Man that's a nice looking amp!

That's a great color on the suede.

That's a good line-up of speaker to try. Let us know what think when you get them

Yeah, my gear far exceeds my playing ability and at one time was even worse. I've mellowed out a bit. The way I look at it, besides it being "fun" is that it's better to have great tools and hopefully learn to use them the best you can, then not have the best tools and struggle over and over. The thing to keep into perspective is not letting the illusion of the tools making you a better player all by themselves cloud your judgement. I've seen the opposite also. Where someone will deny themselves the proper tools in the name of non-conformity or something along those line.

What I admire about you is that you have way more patience then I do to take the time to type out complete posts with thoughtful facts.

As far as playing skill, it's all relative. I've been bumming a good bit lately. I just can't seem to get anything musically going recently. Yet, I have more than a couple musician friends who get a good bit of live playing done each week. They play cover tunes and Grateful Dead & Phish stuff. Which I have no problems with, and would be more than happy to play, but I just don't seem to fit in with their little groups they have. It's pretty depressing.

Yes, there is a trimmer on board to adjust the phase inverter. Here's link to a discussion about the PI. Read the whole way through it. It goes around in circles a few times, but it's all good and by the end you'll understand it.

http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13993&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Wow bigwebb, that's a really nice clip. You really captured the classic D-thing there. Sounds like you're really getting to know your amp.

And now I see you're getting the SSS. I'm jealous.....

You're going to have one heck of a nice set of amps. You're keeping both, right?

Thanks for the clip!! Nice playing also. A little bowl of noodling is great every so often.  

Once again Gregg got the low down.....down. 

When Gregg was referring to my clip and the Tung Sol RI preamp tubes sounding good. Beside going with a reputable dealer, I made sure to get matched triodes on the phase inverter tube. (then balanced the PI with a scope or DMM) It might be worth mentioning this to the amp guy in you haven't yet.

As far as whether to keep the tubes or just do your own tubes, I would probably be like you and feel better with going with something that seems to have the most support by players of the type amp you have. Especially, for the first time. Basically, that's what I did at the time. In fact I think it was Gregg's (plasticvonaband) suggestion on some post way back that set me on the TAD 6L6 WGC STR's and Tung Sol RI 12AX7 path.

OK, let's back up a little. I thought you had the amp in your posession.

Here's what I know about the Groove Tubes, I think most of it is correct. GT's are just rebranded tubes from any number of manufactures. Same thing as the TADs. The thing that most people don't like about GT is that they charge a whole bunch of money for selecting the best, but seem to fall short much of the time. While the TAD's seem to have the opposite track record.

The GT 6L6GE RI is suppose to be a replica of a GE US made tube. It very well could be that these specific GT's that your amp guy is using is sounding good and maybe you/he found a new cool tube to use. So price aside, if you really trust this guys opinion it might not be a bad thing.  The same deal goes with the EH tubes. They're just rebranded tubes also and some of the EH tubes are highly thought of for certain circuits but generally not what I see a lot of guys use for the D-style amps.

So the question is, did he try different tubes and found these to sound the best or was this the first set he put in and went with it? Maybe wait a little bit for some others to respond. Maybe someone has experience with the GT tubes in question.

Edit: Yeah biasing the amp is not a hard thing and worth learning how to do. You'll need a multi-meter of some sort. But it's doable.

As far as what tube.....well, there's tons of threads here about this. IMHO, TAD 6L6WGC STR's are solid great productions tubes. And Tung Sol 12AX7's have served me well so far. This is basically, what I would suggest for a solid set of cost friendly production tubes.

One thing, I did just check some prices and knew the prices have gone up considerably at the beginning of the year. But, I was a bit shocked to see just how much. The same set that cost me about $80 a year ago, now are more like a $100. BS as far as i'm concerned...but that's another topic.

Yeah, it looks like they just popped in their generic stock. This is a 50 watter, right?....and is the $120 just the cost of the tubes? If so, they're not being very cool. I mean I suppose tubes plus labor and bias for a 50 watt amp is somewhat in line, but if they had you under the impression they were going to do you right regarding the tubes I would be questioning this too. Bottom line the tubes aren't what I would have chosen.

Basically, I wouldn't have paid more than $80 for those specific tubes if I actually wanted those tubes in the first place

BUT most of all, how's it sounding?

I was in pretty close communication with T.Wilcox for awhile back when he built his amp. He sort of dropped off the map since then, I wish he'd come back. He was a good guy.

Anyway, the one thing I think I remember him saying was that it was way easy to get it to break up on the clean channel, and not so easy to get a perfectly clean sound. But, it's been a long time and I could be wrong about the exact specifics. Sorry no clips, though.

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

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.

Yes, I have to take exception to not getting good tones at bedroom levels. Of course the louder the better. But that is really all dependent on room size. Becuase "too loud" is possible too......Well, at age 47, it is.

This is at very, very quiet "bedroom" levels. The amp had about 25 hrs. of playing time on it. If you listen close at the end you can hear me switching the footswitches to show how quiet it was.  http://home.comcast.net/~soundperf/myfilelocker/Music/HRM50_Jam_CAN.mp3

I know having just a 1x12 setup is desirable, but maybe the reason why I never had any issues with speakers and getting a balanced sound was going with a 2x12 with two different speakers from the start.

I also disagree that the internal trimmers aren't important. I barely have the bass trim on, but I spent a good bit of time finding that "barely on" sweet spot. Also the treble is very sensitive on mine. Too much on that trim and it was crappy O/D. And while, I'm tempted to say not mess with the internals until the amp is broken in, that's not completely necesarry. It just may be necesarry to go back later on and re-tweak them. While, I have my amp pretty much "set & forget" now, I don't assume that I'll never have to go back and mess with things. Especially if I go with a completely different set of tube, etc.

Hey, that cab is cool. So you have a Clator ready to go too? Man you'll be all set pretty soon.

As you may have read or been reading recently, give the amp some time to break in. Also, no matter how it's sliced it takes a little trial and error to fully figure the amp out and get a good sound.

It seems like everyone goes through a similar process of being very excited with high expectations, then a bit of disillusionment, then eventually a couple "AH HA" moments, then finally tonal bliss. 

That sounds like a good plan. You deserve to have this amp working and being able to play through it. You'll love it!

If you still would like to get into building an amp sometime, maybe something like a easier Fender circuit (Champ Ultra or Prinzetone) or a Marshall circuit with a lower parts count would be a better fit. No need to feel bad about getting someone to complete the BM. And don't let it stop you from getting into building if you still feel the urge.

Let us know when you get it back.

P.S.
Something that you could do to still get  your feet wet with the whole "amp sound sculpting" thing, is picking a nice "custom" set of tubes for the amp. I don't know what direction you have considered for the tubes, but feel free to ask about it here.