Thanks Myles. Since I've earned a free question with my ice cream description, here goes:

I cuurently have a 5U4GB rectifier in my Victoria Regal II. In reading your primer on the issue, am I to understand that if I put in a 5Y3 I would get increased sustain (sag) and earlier breakup due to the lower voltage? If I'm looking for a rectifier that would provide the greatest distinction from the stock 5U4GB (for versatility), what would you recommend?

Thanks Myles.

Thanks for the offer. I'm in Sacramento but get down there from time to time and will look you up one of these days. However, and pardon my ignorance, but I thought the Regal being Class A does not have a phase inverter???

Also, Mark claims on Victoria's website: This versatility is also extended to rectifier tubes; the Regal II can accept any common 5 Volt rectifier including 5Y3, 5V4, 5U4, and 5AR4 with no adjustments nessessary. What am I missing here??

Yeah, it's very sweet, plus I really love the ability to run on a 6V6 or two 6L6s, or one of each, or....... Your website turned me on to Victoria -- thanks again.

So I have the rectifier, the two power tubes, 2 12AX7s, an At7 and another AX7. Which is the phase inverter?

Myles, do you know anything about these heads? I went to the Richtone site in Montreal but see no head that looks like it. Also their logo says Richtone Amplification. This head's logo is just Richtone.

This amp sounded pretty darn good. What do you think of them?

Hi Myles,

I have a Laney VC15 1x10 combo that I mainly use for recording. I generally like to have a little bit of Power Tube bite/overdrive with a cleanish preamp stage. I can do this fine, but have to crank the power tubes pretty loud to get them to start to bite. I would like to be able to get the same kind of tones at a slightly lower volume.

Am I right in thinking that I can do this by using power tubes that break up faster than the TAD's it currently uses? If so, do you favour any particular model of tube for this purpose?

I could I even have the amp re-biased to break up earlier?

What would your suggestions be?

Thanks for your input.

Lee

Hey Myles, A couple months back I asked about a Lifco head I've got, and you told me to make sure I had a 12AT7 in one of the preamp sockets. You were so right! It cleaned up beautifully - not in the Deluxe Reverb sense of clean, but the grit and hash it had with 12AX7's is gone! Thanks again! Now my small amp debacle is solved!

Lee,

What is the current tube compliment in the amp by tube maker / type.

Hi,

It has 3x Pre-amp and 2 x Power.

Pre-amp (I replaced all the stock TAD 12AX7's)
V1 Mullard Military NOS ECC83
V2 Same
V3 ECC81 Not sure of the brand, it was given to me by a friend.

Power (stock)
Pair of TAD EL84-STR (Sticker on them also says "Select 7")

Thanks

Lee

Thanks Myles.

I had a sneaky suspicion that the TAD valves were a bit cheap n nasty :-)

So the JJ EL84S's are good? I will have to find me a local amp tech that can pop some in and re-bias.

I'll also have a go at experimenting with V3, thanks for the suggestion.

Lee

Thanks Myles.

Do you think the amp would perform much better if modded to take 6V6's?

Hi Myles,
When using a 9 volt adapter on pedals, does the MA rating, as in 100 MA or 500 MA matter on different pedals? I have adapters with 100, 200 and 500 MA and they all seem to work on all the pedals.
Thanks
Anthony

Not really. The two tubes use the same output transformer and each have their cool aspects. It really is a great amp in many ways but a lot of folks expect a certain kind of response and touch in these fixed bias class A/B amps (and in the Fender Blues Jr) which is not the same as a cathode biased amp with EL84's. If you like the tone and feel of the amp then all is fine and dandy.

Yeah, I dig. I love this amp, it's just a little louder than I would like it :-) Thanks very much for your input, Myles. I appreciate it.

Laney has built a lot of cool stuff for a very long time.

One side aspect of class A/B is more wattage than class A / cathode biased amps and less distortion. The amp may be rated at 15 watts but it can really do closer to 25 so that is one reason it is a bit louder than expected for an amp with a duet of EL84 tubes.

It will even be stronger with some EL84S tubes but if you get a set of the GT EL84S (it is the JJ tube) in a #2 rating and bias it for that tube it will break up a little faster.

Hi Myles,
Thanks for the adapter info. I was worried about using an adapter that had a higher MA than the pedal needed. I can see that's not a problem.
Thanks
Anthony

Awesome! Thanks Myles :-)

A long shot, but have you ever come across a good amp tech that works in England?

Hey Myles,

I thought my Lifco amp issue was resolved, and it sounds OK unless it's really cranked, but it still isn't very loud, as I found out in a full band scenario. Are there higher output version of 6V6's, or other tubes that will raise the output on a fixed bias amp like that, and keep the sound quality about the same?

OK - but will 6L6's, or EL34's or others work in this amp, or am I buying more trouble?