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The Sushi Box FX Secret Society
- Thread starter kranahan
- Start date
What would the sound difference be between the 12AX7 slampegg and the 6SL7 grand slampegg?
I'm loving my slampegg, but the HPF and DI have me intrigued in the grand.
I'm loving my slampegg, but the HPF and DI have me intrigued in the grand.
Remember the B-15 did not always have the ultra high and low switches.
I covered this way earlier in the thread. The later B-15s used the 12AX7 (B-15S) and a lot of the newer reissues I believe used them (B-15R, Heritage). The B-15N generally used the 6SL7.
So the Grand Slampegg if I am interpreting right is more like the original B-15N which did not have the ultra switches. That to me is a good thing since it will also rival the Broughton P-15 in a smaller form factor.
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The main difference is going to be gain. 12AX7 has an amplification factor of 100, 6SL7 has an amplification factor of 70, so it has 70% of the gain the 12AX7 Slampegg has. There are other characteristics that affect the tone a little, the 6SL7 feels a little different and seems warmer to my ears, but hard to really quantify things like that.
Yup, one of my main concerns that I'm going to be asking my testers to give feedback on is the output level. The 12AX7 Slampegg is already one of my quieter preamps, and the 6SL7 has even less gain, so through the D.I. transformer it's significantly lower level than Finally especially when I run it clean, which is most likely why the P-15 has a FET boost added on at the end of the preamp to bring the level up.
Everyone may try it and tell me it's fine as-is, I have no idea; I'm not a sound guy, recording engineer, or gigging bassist. But that's why it's important to make friends with people that do things that I don't
I think this is a good summation. I agree that the 6SL7 sound is a bit warmer and feels more like a hug to me. I played a B-15S and a B-25B for a long time - those are great, too. I'd also want to see a V-4B in a pedal, too. Everyone wants the SVT for rock tones. To me, a V-4B is kinda halfway between the B-25B and the SVT. It's all Ampeg goodness so you get a similar tonal quality.
Yup, one of my main concerns that I'm going to be asking my testers to give feedback on is the output level. The 12AX7 Slampegg is already one of my quieter preamps, and the 6SL7 has even less gain, so through the D.I. transformer it's significantly lower level than Finally especially when I run it clean, which is most likely why the P-15 has a FET boost added on at the end of the preamp to bring the level up.
Everyone may try it and tell me it's fine as-is, I have no idea; I'm not a sound guy, recording engineer, or gigging bassist. But that's why it's important to make friends with people that do things that I don't
I'm not sure it needed it. When I recorded with the P-15 two years ago, they had to dial the output WAY back in the control room for the XLR out. I barely had the volume up. I'm going into the studio in December, and it'd be interesting to try the Grand Slampegg as a comparison with the P-15 ...
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If GSP has even lower gain than original S-Pegg it'll be too low for my taste. I sold my S-Pegg partly for that reason. That said, the overall feature set is a home run for me, and if either UA or Dream Catcher (my 2 fave S-Boxes) became available with DI and HPF I'd be placing yet another order. Would housing a UA in the GSP box with the same features be fairly simple or are my engineering ignorance and love of sushi predisposing me to fantasy? I am daydreaming of a Sushi menu of several delicious preamps, each available as a bare bones pedal (current UA, S-Pegg, More) or pricier full meal deal with added DI, bypass & HPF toggles.
I plan on having the Furthermore for the DI, HPF, and end of chain EQ, then swapping preamps UA/Slammpeg as desired. I think this is the best of both worlds and most flexible.
I could certainly design a UA DI with the same feature set as Grand Slampegg to fit in the same size box, but forcing the existing board in there wouldn't fit with the D.I. bits.
Just got an Ictineo and I’m running UA into Ictineo into my GK Fusion 800 S and it is absolutely wonderful. Just a big huge 3D tube just breaking up bonanza. Sounds really really good.
Has anyone done any tube rolling with the G-Butterfly? Does it get warmer with a 12ax7 in the unaffected signal path? Can it get a li'l peach fuzzy, or would that swap just increase its' clean gain on tap?
Sushi Box FX
Sushi Box FX
Regardless of pedal, generally the tube model will affect the input gain of the pedal.
The 12AX7 has a gain around 100, 12AT7 a gain of 60 and a 12AU7 a gain of 20, it's the lowest. The lower gain of the 12AT7 and 12AU7 also allows them to have a higher headroom, which can provide a warmer and cleaner sound.
As a bass player, I'm not a fan or do I have a need for overdrive distortion in my signal chain, thus I opted for the lowest gain tube I could find, the AU7.
Guitar is a different animal and distortion is a given sound for most players and they tend to need and want the
higher gain and subsequent distortion they can achieve with an AX7
If you want good tube warmth and the even harmonic overtones that tubes bring, without distortion, go with a 12AU7. If you want more grit, but can still dial in a clean sound, without going full tilt, try the 12AT7.
I was using JJ's but I discovered the Mullard 12AU7 that came in my Hagerman tube compressor and I tried it in the UA, it sounds much better than the JJ 12AU7 to my ears.
I went ahead and installed triode matched, low noise, new stock 12AU7 Mullard's in my UA, Slampegg Bee and Finally DI. You can get them from www.tubedepot.com and can order the triode matching and low noise testing as an inexpensive option. Not a commercial but they are excellent to deal with and buy from, they really know their stuff.
Tubes are relatively inexpensive and it's fun and worth the time to experiment to define your sound and get an education on tube while you're at it.
Good Luck!
Things about to get busy at the ole SBFX gigafactory.
Glass Butterfly and Echosaurus Valve are a little unique in that there is actually only one stage (out of 4 triode stages present in the pedal) providing any gain, the rest of the stages are set up as buffers. In order to actually produce overdrive internal to the pedal you would need two gainstages cascaded together so the first can drive the second. This will never happen in Glass Butterfly.
That being said, swapping V2 for a 12AX7 would increase the overall output level of the pedal and allow you to run it like a clean boost to push whatever is next in the chain (be it another pedal, a preamp, etc) into overdrive. Swapping V1 for 12AX7 likely wouldn't provide much audible difference as the gain difference between the two when configured as a buffer is miniscule.
But the design of these tube/digital hybrid pedals was such that I wanted zero chance of overdriving the effects processor. It wouldn't damage it, but it wouldn't sound good, and I know all the guitarists would crank the gain then complain that their pedal doesn't sound good.
Whoa, are Sushi Box pedals being made in a giant Chinese factory now? That would have been nice to know, I still have a basement full of parts and I've been putting them together by hand like a sucker.
That came up on my YouTube feed today.
It popped up on top of this ad for a prototype football dispenser that works like a Pez.
Sounds like a classic move from the Behringer/Mooer playbook. I'll probably start seeing them on Amazon any day now.
I like a fairly clean sound too, and I like to maintain unity gain from bass to amp, so my Slampegg Bee is set with Gain at 9 o’clock and Master at noon. I wondered if having the Gain knob set so low was robbing me of some ‘tubey goodness’.
So from what you’re saying above is….if I put in a 12AU7, I can crank the Gain knob much higher (which I assume is putting more voltage thru the tube) and achieve a warmer tube tone while still keeping it fairly clean? And if I want the potential for more grit, I might prefer a 12AT7.
Is my understanding here correct?
