Tung Sol 5881s and bias - again..oh and THD YJ :D

  • Thread starter Thread starter jkdsteve
  • Start date Start date
jkdsteve

jkdsteve

Active member
As I never managed to offload these, I pulled 'em out of the box again to give 'em a whirl in my newly acquired MOD50.

As I'm sure everyone knows these are designed to go up to 400V plate voltage but a lot of people seem to swear by 'em in the 500V (?) MODs.....so I figure, well..why not mess with the bias.

I had previously treated them like a 6l6 (per advice on here) and gone 30/32 and didn't really like the tone at all....so I played in the 22-28 range and found tones I could really work with...gone is the unfocussed and generally lacking tone I had before..I actually preferred it at the lower end of the scale..22-25.

Maybe I just have a set of tubes that have parameters which drive towards a lower bias point...maybe one day I'll get that scope and freq. generator ..LOL ;)

I had quite a bit of fun with power tubes this weekend...the MOD50 came with a pair of YJ triodes and EL84s I didn't recognize (maybe Russian, who knows)....man do those things compress nicely for lead tones in the mod...of course being triodes, they're in 'low pwr' setting alll the time...but that's cool.
 
Man that is cold on the bias. We set the Sovteks at 34-36ma.
 
JKD":1ovn786b said:
As I never managed to offload these, I pulled 'em out of the box again to give 'em a whirl in my newly acquired MOD50.

As I'm sure everyone knows these are designed to go up to 400V plate voltage but a lot of people seem to swear by 'em in the 500V (?) MODs.....so I figure, well..why not mess with the bias.

I had previously treated them like a 6l6 (per advice on here) and gone 30/32 and didn't really like the tone at all....so I played in the 22-28 range and found tones I could really work with...gone is the unfocussed and generally lacking tone I had before..I actually preferred it at the lower end of the scale..22-25.

Maybe I just have a set of tubes that have parameters which drive towards a lower bias point...maybe one day I'll get that scope and freq. generator ..LOL ;)

I had quite a bit of fun with power tubes this weekend...the MOD50 came with a pair of YJ triodes and EL84s I didn't recognize (maybe Russian, who knows)....man do those things compress nicely for lead tones in the mod...of course being triodes, they're in 'low pwr' setting alll the time...but that's cool.
I just put the TS 5881s in to do a little A/b and man they sound good but when I dropped the Svets6550s in,they sound great!!New tube of choice for me!I love the YJs tho!!!!Congrats on the Mod again Steve :lol: :LOL:
 
Jeff Hilligan":w5utoypd said:
Man that is cold on the bias. We set the Sovteks at 34-36ma.

..and I love my Sovteks at around the same..I just couldn't get a tone I liked out of the Tung-Sols treating 'em the same way.

Isn't the Sovtek 5881 more like a 6L6GC though...?

I guess I'm used to cold though...coming from a Dual Rectifier... :yes:
 
R.Milbeck":ktd3qma3 said:
jmgman69":ktd3qma3 said:
I dropped the Svets6550s in,they sound great!!New tube of choice for me!

For what style of music? Or are these just a great all around tube?

Russ

They are a really good all around tube man. SRV used to use them in his Dumbles. Zakk Wylde uses them in his JCM800s. They provide the best all around tone I've ever gotten. Warm, sparkly, and spanky cleans...and tight, rich in the mids, and smooth highs on distorted tones. There's no tube that I have found that sounds better in my mind :).

Eric
 
R.Milbeck":9lhdxkma said:
JKD":9lhdxkma said:
Jeff Hilligan":9lhdxkma said:
Man that is cold on the bias. We set the Sovteks at 34-36ma.

..and I love my Sovteks at around the same..I just couldn't get a tone I liked out of the Tung-Sols treating 'em the same way.

Isn't the Sovtek 5881 more like a 6L6GC though...?

I guess I'm used to cold though...coming from a Dual Rectifier... :yes:

Steve, had I known you still had these...
If you grow weary of the Tung-Sol's, PM me. I'm needing a set.

Russ
I've got a fairly new set that I'll probably never use again :D drop me PM russ if you need some
 
22-25 seems really cold! I bias them at 34 and they sound outrageous. Jason and Eric are killing me with this 6550 stuff though! One of you guys want to send me a set to try out? :)
 
Back
Top