Is this possible? 36 EF86 watt half power question

[TimH]

hey guys,

So as I've been on my tone quest for some time the 18 watt GDS I have right now is as close to nirvana as anything has gotten me with regards to my overdrive tones. I am please as puch in that regard. But as always I'm pushing the envelope and dreaming up the ultimate amp and so here's my question. Could a 36 watt amp be made such that the normal channel is the marshall channel and is sent to only 2 of the power tubes and the "trem" channel would be the EF86 channel and sent to all four power tubes for higher headroom? I don't really want to get into a master volume on my gain channel so I"m thinking this might help me run the marshall channel at 6 or so and get some nice grind whilst running the voxy channel at 5 and getting the cleans I'm dreaming of...but perhaps this is not possible. Any suggestions or advice would be warmly recieved.

[tarzanalog]

I have Nik's 36W TMB EF86 and I use the EF86 channel for cleans at around "4" on the volume and run the TMB channel with the volume dimed and the MV between "6 & 7" and use a Radial ABY to toggle between them... or use both at the same time. All of this at 18W and most of the time with a little attenuation. Works pretty well. I usually only kick the thing up to 36W if I'm doing something outdoors where I'm using just the EF86 channel above "8" and need the extra oomph.

I see where you're going, though. I do what you suggest when I'm recording seperate clean and dirty tracks. I think you could get there live just as easy by using my method and also riding the volume on your guitar a little more. That or slamming the clean tone with a treble booster or similar.

[TimH]

yeah I mean I don't need the power of the 36 watts personally...it's just the added headroom. I've talked to Graydon about modding this amp and putting the EF86 channel in it and it could be done but I just like this option a while lot more...the MV is probably my biggest beef. Interested to hear what others have to say

[tarzanalog]

I hear ya'! That's why I use my MV as little as possible and combine its use with a little bit of attenuator. But setting up the amp to switch internally from dirty at 18W to clean at 36W is asking for trouble. (And lots of SS relays and extra silicon in there... BleCHh!)

[TimH]

hrmm...interesting. I just got the idea from some of the current Mesa offerings where wattage is selectable per channel...the Lonestar Special being the most applicable to our conversation. Not being a techy I don't know what's involved

[WarrenH]

Looks like the Lonestar is configured as 4 EL84s running AB, 2 EL84s running ab or 1 EL84 running single-ended. I am not sure where you could get a OT to do that. Relays would be the only way I know of turning on 2 extra tubes when switching channels. Although it sounds like the Mesa is really 2 different sets of 2 tube output stages with maybe 2 seperate PIs feeding them signal. This might allow setting one channel for 18w and another for 36watts (shall I feed signal to just one PI or two?).

I never have liked the Lonestar using Strats anyway.

[TimH]

yeah I don't need the 5 watt setting if that helps Just the 2 tubes or 4 tubes in an A/B configuration. Are we saying then that relays would hurt the sound substantially?

Would this just be easier to configure the EF86 channel in some way so as to get maximum headroom out of the preamp whilst keeping the power section the same? So for instance would it be possible to run both channels of the amp at 6 on their volumes, be putting out the same volume from both channels but have the Marshall channel be slightly dirty and the EF86 channel nearly entirely clean (I never use totally clean but ALMOST entirely clean would be great lol)