Hellatones anyone?

[metalchurch]

Well, ya miserable sum'bits. I ordered one to throw in the cab.

Have 2 Ems in now. One is older, a bit looser and warmer, the
other is made to be pretty stiff and brighter. Have to experiment,
as usual, to see how these work together, etc.

Thats cool Dave, atleast your not afraid to try new shit. I got to say that out of everyone on here, you probably experiment more with your sound than any of us.
Or atleast you talk about it more openly. Thank god(Ozzy), that I am very close to my sound and I don't have to swap things around.
Or as much, I should say.

But there's alot that I want to try before I "settle in" to my final setup. (if that's ever possible)

Can't wait to hear your reviews of your current project. Gotta say you have a way with words that almost puts the whole thing to picture!

[VENTGtr]

Joe,

Thanks much. Sad thing is, for the most part, I'm pretty happy with the
overall sound. Guess just trying to keep it "fresh"...or something.

Did get some time last night to mess with the Carvin/Ibz matchup and
think I have something I'll like...until I decide on mods to the Carvin.

Will give it a go for a while and see how it all shakes out.

[metalchurch]

Joe,

Thanks much. Sad thing is, for the most part, I'm pretty happy with the
overall sound. Guess just trying to keep it "fresh"...or something.

I know exactly what you mean by that statement!! +1,000,000!
I find my sound getting old and stale, and i used to be a knob tweaker from hell trying to find that sweet spot.
But sometimes I find it easier if it's not "sounding good" to just shut it down and walk away.
When I used to tweak things to sound good, next time I played it, I usually ended up putting it back where it was anyway.

But more than a few times I messed things up so bad, I had to start from zero with EVERYTHING. Let me tell you those days s-u-c-k-e-d!

Sure you been there bro.

[VENTGtr]

But sometimes I find it easier if it's not "sounding good" to just shut it down
and walk away.
.

And THAT, my friend, is experience. Did the same thing with the Carvin.
Helped immensely. Just left out what I thought I SHOULD be expecting
and went at it. Ya know how the old rule is "Set it all straight up and then
start adjusting"? I've never done that.

I put it all on 7 (2 O'Clock) then start moving. Didn't do it this time. Followed
the rules. Wasn't too happy with things. Shut it all down and figured I'd get
back to it some time.

When I finally got to try again, set it all at 7, took a little while, and found
something that'll work. A SMALL thing, probably meant nothing in the grand
scheme, BUT, did put a piece of tape on with the final, best settings.

Bass 6.5 Mid 7 High 7.25

Not too far from where it started, but tried several variants.

Also found that while the Nano Boost worked great with the Ibanez and
the TubeWorks for lead-y type stuff, with the Carvin it didn't quite fill out
as well. The old, tried and true Boss O.D. ended up back in the chain and
did a better job.

Could'a gotten a SpiderValve head and more for what all this has costs....
who knew.

[metalchurch]

I have done the same thing when I was swapping out preamps a whil ago. I would just put them all @ a 2 o'clock postition and start from there. I seem to have a better starting point doing it that way.

It was a real nightmare at one point cause I had a 10 space rack and every unit was full of shit. So I had a myriad of stuff to adjust.
If I adjusted one thing it would affect 2 or 3 other units, and it was getting out of control.

Now I'm using a 6 space w/ no effects or gadgets, just full on gain. I don't even have a clean sound dialed in anymore. It's much simpler for my style, but I do find it holding me back when I want to experiment when just messing around.

That's one reason why I want to build another system.

[VENTGtr]

I

Now I'm using a 6 space w/ no effects or gadgets, just full on gain.

That's awesome. How do you get by without a Flanger? I shudder to think
about it.

[metalchurch]

Right now it doesn't bother me, but the itch will arrive soon for some coloring in my sound.

Reminds me, the one thing I never owned was a Wah pedal, no kidding! I wanna try one out sometime. I just dont think I can get the coorination between my hands/foot to make it sound good.
My fav player who implemented the wah in his sound is without a doubt Jerry Cantrell. That guy def. made a voice for himself and stands out from most players.

