joanesinu
New member
I know this is an old thread but I only want to put my recent experience trying tubes on an Einstein 50 head.
For power I tried the new TAD 6L6GCM-STR Redbase and the TAD EL34-STR Redbase. I played them back and forth biasing them every time I changed them. The amp came with JJ KT77 and sounded too compressed in the lead channel. It was a bit annoying, and with compression I mean compression, not gain. It sounded like it had a compressor in the chain, with low dynamic response and the palm mutes sounded too big and chunky, compared to the overly tamed chords. So I disliked this tubes in it.
I tried the 6L6 first. Hearing only the amp, not in a band situation. The first impression was good. It was more open than the KT77 and I liked the grain of the distorsion. The spectrum of the sound was huge. I think this was almost a perfect sound, until I tried the EL34. I played with the band with this configuration and I didn't like the sparhead of the whole thing (I like focused guitar sound). I tried maxing out the mids knob and the sound improved a bit.
When I put the EL34's, I noticed what I was missing. The amp sounded with much more mid's and more low mids, but less compressed than the kt77's. The word that describes best this sound is MEATY in my opinion. It sounded a lot fuller, like the guitar signal was pushed harded thru the preamp. In my opinion, this tube suited the Einstein the best, because it's a little bit dark amp, I like the treble and mid knobs at 2-3 o clock. With EL34 the sound was better in a band situation. We played a gig 2 days ago and the amp sounded killer. No PA for the guitar, just raw bass and guitar amps with a mic'ed drum and vocals, in a small venue.
For the preamp, I am using the TAD RT080 in v1 (Tad recommendation for Diezel amps), shuguang (china) 12ax7b in V2 and V3, Tungsol 12ax7 in V4&V5 (I don't like this tube too much, so I put them in the loop slots, which I don't use).
The amp came with a Gold lion small plates ecc83 in the phase inverter which gives the amp a lot more aggressiveness, in a good way. I tried changing it but I liked it a lot there, so I left it. The key to tame the over-compression can be a lower gain V1, which is the Tad RT080, and I like it this way for now.
This is my experience based on my hearing, so it's a real opinion. Not a myth based BS, which is too common nowadays...
Maybe this post would be helpful for someone in the future.
Thanks for reading, greetings.
For power I tried the new TAD 6L6GCM-STR Redbase and the TAD EL34-STR Redbase. I played them back and forth biasing them every time I changed them. The amp came with JJ KT77 and sounded too compressed in the lead channel. It was a bit annoying, and with compression I mean compression, not gain. It sounded like it had a compressor in the chain, with low dynamic response and the palm mutes sounded too big and chunky, compared to the overly tamed chords. So I disliked this tubes in it.
I tried the 6L6 first. Hearing only the amp, not in a band situation. The first impression was good. It was more open than the KT77 and I liked the grain of the distorsion. The spectrum of the sound was huge. I think this was almost a perfect sound, until I tried the EL34. I played with the band with this configuration and I didn't like the sparhead of the whole thing (I like focused guitar sound). I tried maxing out the mids knob and the sound improved a bit.
When I put the EL34's, I noticed what I was missing. The amp sounded with much more mid's and more low mids, but less compressed than the kt77's. The word that describes best this sound is MEATY in my opinion. It sounded a lot fuller, like the guitar signal was pushed harded thru the preamp. In my opinion, this tube suited the Einstein the best, because it's a little bit dark amp, I like the treble and mid knobs at 2-3 o clock. With EL34 the sound was better in a band situation. We played a gig 2 days ago and the amp sounded killer. No PA for the guitar, just raw bass and guitar amps with a mic'ed drum and vocals, in a small venue.
For the preamp, I am using the TAD RT080 in v1 (Tad recommendation for Diezel amps), shuguang (china) 12ax7b in V2 and V3, Tungsol 12ax7 in V4&V5 (I don't like this tube too much, so I put them in the loop slots, which I don't use).
The amp came with a Gold lion small plates ecc83 in the phase inverter which gives the amp a lot more aggressiveness, in a good way. I tried changing it but I liked it a lot there, so I left it. The key to tame the over-compression can be a lower gain V1, which is the Tad RT080, and I like it this way for now.
This is my experience based on my hearing, so it's a real opinion. Not a myth based BS, which is too common nowadays...
Maybe this post would be helpful for someone in the future.
Thanks for reading, greetings.