Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Trying to choose which replacement tubes to get for my bass amp.
Svetlana or Tungsol.

Question is which ones will have that "magic sparkle" (if at all).
Been through groove tubes and EH.

My original issue tubes still sound awesome but one hums

Thanks,
B)

Ezen

My old Sunn Model T has Svetlana's in it. I occsionally play bass thru it and they seem to have a real rounded warm bass tone to me.

I think it originally had Sylvanias in it. These are 6550s, which is whats in the old SVT amps, if I remember right. Ive only replaced the tubes a couple of times thru the years in this amp. Lately it has developed a little buzz, I havent tryed to fix it.

In my Mesa I occasionally run some THD Yellowjackets with Tungsol EL 84s. This is guitar but they have a kind of icepick feel to them. I have to really dial in the treble,presence and mids to get a good warm tone out of them.

So, it sounds to me like the svets will give warm sound.
Do they give good clarity and "life" to the sound as well?
As a guitar player you probably know what I mean.

I had GT 6l6 GE reissues in the amp and it might as well be a solid state amp with the "on-off" sound they gave me. They functioned...thats about it.

The set is for sale right now on ebey as a matter of fact...lol...I hated them.
Thanks for the input,
B)

They arent 6L6s they are 6550s, but yes they are really warm sounding to me and kind of have a bounce to the sound if thats what you are talking about. A local tech put them in this amp about 15 yrs ago. Lately Ive been toying with tubes in my Mesa and the other night I just looked in the old Sunn. I thought I still had Sylvanias in the amp. The Model T is kinda bright sounding compared to the old SVT heads. Those little flip top Ampegs still have one of the best bass sounds that Ive ever heard.

Good Luck

Shredd6 was experimenting with tubes on here a month or so ago, maybe he will give his take on tubes, of course hes another guitarist.

Experimenting is an understatement..

I have now created a philosophy and theory..Hahaha.

First of all.. Any modern Tung Sol is not allowed within 150-ft of my amp. I have a restraining order against them. They are evil beasts that tried to kill my tone.

Over the past month, I've been able to successfully save 3 local Mesa users, (and 1 online TR owner) from their tone hell.

All of them had one thing in common.. They all thought the problem was their power tubes. When in fact it was their preamp tubes (more specifically, what brands they were using).

I have yet to run across a power tube that creates sparkle. It's not their job to. A poor power tube might restrict certain frequencies from coming through. Better power tubes might enhance certain highs or lows. But they're mainly responsible for the boldness, tightness, sponginess, saturation level, ect..They don't create tone. The sparkle would have to come from your preamp.


I'm not familiar with Bass amps, but if yours has preamp tubes, there's hope to find that sparkle you're looking for. If not, try the Svetlanas and hold your breath. That is what I have in my DR right now, they sound great, but I didn't find them to be any different than my Mesas. Nothing significant anyway.

So I guess my first question would be, what's in your preamp?

Shredd,

I think bass amps are more dependent on the power tubes than say a guitar amp. Guitar you are looking more for certain qualitys in the distortion, which starts with preamps. Bass to me is more brute power and clean power to handle the natural spikes of playing.

In my Mesa Im still playing with the YellowJackets with EL84s, its a total different feel than the 6L6s. I actually prefer the 6L6s, but I started using a Weber Mass attenuator to control the volume level. Have you tried any EL34s in your Mesa?

Watch it Teddey! My mom worked for Tung-sol a half century ago!

Did you know that they produced the first automobile headlight lamp back in 1909?

The bass player in my first band (The Lost Minds, circa 1966) used an Ampeg B-15 flip top Portaflex. Sounded great!

The bassist on my original song "Come on to Me " used an SVT. Probably the best bass amp ever produced, in my opinion.

My wife, Cin, back in her playin' days, got excellent tone and power out of her setup. Peavey SOLID STATE pro 1000 bass preamp, PAS SOLID STATE 100 watt stereo power amp. 18" 4 ohm Peavey Black Widow mounted in a custom E.V. spec. cabinet. and last but not least, 10" Altec Lansing.

