New Mesa (relabeled JJs) AX7s contributing to harsh tone?

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MusicManJP6

MusicManJP6

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I've started noticing my tone is harsh (mostly in Ch2) and the clean channel does not have as much clean headroom as it should. I am getting some harsh light breakup even with gain at 9:00 on Fat clean. It's been my experience that JJ preampt tubes either sound awesome in an amp or make it harsh around the notes which is what I'm hearing from the V currently. Crunch and Edge modes are the biggest offenders for harsh tone. I have to keep the presence and treble below 11:00 or the tone gets very harsh (not brittle - it's ugly distortion) when hitting the strings with some force. I've heard some peeps talk about using TungSols with good results. Anyone else notice what I'm describing? Again, it's not icepicky, brittle type of harsh, it's a ugly distortion/clipping type of distortion around the notes being played. It's extremely noticable with single coil pickups on CH2 and hums on CH1. Thoughts?
 
I think they do...I replaced all my preamp tubes with Tung Sol Reissues...and it's so much nicer now...give it a try if youre up to it...I got all Tung Sol Reissue gold (don't know if the gold really makes that much of a difference)...but I did make sure that they they had matched sections...which I think might be important since many channels are spanned throughout multiple tubes
 
Nermel said:
I think they do...I replaced all my preamp tubes with Tung Sol Reissues...and it's so much nicer now...give it a try if youre up to it...I got all Tung Sol Reissue gold (don't know if the gold really makes that much of a difference)...but I did make sure that they they had matched sections...which I think might be important since many channels are spanned throughout multiple tubes
Click to expand...

Thanks. Can you give some detailed comparisons for each channel as to what the TS RIs did for the tone over the JJs? I assume you replaced the JJs because they sounded harsh to your ears as well.
 
I thought that the JJ's sounded a bit fizzy especially on high gain settings...I still get light breakup on Fat...even around 9...but I think that's how the amp is...I find the clean channel more bell like and the fat/tweed settings to be much more pleasing...the breakup sounds more organic...channel two and three have a nicer distortion...I've noticed less of a wobbly harsh breakup than with the JJs
 
I can get clean tones out of the fat mode with the gain over noon. That's both with the stock 6L6's and the Sylvania EL-34's.
 
Scary said:
I can get clean tones out of the fat mode with the gain over noon. That's both with the stock 6L6's and the Sylvania EL-34's.
Click to expand...

What guitar/pickups? I'm thinking the pickups in my EBMM JP are just too hot. Need to see if the PRS CE24 sounds as harsh.
 
Nermel said:
I think they do...I replaced all my preamp tubes with Tung Sol Reissues...and it's so much nicer now...give it a try if youre up to it...I got all Tung Sol Reissue gold (don't know if the gold really makes that much of a difference)...but I did make sure that they they had matched sections...which I think might be important since many channels are spanned throughout multiple tubes
Click to expand...

May I ask where you bought from? And what exactly do you mean by "matched sections"?


Thanks! :D
 
MusicManJP6 said:
I've started noticing my tone is harsh (mostly in Ch2) and the clean channel does not have as much clean headroom as it should. I am getting some harsh light breakup even with gain at 9:00 on Fat clean. It's been my experience that JJ preampt tubes either sound awesome in an amp or make it harsh around the notes which is what I'm hearing from the V currently. Crunch and Edge modes are the biggest offenders for harsh tone. I have to keep the presence and treble below 11:00 or the tone gets very harsh (not brittle - it's ugly distortion) when hitting the strings with some force. I've heard some peeps talk about using TungSols with good results. Anyone else notice what I'm describing? Again, it's not icepicky, brittle type of harsh, it's a ugly distortion/clipping type of distortion around the notes being played. It's extremely noticable with single coil pickups on CH2 and hums on CH1. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Curious if you experience the same kind of breakup using just the clean switch.

One of the ways I've discovered as key to keeping maximun headroom is to have the amp's global master up full.
 
lucidology said:
Curious if you experience the same kind of breakup using just the clean switch.

One of the ways I've discovered as key to keeping maximun headroom is to have the amp's global master up full.
Click to expand...

Yea, I've noticed that the 'clean' mode does indeed stay cleaner (imagine that!). I've not tried maxing the output. I'll try that.

Haven't received my tubes yet. Hopefully I'll get them on Monday because i'll be out of town for a week after that!
 

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