EH preamp tube honeymoon ends...

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fdesalvo

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I took the new EHs out and put the Mesa tubes back in and will never again look elsewhere. The perceived increase in gain was centered in the harshest band of the high and high-mid frequencies and this nastiness could not be dialed out.

After putting the stockers back in, the full, fat, and smooth character of my amp came roaring back to life.

Alas, I have learned a great lesson- that which is two-fold: If it ain't broke and you dig it, don't screw with it. And then, waitest thou until the honeymoon endeth before you posteth..I hope I did not mislead any of you.

Just my .02uf!

~F
 
ah the fated tube honeymoon. i had the same experience with jj 12ax7's. at first they sounded fantastic, but when i switched to some NOS GE 12ax7a's, suddenly the clean channel had a high end. i found that the best tone came from a GE in v1, and JJ's in v2, v3, and v4. sort of a good balance.
you might try putting a eh in one of the other positions to see if you hear the same balance.
 
fdesalvo said:
I took the new EHs out and put the Mesa tubes back in and will never again look elsewhere. The perceived increase in gain was centered in the harshest band of the high and high-mid frequencies and this nastiness could not be dialed out.

After putting the stockers back in, the full, fat, and smooth character of my amp came roaring back to life.
~F
WOW!! :eek: :eek: :shock: I said the EXACT same thing to a buddy of mine this morning after doing the same EXACT thing late last night!! I only replaced s1 for now as i'm running some Philips N.O.S. tubes in there too.
I had always heard the EH'S described using "more highs". I would have gotten a better idea if someone would of said they sound like an xxtreme presence boost!
 
OK...so what amps are you guys playing through, and what types of music?

The answer to these questions is essential to the issue.
 
The answer to these questions is essential to the issue.

Totally true. I have several customers that loves eh, they play metal music, I usually get the chance to hear different tubes and all of them have a big erection when I replace with eh.
Eh are without no doubts the best value for metal players. They have plenty of gain, good headroom and a best S/N ratio, but if you play, country, funk, jazz or other styles I recomend to you Svetlanas tubes they are the more linear tubes I had ever test, clean, well balanced no microphonics and the best headroom I never saw.
 
I used the EH's in my Triaxis {ser#5xxx} with a reverse phat mod. I also tried these in my mark 4 {which has Mike B.'s Metallica mod in it} and they were just brash as hell. My triaxis rack is setup for a straight metal sound and like I posted earlier, no matter how much you tweaked,just couldnt dial out the harshness of the uppermids.
 
DC10 head/1960a. The sound I go for is a mixture of Switchfoot, Nickelback, and a few others! The stock tubes in this amp were perfect, but I didn't realize it until I swapped them out. The EHs made the gain very unpleasant- and I love thick and oversaturated gain.

Lone Star State said:
OK...so what amps are you guys playing through, and what types of music?

The answer to these questions is essential to the issue.
 
fatboy135 said:
the mod is bass-10, trebble-10, middle-0 :wink:

:lol: Actually I bought it brand new when Mark Snyder worked for Mesa in N.Y. back in '92.He was the one who turned me on to this after he heard an amp that Mike B. did for Hetfield. I am not quite sure exactly what Mike B. modified but I actually think it was done in the power section rather than the Pre section. Again, I could be wrong about this as it was a long time ago and I have never run into anyone who has this mod{Mark ordered me two with this mod and I only took one,he kept the other}. As far as the sound goes, Mark and I A/B'ed it with his Mk2C+ and this head sounded better.Now we did throw brand new stock Mesa tubes in the MK2 for comparison,and I've always liked the MK2 with American tubes, so thats subject to taste. :) All in all it does have more gain than any other Mesa i've played thru.
 
fatboy135 said:
Mark Snyder the same as john petrucci friend???

Yes,thats the same Mark Snyder.He was working with John back then too.
Boogie had this little outlet place in Rockaway NY back then that was setup inside the back part of a rehearsal studio {if I remember correctly}.
Mark was a Mesa rep at that time. I guess not many people remember those days..{Man i'm old.. :roll: :lol: }

ok then if you take some photos of your pcb we could see what was the metallica mod...

While I have no problem with that, it will have to wait 'till I find the time to pull the thing out of the chassis and then borrow my buddies digital camera.I rackmounted this thing once years ago but did not like the way it sounded so back in the enclosure it went.Guess that woulda been the perfect time for pics. :(
 
Your Mark IV sounded different in the rackmount than in the head cab? Or was it amidst a fullblown rack setup?
 
Russ said:
Your Mark IV sounded different in the rackmount than in the head cab? Or was it amidst a fullblown rack setup?

I was using the head standalone with a full blown rack setup and decided that I would just pull it out of the head cab and install the guts in a rackmount,and then install that in my rack setup which I was using with it already. I found that when it was inside the rackmount enclosure the amp lost some of the bottom end and just didnt sound as "alive" as it did when in the cab enclosure. Now obviously I made sure I put the tubes back in the same way I took 'em out cause that could have made the difference. A buddy of mine did something similiar to this and went back to his enclosure to,noticing some similarities to what I experienced so i'm glad i'm not the only one who's ever heard of this. :wink:
I am not an amp tech so I am not sure exactly why it would sound differently or even have a clue as to make a guess,but I can only chalk up to the fact that ALOT of guys will rackmount their heads in the cab enclosures even though rackmount kits are available for them.
 

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