Sup guys, I have been a lurker here for about 7 years and was wondering if I could get some advice on my Road King 2.
Issues are as follows.
I need new tubes for several reasons
1 - Tube went bad in V5, any time I engage the loops it has a small crackle and no sound or very inaudible sound. This is not much of an issue as I use the slave to my reverb and delay lines to a fender ultima chorus combo. I was using a dod 6 band in the loop but it seams frizzled, small crackling and pops when engaged and led on 2kz band is faded and flickering.
2 - My high gain stages are not very high gain. I don't use the Reverb so I swapped the V4 with V3 and gain is much smoother and higher, still a bit muddy and dark.
3 - They are all original tubes from the year the amp was released and I used to play about 3-4 hrs a day through it almost every other day. Not sure lifespan on it but that could be why they are weak or failing.
My guitar set up is Fender Stand Strat with 2 Cobalt noiseless Pickups in Neck and Mid pos and Dimarzio Air Norton in Bridge - MXR Phase 90 - TC Electronics Hyper Gravity Comp set to Strat Comp from toneprint (I use this with the blend fairly low just to add some Sustain and to push the amp a bit) into the amp. The amp is using a 2x12 openback cab I made its 16" deep but I may add some panels to close the back up a bit to make it tighter sounding. I also made my own Power Soak So I didn't have to play at super high levels to get that power amp distortion. When I turn on the Power Soak it is probably 14Db lower and rolls off the higher frequency's a bit but not to much really.
Right now its not such an issue as I am recording just the rhythms in more of a rock tone and this amp has all of that.
Channel 1 as my dist channel for that fender overdriven tone- master 12 oc, presence 12 oc, bass 10 oc, mid 2 oc, treb 1 oc, gain 1 oc in tweed, 2 x 6l6 and 1 5U4 . Master is set at 12 oc in spongy mode. I so love this sound its not funny. Its all power section overdrive and just mean as hell.
Channel 2 is my Clean Sound Most of the time but I also use it for that Marshal sound on occasion.
Channels 3 and 4 just don't get that high gain unless I EQ out 200 Hz about 2-3 Db and boost 800 and 1.6K up a few Db and then it seems to loose its character and just sound thin. Some of that I know is from my cab being open back but I have plugged it into a closed back 4x12 and it was even thinner sounding just tighter. The gain is not high enough either(swapping V4 with V3 helped but not enough). I also seam to have to roll my bass all the way down to get ride of the inter-modulation Distortion. This don't seam right to me.
The major problem I have is Money atm, I know I need tubes but I could probably only get one every few weeks as my kids are eating up my cash. My goal is to get to where I can get a really good Metal rhythm like Metallica 80's and Megadeth 90's tones and a nice Liquid Tone Like Eric Johnson, David Gilmour and Satriani type leads. So if I was to replace 1 tube at a time what would be the first and second tubes to replace and with what? I was guessing V1 would probably be a good start but I'm not sure if that's gonna help me get the gain and clarity I need on channels 3 and 4 for what I want so would V3 be first. Also V6 should probably be upgraded also.
I was told by Doug's Tubes to get a RUBY 12AX7AC7 HG+ first but he didn't tell me in what position, I'm guessing V3.
Thanks for reading and I'm hoping you all can help me out.
Issues are as follows.
I need new tubes for several reasons
1 - Tube went bad in V5, any time I engage the loops it has a small crackle and no sound or very inaudible sound. This is not much of an issue as I use the slave to my reverb and delay lines to a fender ultima chorus combo. I was using a dod 6 band in the loop but it seams frizzled, small crackling and pops when engaged and led on 2kz band is faded and flickering.
2 - My high gain stages are not very high gain. I don't use the Reverb so I swapped the V4 with V3 and gain is much smoother and higher, still a bit muddy and dark.
3 - They are all original tubes from the year the amp was released and I used to play about 3-4 hrs a day through it almost every other day. Not sure lifespan on it but that could be why they are weak or failing.
My guitar set up is Fender Stand Strat with 2 Cobalt noiseless Pickups in Neck and Mid pos and Dimarzio Air Norton in Bridge - MXR Phase 90 - TC Electronics Hyper Gravity Comp set to Strat Comp from toneprint (I use this with the blend fairly low just to add some Sustain and to push the amp a bit) into the amp. The amp is using a 2x12 openback cab I made its 16" deep but I may add some panels to close the back up a bit to make it tighter sounding. I also made my own Power Soak So I didn't have to play at super high levels to get that power amp distortion. When I turn on the Power Soak it is probably 14Db lower and rolls off the higher frequency's a bit but not to much really.
Right now its not such an issue as I am recording just the rhythms in more of a rock tone and this amp has all of that.
Channel 1 as my dist channel for that fender overdriven tone- master 12 oc, presence 12 oc, bass 10 oc, mid 2 oc, treb 1 oc, gain 1 oc in tweed, 2 x 6l6 and 1 5U4 . Master is set at 12 oc in spongy mode. I so love this sound its not funny. Its all power section overdrive and just mean as hell.
Channel 2 is my Clean Sound Most of the time but I also use it for that Marshal sound on occasion.
Channels 3 and 4 just don't get that high gain unless I EQ out 200 Hz about 2-3 Db and boost 800 and 1.6K up a few Db and then it seems to loose its character and just sound thin. Some of that I know is from my cab being open back but I have plugged it into a closed back 4x12 and it was even thinner sounding just tighter. The gain is not high enough either(swapping V4 with V3 helped but not enough). I also seam to have to roll my bass all the way down to get ride of the inter-modulation Distortion. This don't seam right to me.
The major problem I have is Money atm, I know I need tubes but I could probably only get one every few weeks as my kids are eating up my cash. My goal is to get to where I can get a really good Metal rhythm like Metallica 80's and Megadeth 90's tones and a nice Liquid Tone Like Eric Johnson, David Gilmour and Satriani type leads. So if I was to replace 1 tube at a time what would be the first and second tubes to replace and with what? I was guessing V1 would probably be a good start but I'm not sure if that's gonna help me get the gain and clarity I need on channels 3 and 4 for what I want so would V3 be first. Also V6 should probably be upgraded also.
I was told by Doug's Tubes to get a RUBY 12AX7AC7 HG+ first but he didn't tell me in what position, I'm guessing V3.
Thanks for reading and I'm hoping you all can help me out.
