Groove Tubes Marshall distortion Confusion!! lol.

[texastone]

Whats up guys I have a Rivera Knucklhead K100 amp that I want to put new tubes in. I ordered a couple of EL34 Groove Tubes gold series from ebay and they came and I was gonna grab a couple more for a complete set but I opened these up and they are rated "10" for distortion and google sites say that they are only for bass guitars and keyboards. So what the hell man is it gonna take that marshall distortion sound away I take it?? And do you really have to get your amp re biased when replacing tubes?? I hate that I may have spent 40 bucks for nothing for these damn tubes that are rated a 10. I always thought that the amp itself made the biggest difference in your sound not the tubes they just add lol. Thanks for help!!

[Chuck H]

Amps, tubes, gutars, picks, your own hands, how old your strings are and the freaking barometer reading all effect your tone. And you have it right. A Groove Tubes "10" is the most stringent, clean tube rating as they test them. If you need a quad of tubes you will need to BUY two more just like them to see what they sound like. I wouldn't advise putting tubes of different current caracteristics in the same amp on the same bias circuit. It would probably be OK (heck, it may even sound good) if you set a happy medium on the bias for the different tubes, but I've never done it so I can't reccommend it.

Yes you should adjust your bias voltage to suit new tubes. The tubes are the amplifiers and they are somewhat variable. The bias is a parameter that these devices (the tubes) rely on to be stable.

You can always sell the "10" tubes (you bought them, someone else will too) and buy some different tubes. I would suggest a matched quad to save time and effort. Do some research as to what tubes sound good in your amp. Guys are going over this info as nausium all over the web. If you decide to stick with Groove Tubes (the only brand AFAIK that has the distortion rating) then you'll need to decide how much power tube distortion you really want. You play a 100 watt amp. Do you crank it? Does it have a master volume that you use? If you don't currently use power tube distortion you have no way of knowing if you'll want more or less. Example, if your currently NOT using your amp in a way that distorts the power tubes but you really want "that crunchy el34 sound" so you get into some low rated Groove Tubes that actually allow you to get a little power tube break up, but it messes up your tone instead of adding something you like. It could also make it so you can't get as loud clean. That could be a problem too. Do you understand what you really want?

Chuck

[texastone]

Okay right on Chuck I am actually using the Distortion side on the amp and I usually don't crank it cause the clubs are just too damn small. I think you are right I will just go ahead and maybe throw these babies on ebay and sell them and find something in the earlier stages. And I will for sure take the amp to a professional and have him do the Bias I guess cause I have no clue on that!! lol. Thanks for the reply man!

[Enzo]

That cleanest power tube rating has to be in a context. That refers to how easy or hard it is to break them up when you overdrive them. You indicated you rarely open up the volume, so I have to think you are NEVER overdriving the power tubes. SO what does it matter how hard it is to break them up? That is like worrying that your mom's car might not be as stable at speeds over 140mph as it might be with stiffer shocks. Mom never drives faster than 50 anyway. The tubes don;t just sit there distorting. Power tubes don;t go into distortion until you overdrive tham. That won;t happen at 20 watts. Your tone is coming from your preamp.

The one single thing that has the most affect on your amp tone is the speaker.

[graham]

most of the boutique tube sellers are just buying up sovtek valves so called calibrating them and marketing them at 3 times the price.Learn how to rebais your output stage correctley,use the current method and don't forget that the most accurate test on good sound is your ears.