My current bass player (my son Ry) uses a little Peavey TNT. Sounds ok after it warms up. (not all transistorized amps suck when it comes to bass amps, just most of them)

Howlin'

Watch it Teddey! My mom worked for Tung-sol a half century ago!

Did you know that they produced the first automobile headlight lamp back in 1909?


Howlin'

Well then, she worked for Tung Sol when they were good. The key word was "modern". I have a NOS Tung Sol in my preamp right now, and it is awesome.

I did not know that. But that's a pretty cool piece of history.

You know.. A while back I actually came across pictures of an old Westinghouse tube factory. And wouldn't you know it.. It was all women working in the factory..Maybe there's something to that. Those women sure knew how to make killer tubes. God bless 'em all.

Right now, modern tubes in general are nowhere near as good as NOS. There are a couple that are close, but sadly, the modern Tung Sols are about the worst I've ever heard in my life. You would think that since a lot of different branded tubes are being made in the same Russian factory, that they would be fairly close to each other in performance. But it's just not the case. The Sovtek LPS is made in the same factory, and they're way better than anything else coming out of there. (in my opinion of course).

JW, there are some Ampeg Bass amps that use 12ax7's and 12au7's. And that's what I was wondering. Because if there happens to be one in his amp, and it's dying, or it just happens to be a stock modern brand, then changing the power tubes won't help to get the sound he's after.

About the el34's.. No. I haven't tried them. But I never really felt like I needed to. I like the 6l6's, and I'm always in Bold Recto Mode. As long as my preamp sounds good, I'm good. My DR is sounding extremely incredible these days.

Shredd I mostly play in spongy mode on mine. I had a box of preamp tubes and have been moving them around some in my amp. Im not sure what I have where right now but Im getting a good sound. I have pulled a pair of power tubes and one rec tube, and also bought a Weber Mass attenuator. I love it! I can play at bedroom levels with my master volumes around 2 oclock on channel 2-3. For my needs Im actually running channel 3 in vintage mode, and 2 in raw mode. I only had a couple of songs I play where I needed that modern 3 channel sound so now Im just using a pedal.

A couple of weeks ago my group practiced at my house outside. Our bass player has a 8x10 Hartke cab and a Hartke head and he turned it up and kept saying I cant hear you. So I said lets take a break. I put all the tubes back in Triple unhooked the attenuator and went to the bold setting, I also lined out of the slave out into my old Sunn head and another 4x12. It was awesome to really crank it up. He said thats a lot better, when I would go to my mic for backups I couldnt hear anything but my amp and we have great monitors. I kind of had to find a sweet spot to stand a little out of the direct path of my amps. I guess thats really what these amps are made for, crankin up. Of course the places we are booked to play in this setup would be totally useless but it sure was fun for the afternoon.

Tung-sol.

Trying to choose which replacement tubes to get for my bass amp.
Svetlana or Tungsol.

Question is which ones will have that "magic sparkle" (if at all).
Been through groove tubes and EH.

My original issue tubes still sound awesome but one hums

Thanks,
B)

Look for some NOS RCA blackplate tubes or buy the Mesa Boogies They match their sets better than anyone

Trying to choose which replacement tubes to get for my bass amp.
Svetlana or Tungsol.

Question is which ones will have that "magic sparkle" (if at all).
Been through groove tubes and EH.

My original issue tubes still sound awesome but one hums

Thanks,
B)

Look for some NOS RCA blackplate tubes or buy the Mesa Boogies They match their sets better than anyone

+1. RCA Blackplates are really good tubes. NOS tubes tend to last longer.

Hey Shredd,

I picked up a new little toy.

Mesa Roadster Combo 2x12

I havent found the sweet spot yet but Im working on it

Nice!!!

Tungsol 6L6GW STR or TAD 6L6WGC-STR