lightningblues427
New member
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O.K. so I am determined to get everything I can out of my Renegade head and the experience I am getting is well worth the price I paid and then some.
I started by delving into the whole preamp tube swapping scene and it has really helped me to better understand my amp and the many excellent tones its capable of and in return I have done my part by supporting the wonderful tube makers of the world and it has rewarded me with a very nice variety of tones and experiences and I am now the proud owner of a quickly growing box of preamp tubes, (each seeming to embody their own character and spirit, lightning in a bottle, their own soul if you will)...this certainly makes it more fun and interesting.....Tip: if you find a set of tubes you like the sound of, make sure you write down exactly which tube went into which socket and keep them together, because I have found that same tubes from same company do not really sound the same (generally Yes, but not really)....
This realization is based on sitting in front of my amp for many hours everyday....would it be the same if I was blasting it on stage somewhere, probably not, but when you sit in your home studio and can hear every detail of your delay slap back and reverb warble its akin to listening to Pink Floyd on your "Old School" Pioneer High Fi or blasting it in your 1967 Chevelle as your running down the road on your way to a concert ( boy those were the days) ...they both sound great and are tons of fun, but each offers a different experience for the senses.
So what I found was that setting the Bias on my Power tubes makes quite a noticeable difference to the way chords and single note lines shimmer and stand out....I don't mean just setting it within range and walking away, I mean fine tuning the Bias setting to your ears and what it is your trying to hear out of the amp.
As expected my first time out setting my Bias I set everything hot at the top end of the Renegades manual recommended settings EL34's at 75 and 6l6's at 70 even allowing them to fluctuate over by a point or two thinking hey these will sound great all cooking hot, I knew it would shorten the tubes life but I wasn't concerned with that cause I can buy more tubes.....then I started thinking and started doing online research and came across several articles explaining the differences between a hot and cold bias setting.....
And when I read that a Hot bias setting can take away some of the shimmering highs of your clean tone I thought...whoa...I use my clean channel almost exclusively, its what (I like to use and hear) this woke me up to the fact that to get the most out of my Renegade I would need to get to know it very well and then customize it to my uses and liking.....thus preamp tubes, power tubes, bias settings...etc...its basically another instrument if not the most important one in the electric guitarist arsenal.
So I got out my 2 Bias tools a Gardner Bender digital multimeter GDT-3190 and a small Craftsman flat tip screw driver...(ACE Hardware)...thats a cost of about $30 bucks and I can customize my amps tone...and I found out it matters.....
So since I love my Clean channel and run my effects thru it primarily I started with the 6l6 side first, placed my black probe in the middle and the red probe in the 6l6 side and read it ...maxed out at 70 just like I set it ....this is where it gets interesting......so first I turn it down just a hair to around 67.2 and I notice it cleans up slightly more shimmer in my clean picked chords with a fuller rounder tone to the clean tones bloom......so Im thinking maybe setting it cold will be even better so I turn it down to the bottom of the Renegades manual recommended settings to 60 and I find my tone is not as round or full and lacking in warmth and character and as I steadily turn it up next to 63 then to 65 and finally to 64.5 I find my nice clean picked chords shimmer and bloom with the most musical ringing character yet....I can hear the delay slapping back the harmonics as the notes rub against each other creating a slight ringing harmonic dissonance that I find very pleasing to the ear.....so I set it at 64.5 and check it again about 15 minutes later to make sure it hasnt strayed as the tubes warmed up more (something you need to do when setting the bias as I noticed you may set it at say 65 initially but after a bit find it peaking out at around 66.7...and since Im sitting in front of my cabinet taking in the whole Hi Fidelity of it all, that little bit matters....
Next I move my red probe into the EL34 side and its right were I had last set it at the Renegades peak manual recommended settings 74. ....so I turn it down but only slightly as I know I biased the 6l6 tone based on it being mixed evenly with the EL34's and I find right away I dont like the EL34's biased lower, and after playing for a while and then resetting the bias to an even lower setting I realize I prefer the EL34's a little hotter for the tone to sing and end up setting them at 73.5 but not maxed out at 75 as even though it seems like a small difference I found it caused the edge of my tone to be a little raspy and harsher than I prefer it, I mention this because I want to express how much setting the Bias can really change how you hear your amp and feel about its tone...Clean or Dirty.
In the end I set the bias of my Stock Ruby 6l6's at 64.5 and the stock Ruby El34's at 73.5 and my clean channel has a very sweet tone and beautiful bloom this being important to me because I use my clean channel almost exclusively, running a Cali76 compressor into and Ethos overdrive into a Carl Martin Para EQ into a Strymon Timeline into a Strymon BigSky into a Pigtronix Infinity looper into the front of my Renegade amps clean channel ....
I rarely use the drive channel 2....
I mention this because you may have different needs, you may use the dirt channel almost exclusively in which case you will need to bias your amp to your ears for your tones and your style.....something that I feel is not talked about nearly enough IMO.
Anyway this is me documenting my ongoing experiences with my first tube amp the Egnater Renegade, which was bought only after much research and consideration...including wanting to be able to capitalize on the full tube amp experience of which there are very few amps that allow one to do so much tweaking as the Egnater amps do, especially in a safe cost effective way. Every amp made should have user friendly easy access Bias adjustments like the Renegade.
Next stop.....new power tubes of which I already have several sets I want to try including short bottle 6l6's, 6550's, KT66's and even KT88's....and brands Galore come to mind....TAD's, JJ's, Tunsol, Genalex....and many many more.....I can already see my shelfs filling up with tubes...lol
O.K. so I am determined to get everything I can out of my Renegade head and the experience I am getting is well worth the price I paid and then some.
