OT question

[rollyerown]

It's said 100 watters have a punchier more solid tone, and the 100 watt marshalls i've had did indeed sound different in a way i liked. Those adjectives may not be the best words to describe it, but you know what i mean. Anyways, the question is, if you use a 100 watt OT in a 50 watt EL34 amp, will you get close to the same effect as it it were 4 tubes? Also, besides using the speaker tap thats 1/2 the value as your speaker load, is there anything else i should know about trying this?

[gldtp99]

No, a 100 watt OT in a 50 watter won't magically make it sound like a 100 watter---- you're right about jogging the OT secondary taps----- the only other thing is that it's probably not worth the effort, but it's your amp and try it out if you want to------ i've built a couple of experiments with 100 watt-sized OT's using two output tubes----some with KT88 x 2 tubes and plenty of mA-----they still sounded more like "enhanced 50 watters" than 100 watters.
I also built (converted, really) an old Gibson Atlas head into a modded NMV Marshall circuit, using a 100 watt OT--- EL34 x 2--- it sounds very good--- wall to wall tone and plenty of low end if wanted--- but when A/B'd against my '78 JMP 2203 it's easy to tell that it's not a 100 watt Marshall---- it's a good sounding amp but it doesn't have that "thing" (push/drive/thump/balls/whatever) that the 2203 does------ but the owner likes the EL34 x 2 amp, has been using it for yrs now----- and his bandmate came and bought a 50 watt AFD #36 Mod head i built.
But again, it's your amp and it won't hurt anything if you decide to try it out.......................gldtp99