What valves in the HT-5R to achieve this sound... ?

[davidrf]

Hi there,
I'm thinking about buying a HT-5R combo but I hear many people complain about the cleans ("dull" is the term I hear the most). I mostly play grunge, rock, hard rock, some classic rock, a bit of blues.

Could you please tell me what valves should I buy to:
- get more vibrant, kinda fenderish (if possible) cleans
- at the same time mantaining a very good amount of gain for the distorted channel, allowing me to play well the genres I like
- I don't care if I lose the edge necessary to play high-gain metal or other extreme genres
- I'd like the distorted channel to sound as modern as possible

Any ideas? Thanks a lot!

[thephantum]

Contrary to popular belief, changing the valves is not going to have as dramatic an effect as you think. All tubes are going to do is enhance the sound that the amp and speaker(s) are designed to produce. You'll have more luck by changing the speaker. For a more modern tone with a "Fenderish" edge, I would suggest something like a Eminence Legend, an Eminence Patriot, a Weber Vintage or even a Jensen Vintage.

Having said all that, changing tubes will make the amp sound better overall. For the preamp, best bang for the buck is a TungSol 12AX7 in the preamp. However, if you've got the money to spend get a Gold Lion B759/12AX7. It sounds very similar to the TungSol...until you knock it over into OD. Then is just sings with harmonics.

For the output stage, NOS is the only way to go. A NOS (or even gently used) 12BH7 will sound much better and they are relatively cheap. They can be bought for under $40 USD from many retailers and you will be amazed at how much better the amp sounds.

Just make sure you have the amp biased correctly after replacing the output tube.

[davidrf]

Thanks a lot for the reply. I never considered replacing the speaker, but I can surely do that as a "second step", after having replaced the tubes (I'd like to see if I like the result spending less money possible). I will surely check out all the products you mentioned. About the 12BH7... you mean any brand?

But, about the bias... this will by my first valve amp and I have no Idea what you're talking about I guess I'll check out some info