E34L's in a VH4? What are your opinions?

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philbag

philbag

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Well unfortunately, after just a few months of owning my new VH4, I've already blown a power tube or two. Blew them a couple weeks ago and god I've missed it. The weird thing was they blew after a couple sessions of playing my VH4 with the master on 0 (was messing around with some direct/silent recording late at night).

Anyhow, E34L's were an excellent help for my TSL100 and was wondering how they'd be in the VH4? I perhaps want my VH4 tone to be a little more gritty, warmer and a little more mid punchy - these sound like some characteristics you guys would/have expecte(d) from using JJ E34L's in your VH4's?

Any info would be awesome. I've already done a search but. mainly found posts about their use in herberts/einstein's unfortunately.

Thanks alot!
 
hi,

i´ve got them in my vh4....but honestly....can´t hear a big difference between regular el34´s and e34l´s.


greets
chris
 
Papas in love with the EL34BHTs....might be your best option.
 
The E34L's sound fantastic in the VH4 but don't last long at all, if even through biasing, it's what mine was loaded with stock. I put the EL34BHT's in though after about the 4th attempt at getting the E34L's to work and love those too, not one damn problem so far with them either in about a year so far.

Later on,

-Nick
 
The EL34BHT's are what my VH4 came with and they're what failed on me so quickly, I'm sure it was just a problematic tube though. I can get two matched quads of the E34L's for the price of one matched quad of the EL34BHT's however and my TSL is getting toward needing a retubing so that's swaying me toward the E34L's. If only money wasn't so tight, haha... ironically it's tight from having bought my VH4 and Schmidt :lol: :LOL: .

Nick, what do you mean they don't last very long (if even through biasing)? Does the VH4 just blast them to hell? I bought a quad for my Marshall TSL a few years ago and unfortunately 2 of them didn't make it past biasing, however I did notice that the tech spilled some solder on the board creating an arc and I kept blowing fuses wholesale... I'm guessing that's what blew the two originally - other than that they've been amazingly reliable and sound pretty damn great.
 
Hi!

I recently had some El34Ls in my VH4 after my original SED EL34s quite literally exploded on stage (which looked cool but kinda sucked of course).

Well, my first impression was that the JJs did not make a HUGE difference in sound, however did sound somewhat different. I would say that sound was more like "rock"-ish rather than giving a very "metal" kind of sound and they were a bit "dirtier" (maybe that's what you mean with gritty?) which some people might actually dig. To be honest I didn't like them that much in the beginning but after getting used to them (and maybe the tubes gettting played in a bit) they did sound good to my ears. And I din't have a problem with them, but I only played them for less than a year (biased at approx 32MA pre tube).

However I decided a few weeks ago to get some EL34BHT because Peter was recommending them for reliability and sound reasons. The amp sounds a bit "clearer" and "tighter" now in my impression (also biased at ca 31-32 p. tube) but as I changed the preamp tubes at the same time just to be sure I can't know whether that's only from the EL34BHTs. Anyway, now i'm really happy with these and I will probably stick to EL34BHTs. Now that's not to say the JJs were bad but all in all the sound now is a bit more what I was looking for, I guess.

I guess I didn't specifically answer your question but I hope it's still kinda useful...

Cheers
Jan
 
The EL34BHT's are what my VH4 came with and they're what failed on me so quickly, I'm sure it was just a problematic tube though. I can get two matched quads of the E34L's for the price of one matched quad of the EL34BHT's however and my TSL is getting toward needing a retubing so that's swaying me toward the E34L's. If only money wasn't so tight, haha... ironically it's tight from having bought my VH4 and Schmidt .

Nick, what do you mean they don't last very long (if even through biasing)? Does the VH4 just blast them to hell? I bought a quad for my Marshall TSL a few years ago and unfortunately 2 of them didn't make it past biasing, however I did notice that the tech spilled some solder on the board creating an arc and I kept blowing fuses wholesale... I'm guessing that's what blew the two originally - other than that they've been amazingly reliable and sound pretty damn great.
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Yeah, I was having trouble with getting a set to even last past biasing. In all honesty it could have just been the batch of tubes since this all happened about the same time, so that's a possibility. But on the other hand I've never had much luck with them but a few of my friends that I helped put the E34L's in their amps haven't had any problems, sounded great, and lasted for a long time. My experience has been with it not being very reliable unfortunately. The EL34BHT on the other hand has been very reliable in mine and my friends amps as well, at least to us, sounds great too. :dunno:
 
jjj123":2h8yc9yo said:
Hi!

I recently had some El34Ls in my VH4 after my original SED EL34s quite literally exploded on stage (which looked cool but kinda sucked of course).

Well, my first impression was that the JJs did not make a HUGE difference in sound, however did sound somewhat different. I would say that sound was more like "rock"-ish rather than giving a very "metal" kind of sound and they were a bit "dirtier" (maybe that's what you mean with gritty?) which some people might actually dig. To be honest I didn't like them that much in the beginning but after getting used to them (and maybe the tubes gettting played in a bit) they did sound good to my ears. And I din't have a problem with them, but I only played them for less than a year (biased at approx 32MA pre tube).

However I decided a few weeks ago to get some EL34BHT because Peter was recommending them for reliability and sound reasons. The amp sounds a bit "clearer" and "tighter" now in my impression (also biased at ca 31-32 p. tube) but as I changed the preamp tubes at the same time just to be sure I can't know whether that's only from the EL34BHTs. Anyway, now i'm really happy with these and I will probably stick to EL34BHTs. Now that's not to say the JJs were bad but all in all the sound now is a bit more what I was looking for, I guess.

I guess I didn't specifically answer your question but I hope it's still kinda useful...

Cheers
Jan
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input Jan!

I'm basically after a really, really, really heavy, monsterous rock tone. So I guess it's basically a metal tone with alotta mids and softer, warmer highs. A warm, thick, present monsterous tone, there ya go. I was beginning to think perhaps the VH4 was 'too tight' and too clear for what I usually like in an amp, so adding some grit and losing a little tightness isn't a necessarily a bad thing for me - i don't suspect I'd lose very much at all so it would be perfect.
 
philbag":sl4fs4nm said:
Thanks for the input Jan!
Click to expand...

You're welcome!

philbag":sl4fs4nm said:
I'm basically after a really, really, really heavy, monsterous rock tone. So I guess it's basically a metal tone with alotta mids and softer, warmer highs. A warm, thick, present monsterous tone, there ya go. I was beginning to think perhaps the VH4 was 'too tight' and too clear for what I usually like in an amp, so adding some grit and losing a little tightness isn't a necessarily a bad thing for me - i don't suspect I'd lose very much at all so it would be perfect.
Click to expand...

Well I think the EL34L's might get you a little bit in that direction, yeah. As I said, I switched now also the preamp tubes so I can't be sure but from what I remember the change was from SEDs to JJs that could be like what you want. So you might want to give them a try, considering also they're not that expensive! (One disclaimer though; Peter recommends the EL34BHTs for reliability reasons... so if you want to be safe on that end, you might still want to go with the BHTs to be sure)

Oh, and please also keep in mind that for "softness" and "warmth" also the preamp tubes play a role!

Cheers
Jan
 
[/quote]
Oh, and please also keep in mind that for "softness" and "warmth" also the preamp tubes play a role!

Cheers
Jan[/quote]


+1 !!!!
 
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