Einstein died on me tonight!!

[johnnyjellybean]

What kind of preamp tubes have you tried?

So far, I've tried:
JJ ECC83S
Mullard ECC83 NOS
TAD E83CC
Tung Sol ECC803S gold pin
Sylvania and Sovtek branded 12AX7

Were the Tung Sol ECC803S gold pins long plates? You may want to try a good set of longplates in every position except V1. That wouls certainly fatten up the sound and take away the grainy top.

 

[GloryHog]

I've been experiencing similar problems with my Einy. I've got an intermittent problem, where when I fire it up and turn off the standby, there is almost no volume. It's like a whisper of itself. Then the next day or two, it will be fine. This happened over and over again. I tried many different EL34 tubes, problem remained. Then I biased up a set of 6550's, and the amp howled and crackled like something was really f'd up. Immediately thereafter, I put in a quad of KT77's, and then it seemed fine, and has been functioning now for a couple of weeks. Really isn't sounding as sweet as it used to, and I'm still afraid there is a problem. It seems to be a bit noisier than before as well. I just ordered up a quad of Ruby EL34 BHT's and some new select HG+ pre tubes. We'll have to see what it does with those in it. Honestly, I wish whatever is going on would just blow out something, so that the problem can be identified. I don't own a backup at this time, and not knowing if it's going to work or not has been stressful. We've already lost 4 rehearsals, because it didn't work on that given day. Next time the problem shows it ugly head, I'm going to quickly ship it to Terry, and hope it doesn't go and work for him. It's hard find a problem when it's working, and shipping is expensive.

 

[Duolos]

I've been experiencing similar problems with my Einy. I've got an intermittent problem, where when I fire it up and turn off the standby, there is almost no volume. It's like a whisper of itself. Then the next day or two, it will be fine. This happened over and over again. I tried many different EL34 tubes, problem remained. Then I biased up a set of 6550's, and the amp howled and crackled like something was really f'd up. Immediately thereafter, I put in a quad of KT77's, and then it seemed fine, and has been functioning now for a couple of weeks. Really isn't sounding as sweet as it used to, and I'm still afraid there is a problem. It seems to be a bit noisier than before as well. I just ordered up a quad of Ruby EL34 BHT's and some new select HG+ pre tubes. We'll have to see what it does with those in it. Honestly, I wish whatever is going on would just blow out something, so that the problem can be identified. I don't own a backup at this time, and not knowing if it's going to work or not has been stressful. We've already lost 4 rehearsals, because it didn't work on that given day. Next time the problem shows it ugly head, I'm going to quickly ship it to Terry, and hope it doesn't go and work for him. It's hard find a problem when it's working, and shipping is expensive.

I am sorry you are having trouble man. Somehow we will get you sorted out

 

[nivek]

Hey Peep,
Tried the NOS Mullard in V1 a sovetek sp? V2 played around with several different power tube combinations and ended up with winged C EL-34s in the inners and JJ KT-77s in the outters and it improved the sound quite a bit. Then we added a Avatar 2x12 with a celestion V30 and a celestion G12hv and BINGO! I had only played the amp with a older Diezel 412 with the custom Eminence speakers. When we used both cabs with those speaker combinations it sounded fantastic. I believe the first einstien I played in Las Vegas must have been running through a Diezel cab with with V30s and possibly something else but Im thinking that was why I wasnt getting the same result, along with needing good tubes. Anyway the Einstien sounds awesome now and for my style 80s hard rock and some newer stuff is the best amp I have ever played. I hope you get your Einy issues resolved because when you get it right I believe you will love it.
Best Wishes, Kevin

 

[peepshow]

Hey Peep,
Tried the NOS Mullard in V1 a sovetek sp? V2 played around with several different power tube combinations and ended up with winged C EL-34s in the inners and JJ KT-77s in the outters and it improved the sound quite a bit. Then we added a Avatar 2x12 with a celestion V30 and a celestion G12hv and BINGO! I had only played the amp with a older Diezel 412 with the custom Eminence speakers. When we used both cabs with those speaker combinations it sounded fantastic. I believe the first einstien I played in Las Vegas must have been running through a Diezel cab with with V30s and possibly something else but Im thinking that was why I wasnt getting the same result, along with needing good tubes. Anyway the Einstien sounds awesome now and for my style 80s hard rock and some newer stuff is the best amp I have ever played. I hope you get your Einy issues resolved because when you get it right I believe you will love it.
Best Wishes, Kevin

Hey Kevin,
Thanks for letting us know how it went with the tube change. I'm really glad you got it sounding good. I've been persevering with my Einstein and the main thing is it hasn't gone wrong on me again. It's been sounding great, too, BUT only on the clean channel with pedals into the front; channel 2 still sounds bad in comparison, despite trying different tubes etc.
I'm getting the chance to play it with a different cab tonight, Vintage 30-loaded, so we'll see how it goes. Thing is, it sounds great with my cab when I use it as I am doing (clean channel with pedals into the front), so I can't see why the same cab would cause it to sound so bad on channel 2. Same goes for the power tubes: how could it sound so good even at very high gain with a distortion pedal into the clean channel, if the power tubes were causing it to sound bad on channel 2?
Anyway, thanks again for letting us know.
All the best,
Peep

 

[nivek]

Peep,
I am sure you probaly already know but channel 2 is voiced for mainly single note leads or real heavy rythms, it has heavy saturation and can sound really harsh playing rhythm riffs according to what you are playing. Channel 1 mode 3 is what I use for playing hard rock rhythms. I found the eminence speakers/ cab I was using was one thing I was finding grainy and harsh sounding adding the 212 with V30 and celestion G12 along with the tube change is what smoothed my sound out. Ialso have my treble, mid and bass set around 12:00 or a touch more. I love channel 2 for lead and even some hard core rhthm but I would not be able to live with it for my main rhythm sound. I am not an ace guitar player but I do play with a gigging band and I can tell from your post you know what your talking about and also play out, so I feel your frustration. The Einstien is head shoulders better than any amp I have ever played I havent played its big brothers and I'm sure they are awesome as well but for what I play, 80's hard rock and some newer stuff its perfect. I believe you will love the einy once you get everything ironed out. Keep me posted on how things are progressing. Best wishes Kevin