SIGNAL CHAIN
DEAN FARLEY
The Tone (and Order) of Tubes
Hello everyone. I know some of you will
think I’ve gone crazy once again, but since
this column deals with unorthodox ideas
and methods of finding tone in any part
of your signal chain, this sort of thing will
be standard fare. Did you know that guitar
amplifiers have a preference in which way
the power (or output) tubes are installed? By
this I mean that the tubes will sound better
when you find the right order, meaning simply which tube is installed in the first socket,
the second socket (and so on).
the reason why. In the ensuing years I made
many mini-discoveries about guitar and
amplifier tones. I soon realized that all this
minutiae also has a big effect on how you
play, with even the smallest changes in anything based on tone or feel. Yes, these small
details will indeed affect your style, and your
performance as well.
Now, as we go further up in wattage, we
have more to experiment with. For example,
if you use an amplifier like a Komet 60-watt
new sounds you’ve discovered during the
process of experimentation. Sometimes the
tonal shift will be large, while other times
the differences will appear to be more
subtle. But don’t let the subtleties fool you!
This is where you can really dial in the tonal
nirvana you’ve been looking for. With a bit
of patience—and an oven mitt ready—you
can have a lot of fun learning about tone
and how it affects you, the player.
When dealing with single-ended, Class
A amplifiers—a single output tube
amp such as the Fender Champ, for
instance—it is a very simple matter of
experimenting with different brands of
output tubes to find which one really
rocks your world. I recently re-voiced
a brand new Fender Champion 600 by
taking out the stock Chinese 6V6 and
replacing it with an NOS Tung-Sol unit
from the mid-fifties. You should hear it
now! It has this buttery, rich sound that
makes the Chinese tube turn green with
envy. No contest here whatsoever! This
$200 amplifier has turned out to be one
of my favorite recording (and practicing)
tools. Even late at night I can achieve
some ripping tones with this little monster. Recorded right, it’s downright amazing to hear.
With a bit of patience
–and an oven mitt at the
ready–you can have a
lot of fun learning about
tone and how it affects
you, the player.
I have an entire tablet devoted exclusively
to documenting exactly which tubes
work well in my Komet 60 head. This is a
culmination of eight years of me tweaking only power tubes (brands, types and
tube order in the amp). I also included in
my notes exactly where the bias points
are set for each tube combination. This
is a great thing to have in your gig bag
if you need to change tubes on the fly,
such as when a power tube blows up
in the middle of a set. Here, there is no
guessing at all, because all the details
have been sorted out well ahead of
time. I can be up and running in just a
minute or two, using a small Mag-Lite
flashlight. In case you’re wondering,
there is only one amplifier in my collection that is bone-stock. All of the rest
have had a tube changed here or there,
to suit the occasion.
Back in the early nineties I had an
opportunity to visit Trainwreck Circuits’ Ken
Fischer at his home in New Jersey. When I
came down the stairs into his workshop, he
was in the middle of finishing up an amplifier. After briefly showing it to me, he started to listen to the amp once again, just for
a quick moment, then turned the standby
switch to its off position. Beside the amp
was an oven mitt he could wear while he
changed the position of the still-hot power
tubes. He repeated this ritual a couple of
times until he enthusiastically proclaimed,
“That’s it! That’s where the amp likes the
tubes the best!” Needless to say, I was
taken aback by the whole concept; at the
time I did not know that tube order really
mattered. But what happened to me that
day was that I could easily hear what was
going on, and at the same time understand
head, or a 50-watt Marshall head, these
amplifiers are very sensitive to tube order
and tube type. In the Komet 60 head you’re
able to use not only a bunch of different
types of output tube (EL34, 5881, 6L6, or
6CA7 just to name a few), but you can ultimately decide how you like the the amp’s
sound according to tube order—simply by
switching the position of the two power
tubes. Keep in mind that you can also experiment with different tube brands. Each brand
will have a unique tonal signature!
You can easily hear and feel these differences as you experiment with them. If you’re
new to this type of tweaking, it’s always
a good idea to record each variation you
come across (or do some quick A/B testing
afterwards), so your ear will not forget the
Last, remember that if you’re experimenting with a 100-watt (or more)
amplifier, with four power tubes, there are
24 possible combinations of where you can
position the tubes! Sounds fun, huh? Until
next month, I suggest that you buy yourself
a standard yellow-lined writing tablet and
get to work finding your own tone. See you
next time.
Dean Farley
is the chief designer of "Snake Oil Brand Strings"
( sobstrings.net) and has had a profound influence
on the trends in the strings of today.
