Tube Recommendation for my Rectoverb

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geraci89

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Alright everyone here's another one. I'm a tube noob and if I'm gonna spend the money to retube my amp I wanna make the right choices! This is kind of an extension from my post in the rectifier section. Not an intent to double post.

What I NEED from my tone:

- very smooth clean break up
- Able to digest full dynamic range of distortion pedals (ds2/sd1) at those clean break up levels.

I'm pretty happy with the drive channel overall but the switch lag kills me inside. This is why I wanna get the absolute best abilities from my clean channel so my pedals can do the other work.

Where my ignorance comes into play is which tubes might lead me closer to what I'm looking for. 6L6 or EL34? and then which brands inside of that. Do preamp tubes make a big difference in that department?...then there's there different types of those.

I aim mostly for a Chili Peppers kinda tone but also play Rage Against The Machine, Foo Fighters, Billy Talent and lots of oldies like Deep Purple, Frampton, AC/DC, etc.

I'd appreciate any specifics, or at least some direction to focus my research. Thanks!!
 
When I first began reading your post, I thought you were talking about preamp tubes.

I then realized you were asking about power tubes.

EL34's will give you a tighter bottom end and "better" power amp crunch. These tubes can be very dynamic when driven hard and have a huge emphasis on higher mid frequencies. EL34's have a lot of crunch when overdriven-not so smooth clip. I don't have a lot of experience with EL34 brands.

6L6's will be a lot "mellower" and rounder. I prefer these over the 34's when it comes to cleans. If your gain sounds are mainly coming out of the preamp/pedals, I would go for 6L6's. If you are thinking about overdriving a 6L6 power section, please keep in mind that these tubes don't have a lot of crunch and are a lot more mellow than the 34's-some people think 6L6's flub-out when overdriven. I recommend SED and Tung Sol when it comes to 6L6's.

I also suggest you look at preamp tubes. Unless you are planning on playing at gig volumes, power amp tubes will sound more or less the same while preamp tubes will add significant flavor to your overall tone and will only change slightly with volume.

I recommend Tung Sol 12AX7's.
 
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