Quote:
Originally posted by jhc
I had this qeustion a while ago here. If you replace a 12ax7 with a 12au7, are you really getting a cleaner sound at the same volume, or are you just driving the power tubes less (like turning down the gain knob - less gain but less volume as well)? Most answers seemed to imply the latter - is that not right?
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No - not a cleaner sound at the same volume, volume gets down a bit - but you can drive the power tubes AND the preamp tubes more and can get for that reason a fuller, cutting better through-sound...
But I for myself wouldn´t recommend a 12AU7, I would recommend an ECC83 or a 12AX7 that´s a bit cleaner than the recent pretty high gain tubes, there are also differences within the same tube models but by different manufacturers... So some 12AX7s are cleaner than others (don´t know really too much about that topic, though)... I think with a 12AU7 it would be like you said - less gain at less volume...
Probably the best solution would be a Fulltone Fat Boost and the control of the distortion via the guitar´s volume - the boost let´s the guitar volume react better to clean up, and the amp is what it seems to should be - a dirty amp...
Greets, Dominik