Trem O Verb tube favorites?

once upon a time, back in 1994, i purchased a T-Verb combo. i think it was the first run of that model as it had the Sus-4 chassis shock mount, the BIG mesa logo in between the two speakers, and a SERIAL fx loop. prior to this amp i had only owned transistor amps. namely, a Carvin SX-100. can you imagine my delight the first time i fired it up? anyway, i sold it a few years later and regretted it to to this day pretty much. i've owned a few recent rectos that just didn't compare. they're doing something different now. anyway, i just found a T-Verb on ebay in beautiful condition the other night and sniped it at a great price. the first thing i do when i get a new tube amp is put in fresh power tubes and keep the existing ones as backup. i'm going to stay w/6L6's but am looking for any suggestions from you T-Verb owners out there as to which ones you like, and why. also- which ones to avoid. i was on a Carr kick for a while and really liked the SED Winged-C's in those amps. i might try 'em in my T-Verb unless you guys have some good recommendations. while i appreciate all input, i can't afford/justify some obscure NOS that'll cost hundreds. i need to stay on earth price-wise. thanks!

Original owener from the first run(head).
I like 6CA7's.

I re-tubed mine with JJ's from Eurotubes. 6L6's and a little more gain in the preamp section. Also changed out the rectifiers with GZ 34's. Check out the full re-tube kits online at www.eurotubes.com
Sounds Killer across the board. I think it cost about $ 160 with shipping.

Good Luck, Mike

I re-tubed mine with JJ's from Eurotubes. 6L6's and a little more gain in the preamp section. Also changed out the rectifiers with GZ 34's. Check out the full re-tube kits online at http://www.eurotubes.com
Sounds Killer across the board. I think it cost about $ 160 with shipping.

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yes, i've seen those retube kits. do you like them DRASTICALLY over what you had in your t-verb before? i did a complete retube w/JJ's with my fender prosonic a couple of years ago. i really wasn't that impressed. don't get me wrong, the tubes weren't BAD either. i've also tried some other JJ tubes. again, good but not great. i think bob p at eurotubes is a great guy, but he's also good at creating hype around his tubes that don't seem to live up to all the hype in my opinion. at least w/the amps i tried 'em in. (prosonic, budda, carr,)
who knows, maybe they just weren't the right match for my amps. not ruling them out for my t-verb. just skeptical at this point. we shall see...

I did hear a drastic improvement in the sound, but in all fairness, I changed from EL34's to 6L6's, and I bought the amp about a year prior and had no idea how old those tubes were. On another note, I had an issue with the amp about 2 months after I installed the tubes. I took it directly to Mesa in Petaluma 20 miles away. They fixed the problem ,(LDR's), but told me when they did their preliminary diagnostics, one of the new JJ's was bad. They replaced it, no charge. They told me if I had bought Mesa tubes, they have a warranty period unlike the JJ's.

Hope that helps, Mike

They fixed the problem ,(LDR's)

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what's an LDR? thanks for the info Mike.

Light Dependent Resistor, often used in amps for channel switching, etc.

They replaced them at Mesa no charge even though I am not the original owner. One of the tech guys told me they had bought a batch that were not up to par. The sound was dropping out in one the channels, and the bad LDR's were the problem.

Mike

Light Dependent Resistor, often used in amps for channel switching, etc.

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anyone know how much this fix would cost if i ever need to have it done on mine? i've seen some people say they weren't charged by boogie, while others were. i'm on the opposite cost of boogie, so i don't think i'd want to ship it if it's a relatively inexpensive repair that i can have done locally.

I think I remember something like $50.
Call Boogie they are good about such things.
If you can do it yourself ~ it's not that hard to do.
The parts are very cheap. Most of the job is getting the amp apart.
The last time I had a problem (a long time ago) they mailed me the parts for free.
I did the work myself.

If you can do it yourself ~ it's not that hard to do

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so if i'm comfortable w/a soldering iron and pulling the chassis, (which i am) it shouldn't be a problem for me i take it?

I had a problem with the switching relay on my MARK IV back about 1990. It was not triggering with my Rockmen Octopus. I know my way around a amp a bit. They told me what needed to be changed and the only Q they asked was do you know how to solder and do you know the safety stuff. My father fixed amps on the side in the 70's and early 80's so I had been around more than a few.
Like I said that was a long time ago and I told them I had been around a lot of open amps. I rather work on a amp than a car electronics any day.

so regarding Tverb tubes... what do people think of the current Mesa 6L6s... 440s I think?

mine recently arrived with EL34s and I'd like to get a set of 6l6s...

GREAT amp btw!!

I've retubed my Trem'O'Verb combo with JJ 6L6's. I also bought a load of 12AX7's, as I got a good price, from Watford Valves (dot co dot uk). Eurotubes has really good prices, but some of the stuff I recieved from him wasn't up to par with the stuff I get from Watford (where I've yet to recieve a valve that measures anything but 90-100% on my tester).

Back to the tubes, the JJ's were a tad darker sounding, and the 12AX7's sounded too mushy for my taste. So I'm keeping the Mesa 12AX7's (chinese) in the amp, and adjusting the EQ to get "my sound" back with the JJ's. I had the Winged C's in it before, and I'm gonna use those for recording and stuff like that - no need to burn through expensive tubes rehearsing or gigging, when noone but you will hear the tiny difference.

Kind regards, Jake

groovebelly said:

so regarding Tverb tubes... what do people think of the current Mesa 6L6s... 440s I think?

mine recently arrived with EL34s and I'd like to get a set of 6l6s...

GREAT amp btw!!

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I just put in what is supposed to be a relatively new set into my Rectoverb and didn't care for the amount of saturation compared to the STR454's. The bottom was there, the cleans were better and the tone was fine (Tighter)....it just didn't give me a liquid sustainy lead tone like I was used to with the old tubes. Then again, the 440's are supposedly Ruby 6L6CC-STR and the 454's are Winged C's...which sell for ALOT more.

I just popped a new set of Green Mesa 440 6L6s into the Tverb; verdict is still out... high end is definitely rolled off compared to the EL34s(447s), cleans are clearer and the blues channel is less buzzy...

also, my new SPAX7 with the black sleeve thingy doesn't fit into V1 in the Tverb b/c of the tube sheath!?! what were they thinking?