Another tube changing question (on a Herbert)

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Serratus

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I have a Herbert which has all EL34's at the moment.

I absolutely love it, but in the past I have always preferred the fender sparkling clean sound to the marshall more middley clean sound. So, with fenders tending to be 6L6 powered and marshalls EL34 powered I just wondered if I should think about changing to 6L6's.

I hope that the gain sounds would still be just as awesome for me with 6L6's. I dont use full on scooped metal sounds at all, just that powerful more traditional rock gain sound, but with loads of mid and low-end.
So I mainly use channel 1 for clean, channel 2+ with gain about 12 and mid-cut off for rock rhythm, and channel 2+ or 3 for lead with the mid-cut at 8oclock and 5oclock which actually gives a huge mid-boost (awesome for solos)!

So, a couple of questions:

Has anyone gone from EL34s to 6L6s? If so, what were your impressions?

Secondly, I have a pair of 6L6's here doing nothing, if I replaced two of the EL34s with these, how much difference would that make to the character, particularly the clean sound? And which two tubes should I replace? And I guess I would have to re-bias it if I did? etc...etc I just wonder if this might give the clean sound a touch more sparkle without changing the gain sounds too much?

Any advice greatly appreciated!
 
most peeps on rt prefer el34s, but i didnt like my herbert till i put all 6l6s in ...i think it sounds great even the cleans
 
If it was me I'd do two pairs of KT88's and one pair of either 6L6's or 6550's.
 
Don't put 6L6's in your Herbert unless your a big fan of metal and liked a more scooped sound, IMO opinion the Herbert needs all the mids it can get, especially with the mid-cut feature, as strongly as I feel that VH-4's should be ran with 6550's, I think Herbert's should have nothing more then EL-34's.....YMMV, just my opinion.
 
Mizati20":28h06wwv said:
Don't put 6L6's in your Herbert unless your a big fan of metal and liked a more scooped sound, IMO opinion the Herbert needs all the mids it can get, especially with the mid-cut feature, as strongly as I feel that VH-4's should be ran with 6550's, I think Herbert's should have nothing more then EL-34's.....YMMV, just my opinion.
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:thumbsup:
 
Mizati20":8f9xfr3p said:
Don't put 6L6's in your Herbert unless your a big fan of metal and liked a more scooped sound, IMO opinion the Herbert needs all the mids it can get, especially with the mid-cut feature, as strongly as I feel that VH-4's should be ran with 6550's, I think Herbert's should have nothing more then EL-34's.....YMMV, just my opinion.
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That is what I am loving about the KT88, you get to keep the mids of an EL34 and get the open less compressed sound of a 6550.
 
u wont know unless you try it. it could be what u want..u dont want to miss out if it is what your looking for..you can always try something else afterwards i tried it all and 6l6s did it for,the dudes fom inflames and arch enemys tech were shittin over all 3 of channel tones even the cleans
 
Thanks for all the advice so far everyone.

Seems like what I like about 6L6's for clean sounds (ie, less mid and more top and bottom) could well make it too scooped for gain sounds, for my taste anyway.
As I said in the OP, I dont use a scooped metal tone at all, I really like lots of mid and bottom end for my gain sounds - my main gain sound is channel 2+ with all on about 12 oclock and no mid cut.

I dont know, maybe its still worth a try. Maybe I should just try scooping the clean channel a bit more with the EQ - will try that at next rehearsal.
 
When I purchased my Herbert, I asked Peter what tubes he preferred to hear in that amp. My Herbert came with EL-34's in 1-6, and 3-4 sockets.
In 2-5 sockets, Peter had placed 6L6's.
The amp sounded extremely well balanced and versatile without having too much of any one particular type sound.
 
I used to run 2-EL34s & 2-6L6s in my Herbie & it killed!! Sounded great!!! But now i would go 2-6550s & 4-EL34s if you like the 34 tone.

Otherwise my favs are all 6550s or 4-6550 & 2 - EL34s
:lol: :LOL:
 
PaulyPanacea":14qc34m8 said:
I used to run 2-EL34s & 2-6L6s in my Herbie & it killed!! Sounded great!!! But now i would go 2-6550s & 4-EL34s if you like the 34 tone.

Otherwise my favs are all 6550s or 4-6550 & 2 - EL34s
:lol: :LOL:
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Okay, so from your post and the one before, maybe my thought of trying replacing 2 of the EL34s with 6L6's is not a bad idea. Or maybe 6550s? And I should put them in sockets 2 and 5?
In your first sentence I've quoted, did you mean 4xEL34 and 2x6L6? (cos you said 2 of each, which I'm sure isnt right ;) )

I've not changed tubes on my herbert before - how difficult a job is it? What about biasing - easy job or not?
 
yes.... i meant 4 EL34s & 26L6s. sorry for the confusion. i always put the "odd" tubes in the middle sockets. Just preference.

Tube changes are not difficult. If you dont know what you are doing or dont feel confident doing it... DONT DO IT. Let a tech do it. Otherwise there is a tutorial on the Diezel homepage on how to change tubes. :yes:
 
Serratus":j3sq4u03 said:
Cool, thanks!!!
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6l6s were not designed for only scooped sounds on a distortion channel..this train of thought makes no sense..evh uses 6l6s for a long time and he does not have a scooped sound
 
FIREBALL":3e4x8j9o said:
6l6s were not designed for only scooped sounds on a distortion channel..this train of thought makes no sense..evh uses 6l6s for a long time and he does not have a scooped sound
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But EVH doesn't play Diezel. And that makes a lot of difference :)
 
MourningEngine":2p3du3iz said:
FIREBALL":2p3du3iz said:
6l6s were not designed for only scooped sounds on a distortion channel..this train of thought makes no sense..evh uses 6l6s for a long time and he does not have a scooped sound
Click to expand...

But EVH doesn't play Diezel. And that makes a lot of difference :)
Click to expand...
diezels dont have to sound scooped at all with 6l6s, that still makes no sense at all
 
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