5751 vs 12ax7 findings
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2021 1:55 pm
Hello fellow Blackstar users,
For my first forum post I'd like to share my findings with you having today changed the valves/tubes in my Studio 10 EL34 combo:-
I purchased my amp used about 4 months ago and whilst I'm mostly happy with it I always look for things to improve.
My amp came with a TAD ECC83WA in the preamp and a Ruby EL34BHT in the power section - As I bought my amp used I am not too sure if these are stock or not?
Anyway today my GE JAN 5751 and Tung-Sol EL34B arrived and I couldn't resist putting them in as soon as possible.
I don't think I'm qualified enough to comment on any tonal difference between the valves but my intentions were to tame the gain just a bit in order to improve clean headroom.
After swapping out the valves I've found that the amp now operates more like a 2 channel amp with the "standard" channel staying clean even with the gain maxed out and the drive switch now acts as my dirty channel - I'm a bedroom player so my master volume rarely goes above 9 o'clock.
As I run pedals for high gain and fuzz I'm more than happy with how the amp now sounds - I can play with a sweet clean setting, footswitch in the drive and ride the volume on my guitar to get a little dirty and then kick on any additional drive I need with pedals.
I read somewhere on this forum or another that the Studio 10 series are cathode biased so I don't think I need to do anything else with the amp but swap valves? Sounds good to me as it is anyhow!
Just sharing because unfortunately it seems that there is little/no info on these fantastic amps and there may be others out there with a curiosity to satisfy much like myself.
Happy playing people!
For my first forum post I'd like to share my findings with you having today changed the valves/tubes in my Studio 10 EL34 combo:-
I purchased my amp used about 4 months ago and whilst I'm mostly happy with it I always look for things to improve.
My amp came with a TAD ECC83WA in the preamp and a Ruby EL34BHT in the power section - As I bought my amp used I am not too sure if these are stock or not?
Anyway today my GE JAN 5751 and Tung-Sol EL34B arrived and I couldn't resist putting them in as soon as possible.
I don't think I'm qualified enough to comment on any tonal difference between the valves but my intentions were to tame the gain just a bit in order to improve clean headroom.
After swapping out the valves I've found that the amp now operates more like a 2 channel amp with the "standard" channel staying clean even with the gain maxed out and the drive switch now acts as my dirty channel - I'm a bedroom player so my master volume rarely goes above 9 o'clock.
As I run pedals for high gain and fuzz I'm more than happy with how the amp now sounds - I can play with a sweet clean setting, footswitch in the drive and ride the volume on my guitar to get a little dirty and then kick on any additional drive I need with pedals.
I read somewhere on this forum or another that the Studio 10 series are cathode biased so I don't think I need to do anything else with the amp but swap valves? Sounds good to me as it is anyhow!
Just sharing because unfortunately it seems that there is little/no info on these fantastic amps and there may be others out there with a curiosity to satisfy much like myself.
Happy playing people!