Hi, I'm new to this board and did a search on the SS amp. I can see alot of you guys love them. I picked mine up brand new from GC last weekend and love it with the exception of the Vibrolux channel. I play alot of Skynyrd type stuff and it is great. I noticed some people saying the amp came with cheap tubes, not biased correct etc. My amp was loaded with Groove Tubes and the bias was a little cold at 27 and 29 respectively; I adjusted it to 32-34 ma. What tubes did all of yours come with? Just curious. Thanks.
I put a set of TAD 6L6's in it but the biggist difference I found was putting an Eminence RWB speaker in it. I didn't like the Vibrolux channel either until I did that. Now it's my favorite setting.
My SS head came with the bias at 23 ma. Bumped it up to 38ma. I bought mine for the dirty channel-imagine that! Best dirty channel Ive heard in a Fender(including the Prosonic ). Until recently I liked the Vibrolux side for cleans exclusively. I thought the Bassman side broke up very raspy(unmusically) until I tried it with a speaker with a stiffer cone. Seems much nicer thru a 150 watt Tonker. Bob
rockon1, that bias sounds kinda high. What tubes were in yours? I like the V30 speakers, I have them in my JCM 800 and my Crate V16. One other thing, I wish this amp had a button to turn the reverb off, it is way to strong for me past one on the burn channel!
Yep. Im not totally sure if the stock 5881 Sovteks are 25 or 30 watt bottles(I believe they are 30 watt) but Im using 6L6WXT's. Actually thinking about the Sovtek 5881's are rugged if nothing else! Never had one fail on me. Anyhow- 30 watt tube divided by 470 volts = .064 ma X 60% = 38 ma. So 38 ma is 60% idling dissapation. Some would say almost cool... Even with 25 watt tubes that would make it around 70% dissapation. 25/470=.053 X 70% = 37 ma. Bob
PM sent to GCDEF. rockon1, When I rebiased my amp, the voltages were 500 and 505...is this to high? It's quite a bit different than yours.
No expert but I'd say its fine. At 23 ma mine was at 493 + v. I imagine that could fluxuate with wall voltage too. As I increased the bias the voltage dropped a bit. At 38 mv the voltage was about 473 or so. 32-34 ma should be fine maybe a tad cold. FWIW I didnt hear much of a difference between 32 and 38 ma. Bob
My head came in with the factory GT labled Sovetecs in the pre and a set of the Tungsol 5881's. I wanted a little more headroom and punch so I went to a set of JJ 6L6's I had on hand. I set the bias at 33ma on the 6L6's. I swapped the preamp tubes for a Mullard long plate in V1 Chinese 80's production Shungans in the rest except for a NOS Mullard AT7 in the PI and a GE 5751 in the loop. Watch what you use in your PI in the SS as I had a 5751 in the PI and it really added a lot of noise and a shrillness to the high end. Make sure to use a quality 12AT7 in the PI of these as the SS's are quite sensitive there. Swapping out the pre amp tubes made a HUGE difference in mine!! Do watch the bias as from the factory these are biased really cold.
Thanks for the replies. I tried JJs in V1 and V3 and preferred the stock GTs. How do you tell what the GTs were before they rebranded them? My amp has GT's for all the tubes.
] If they are Sovtek like mine were they still have the Sovtek writing on them. It isnt as easy to see as the GT paint. Bob
