how many tubes? behringer 1953

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clevodrummer

Tascammer
Anyone know how many tubes are in the behringer T1953 micpreamp? They do zero as far as supposed warmth, although the rig kicks up the gain pretty good. Im guessing 2, but Im going to replace these and wonder if anyone else has done this with this rig...



thanks
 
Yep. 2.
Currently running GT 12AX7C's in mine.
Does wonders with an acoustic guitar. Vocals I'm still playing with different mic combos and settings to see if it will do what I'm looking for.
 
thanks catnap

thanks a lot...i heard these are good if you swap tubes....did you get your tubes at tubedepot? I havent really taken a good look yet, but do you remove the back plate to get to the tubes?
 
Got my tubes from GC, was there picking up some other stuff during one of their clearance sales.
You have to pull the entire top, outside casing, off the unit. Once you get inside, there's not much to these.
There's two metal tabs with rubber holder thingys (technical term) holding the tops of the tubes in place. They have to be carefully bent back to get the tubes out.
I also pulled out one of the bnc lamps behind the tubes (needed one for my board lamp) which cut down on the heat this thing puts out from the top considerably. When I get around to it, I'll probably pull the other one out too.

I have noticed the longer it's on, the better it sounds. So now I turn it on and let it warm up for a good hour before I start using it.

A lot of people bash Behringer gear. But they have to remember, it is what it is. I got about $150 tied up in this unit (both unit and different tubes bought on sale) and I ended up with a decent 2 channel tube mic pre with lots of options.
Or I could have spent around $3K on an Avalon and the only person that would have known the difference on how it sounds (for what I do and the people I work with)...is me. Unless I pointed out the difference, even then, most of the half-deaf musicians I work with, still don't notice.

Pretty much a no brainer.
 
Of course, wait unitil you have to mix 30-40 tracks amplified by that IC and cheap cap garbage signal path. The mixing process for my first record was excruciating because of the buildup of garbage created by using poorly designed, cheap gear (behringer, ART). Since upgrading my preamp selection, mixing has been a breeze.

There's nice cheap gear out there, I don't think Behringer makes any, myself. And it certainly isn't a tube pre.

Craig
 
craigmorris74 said:
Of course, wait unitil you have to mix 30-40 tracks amplified by that IC and cheap cap garbage signal path. The mixing process for my first record was excruciating because of the buildup of garbage created by using poorly designed, cheap gear (behringer, ART). Since upgrading my preamp selection, mixing has been a breeze.

There's nice cheap gear out there, I don't think Behringer makes any, myself. And it certainly isn't a tube pre.

Craig
Click to expand...

Love those constructive quotes from "high" rep guys [lol].
So then what cheap gear is nice"?
 
Do you mean rep points greater than 1?

Seriously, the Presonous MP20 can be had used for less than $200. It is a tranformer balanced pre, using a nice IC in a simple circuit.
Also, I use a JoeMeek 3Q, a very nice clean pre that includes a "character" compresser and simple EQ. For more channels, try a SM Pro Audio makes an 8-channel pre that sells used for less than $50. Again, nice clean preamps with no BS tube gimmick.

When I started recording, once of the first outboard pre I owned was the ART Tube MP. Many of those recordings are of good songs with lots of energy. It's a shame about the hum and the hiss mixed in with the mud. Being the intelligent fellow that I am, I later bought an ART TPS II, which wasn't as noisy, buy yeilded glassy, irritating sounds when pushed hard (their two channel opto compressor sounds great for the money though). For my final punishment, I aquired a Behringer mixer. For one or two tracks it was fine, but for recording a rock band, it was like nails an a chalkboard. Again, a mixdown nightmare for the fellow that had to deal with it.
 
Thanks!!
And I was joshing about the high rep stuff...
T
:)
 
No offense taken, any douche can sit around and spew worthless advice on a forum and rack up rep points! I've tried a lot of this stuff, and it's fun now having great gear, but it's not necessary to go high end to get good sounds, just the time to sift through the marketing.
 
sorry about my cheap gear

i feel so, i dont know inadequate? The Behringer I bought was negotiated down to $80.00, so I thought adding better tubes would help.

I have a friend who might give me some tubes if I do some drums for his project. I like to trade art.

I have been wanting a preamp for a long time but it took this long to save $80.00. I really appreciate the advice Catnap gave me about tubes and will follow it. He even explained how to take it apart.

My studio is a bit on the humble side but I really love it. I also am really glad I could finally score a preamp even though the brand name does not live up to some peoples standards.

My daddy used to say; "Son, it aint the arrow, its the Indian."

Thanks all, I have to get over to WalMart now.

Clevo
 
Didn't say it had to be expensive, just implying that it if took me a long while to save up money for a mic pre, I'd find the best one for my money. The eight channel SM Pro Audio model I recommend is selling for around $50 on Ebay right now.

If you're happy with what you have, ignore me. I wish someone could have led me to some these cheap/decent sounding pres when I was on a limited budget and/or didn't know how to build it myself.
 
scored some tubes!! recommend any of these?

A tube collector gave me the following tubes to swap with my behringer 1953 preamp:

1. Electro-harmonix / 12ax7eh

2. Lowrey Organ tubes 12ax7a

3.Sovtek (russian)


any suggestions?

thanks
 
honestly, listen to craigmorris. no offense intended at all.

sell the tubes and buy some chips to upgrade the preamp as this is not a tube preamp. if you want a different kind of fizz added to your sound...change the tubes and see which one you like.

leaving this thing on for an hour and experiencing increased performance is like getting wasted on NA beer. it has nothing to do with your budget or brand.

also - i have a behringer composer and some super modified 1176s -everything has a place.

Mike
 
I've got a 1953 ...... I like it.
No .... the tube is useless ...... doesn't do anything but fizz up the sound and only that, a little bit.
So I never use the tube.
As for the rest ....... for the bucks it's usable if you know how.
 
Like Lt. Bob said...hate to break it to you, but the Behringer T1952/53 are starved plate designs. The tube does, literally, nothing.

Lest you peg me as a budget-gear hater, I'm a HUGE fan of the ART MPA Gold, which is a real, 300V tube design...it *does* matter when you change the tube on that one. I own and use an RNP, a couple of RNLA's, an RNC, a couple of VLA Pro's, a couple of the group buy ACMP-73's, a DBX 160, a couple of Yamaha Rev 5's...right along side my Great River, API and SSL stuff.

There *is* such a thing as great budget gear, but the Behringer T-stuff ain't it. Sorry.

Frank
 
thanks!!

thanks for the info and my feelings sure aint hurt. The starve plate design pretty much says it all. I experimented with all of the tubes and noticed no diff at all even if i was hoping for a diff.

im going to put the originals back in and give the tubes back to my buddy. It is good for bumping up a signal without any noise so the 80 bucks wasnt wasted.

I also have the ART Pro VLA (the first one , not the VLA II) I really like it and do you know if it has the same tubes I listed?

Or am I just having fun learning about tubes?

My buddy drives around with tools and when he sees any treelawn audio stuff with tubes , he jumps out and pops em out. Hes obsessed and has quite the collection.


thanks all..
 
Those lights behind the tubes that you removed are put there to simulate what a tube that had enough power put to it would look like. It's funny and sad at the same time.
 
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