[VENTGtr]

Joe,

Ya, I dig Cantrell as well.

I think it's a matter of having one sound right. Like I said, I'm not real
keen on the sweep of mine. Could change the pot, or even just the
amount of sweep...but have other things that are higher on the screw
around with list.

I use it sparingly. Mebbe...3 or 4 tunes in a night. Some of that is just
using it in lieu of whatever someone may have actually used. Pair it
with a Flanger can get a more realistic Univibe feel, do the same and
throw in some pick scratching junk.over the pickup finger slides, get
a Whammy/Octave pedal thing, need to crack someone over the head
and the Volume Pedal is screwed down, etc. The basics.

[orangekick]

It took me a while to find a wah that I liked. I ended up with the Ibanez WD-7. I needed a switchless wah with a decent swep. I also really like the fact that I can even boost a little if I need to.

[metalchurch]

That's a good point Orange, I never knew which Wah to begin messing with, there are so many out there. I was just gonna go with the Original Crybaby to start with, cause I'm new to the subject and everything.

[orangekick]

I tried the original Crybaby and I always had an issue with the fact that you have to step forward to get it to shut off. That meant that every wah part had a little swish at the end of it.

[metalchurch]

That's kind of a crappy glitch isn't it? Were all versions like that?

I'd like to try one just to experience what they're all about, but to be honest, I'd prob only use it once and sell it or trade it off, I was just never into stuff like that really.
Maybe when I get older, I'll get out of my "this shit don't belong in metal"
mentality, and experiment with equipment through a different outlook on my music style. But for now.....

[orangekick]

All of the normal ones have that switch. You can actually hear it on some recordings. I know there are a couple of Fu Manchu tracks where you can hear a quick sweep up right at the end of some of the leads. I believe that Dunlop has a few that are switchless now.

[VENTGtr]

HellaTone arrived yester. Only had time to drop it in the cab and
play for about 5-10 minutes. Hard to get a full impression in just
a few, but FIRST impressions were REALLY good. Replaced the
stiffer of the 2 Ems.

The H.T. is nice, clear and punchy. My biggest down-side to Cels
in general was that they were a bit too bright/harsh. This isn't as
bright as the Em it replaced, but is a moreso than the other, older
Ems in the cab. It also has a little more clarity than the older one.

Will run it a while, then mebbe swap out the older Eminence with
the newer and see how they work together.

As a bit of a sidenote, I swapped out the JJ preamp tube that was in
the Carvin to TungSol. Made a TON of difference. Gave the drive
side a lot more...drive...(To which the H.T. added even more, prolly
mainly due to increased speaker movement) gave the clean side
more variables in EQ, but didn't dirt it up (Though made it more
responsive and gave more breadth).

The drive side, which seems to be a common thing with Carvin,
still has JUST a bit of a...dampening sound (One guy who does
the mods to the VT50s refers to it as having a blanket over the
speakers. Not a lot, but enough that I'm considering the mods
later on.

ANYWAY, diggin' the HellaTone thus far. Thanks for the info on
them Orange. Was a big help in deciding to give'm a shot.

[orangekick]

ANYWAY, diggin' the HellaTone thus far. Thanks for the info on them Orange. Was a big help in deciding to give'm a shot.

Cool. I'm glad to hear that you're digging 'em so far.

[metalchurch]

Dave did you swap the TungSol's the same time as the HT's? Just wondering what kind of effect the TunSol alone would have done to your sound before you swapped speakers?

[orangekick]

Nah. I only ever mess with one thing at a time. I also try to run something as a constant too. When I was messing with that Marshall cab that has the Warehouse Green Berets w/ the V30's, I had my Mojo cab that has had the same speakers in it for the past two years.

