Tube Pulling/Watt Lowering Question.

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JF Omalycat

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Hey, fellas, got a quick question. I recently picked up a Dual Rec (95 or 96 two channel), and was reading you could pull the far left/right tubes and a rectifier tube to drop it to fifty watts.
Does it matter which rectifier tube gets pulled?? The online manual wasn't specific.
Basically, I'm trying to jam this in the living room between practices without taking down the family pictures...
 
You dont have to pull any of the rectifier tubes. Just take out the outside power tubes. Doing this, however, does not make a dual sound like a single.
 
the manual says to pull 1 rectifier tube if your using 2 outputs in tube rec mode.

From my experiance i ran this config without pulling a rec tube and blew a duet of El34's the first time i cranked up to band volume. can't say 100% that's the reason, but i pulled one rec tube after that. it doesn't matter in SS rectifier mode though.

Also you can just pull the 2 inside tubes and the 1 rec tube next to the outputs to leave room for better airflow. I ran mine like that with el34's and it was great.
 
Keep in mind it won't be much quieter at 50watts vs 100watts, due to the non-linear ratio of dB to watts. It's something like 6dB quieter, I think, so it won't take you to output tube saturation bliss at low volume levels-I've tried it. Could be wrong on that number, though. You will lose some clean headroom, as well. Can't hurt to try though, may find a tone you prefer. Also, everything I've read says it doesn't matter which of the rectifier tubes you pull.
 
Like others said you won't notice much difference on output volume but you will get a slightly better break up at lower volumes. Some DR's are better than others about breaking up at low volumes. Really depends on the amp. A tube screamer out front (or OD of your choice) can help to tighten things back up and give you a little more saturation at a lower volume.

Another suggestion is a straight up distortion pedal (Pocket Metal muff, Boss MZ, OCD, my opinion, some consider the OCD an OD but I thought it worked well on the clean channel as a straight distortion) on the clean channel. Whatever you choose you will have some tone loss but at bedroom levels you'll have that anyway.

Personally I used to pull the inner 2 pt and the inner rectifier. The next week I would put the inner two back in, pull the outer 2 pt and the outer rectifier tube. This was my attempt at rotating for even wear.

If your running stock Mesa preamp tubes (never really liked them personally) you might want to try some different tubes. PM me as I have some extras you could try. Tung Sol, Penta, jj, EH. If you haven't tried either suggestion it's worth a shot.
 
richt1760 said:
Keep in mind it won't be much quieter at 50watts vs 100watts, due to the non-linear ratio of dB to watts. It's something like 6dB quieter, I think, so it won't take you to output tube saturation bliss at low volume levels-I've tried it. Could be wrong on that number, though. You will lose some clean headroom, as well. Can't hurt to try though, may find a tone you prefer. Also, everything I've read says it doesn't matter which of the rectifier tubes you pull.
Click to expand...

It's 3db, it may not sound like much but it makes a big difference. personally i feel if someone wants tube saturation with a 100watt amp, they're mentally challenged. Unless you play outdoors or 1000+ capacity venus, you'll kill everyone else on stage.
 
clutch71 said:
Like others said you won't notice much difference on output volume but you will get a slightly better break up at lower volumes. Some DR's are better than others about breaking up at low volumes. Really depends on the amp. A tube screamer out front (or OD of your choice) can help to tighten things back up and give you a little more saturation at a lower volume.

Another suggestion is a straight up distortion pedal (Pocket Metal muff, Boss MZ, OCD, my opinion, some consider the OCD an OD but I thought it worked well on the clean channel as a straight distortion) on the clean channel. Whatever you choose you will have some tone loss but at bedroom levels you'll have that anyway.

Personally I used to pull the inner 2 pt and the inner rectifier. The next week I would put the inner two back in, pull the outer 2 pt and the outer rectifier tube. This was my attempt at rotating for even wear.

If your running stock Mesa preamp tubes (never really liked them personally) you might want to try some different tubes. PM me as I have some extras you could try. Tung Sol, Penta, jj, EH. If you haven't tried either suggestion it's worth a shot.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer, Clutch. I may take you up on trying those tubes. I picked up a Big Muff over the weekend (Russian variety) and it serving pretty well as a low volume option.
 
Oh, and for the record, even with the Dual at 50 watts, my ROV was clearly superior at lower volumes.
Not a big issue, though, because the Dual is absolutely glorious crancked up. WOW.
 

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