fusedbrain
Well-known member
re: tubes for the Dirty Shirley - Dave has stated on this forum at least once that he voiced the whole amp around the Sovtek 5881's.
Those tubes are tough as nails and sound great! I wouldn't bother with anything else personally.
I would also avoid KT66's in this amp due to the stock screen resistors being 470 ohms and KT66's like to see 1k, and the primary impedance of the output transformer is too low to get the best out of KT66's.
For pre amp tubes it's the same deal. Dave and most other builders are voicing their amps around current production tubes. Save the NOS glass for the vintage amps ( and save yourself the $$ )
The stock ARS tubes are likely JJ or Chinese, and might even be a JJ in V1 and Chinese for V2 & V3.( which is how my BE100 shipped )
The JJ's are a touch darker and smoother and the Chinese B's are a bit brighter.
My favourite combo for Marshall style builds is a JJ in V1, a Tubestore preferred series 7025 in V2, and a Sovtek LPS for the phase inverter.
I get all my tubes here:
https://www.thetubestore.com/
These guys are the real deal and stand behind everything they sell. Highly recommended
Those tubes are tough as nails and sound great! I wouldn't bother with anything else personally.
I would also avoid KT66's in this amp due to the stock screen resistors being 470 ohms and KT66's like to see 1k, and the primary impedance of the output transformer is too low to get the best out of KT66's.
For pre amp tubes it's the same deal. Dave and most other builders are voicing their amps around current production tubes. Save the NOS glass for the vintage amps ( and save yourself the $$ )
The stock ARS tubes are likely JJ or Chinese, and might even be a JJ in V1 and Chinese for V2 & V3.( which is how my BE100 shipped )
The JJ's are a touch darker and smoother and the Chinese B's are a bit brighter.
My favourite combo for Marshall style builds is a JJ in V1, a Tubestore preferred series 7025 in V2, and a Sovtek LPS for the phase inverter.
I get all my tubes here:
https://www.thetubestore.com/
These guys are the real deal and stand behind everything they sell. Highly recommended