VARIAC to club level (70 Volts)

[Jeremy1283]

So yesterday james and I ran my amp at 70 volts. Pretty manageable. Sounded completely sick. Anyone have any idea how long before the tubes crash and burn?. They are the eh6ca7. Im gonna keep doing it and log how many hours on a set of these tubes. I am only using two tubes so the investment isnt that bad.
I can see how ed did this to manage the volume.

[rgorke]

I've been doing 80-90 volts for about 5 years...

[dirtycooter]

Hows volume? Is it tolerable?? Like can you bring it to just a notch below the pain threshold in the ears?
I like things UP to the point of pain then back it off a little from there-you in that zone??
By all means you are the "subject #27" in this documentation. This stuff is valuable and a salute to you both here

MythBusters right here at Metro

Testing may resume

Keep in mind ding dong essentially used the variac for exactly this reason-volume issues. It wasn't for a cool look factor-it had a purpose with a benefit tonally probably being secondary.

[Jeremy1283]

It was loud at 80 and 90 volts were i keep it when i slave but at 70 it was doable. Two tubes pulled also

[Strat78]

This is when the 6-band started working for me, filling out the sails a bit. Did the tone get nice hairy? How is James' amp coming along? There must have been some snow, coming up over Tejon?

[Jeremy1283]

James amp is awesome. He did a fantadtic job on the build. It was cool to be there on the initial fire up.

At 70 volts the tone was perfect. I was going straight in to amp and it had added thickness. It was awesome. We tested the hearers and they were at 2.9 i beleive. Prolly not great but oh well. LOL

[efraser68]

Jeremy which tubes are you pulling out of the 4

[awangotango]

you'll be fine at 2.9 how they are so high with that low a voltage suggests they were running too high when at 120v. Maybe this is why you are digging the tone now because if they dropped down to where they 'should' be at 70v It would be a muddy mess. If you're only doing it for volume issues why not pull two speajkers now that you are only at 80 watts. Then you'll really get some volume loss. Half to be exact, then you can bump the voltage back up and get some clarity back. Unless the music you are making works with that sloppy distorted low voltage sound. Have you tested it out with a drummer though? you may not find a 70V marshall cuts enough. 70v is a pretty neutered level of balls in my opinion. I can't go below 100 before I feel weird. but again, different amps/tubes draw different and so it may work for that particular setup

[Jeremy1283]

I pull the two outer ones.v4 and v7

I have the bias set to 54 ma at 90 volts.

[Tone Slinger]

Lets hear it

[dirtycooter]

To each his own but a cab has to have 4 speaks sealed to pump right. I know guys do it but never seen Ed do it. The speaker pulling sounds cool but think you'd be better off with a sealed 2x12 here. That air pressure on the back of the speaks keeps them tighter. Also it works the front and back baffle together through the sound post. This is where the woody whump lives entirely.
We all have as kids at some point used a empty paper towel tube to use as a megaphone right? Humm into it with it open then do it with your hand over the other end sealed-its quite different. More mid based over tones happen. The walls of the tube sealed vibrate more woody sounding as well as much tighter.
Not to mention the two opposite phases of the cone face and back being heard simultaneously which puts another spin on it pleasant or not. Frequencies will get canceled differently than sealed. Thats just science backed.
Most combos open backed have higher wattge stiffer speaks for this reason as well. But its also hard to find a 2x12 that don't sound couped up as well. They give a mmwump instead of whump generally to my ears-maybe the 2x12 dimension needs thicker front and back baffles to keep it tighter or whatever for the same resonance?

Back to the show....
Clippage

[awangotango]

that's alot of theorization based on a wrong assumption. The 4x12 is still sealed. Two 5o cent pieces of 1/4" ply screwed in their place, using teh old screws seals the cab. I am about as hardcore a tone hound as anyone here. I know all about woody thump and vintage marshall cabs. I would not recommend it if it was not a solution. I can hear the affect of attenuators and master volumes and find them a compromise. This I don't hear as a compromise. That's pretty high standards. Plus if you are a gigging musician, a 2x12 4x12 is much easier to lug around.

[Jeremy1283]

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12989492
just the amp and cabinet.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12989499
this is to the ep3 pre amp then to the head.
i might do what phil said and throw the mxr at it. it does sound better in the room tho. got more tweaking to do.

[Jeremy1283]

Its crazy. I went back and listened to the iso clips and my amp is too tame at 70 volts. Hmmm

[Strat78]

That is a great clip, very dry and honest and pretty good if you ask me. I can still hear some of the greenness of an unbroken-in amp but it will only get richer with time. A recent post mentions how the 500 and 560 pf caps that came with the kits are prone to fail so make sure you have a mixer and tone stack caps that are decent.