice given above. Tubes are not your answer to a Gilmour tone. It becomes more difficult to help you when it is hard to know what you think Gilmour tone is. If you are thinking the solo from "Comfortably Numb" then that's one thing. If you are thinking "Money" that is another. But what I can say is that you will not get that sound without some delay and other studio processing. The raw guitar sound is much different than what you hear on the recording.

So, after being of no assistance at all, I will tell you that the Clean channel of the OTS takes pedals very well and you can really achieve some great tones with it.  When you drive the clean channel you get some of the flavor of the OTS mixed with that of your particular pedal. I usually use some kind of tube screamer based pedal with the OTS and I can cover  a lot of different tones.  My experience with an OD pedal and the OD of the OTS together is that you have to reduce the drive on both so much that they are useless unless they are used in tandem. Meaning less flexibility.

[BustedWah]

Alright, I understand about the thread not being useful. Regarding the Gilmour tones, I only said that because the other tones I would've mention, you would have really thought were "barking up the wrong tree." I'm not really going for Gilmour tones so forget that. It wasn't the point of the thread anyway. I was just trying to help every get pointed in the right direction when looking at tubes to have a starting point. But I digress... lol

It was mentioned that an OTS with EL84's sounds very different than an OTS with 6L6's. While exchanging emails with Nik, he seemed to say that the amp could not take EL84's. Assuming it can (since you guys say it can), can you describe the difference in sound? Don't take the easy way out and tell me that it depends on your settings lol Everyone knows that but there are definitely consistent underlying differences and a reason to change or not change.

Thanks!

[BustedWah]

And I forgot to mention that I'm really happy to hear this from John, it made my day!:

"So, after being of no assistance at all, I will tell you that the Clean channel of the OTS takes pedals very well and you can really achieve some great tones with it.  When you drive the clean channel you get some of the flavor of the OTS mixed with that of your particular pedal."

[hywelg]

It was mentioned that an OTS with EL84's sounds very different than an OTS with 6L6's. While exchanging emails with Nik, he seemed to say that the amp could not take EL84's. Assuming it can (since you guys say it can), can you describe the difference in sound? Don't take the easy way out and tell me that it depends on your settings lol Everyone knows that but there are definitely consistent underlying differences and a reason to change or not change.

Thanks!

EL34's not El84's. You could never put 9pin El84's in the OTS's 8pin sockets and I said they didn't sound very different to 6L6's.

[BustedWah]

"EL34's not El84's. You could never put 9pin El84's in the OTS's 8pin sockets and I said they didn't sound very different to 6L6's."

Sorry, I missed the "little" in "very little different" Thanks for the reply.