Metropoulos Forum

I have one of the new hand-wired AC30 combos, and it sounds pretty good, but I feel like the drive has been a bit too modern to my ears, the gain too high perhaps in the pres, so I'm looking for some NOS tubes that will play well with this amp.

So far I grabbed a Tung-Sol for cheap that I meant to put in V1 to try that out, but mistakenly put in V3 because I had things backwards... and it sounds pretty good... but I've still got the stock Rubys in V1/V2, and I'm looking for some options.

I would like to give the amp a bit more Fender sort of color as opposed to Marshall sort of color if possible (if that's a good way of describing it?) - warm up the drive a little, maybe add a little low mid, keep the chime. I run it pretty dark, I guess. I think I'm pretty close with the stock setup, but I always think things can sound better... heh.

The Mullard 163s and/or 161s look tempting, and like they might add some low mids from what I've read, but they also don't seem cheap, so I want to have a slightly clearer picture of how they might color the tone before I blow money. Is $30 - 50 about the normal range for these?

Thanks!

I would try some GE and/or Sylvanias. You can still find them at a good price. Good NOS Mullards can go for $100 or more per tube. Just depends on where you score them. I've found good Mullards for $1 each at Hamfests.

Is there a particular GE or Sylvania I should be on the lookout for?

I've used both yellow label and JAN Sylvanias. Also a lot of them are labeled Baldwin. They tend to be a really good all round tube. White label GE tubes, you may want to experiment with long plate and short plate in different positions.

Sylvania long greyplates would be my suggestion for certain. For bringing the gain down a tad a NOS 5751 might help.

if you want fender sort of color, you should go TUNGSRAM ecc83.
The ones measuring not too high will give you the broad freq responce
you want to get your tone.

Don't go sylvania, they compress too much and will get you into instant marshall
territory!