I need Clean Power Tubes. Any suggestions?

[Rocksully]

Hey everyone.
Im looking for some clean EL84s, as Id like some additional clean headroom in my 65 Marquee.

Any suggestions on what I should try?

Thanks guys!

[Norrin Radd]

Windex?

[Rocksully]

Haha. Nice.
Not clean as in tidy looking tubes.
Clean as in not making the amp distort as soon.

My amp runs on 35 WATTs
(4xEL84), Tube rectified, 12AX7, 12AX7 Cascode.

I was originally planning on changing the preamps, but 65 suggested I change the power tubes.

Just searching the net for some info on what to order.

[Drdos]

According to GT tube spec you can purchase a quad of matched EL84's from them with a rating of 6-8 which they say tend to not overdrive till higher volumes.

[jdzasta]

I'm using Electro Harmonix EL-84's in my AD-15/12 combo and they are fairly clean until you get the volume up to around 70% or so. I had EI's which were horribly gritty sounding. However, it depends more on the "plate current draw" of the tube, rather than the the brand specifically (although there are probably some brands that usually just come as hotter and colder).

Whatever brand you get, I would order them from Doug's Tubes or some place like that, and just explain that you want colder tubes with more headroom (aka "LATE DISTORTION"). They'll hook you up with the correct bottles. When you have the amp re-biased, you could explain to the tech what you're going for and they will sometimes bias it a couple milliamps colder or so, but I'm not sure this is "recommended" by Orange Techs or not. Probably not.

If you don't want to go through the hassle of re-biasing, try a (12AU7 preamp tube rather than a 12AX7) in the last position (AKA the driver tube) of the preamp (farthest from the input jack "usually" but please check the specs for your amp...). 12AU7's (as well as 12AY7's and 12AT7's) are 'lower gain' tubes, therefore, will not drive your power tubes quite as much as the 12AX7 (which is most likely what's in there now...) That will tend to knock the gain/grit down a bit, but you likely also lose a touch of volume by doing this. Doesn't hurt the amp, you're just running it at a slightly lower current.

Any Orange Tech people want to chime in? I have done all this stuff to good results on my own gear, but I must state that I take no responsibility for you and yours...Just offering personal experience here.