The Watering Hole

Drove it home too...

Had to trade the Reb in order to ensure the domestic tranquility, but kept the gig bag. Hehe!

No regrets.

Quick clean clip.  Sloppy playing as usual.  ;D

Strat LEFT, LP RIGHT both dry.  Short lead with the strat and some subtle OD.

I'm sure any sharp ears knew I had those reversed....

I want one

By the way the playing was not bad at all. Nice job

Thanks DBM.

I've had a bit more time with it and it is a hoot.  Not as edgy and stiff as my rebel was.  I think the iron is better too.

I was a little concerned at not being able to easily tune the bias, but I think once I get the tubes situated it will be a gem.

Tobe — Apr 19, 2010Thanks DBM.

I've had a bit more time with it and it is a hoot.  Not as edgy and stiff as my rebel was.  I think the iron is better too.

I was a little concerned at not being able to easily tune the bias, but I think once I get the tubes situated it will be a gem.

What is the problem with the BIAS? You need probes or you have to remove the amp from the cabinet? Whaddup?

desertbluesman — Apr 20, 2010[quote author=Tobe link=1271557666/0#2 date=1271706791]Thanks DBM.

I've had a bit more time with it and it is a hoot.  Not as edgy and stiff as my rebel was.  I think the iron is better too.

I was a little concerned at not being able to easily tune the bias, but I think once I get the tubes situated it will be a gem.

What is the problem with the BIAS? You need probes or you have to remove the amp from the cabinet? Whaddup?

It is cathode biased.  Could be a deal breaker for you.  There is some rasp and splatter in it with the stock tubes at higher preamp gain and volume.

Changing V1 helped.  The phase inverter is a regular Sovtek 12ax7wa like the preamp and loop tubes.  I will grab one I know is well balanced for the PI and eventually some tung sol 6V6s to compare to the Ruby's.

I'm also going to buy a set of EL34s as soon as I get mine.  Depending on what you want. many people are reporting great (but different) results with EL34s and 6L6s  

DreamTheaterRules — Apr 20, 2010I'm also going to buy a set of EL34s as soon as I get mine.  Depending on what you want. many people are reporting great (but different) results with EL34s and 6L6s  

A good point DTR - power tube swapping.  I have some 6L6s I plan to try and I will probably get some EL34s too.  Just waiting to see if anybody has issues subbing power tubes.  Looks promising.  I'm using my Rebel cab too.  I though the Tweaker cab sounded a little better, but I was in GC so it was really hard to evaluate.

no issues so far and lots of guys at TGP are doing it.  

There is no reason there would be issues.  The only thing with cathode bias is you can't go in and rebias with a simple knob and DMM, so for example, EL34s and 6L6's would be running a little cooler than normal.  But obviously that won't hurt them.  (In that amp they are running around 370 volts....  but if you settled on one tube type, you could change the cathode resistor accordingly...  ;)  )

Yep - That's more than a simple adjustment, but might be worth it.  I will void the warrantee only after lot's of experimentation.  Egnater quality is great but I want to make sure the amp is rock solid first  It was the first one out the door in our GC and the only one (display) they had gotten in.

Meanwhile perhaps find alternative tubes that sound decent running on the cool side.

It's all part of the fun for me.

Tobe — Apr 20, 2010 It is cathode biased.  Could be a deal breaker for you.

I don't know, I was gonna buy a Fender Blues Junior, and that amp is also cathode biased. And I kinda liked the sound of those. (But they are known to be BIASED pretty hot out of the factory so that may be why I like them).

If you are going to change out the resistor to reset the BIAS, can't you put in an adjustable pot in the place of the resister? Just asking, because I don't know squat about electronics really.

Bloozemon - I forgot that you liked the Blues Junior.

I liked my Blues Junior but in a narrow range of settings.  If I set up with a bit of hair on the clean with a light touch, at moderate volume, and dug in on a string or smacked a chord hard, it was always brittle and harsh.  I did not mess with the tubes in it.  The Rebel was a bit like that but I liked the overall tone better.

I have a US made 12ax7 in V1 and set of US made 6l6s in my Tweaker this evening.  They prolly have seniority on Chase.  With the amp set on the US preamp / vintage / hot and the gain at about 10:30: beautiful semi-clean that breaks warm when I dig in without a 108dB ice pick.  The touch sensitivity is nice - clean to distorted and I don't feel like I'm fighting the amp.

I wouldn't think the power tubes would matter so much at lower volumes, but I think this set of Ruby's is harsh by comparison.

Need to shut it off and get a few winks...

After swapping a few tubes for V1 and the PI I got a combination that smoothed it out a bit and softened the upper mids.  The Ruby 6V6s are back in and sounding great after the preamp tube swap.  Especially clean to mid gain.  Higher gain with the stock 6V6 tubes is somewhat grainy (may be a characteristic of the amp.)  Regardless, it sounds incredible to me now from clean to wail.

It takes pedals well - especially a nice OD.  It is a very good match with my Way Huge Pork Loin pedal.  Clean boost pushes it to sing and doesn't get ice picky or create a huge volume jump.  That said, guys who like nothing but a cable between guitar and amp should like it too.  The pure tone is addictive.

The switchable preamp voicings is a very cool feature as well as the vinatge and modern switch.  My Elite 80 speaker is fairly neutral and works OK to get the target tone of each voice, with some adjustment, definitely changes the tonality.  Matching it up with different speakers should get really close.

The master volume doesn't go from nothing to too loud with the gain maxed either!  ++

Black knobs on black panel are hard to see in the dark.

I liked my Rebel well enough, but I like the Tweaker's tone and feel much more.  It's a well tuned and versatile little time sucker...

Well that's enough about that.  I hope you get your's soon Howie.

Tobe,

Glad you're digging yours.  Just waiting on paypal to send me my check that I requested 10 days ago...   :(

Can't wait to throw a couple different types of guitars at it, and speakers.  I'm pretty excited about it.  (oh, and... can't wait to threw a few flavors of OD pedal at it as well.   ;) )