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Tube Rolling DB750 Recomendations

L

Let It Fall

Inactive
Oct 15, 2009
488
3
Baton Rouge
#1
I have never touched a tube but plan on changing a tube or two in my db750. I know there is a thread on this already but is far to technical for me. I'm looking for a clean even sound. I heard tung sols give that tone, but I'd like hear some oppinions on what tube to try and what tubes to change.. I hear one or two of them
make the biggest difference. Which tubes should I change v1 v2 v3 v4 and to what? I don't want to change them all right off the bat just maybe try two different tubes in the most affected position, v1 I think?

Also looking at tube depot what is high gain matching balanced, etc. I barely know what a tube looks like and would like some help.
 
#2
You might want to try experimenting with a couple of different brands. I like the tung sols, they are clean and fat with a nice top end. I also found that different tubes sound better for different amps. V1 is probably the only one that will make much of a difference. In that position you shouldnt have to have a balanced tube. I would try a couple different tubes and see what you like best for your amp. Pre tubes are cheap.
 
#8
I wouldnt say it will drastically change your amp sound, it does make a bit of difference in some amps and not much at all in others. I wouldnt bother with hi gain unless you were a guitar player looking for alot of gain in the pre section beacuse it will just make hum worse. I also wouldnt pay for matched or balanced tubes unless they were in a driver section of your amp or power tubes as it isnt neccesary for V1. Where i have found a tube change most benificial is in an amp like the older hartkes that were too bright and brittle sounding and a darker sounding tube helped warm them up a lot. I never cared for sound of the sovtek 12ax7 that comes stock in alot of amps and found changing them out makes a difference.
 
#11
I've done the Telefunken into V1 thing and, despite JimmyM's protestations, it makes a significant (if not drastic) difference in the sound of the amp. Tighter bass, more articulate mids and highs. Now it sounds more like the solid-state tone I crave, yet with some vestigial tube warmth.

I swapped V2 a few times, and I couldn't discern a difference between the original Sovtek, a J/J Tesla and a second Telefunken. I just left the J/J in there for no reason I can articulate (maybe just to have one less Sovtek in the signal path). I did, however, order up a Siemens 12AU7 nickel (or chrome) plate for V4. It's a very low-noise tube which I hope will clean up a little of the hiss characteristic of the DB750. Aguilar deleted V4 in the DB751, citing it as "redundant" and the primary source of the hiss.

I'm not going to fiddle with V3, since it apparently does whatever tubes do in the effects loop. I don't use effects, so I might as well just stick a penny in V3. Or maybe a Ruby tube.

Good luck. You're now on a very slippery slope.
 
#13
Some sources tell me i should change the tubes in my db750 aswell. I have been experiencing loss of volume and "less-ballsy-ness" the last month or so, and al my other gear is in perfect working order. (...is this even a tube related problem...?) The tubes are about 3/4 of a year old.
Any tips brandwise on tubes? the current ones are from EHX and they sound(ed) great, but i really dont know a lot about tubes...
 
#16
If you can't get a good price on a Telefunken I recommend the new TungSols. I put one on the VI spot and it tightend the low end and the sound became more clear and defined w/o loosing it's innate tone.

The JJ I tried made the amp super tight but a little too clean and hi-fi for my tastes. But a great tube anyways.
 
#17
McDreads said:
3/4 of a year is way too fast to wear out preamp tubes. They will normally last for years. Must be something else wrong/changed in your soundchain.
Click to expand...

i dont think anything drastically changed. I had the action of my mia fender jazz set a bit lower (dont really like it, going to set it higher again). however, the same problem occurs with my other basses. I also bought an aguilar tonehammer to ad just a little bit of overdrive, bit i havent been abusing or overdoing anything. I worked my ass off to afford this amp so im gentle with it, also during transport.

at first i didnt even notice, but the amp also buzzes a little. I connected an other amp to the same cabinet with the same cables and the cab sounds fine and theres no buzz.

could this still be a tube issue or should i have the amp checked out at the nearest service point?
 
#18
Let It Fall said:
Well I ordered a jj and a ehx, didn't know ehx was stock
Click to expand...

The stock tubes in mine were Sovteks in the three 12AX7 slots and an EHX 12AU7 in V4. The final configuration of my DB750 is: Telefunken ECC83s in V1 and V2. J/J 12AX7 in V3. Siemens nickel plate 12AU7 in V4. The Siemens didn't appreciably affect the amp's characteristic slight hiss. The only one that made any discernable difference was the Tele in V1, but what the hell.

BTW, good preamp tubes commonly go to 10,000 hours, and rumors have it that the Telefunkens can go out to 100,000 hours.
 
#20
Swapped all the tubes this weekend. I bought 2 sets: 1 set is the same as the stock set (sovtek/ehx) and the other is all JJ.

I bought the original set because i wanted to check the amp the same way i came to know it by, without other tubes compromising my objectivity. The buzz and tone issues are fixed but the amp is still less loud than it used to be. The tone is highly improved with the JJ's but still the volume is not what it used to be...

reccomendations?
 

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