bclaire (or anyone else)- need a opinion AD200 retube

[Aslan]

I'm going to retube my AD200 Orange bass amp and after looking at the available tubes was considering the Electro Harmonix 6550 tubes, I want a tube with high headroom and low noise, think this will get the job done? Also which preamp tubes are the cleanest and clearest for a bass amp?

[bassdrop]

If you can afford NOS for the preamp tubes, go for it. I found the gain to be a bit much on mine and put a RCA 5751 in V2 and a Telefunken 12AX7 in V1, which is probably the most balanced sounding tube ever. Even just a really good NOS tube in V1 would be worth it because the small tubes last forever (like 100,000 hours or more) and the tone improvement from that one position is greater than any other.

Also, EHX are good as well as Winged C (these were the original tubes when I bought my AD200 back in '04). The reissue Gold Lion KT88's are a cleaner sounding upgrade of the EHX you mention.

[bclaire]

I really don't pay much attention to tubes I have to say, and just had my tech retube my AD200B with whatever he put in it. Embarassingly, I never even looked to see what they are....

[Randy Bass]

I really don't pay much attention to tubes I have to say, and just had my tech retube my AD200B with whatever he put in it. Embarassingly, I never even looked to see what they are....

Don't be embarrassed - that's what all the big rock stars do !

[markjazzbassist]

i'd recommend going all JJ's. they are nice and clean and just sound perfect in that amp. that's why they ship them all now with JJ's all around.

[Aslan]

Thanks Markazzbasist! Billy I can't believe your not a tube gourmet! I figured you would have some exotic tube from a Russian nuclear missile that was smuggled into the country buy trained dolphins. My whole image of you is shattered. LOL

[bclaire]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Sorry! Actually, now that I think of it, they probably ARE JJ's.

Still, I don't really know... and I'm too lazy to pull the back off!

[bclaire]

Actually, in thinking about it- I've never retubed an amp and been dissatisfied with the sound. Guess that's why I pay so little attention to what's going in the amp...