retrovalves

[atreidesheir]

So you're saying, Anything is just a hero away from being legendary.  It has happened before. 

And I did try one of those solid state rectifiers in my silverface Deluxe reverb (frustration because it smoked my last Philips rectifier).  It definitely changed the character of the amp at mid to high volume where the tone is.  The amp lost lows and mids and maybe highs too.  It sounded like it had a cold.

[frankie5fingers]

That's my thought as well.  I hate to beat the old school drum; sure I'd love to see something new and revolutionary that really delivered, but so far...
Till then, I'll have to stick with cloth covered wire, Vitamin Qs and a few ridiculously expensive 50 year old tubes.  IMO, putting a Wattgrinder or Retrovalve into a circuit designed for tubes is the equivalent of putting a New Sensor TS 5881 into a real 58 LP Tweed Twin; It'll work but the two aren't designed to get the most from each other.  If the good amps are designed around the charcteristics of the tubes in them; maybe it follows that to get the best out of the SS tube replacements, you'd need a workable circuit designed to best use the unique characteristics of Retrovalves.  Maybe then you'd have something. I dunno, just my two cents worth.

[mgwhit]

IMO, putting a Wattgrinder or Retrovalve into a circuit designed for tubes is the equivalent of putting a New Sensor TS 5881 into a real 58 LP Tweed Twin; It'll work but the two aren't designed to get the most from each other.  If the good amps are designed around the charcteristics of the tubes in them; maybe it follows that to get the best out of the SS tube replacements, you'd need a workable circuit designed to best use the unique characteristics of Retrovalves.  Maybe then you'd have something. I dunno, just my two cents worth.

That's actually a very good point.  Possibly two very good points.

[timbo_93631]

I wish there was a company in the US that was making tubes.  The new JJ factory is really modern and pumps out pretty consistent tubes, when will the price of tubes get high enough that production comes back to our shores?

[mgwhit]

I wish there was a company in the US that was making tubes.  The new JJ factory is really modern and pumps out pretty consistent tubes, when will the price of tubes get high enough that production comes back to our shores?

I think the real question is, when will environmental controls push tube production out of Eastern Europe?

[atreidesheir]

Jokerx over on FSB has noticed AMT has produced a solid state analogue of a 6L6.
http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=19342

There is a link there to the data sheet for the product.  very interesting stuff, if they could getmost of the way there, it would be very exciting.



I had not thought of JJ getting shut down.  JJ makes no poor tubes.  They are good and the price is not excessive for the performance factor.  I have JJ 6L6, E34L, KT77, and 6V6, and 6CA7.  They are all as good as the competitors.

[nzCdog]

That is quite a cool concept!  Love to hear me one of these in the flesh

[atreidesheir]

The more I think about this concept, the more I believe th only way I would be tempted to use solid state replacements is for them to be significantly cheaper than new production tubes.  Which is nowhere near reality.