or100 and tubes

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Snapjaw79
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or100 and tubes

Post by Snapjaw79 » Fri Mar 03, 2017 10:34 pm

I've been doing some experimenting with different tubes in my or100h and heres what I ended up keeping:

Power Tubes = JJ el34ii
v1 = EH 12ax7eh
v2 = JJ 12ax7s
v3 = JJ 12ax7s
v4 = PM 12at7 (stock)
v5 = EH 12ax7eh

So when I bought this thing it had the stock PM tubes all around and it sounded good, but not as good as others I've played, so when I got my tax return I decided to try something different. I bought a bias probe from eurotubes and found/bought/borrowed, a bunch of tubes. I wanted to try some 6ca7's and kt77's but I had a new quad of matched el34ii's already and didn't want to go broke. My plate voltage is at a steady 456v at 122v out of the wall, so i biased them at a high 38ma. First impression of the el34ii's was bigger bottom end growl. I like it. They cut a bit of highs, but I wanted that as the PM's had a more modern tone with more highs that I'm not really into. I had the treble down on the dirty channel quite a bit with those. Now i keep everything around 1 or 2:00 and it matches the clean side better. These new JJ's are really sweet when they are cranked, and thats what I use this amp for. I have my or15 for quieter stuff.

I tried just about every preamp tube (under $30) on the market today and some old ones I had lying around. The EH tubes in the clean side paired with the el34ii's give it a powerful, vintage, early-ish breakup which I totally dig. Kinda makes the clean side perform like an old or80 or something. With the dial set around noon and the middle or neck pickup I get sweet dirty blues. Near sundown with the bridge pickup its total break up and thick fuzziness!!! Awesomeness if you have a nice rehearsal spot to crank up or want to piss your neighbors off.
The JJ's in the dirty channel just happened to seem right when I first stuck em in, and after trying about 15 different tubes in different combos i went back to them in the end. Some of the problems I had with the others was too much high end coming through (tung sol, ruby, PM) and rough break up (sovtek, brimar) to not enough breakup (ecc803) to farty fart town. Some others were ok but this amp and my ears preferred the 12ax7s's.
I don't really use the FX loop so didnt bother messing with that tube.
I can't even really put my finger on why I like the 12ax7eh in the phase inverter socket, but it seemed like the clean channel benefitted from it more than the other tubes for the dirty breakup tones i like.
So that was my day off, just thought I'd share my findings with the club. Now its time for some beer and rockin out!!

Please feel free to leave comments with suggestions and different tube combinations and amps you have experimented with!!!
Cheers!
Orange or15
Orange or100
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1973? Sunn model T 1st gen
70's Traynor ygl-3 Mkiii
orange and marshall cabs
Sg's and Les Paul's.
and some fenders.

Ronnie Robinson
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Re: or100 and tubes

Post by Ronnie Robinson » Sat Mar 04, 2017 1:24 pm

Cool! Ehx are my preferred choice.
Orange AD30 HTC
Orange Rocker 15 terror
Orange Tiny Terror HW,
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secretsoundz
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Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:51 am
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Re: or100 and tubes

Post by secretsoundz » Sun Mar 05, 2017 9:22 pm

I run a NOS Amperex Bugle Boy ECC83 in V1 and the JJ ECC83S's in V2-V3 in my OR50. Sounds awesome!
:mrgreen:

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