Tweet
Hi All. Recently finished a 5 watt SE amp. Pleased with it but I cant seem to get the clean sounds I want. It all sounds a bit `gritty`. Would a tube change help? (Its got an ECC83 and an EL84 at the moment) Or am I looking at the wong thing to tweak the sound. Thanks.
-
-
It's hard to know without seeing a schematic of some sort but usually yes, you can change the preamp valve to a lower gain one to get more clean sounds. That said, single ended amps aren't known for being especially clean and 5 watts doesn't offer a lot of power to get truly clean either.
Simplest thing to do without getting your hands dirty is to to replace the ecc83 maybe with a ecc82, 5751, 12ay7 etc. There are loads of options out there...
If you're willing to do some tinkering, which is probably why you came here in the first place, then the fine people on the forum will be happy to help you out more. -
You need to supply more info. Schematic would be very helpful. But more important - how are you using the amp?
How loud are you playing? Cranked? Bedroom volume? Is the sound dirty even at low volume, or is the problem that you want louder clean sounds?
You will not get louder clean sounds by changing tubes. For that, you need more output power (which probably means bigger transformers and a bigger output tube). Changing to a lower gain preamp tube makes the clean range of the volume knob bigger, but at the same volume as before.Comment
-
Thanks for quick replies. Thats given me something to think about.Comment
Comment