Quote from: rnolan on September 18, 2014, 08:13:20 AMHey El, as SC says my direct experience is with the long plates as the short plates are more recent than when SC and I embarked on our "tube" discovery. He went MP1, I went MP2 and we both loved the result so IMHO you can't go wrong with the long plates MP1 or 2.  For super high gain sounds, the short plates may be better as short plate = less microphonics (I've not had any problems with the long plates, but for 3TM makes sense), I've yet to hear them (SPs) though to compare the 3D and depth, from the patches you've been posting, go with the long plates, you won't be disappointed, they are great tubes 

I got much more bottom end and clearer gain in the H&K Tubeman  long ago ...smoother singing gain .

I have an MP1 in storage - when  I bring it out ...will the 803s  give more bottom end [ including the cleans ] and smoother gain [ Gilmour Carton EJ etc ]  ?

And also the Sovtek LPS ?
 What do you think ?

 This is the quote from TubeDepot:
" JJ / Tesla ECC803s 'high gain' - Hotter and fatter than the regular JJ, this tube gives more headroom once in the circuit.
Creamy tones and great low end

This was what I noticed when long ago I had a JJ803s  installed in the H&K Tubeman  - more gradual and clearer gain.

But I play Pop /R&B / and Fusion
so gain like Lukather Carlton and
a little more gain but gain doesn't work with complex chords .

The MP1 and Tubeman have been in storage awhile...

I will probably try the JJ803s and the Sovtek LPS  to see if it increases the bottom end .

I like Fender and Marshall cleans  and singing leads / some legato ...I like some of the new Amplified Nations Amps I hear  demos of but  will be recording and don't want the volume in preproduction ..

I like Cab IR's and studio EFX ...
Singing gain with nice harmonic overtones.

The MP1 I have was modded before I bought it noise mods / and lower gain  ...it seems that more bottom end might really push it over the top .

I was hoping someone was using the MP1 more as I did .

If there was a way to get really transparent gain on chords like even cleaner than the EVH Crunch - I might explore that ...but no need go reinvent the wheel .

I may ask Amplified Nation about a preamp that can go right into

Cab IRs for recording .

I think preamps need a  faux phase inverter tube as part of the preamp with a saturation control to add filtering and harmonics to the signal - and sound less sterile .

I noticed long ago that even with cab emulation ...

A broad digital shelving EQ   depending upon preset [ amount of gain etc etc etc ]   - starting  at  9K   and gradually moved lower reaches a point where it does not affect most of the audible harmonics  but gets rid of the harsh hash and odd upper harmonics and improves the tones .
BUT - the modern Rock or especially  Metal leaves these in ...  80's Rock did not because it was all miced and speaker cleaned it up .

Modern IR's do not filter as much as a real mic'ed speaker .

This is why modeling guys are tweaking forever ...lol.

I think two IR's in series might do it .

I am not doing Retro Music at all [ my chords are very very modern ]  but I am not recording harsh guitar tones ...lol.

Not my thing .

Incidentally - Van Halen, Neil Schon, Mick Jones, Lukather, Slash etc. never had harsh tones ...

I like the Amplified Nations demos for tones though including the modded Marshall ones they are not harsh to my ears .

That's what I was hoping the 803s might give me more of with the MP1 when I bring it out.

I want to make sure I have some good+ music before I set ip a whole preproduction rig again ..
frankly.

I think the  Tube Preamps miss the pushed cleans also - Keith Richards , Jimi cleans ...the H&K  does those.

But the Friedman IRX and IRD  sound thin and sterile on cleans and pushed cleans and EJ crunch .

He [ Friedman ] is not going for that and I think a PI tube ( that is padded back to line level - and maybe does not actually invert because there is no rectifier - but Amp guys long ago told me the PI Tube really affects the tone of Amps ...

And NOBODY ever put a faux PI at the end of their tube  preamp  just for harmonics and filtering then padded back down to line level - because the REAL PI tube will be at the Amp stage .

But it is a way to get a little output section harmonics  and the tube has higher headroom and could be pushed different ways .

I am not a builder but if you ARE try it ...

Post here  ..I might buy one.

2024

Thanks

UPDATE: 9 days in, still working great, no issues at all.....yet

Only low level bedroom playing so far, no band practices.....yet

Hey Richard,

   Yeah, I should have been a bit more specific regarding the networking. You see, I have a room in my basement that I've set up for recording, and that's where the desktop is going to be. I use the laptop when I'm upstairs to get on the internet. I still want to transfer files from the desktop to the laptop though, so the machines need to connect seamlessly. This way, I don't need to be in my basement when I get online to post finished recordings.

Hey Dante, the newer thinner laptops can be a bit harder to get at the RAM as obviously the space inside is at a premium.  When I read that about the MSI I was buying, which is as thin as a Macbook Pro, you have to dismantle it a bit to get at the RAM, so not as straight forward as it was/is with thicker older units.  Hence I decided stuff that and just bought it loaded up.  I went new and high end, the last laptop I have I bought over 15 years ago and I wanted to future proof myself a bit.  Also the MSI is a gaming/creative model, and gaming machines are always really high spec.  These are the people (gamers) who have liquid cooling systems for the CPU (like a car radiator).

@Harley, when you said networking, I miss understood you I think.  To me that means running on a corporate network etc. which Macs are not particularly easy to incorporate.  But if you just mean connecting to your wireless router/modem thingy and accessing the internet, I don't think of that as networking, although I spose strictly it is in a way.  The monitor limitation came up when I was buying the Satechi dock.  At that time Macs only supported 2 external monitors.  When I looked the other day I noticed the M3 Max has addressed that and it can now support 4 (in that model) as does Win11.  Of course you also need a decent graphics card.  But I'm good with 2 which gives me 3 screens which I find handy for recording, well mostly mixing as the FX and bus windows etc. can be on other screens.  While buying refurbished Macs may be cost effective now, I wouldn't (given what you want and are doing).  Mac OSs get deprecated faster that Windows.  There's lots of people who can't apply security patches (and Dante, they come thick and fast these days, I see them every other day in my job) to their Apple things.  Not that this doesn't also happen in Windows, it's just Window is supported much longer due partly to it's huge footprint in enterprise organisations.

Anyway Harley, I just decided to bight the bullet, spend the money and upgrade everything, coz, like you, I was over it and just wanted everything to work.  And I'm glad I did, now I'm good for another 10 years (I hope LoL).

I'm keeping an eye on this thread since I ordered the parts to repair one of mine.

Dante,

    I'll look for refurbished Macs and see what's out here. The place I went to was the Apple Store, so I think all they had was new machines. I'll look around though.

   Thanks for the tip, I didn't even think of that until you mentioned it.

Richard,

   I'll keep that in mind, but I will still go with a desktop even if I have a laptop. I don't like to use the desktop for networking, which is why I choose to use a laptop for that.
   I intended to get a hub for the laptop anyway since the USB connections are limited on those.

   As far as external monitors, these two I have now can work with HDMI, and they are connected with adapters.

Yes and No

Yes, it is the one I got from you. No, I didn't check the bias current, nor do I know how to (yet)