I started by delving into the whole preamp tube swapping scene and it has really helped me to better understand my amp and the many excellent tones its capable of and in return I have done my part by supporting the wonderful tube makers of the world and it has rewarded me with a very nice variety of tones and experiences and I am now the proud owner of a quickly growing box of preamp tubes, (each seeming to embody their own character and spirit, lightning in a bottle, their own soul if you will)...this certainly makes it more fun and interesting.....Tip: if you find a set of tubes you like the sound of, make sure you write down exactly which tube went into which socket and keep them together, because I have found that same tubes from same company do not really sound the same (generally Yes, but not really)....
This realization is based on sitting in front of my amp for many hours everyday....would it be the same if I was blasting it on stage somewhere, probably not, but when you sit in your home studio and can hear every detail of your delay slap back and reverb warble its akin to listening to Pink Floyd on your "Old School" Pioneer High Fi or blasting it in your 1967 Chevelle as your running down the road on your way to a concert ( boy those were the days) ...they both sound great and are tons of fun, but each offers a different experience for the senses.
So what I found was that setting the Bias on my Power tubes makes quite a noticeable difference to the way chords and single note lines shimmer and stand out....I don't mean just setting it within range and walking away, I mean fine tuning the Bias setting to your ears and what it is your trying to hear out of the amp.
As expected my first time out setting my Bias I set everything hot at the top end of the Renegades manual recommended settings EL34's at 75 and 6l6's at 70 even allowing them to fluctuate over by a point or two thinking hey these will sound great all cooking hot, I knew it would shorten the tubes life but I wasn't concerned with that cause I can buy more tubes.....then I started thinking and started doing online research and came across several articles explaining the differences between a hot and cold bias setting.....
And when I read that a Hot bias setting can take away some of the shimmering highs of your clean tone I thought...whoa...I use my clean channel almost exclusively, its what (I like to use and hear) this woke me up to the fact that to get the most out of my Renegade I would need to get to know it very well and then customize it to my uses and liking.....thus preamp tubes, power tubes, bias settings...etc...its basically another instrument if not the most important one in the electric guitarist arsenal.
So I got out my 2 Bias tools a Gardner Bender digital multimeter GDT-3190 and a small Craftsman flat tip screw driver...(ACE Hardware)...thats a cost of about $30 bucks and I can customize my amps tone...and I found out it matters.....
So since I love my Clean channel and run my effects thru it primarily I started with the 6l6 side first, placed my black probe in the middle and the red probe in the 6l6 side and read it ...maxed out at 70 just like I set it ....this is where it gets interesting......so first I turn it down just a hair to around 67.2 and I notice it cleans up slightly more shimmer in my clean picked chords with a fuller rounder tone to the clean tones bloom......so Im thinking maybe setting it cold will be even better so I turn it down to the bottom of the Renegades manual recommended settings to 60 and I find my tone is not as round or full and lacking in warmth and character and as I steadily turn it up next to 63 then to 65 and finally to 64.5 I find my nice clean picked chords shimmer and bloom with the most musical ringing character yet....I can hear the delay slapping back the harmonics as the notes rub against each other creating a slight ringing harmonic dissonance that I find very pleasing to the ear.....so I set it at 64.5 and check it again about 15 minutes later to make sure it hasnt strayed as the tubes warmed up more (something you need to do when setting the bias as I noticed you may set it at say 65 initially but after a bit find it peaking out at around 66.7...and since Im sitting in front of my cabinet taking in the whole Hi Fidelity of it all, that little bit matters....
Next I move my red probe into the EL34 side and its right were I had last set it at the Renegades peak manual recommended settings 74. ....so I turn it down but only slightly as I know I biased the 6l6 tone based on it being mixed evenly with the EL34's and I find right away I dont like the EL34's biased lower, and after playing for a while and then resetting the bias to an even lower setting I realize I prefer the EL34's a little hotter for the tone to sing and end up setting them at 73.5 but not maxed out at 75 as even though it seems like a small difference I found it caused the edge of my tone to be a little raspy and harsher than I prefer it, I mention this because I want to express how much setting the Bias can really change how you hear your amp and feel about its tone...Clean or Dirty.
In the end I set the bias of my Stock Ruby 6l6's at 64.5 and the stock Ruby El34's at 73.5 and my clean channel has a very sweet tone and beautiful bloom this being important to me because I use my clean channel almost exclusively, running a Cali76 compressor into and Ethos overdrive into a Carl Martin Para EQ into a Strymon Timeline into a Strymon BigSky into a Pigtronix Infinity looper into the front of my Renegade amps clean channel ....
I rarely use the drive channel 2....
I mention this because you may have different needs, you may use the dirt channel almost exclusively in which case you will need to bias your amp to your ears for your tones and your style.....something that I feel is not talked about nearly enough IMO.
Anyway this is me documenting my ongoing experiences with my first tube amp the Egnater Renegade, which was bought only after much research and consideration...including wanting to be able to capitalize on the full tube amp experience of which there are very few amps that allow one to do so much tweaking as the Egnater amps do, especially in a safe cost effective way. Every amp made should have user friendly easy access Bias adjustments like the Renegade.
Next stop.....new power tubes of which I already have several sets I want to try including short bottle 6l6's, 6550's, KT66's and even KT88's....and brands Galore come to mind....TAD's, JJ's, Tunsol, Genalex....and many many more.....I can already see my shelfs filling up with tubes...lol