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What tubes can I put in a Mesa Dual Rectifier to get better clean tones, but maintain the distortion?
I'm looking at getting a Mesa Dual Rectifier, and I know there reputation for high gain how great the distortion is. But I also heard the reviews how the clean channel isn't that great, ok, but not that great. And I heard switching tubes may help the clean out. So I was wondering what tubes would be suggested to make the mesa's cleans better. But I don't want to have the distortion falter any because of it. thanks.
Great question!
Its one that I'm able to answer too, having owned a Mesa Dual Rec and having swapped tubes a number of times! Okay, it was a Tremoverb, so the premium version of the Dual Rec, but whatever.
First off, I wouldn't worry too much about losing gain or about having your cleans not sound good. Part of making the Recto series sound good is learning how to balance the channels so that they sound good together. The Dual Rec does have a bit of a drier sound to it, imho, but I would recommend that you spend some time with it before you go ripping out tubes and spending money. There are a lot of knobs and switches on these things... hell, even messing around with the effects loop can really have a big impact on your tone, depending on how you use it! (one of the reasons I sold the Tremoverb.... too many options, and they all seemed to interact with each other too much)
If you're going to mess with tubes, try preamp tubes first - get a few different ones and try plugging them into V1 and V4 (ie input tube and phase splitter tube). These will make very significant changes to how the amp sounds, and preamp tubes are relatively cheap. Once you get a better idea of what you like, then (after doing your research!) start thinking about power tubes.
So let's break it down quickly -
Power amp tubes affect the overall voicing of the amp. More watts means more volume, more headroom... but also less distortion at lower volumes, for instance. So if you want to have a good "cranked" tone, and sound better at lower volumes, then you want less wattage... so pulling two of your power amp tubes (if you have a 100w amp) takes care of that. Consider it an option, at least.
In terms of types, the three big ones are EL-34's, 6L6's, and KT-66's.... you might want to do a little googling as to the different tonal differences, but I can say that for me, 6L6 = more chunk, while EL-34's have a nicer top end, crunchier mids, but a lot less low end response.
In other words, EL-34 sounds more "Marshall" to me, while 6L6s sound more "Recto". Don't forget that you need to flick the bias switch in the back before you replace 'em. Good idea to talk to a guitar tech first, and its best to get a matched set.
Preamp tubes have more to do with tone, developing distortion, and saturation... so the "meat" of your tone, I suppose you could say. Preamp tubes = 12ax7's. There are other types, but they're all lower gain. Lower gain tubes means you'll have more headroom and less distortion.
My preferred brand is JJ.... I really like the ECC803S tubes... they're high-gain, have good low mids and bass response (long plate), and are low noise (spiral filament wound). Great tubes, especially for high gain!
The most important tube in terms of your gain is the first one, the one closest to the input. For a good distorted tone you want a high-gain tube here.
You don't want a high-gain tube driving your reverb. Here's a good place for a 12at7.
The phase splitter tube is the last one before the output transformer, and it has a huge impact on the overall character of your amp. Low gain tubes tend to sound a little richer here than high gain tubes.... so try 12at7's or even 12au7's.
I like ElectroHarmonix for 12at7's and EL-34's. I'm not a big fan of Sovteks. JJ's are awesome, imho. Ruby's tend to have a nice rich sound.
Anyways, I hope this has helped a little. I put two links down below. I pulled two tubes out of my Tremoverb and never had any issues... these amps are built pretty decently, you shouldn't have an issue. With some amps, I can see it happening, but not in this case....
Good luck!
Saul
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