luekemeyer

What are the best tubes to replace with in a DSL 100? It currently has EL34s Sventlana (russian) power tubes and the pre-amps are Marshall vlve-0008R (12AX7A). I'm pretty sure these are stock, just purchased the amp used. I play classic rock using a Les Paul with DP100 pickups.

Thanks,
John

zeusecho

I bought a used DSL 50 and put in JJKT77 power tubes and then for the pres:

Tung Sol in V1, Shunguang in V2 and V3, Penta in PI.

KT77 needed to be biased a little hotter then the EL34s at about 75%.

I liked teh results...all IMHO of course.

Check Dougs Tubes...

Tubes geared to your sound - Doug's Tubes

__________________
Marshall DSL50
H&K Switchblade 50W Combo
Line6 4x12 (Hellatone 30s and 60s X pattern)

Gibson LP Custom
ESP MH-301
Merz Custom Acoustic
Taylor 355ce 12 String

big dooley

that's basically the problem with these things...
its an opinion and what somebody likes, doesn't do it for the other

i also use KT77's in my DSL100 but biased a little lower at around 84mV (marshall recommends 90mV on the testpoints)
i like them very much

as for the pre's i didn't like the tung sol's in v1... a bit too gritty for my taste... most russian tubes are..
they were also very noisy compared to other brands... so i've discovered a combination which i really like...
V1: nos GE5751 jan
V2: JJ ecc83s
V3 tung sol 12ax7
V4 balanced shuguang 12ax7

i tried a 5751 in V4 (phase inverter) too, but didn't like what it did

just trie some different tubes at different combinations... it can be a lot of fun!
as an alternative for powertubes you could go for the JJ E34L

it's all about combinations... i play a les paul with .012's on it on standard E-tune... that makes a hell of a difference, creating your sound

zeusecho

Hey Big Dooley...

Just curious if you measured your plate voltage, what it is?

I said I like the KT77s hotter then the EL34s not hotter then Marshall recommends. Actually for my plate voltage of 465V I'm running them at 38mV (70% dissipation) which is less then Marshall recommends but they have the DSL Plate voltage spec at like 365V or something.

__________________
Marshall DSL50
H&K Switchblade 50W Combo
Line6 4x12 (Hellatone 30s and 60s X pattern)

Gibson LP Custom
ESP MH-301
Merz Custom Acoustic
Taylor 355ce 12 String

RiverRatt

I like the Groove Tubes EL34M Mullard reissues. These like to be biased way colder than Marshall specs, but once you get them dialed in, they are great. I replaced the Svetlanas that came in my amp with these and they really have that old-school sound.

big dooley

i haven't measured my plate voltage zeusecho, but maybe it's not a bad idea to do... positive lead on pin 3 and the negative lead on the chassis , i believe?

luekemeyer

Thanks.... I'm an electrical engineer and I love to here all of technical responses. You cut to the chase...

big dooley

since you still got the stockers in there, there should be a improvement, no matter what kind of tubes you purchase
when the amp has had it's share of usage, swapping all tubes, can make as much difference as a fresh set of strings
my original preamp tubes had 10 years of duty in my DSL100 before i swapped them... the powertubes were already swapped, but they had 7 years of abuse behind them, which is simply way too long for powertubes

an all out tubeswap made my amp become alive...

luekemeyer

I just ordered the kit from eurotubes. KT77s and ECC88S tubes.
Thanks for the responses.

big dooley

you mean ecc83s tubes?

let us know how you like it!

zeusecho

Yeah man that's it. Let us know what you got. I'm curious to see where you like your bias for the KT77s compared to the palte voltage.

__________________
Marshall DSL50
H&K Switchblade 50W Combo
Line6 4x12 (Hellatone 30s and 60s X pattern)

Gibson LP Custom
ESP MH-301
Merz Custom Acoustic
Taylor 355ce 12 String

luekemeyer

Yeah ecc83s.. Too many 8888s, not enough 3s.