I originally bought the Mojo 4x12 cab empty. I filled it with 4 Hellatone 60L's, which are the V30's with extended low end. That sounded great, but lacked a little mid definition, possibly top end. I swapped out 2 of the 60L's for Warehouse Veteran 30's right when they came out, and I haven't looked back since. That cab is perfect like that.

The Marshall 4x12 is now perfect for me. I have it matched up with a Peavey VTM60 head. It sounds a lot like a JCM 800 only with more to it. We're tracking some stuff for the new disc and I'm running this amp for most of the tracks right now. I also took out the 6L6's that the VTM usually runs and popped in a pair of Yellowjackets, making it a 15 watt monster. lol

[metalchurch]

Those Yellow jackets, are they sort of like a power attentuator, like a THD or a Marshall Power brake, in respects to how it cuts the power down?
Sort of like a power soak huh?

[VENTGtr]

Did the TungSols first. That helped a lot on its own.

Will be using this setup (Ibz TubeKing, Carvin, H.T.) out for the first time this
coming Saturday. It's an outdoor thing down in Shippensburg. Not exactly the
BEST environment to get a feel for how it'll go live, BUT...mebbe a chance to
turn it up a good bit.

At practice I never move past 1 so getting a full, desired sound isn't possible.
One of the downsides of going back to all tube I guess.

Believe the Yellowjackets allow you to use EL84s in place of 6L6 or 6V6s.

[metalchurch]

Oh, like an adapter socket kind of?

[orangekick]

Yellowjackets allow you to use EL84's in place of any power tube. I actually really dig the sound of my Dual Rec running 2 6L6's and 2 Yellowjackets. The Yellowjackets bring the DR's wattage down to about 60 watts then, allowing for earlier power tube break up. In the Peavey, it makes the amp 15 watts period.

Yellowjackets are a tube socket adaptor. They convert the current so that your amp is then running in a class A manner. This is the PDF from the THD site. Check it:

THD Yellow Jackets are specialized adapters which permit the use of EL84/6BQ5 power tubes in place of 6V6, 6L6, EL34, 7027, 6550 (under 520 volts) and 7591 types. They will work in any amplifier that takes these tube types, as long as the plate voltage is under 520 VDC. This accounts for over 98% of the tube guitar amplifiers on the market.
(They also work in tube Hi-Fi equipment!) Because the Yellow Jackets ignore the amplifier’s grid bias voltage, it is possible to take them in and out at will to adjust your power level and sound for the individual gig
or session. Class-A With Any Amp!

Yellow Jacket Converters not only rearrange the pin locations of the 9-pin
EL84 tube bases to permit them to work in 8-pin sockets, but also perform a number of essential electronic functions that permit the EL84s to function well and sound great in your amplifier. These functions include:

1) Reducing the voltage on the plates of the tubes,
2) Reducing the voltage and limiting the current on the screens of the tubes,
3) Blocking the amplifier’s DC bias voltage from reaching the control grids of the EL84s,
4) Giving the control grids of the EL84s their own ground reference resistor for gain control,
5) Giving the EL84 its own cathode-bias (self-bias) circuit to enable it to run safely and squarely in the Class-A range. (Sorry if this is a bit more information than you needed, but some people like this kind of thing.)

In other words, there are no adjustments to make and no
modifications necessary. You simply plug the Yellow Jackets into the amp’s output tube sockets, (in cathode-bias amplifiers screw the ground wires under one of the output tube socket mounting screws,) plug the provided EL84s into the Yellow Jackets, turn the amp on and play. When you remove the Yellow Jackets and return to your original tubes, the bias voltage in your amp is exactly where you left it, so you do not need to re-bias.

