wa123

www.thdelectronics.com     Walk in Beauty, Peace.  Scott

Hello Odin,     I played a large club in our area Oct. 21st and used my `74 Marshall half stack, with the YJ's installed.  I had both channels jumpered and was on about 2-3 for stage volume.  It's plenty loud and clean.  I use a Barber Electronics Tone Pump as an overdrive pedal with my LP's, and then add an old MXR Micro Amp pedal for my single coil guitars.     I suggest you go to the THD site and read about using 2 of the YJ's along with two of the regular power tubes.  This might get your overall volume down a bit and give you an interesting hybrid tone from the 6L6's and the EL84's.  But I know from my own application that the YJ's work really great.  Ultimately you may have to ante up if you want to find out if the YJ's will work for you.  Heck, I would be interested in buying your used set of two YJ's in working condition at a discount if you didn't like them, if this helps at all.  I wouldn't mind having a second set of these.     Another trick for lowering stage volume but getting your tone is to bring along an old, thick quilt.  Set up your Tonemaster at the best volume and tone setting, and then put a couple of chairs in front of it with the quilt draped over the chairs, so the sound coming from your cab hits the quilt and gets partially absorbed and partially blocked.  You can move the quilt closer or farther away from the cab to adjust stage volume.    This may help in lowering the perceived stage volume but still giving you your tone and sound.     An old band of mine played several pieces live on the air in a radio studio years ago and a trick I used was to drape several quilts over the cab with a mic inside the pile of quilt, going to the board.  The room volume was not bad but I got definitely cranked tone on the board.     Guys like Roy Buchannan used to set their amps up facing towards the back of the stage.  You can experiment with amp placement and direction, so you might be able to run your amp at a higher volume level but again lower the perceived stage volume a bit.  A story I've heard about the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughn is that he played a large stadium in Texas where his stage volume was so loud, he was overpowering the house PA.  Solution - his tech placed the speaker cabs on their backs, so that the sound went up into the air.  The tech mic'd the rig and got good house sound then.     Finally, you may have the wrong amp for your specific needs and application.  If you can't get the volume down without sacrificing your tone and sound, either play loud and love it or use another lower powered amp. What happens when you set your amp up to sound the best (at higher volume) and then adjust your stage volume with your guitar volume control(s)?     I hope any of this helps.  Take care. Walk in Beauty, Peace.  Scott

Hello Odin,     Yes, I've used the Yellow Jackets ( YJ's ) for awhile now, in a `74 Marshall Super Lead.  I had previously had the amp set up for operating on two power tubes, so I'm using two of the YJ's in the Super Lead.  Brings down to around 20 watts what was the 50-60 watt level achieved with two EL34's.  Harry Jacobson had turned me on to using the YJ's.     The EL84's are a great tube.  I like the way they squash and break up. They have a nice chime to the high end.  They will offer another tone option for you, as well as bringing the amp down to a lower room volume level.  But don't think that your amp won't sound powerful - 20 watts from my Super Lead into the 4 x 12 cab is still pretty damn loud.  I use the analogy of Marshall meets Vox in describing the sound of the YJ's and the EL84's as used in my Super Lead.     An immediate upgrade is to replace the Sovtek EL84's that come with the YJ's with a pair of Czech Tesla EL84's, in my opinion the best currently produced EL84.  The Tesla's are louder and have more character and a better defined note envelope from high to low end, as well as the low end is tighter.  Or you can contact Jim McShane and have him watch for some exotic EL84's for you (Mullard, Telefunken, GE, etc.).  I believe that you can get the Tesla's from Lord Valve, Ned, Jim, etc.  Would I purchase the YJ's again...?  A resounding yes.     Walk in Beauty, Peace.  Scott