mic pres/changing tubes

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starry blake

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Hey yall, I'm new here, HELLO!! and looking forward to many great discussions and new knowledge.

I'm curious about something. I feel like I read somewhere on the net (which I wish I had bookmarked now) about some different tubes that could be put into your preamp to make them sound better than the stock , or possibly give them a more agressive tone or softer etc...

I'm using some basic starter preamps in my studio as of now. I was curious if anyone had any advice on different tubes for the aphex 107, bellari 110 and bellari 220's.....

I do remember that one guy mentioned putting a really nice 12ax7 in his aphex and it sounded much better than the stock (7025's?).....

I'm guessing that obviously a better quality tube of the same kind should yield better tone, but I would like some advice from those who actually have some true knowledge of this.

I don't know if a tube could make a difference, but the bellari 110's seem to have this awfully difficult point between the tone being really boring and then into a god awful distorted sound. I don't know if something is wrong with the unit but the gain sounds awful....It just seems really difficult to hitthe "sweet spot" on these especially since I am a very dynamic guitarist playing through very dynamic tube amps and guitars.

Thanks yall!
 
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A 12AY7 will have less gain, and may be more controllable.

Bellaris are notorious for the type of repsonse you describe. :)
 
Compression might help me?

thanks for the help....well I have used 12ay7's in some of my amps for the exact same reason so prehaps I should extend that knowledge forward into this query I have.

I guess I should search to find what the standard tube is that comes in all of my units.

I am about to get a few RNC1773's so if I can get a little compression on my guitar amps perhaps that would help my gain stages problem and allow me to dial in a better tone gain....but would this work if the compressor is after the preamp or do I need to go into the compressor before the pre?
 
so are the nicer tubes going to add any subtle colors to the preamps or just make them sound better?
 
Isn't the aphex 107 not a tube preamp? I thought it just had "tubescence" or some crap. I thought the 207 was the tube version.
 
Isn't the Bellair thing starved plate? Isn't it like a $100 pre?

You could spend almost that much on a quality NOS 12ax7.

I don't know how far you have to turn the gain up to get your source mic'd, but a 12au7 is extremely low gain and (in my guitar amp) won't distort until the very end. You will not have the same amount of gain on hand to get the same level of signal as a 12ax7, but if you are only turning the gain to half way or a bit further, you shouldn't have a problem. But if its a starved plate it probably won't matter anyways.

IMO a 12at7 isn't that much of a drop from a 12ax7. On paper it looks like about 1/4 less, but in reality it isn't much. They 12ay7 might be nice, but it couldn't hurt. If the tube doesn't say 12ax7 (or any equivilent) it will be a lot cheaper ($) for a NOS one.
 
thanks for the help guys!! I did find out that the 107 uses a 12AT7 so perhaps if I just find a better quality one....although I think I will just get a few different really nice tubes (12AX7, 12AT7, 12AY7, and 7025 AX7WA) and jsut experiment to see what sounds best in the units for the instruemnts I am using them with.
 
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