Like Getting A Whole New Amplifier
In Champ and Deluxe type amplifiers, the Yellow Jackets output is smooth, strong and more even than with the stock 6V6s. When the Yellow Jacket Converters are installed in larger two-tube amplifiers intended for 6L6, 6550, 7027 or EL34 output tubes, the output power drops to about 15 to 20 watts and the amplifier takes on more of the character of an old Vox AC30. The distortion is smoother and more even and the output is both substantially reduced and more compressed than stock due to the
Class-A nature of the Yellow Jackets. In a 100-watt amp like a Twin Reverb or Marshall 100, either two or four YJSs can be used. If only two are used and the other two (inside or outside) sockets are left empty, the output is dropped to about 20 watts. With four in place, the amp puts out about 40 watts and takes on a whole new warmth and richness. A further option in a 4-tube amplifier is to leave two of the original tubes in place and replace the other two with Yellow Jackets. This gives a combination of Class-A and Class-AB operation and sounds quite sweet and complex. The pick attack is tight and punchy from the power of the two Class-AB tubes and the sustain is taken over by the Yellow Jackets operating in Class-A. Try it, you’ll like it!

Replaces The Rare 7591 Tube!
In the case of replacing 7591s, the overall output power remains the same, but the sound becomes fuller, and the extinct 7591s are replaced with common and inexpensive EL84 tubes. In old Ampeg Reverb Rockets and the like, you experience a warmth and sweetness that you could never get with the now-unavailable 7591 tubes.

Safe For All Amplifiers and Transformers
As all Yellow Jacket Converters internally limit voltage and current they put no extra strain on the amplifiers’ power and output transformers or internal components. Using the Yellow Jackets in higher-powered amplifiers actually reduces the strain on the transformers and internal components because it reduces the overall wattage of the system. Furthermore, the heater (or filament) current of the EL84 is lower than that of the 6L6, 6550, 7027, EL34 or 7591, so using the Yellow Jackets will reduce the strain on the filament windings of the power transformer as well.

[orangekick]

Did the TungSols first. That helped a lot on its own.

Will be using this setup (Ibz TubeKing, Carvin, H.T.) out for the first time this
coming Saturday. It's an outdoor thing down in Shippensburg. Not exactly the
BEST environment to get a feel for how it'll go live, BUT...mebbe a chance to
turn it up a good bit.

At practice I never move past 1 so getting a full, desired sound isn't possible.
One of the downsides of going back to all tube I guess.

Believe the Yellowjackets allow you to use EL84s in place of 6L6 or 6V6s.

You might want to look into some Yellowjackets too. If you want to crank the amp more, they will allow you to do that in a more controlled manner.

[metalchurch]

Orange,
Thanks for the info dude, I never knew about these little things until you mentioned it in this thread. I only wish that I had a poweramp or head that was equipped with 6L6's, so I could try this mod. Sounds like I would really benfit from using a lower wattage, considering that I have upstairs neighbors, and I cant really crank my 100w Marshall to take advantage of it's tube breakup. It has 5881's in it.
Is there a version for the 5881's? I'm using a dual monobloc poweramp, so I could use side B w/ the YJ's and play through that side, and keep my side A stock.

Is Yellow Jacket the name of the compay, or are they made by someone else?

[VENTGtr]

OK,

Ya, was thinking about that. I know Klotz uses them in one
the Marshalls in his studio. Apparently, really likes how they
work on it.

So much stupid stuff to buy...

[orangekick]

Orange,
Thanks for the info dude, I never knew about these little things until you mentioned it in this thread. I only wish that I had a poweramp or head that was equipped with 6L6's, so I could try this mod. Sounds like I would really benfit from using a lower wattage, considering that I have upstairs neighbors, and I cant really crank my 100w Marshall to take advantage of it's tube breakup. It has 5881's in it.
Is there a version for the 5881's? I'm using a dual monobloc poweramp, so I could use side B w/ the YJ's and play through that side, and keep my side A stock.

Is Yellow Jacket the name of the compay, or are they made by someone else?

THD makes them and you can use them in just about any amp. I have used the same pair in the 6L6 equipped VTM60 as well as my Ampeg V-7, which takes 6550's. We also tried them in an Orange OR120 with the other two power tubes pulled out. It was funny to hear an Orange roar at that volume.