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Got back home 3 hours ago, plugged into my retubed knicklehead reverb,
and couldnt dial in my sound, a process that took a few minutes with the JJ e34l's.

(My tech swapped out the JJ's because they were microphonic).

I think these sovtek's arent really working for me, I'm not sure why, they're not nailing my sound the way the JJ's did.

I'd say they maybe dont have the same bite or maybe rich harmonics the JJ had, I feel they are abit sterile maybe.

The leads sounds better with the sovteks though, alot more rounded and less sharp,
but my main gripe is about rhythm, not lread tones.

Anyone here did this move from sovtek el34's(these are the wxt) to JJ's e34l's or the opposite, like me?

Any suggestions? other tubes that will sound more like the JJ but also consistent?

 

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Well, when I called rivera and told them what happened, they said it sounds like the tubes were microphonic.

The tech said the same thing, so I'm pretty positive thats what happened.

 

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Ringing noises when you mute the guitar after a note, and occasional squealing? That's preamp microphonic tubes, not poweramp.

Not exactly what I had, this is not the subject and what I'm upset about now though so I'm not willing to get into this.

 

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So what could actually make me fighting the sovtek's to sound good but having great sound with the JJ's after 5 minutes?

By the way, I talked to my tech and he said he'll have new JJ sets in he's store in two weeks, he offered me to take that time to play the sovtek's and if I'm not happy with them he'll switch the sovtek's to JJ's for me without an extra charge, I may go for that.

 

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Perhaps not biased the same as the JJ's were. From your description, potentially colder.

EDIT: Pun was not intended :lol:

Asked him about the bias, he said he did it exactly the way he does always.

 

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Just what I said in the other thread. :yesway:

To the OP : If you like JJ's, I don't understand why you keep looking for something else. :shrug: Just wait for the replacement set.

If he'd tell me he was making an order back than of course I'd wait, he only told me now when I called to say I dont like the sovtek's.

 

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Just a thought, but after all of this, have you considered the fact that you might just not like your amp?

I did considered this before I got to hear it with the JJ's,
I was really happy with my tone with the JJ's.

Also, usually when I had the 6L6's I kinda got them to sound ok at home but on the reharsel they sounded really bad, always thought I hated the speakers in the reharsel space.

With the JJ's it sounded great at home and in the reharsel space as well,
I was pretty surprised being happy with the sound through a t-75.

Too bad they had volume\gain issues at high volumes though.

 

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How old are your strings?

About 2 weeks old.

It's not the strings for sure, I've had the JJ's in my amp on friday.

 

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I'm asking, not just to split hairs or be a dick, but because I'm wondering if the power amp tubes were even a problem to begin with. How old were the JJs? What exactly was the problem that made you think they were microphonic? Do you still have the JJs?

I mean, power tubes are so far back in the gain staging, I really don't see how a microphonic tube could be a problem in the same way they often are in the preamp slots...

I just noticed that I'm hearing some kind of rattles when only playing on the 7th string real hard on the 5th fret - E, tried to do this through the neck and it happenes only on thius spot, is that a sign for anything?

What happend with the JJ's: did really strong rattles I've heard over my playing without even stop playing, on the reharsel they were just doing problems with the gain, making the amp sound slightly overdriven and than suddenly with alot of gain, without me touching the knobs.

I also had to raise the volume to 6 for being able to be heard against our drummer and a mesa roadster that was turned on about 10 o'clock.

Very unusual behaviour.

 

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Why were you surprised at being happy with the amp through G12T-75's? They're not bad speakers :scratch:

I used to think I dont like t-75's after playing my rivera through a t-75 and vintage 30's rivera cabinets, now I think that maybe it's alot more about the tubes for me.

 

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how often do you play? My strings lose brightness within a week, personally - and I usually wipe them down.

Also, assuming your EQ knobs were not touched by the tech, did you try adjusting the EQ to make up for the change from tubes?

I tried to adjust the eq in the last two hours.

I dont think it's a matter of strings brightness, I'm missing here a certain range to my opinion.

It's not like the tubes were sounding bad, I'm not even sure what's missing for me right now, I just know I was alot more happier with the sound I ghot from the JJ's, for the firtst time with this amp I felt thast I dont need to tweak it anymore.

 

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Power tubes.

Again? How could it be? He just installed these sovteks and they're suppoused to be super reliable.

 

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:lol: Sorry bro, just messin' with ya.

I think there is a psychological issue going on here; I don't mean you're nuts, I just mean that now "something has changed", and while there might be a slight difference, you're likely magnifying it. It's human nature, and most of the reason that people obsess over things like cables and pickup polepiece staggering. Sometimes when a difference is expected, we magnify it.

So either something happened to your amp (would have to hear it), or you have some bum tubes somehow (unlikely, but not impossible), or you should try sticking with this setup until you get your replacements and see if it changes when you swap em out again. :2cents:

Well I wasnt expecting the sound to be that different for me, I thought I'll still like it.
I just know that with the JJ's I felt like I'm in heaven, here I'm still fighting against the amp like I did on the last whole year.

 

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Looks like we both have very special ears lol.

 

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He's not having them, he said he had alot of consistency issues with them in the past.

 

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Well I dont know what to say, I listen to my ears and thats how I feel.
I know there are people who said theres a notable difference between the jj el34 and the e34l, so I guess I'm not that bizarre.

 

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That's a completely different tube TYPE, though.

For perspective, I went from 6L6s to EL34s in my Roadster. The amp doesn't really sound radically different, and I changed from one tube type to something radically different. Yes, I can hear a change and I definitely like what I hear, but it still sounds fundamentally like the same amp, whereas your impression seems to be that yours did change substantially. It just seems strange...

So I think you guys got it vall wrong.

The amp sounds very similar to before in perspective, but, it just sounds still less good
than the JJ's in my opinion.

It's not that I feel like I'm playing a different amp, but theres something missing for me in the sovtek's.

Kee in mind that I'm looking for a very sprcfific rhythm tone, the way I'm testing an amp, tubes, guitars, isnt playing leads or chugging on the 7th string or doing dgent stuff.

I'm strumming chords, playing add 9 chrods, power chords, listenning how the amp reacts and which specific range comes out, I dont care how the amp sounds on chugga chugga,
it's not what matters to me.

I can say that I really want my sound roar, to have a strong el34 bright, the soivteks sounds to me somewhat sterile in the same way the 6L6's sound sterile to me, very balanced, not a certain frequencies that the amp is focused on.

 

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Well, just wanted to say that it appeared to be that the volume knob of the fx loop on the back of the amp turned, probably in my car or something, and at home I'm using the fx loop to attenuate the amp.

Fixed the volume issue, the amp sounds great, not a difference I can actually recall from the JJ's.

You were all absolutely right LOL!

Thanks.

 

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Well I guess I never tried to figure out the send/return/blend knobs functions when using the loop to attenuate the volume, thats why I didnt spot it right away.