From ck98–(at)–leveland.Freenet.Edu Wed Jun 28 11:55:39 CDT 1995
Article: 1995 of alt.guitar.amps
Path: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu!ck983
From: ck98–(at)–leveland.Freenet.Edu (Robert J. Cardinali)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Super Molested By Tech!
Date: 28 Jun 1995 11:14:02 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Lines: 78
Message-ID: <3srdhq$eg--(at)--senet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
Reply-To: ck98–(at)–leveland.Freenet.Edu (Robert J. Cardinali)
NNTP-Posting-Host: kanga.ins.cwru.edu
Ok, so I go to this amp repair place the other day with my mid-60’s BF
Super Reverb in hand. I have one 6L6 that the center glows red on,
and I figure maybe a bias resistor is toast. Easy enough to replace
and I think, and while he’s in there he can make sure everything’s jake.
So I pick it up today, and he tells me the tube that was glowing
unnaturally was bad, and along with other adjustments, he replaced
my shitty “Westinghouse” 6L6’s with Sovteks. I think “great, now I
get to check out these Rusky tubes that everyone seems to rave about
on the net”. I run over to my cavernous “secret rehearsal spot” which
is really a huge sewing room where I work during the day. The only
animal matter that I disturb with volume here are the woodchucks.
I kick the switchs on, plug my Strat in and wait with breathless
anticipation for some serious aural orgasm….what do I get?
Thin, raspy, tinny bottom *from hell*, a distorion that really never
quite goes away at any volume level above 2, a nice Les Pauly sustain
and definitely a tube amp harmonic mass of sound out of my previously
awesome sounding 10 inch alnico love beasties. I can’t believe what I am
hearing. I am not even remotely amused. I am pissed. What did this
retard do to my bell-like-sounding-balls-in-your-face-bottom-end-that-
no-other-amp-on-earth-can-produce-except-supers sound? Really, the bass
sound is like farting in a tin can, and reminds me of when I was a kid
and used to plug into my dads tube VoiceOfTheTheatre tape recorder with
the monitor on to get some form of distortion somewhere, anywhere…
The Twin-like mids that make you shudder with ecstasy are history.
The glassy twang, and prime rib gutsy fullness – gone. Like someone with
a bad sense of humor hardwired an SD-1 into the back of this thing and
hid it under the reverb can.
GodDamn! I think – this dude took my output transformer out,
stole all of my filter caps, and replaced it all with Rat Shack
parts – Anger wells deep inside of me momentarily. I collect myself,
and think of all of the deep dark bad things that are going to happen to
this midget when I get my hands on him. I can’t find him now, it’s after
5 o’clock, and I know I am not going to sleep tonight. Sigh…What to
do, what to do….Then I realize….he gave me back my old tubes.
I turned the beastie off….let her cool while I pop a brewski and
think of how much jail time I am facing for manslaughter…Then when
the tubes are cooled sufficiently, I replace them with my cheap MCM
“Westinghouse” 6L6’s (which looke remarkably like… Yup, the
Sovteks)….Kick the switches, and Sho-nuff…
My Sound! Hallelujah! I *Don’t* have to live in shame anymore! It’s
back! And it sounds tremendous! Oh happy happy day! I’m A-L-I-V-E!
But…what the hell just happened? Am I supposed to believe that people
actually think these tubes sound good? Did I maybe, just maybe, get a
bad set of Sovteks right out of the box, and did they get past this tech
without detection? I can almost believe that some players like that
compressed sound and raunch distortion above a nice edgy, CONTROLLED
distortion, but there’s no curl to ride. It’s either there, or it’s
off…Lame Lame Lame….Yech – Ptoohey! You gotta be shittin me…
Now – before I go and make some assumptions I ought not to…Are these
tubes rated in the similar fashion that Groove Tubes are? Are there
“grunge ratings”, in other words? I couldn’t imagine going from a
balls-out tune like Hideaway or Jukin to a glassy number that Asleep At
The Wheel might do, and have that lack of lattitude in my amps…They
have to do a wide array of expression, and they absolutely must sound
fucking gorgeous when they do it….Please help me understand this.
Sovteks are supposed to be the cats whiskers in tubes, no? Did I just
get a shitty set? Where oh where can I find a set of NOS RCA’s? These
Westinghouse tubes look identical internally to the Sovteks too…I
wonder…
There’s no doubt in my mind that these little critters are going back to
the shop post-haste. What does a guy have to do? Buy two, three dozen
of these suckers and hand pick them for their musical characteristics?
There’s gotta be a catch here somewhere. Hep me out folx 🙂
Phew..thanks for letting me vent – I might sleep after this bottle of
sleeping pills, and that 6-pack of Molson Ale 🙂
Bob
