where to drop gain?

[soundguruman]

hahahahahahahahahhaahhahhhhhahhahahhhaha!
Happy new years T Man.

[pdf64]

soundguruman, thanks for taking the time to explain your reasoning.
I guess everyone perceives and rationalises these things in their own way and it's interesting to be presented with a different perspective than my own.
Pete

[isaac]

Maybe I missed this, but it would definitely help to see the rest of the schematic. My favorite suggestions for dropping gain are local feedback on the second triode here, so a .047 cap and a 22M resistor in series from plate to grid. and jsut lowering the values of resistors in voltage dividers, NOW I believe your type of gain is more technical "gain" not overdrive gain. SO with that in mind, (please forgive if im repeating something, i tried to read it all, although i just now noticed theres a second page.... ) Anyway, I would suggest of course all the cathode ideas and etc. from above, and then probably adding a voltage divider right before the phase invertor, again this is if you already tried everything the smart people said and are at your wits end... so start with a 1M-470k (or my favorite 1M-220k) divider and then crank it up, if you have the same blocking distortion you would have to limit it some more. And also I like trying 12aT7's in the PI for that too. Usually I have to do this with higher gain preamps in EL84 equipped amps, please forgive if I'm saying something thats been said already.

Anyway, hoping that might help you,
off to read the second page of this thread........

[daz]

Thanks Issac, but i already got it thanks to chucks suggestion. I only wanted to drop gain because there was a tweak i wanted to do for tone, but it would have added too much gain. Tried chucks advice a couple days ago and that put the tone where i wanted it w.o having to drop gain elsewhere. So i'm perfectly happy right now and really don't wanna touch it. In fact, i should say again....thanks Chuck ! I think this really did the trick because in the last couple days every time i play it things just feel so right. usually it lasts one day then i start thinking theres something not quite perfect, and thats almost always the feel and dynamics. Thats what this fixed and damn good.