My amp was approved :)

[kiteman]

My friend came over for a jam and he freaked over my amp, the Blackheart Handsome Devil half stack. Some of you might remember I retubed the amp with Tung-Sol 12AX7s and Sovtek EL84 military grades.

We were playing in my house and I had the volume at a reasonable level which was how I always played it. My friend wanted to crank it up and I told him we're in the house but he said c'mon man just this once. Ok, go for it. I was surprised as the amp sounded good, such sweet tone.

Seems I was depriving myself of that tone but just too loud for the house. :thwap

I'm glad that I did my researches and picked the sweet set of tubes.

 

[deeaa]

Any tube amp sounds best when played loud. Even many ss amps too. Like seems to be the case with my latest, vox ad30vt...and its a modeler! That is why I love el84 based amphs - they arent way too loud when played at the sweet spot for the sounds. Many an amph uses a tube for preamp only which is ok but the real tube tone comes only from cranked power tubes. a pair of el34s sure sounds sweet but tends to be too loud even for band playing IMO. A WEBER mini mass etc or similar can help a lot, but really its all abojt tube and speaker interaction and it just always works way better when really working hard...no way around it except small wattage amphs and speakers....approx 20w is great for band use in toob ampjs imo. I have a 36w and its good with a loud band.

Now you just cant resist cranking it up, can u ? :dude

 

[kiteman]

You said it, I'm hooked. :dude

Also you're right, it was the power tube that's cranked up (got volume and gain). I left the gain at 10 o'clock and cranked the volume from 10 o'clock (my normal settings) to 2 o'clock. My friend put the pedal on Marshall JCM800 and jammed away.

I'm sitting here soaking up that tube sweetness. :AOK

 

[Robert]

Interesting! I tried a Handsome Devil combo at the store last week, and I did not like the tone at all. Perhaps the combo speaker isn't that great, I don't know.

Perhaps you can record a clip for us?

 

[kiteman]

Interesting! I tried a Handsome Devil combo at the store last week, and I did not like the tone at all. Perhaps the combo speaker isn't that great, I don't know.

Perhaps you can record a clip for us?

The stock tubes aren't all that good but they work and some folks like 'em. I don't know if it's the same with the head and my cab is a BH 1x12 with Celestion speaker.

I had a set of Mullard RIs and one tube sounded like it was going bad buts they got hours put in. When I ordered this set I put the stock tubes back in for the time being. They sound ok and rather dark and in comparison with the MRIs it's like night and day. The MRIs are good tubes and have a nice chimey bright. I had a set of MRIs in my Blues Jr and wow, it's Fender.

This set did what I had in mind, a sweet preamp and poweramp with high headroom. At 2 o'clock it was a small amount of distortion that's just right, a good voice for the pedals.

EDIT: as to the recording I've done it and the computer mike sucks. It's all I got.

 

[kiteman]

Forgot to mention I jammed on it this morning. I just cranked the volume to 11-12 o'clock and it's a bit loud but I still hear the drums, just had to move 'em around. I don't think the power tube distorted but the pedals sure sounded really good and I was getting chills.

So far a little mojo and no complaints.

 

[bigG]

Good on ya, kiteman! That's the main reason I sold my Vox AC15 and Peavey DB210 - I couldn't crank 'em to get power tube OD, only pre-amp gain, and the "life" just wasn't there. I hope you can keep pushing the power tubes with no complaints. Right on! :dude

 

[kiteman]

Yea, I just gotta be sure my windows aren't open.