THD Yellowjackets

[Twisteramps]

I'm crossposting this to the mp3 folder too, but thought some of you guys (especially Chris) might want to hear this.

http://members.cox.net/vhpete/inmydreamssoldanoyj.mp3

http://members.cox.net/vhpete/Inmydreamssoldano.mp3

First clip is with YellowJackets, second was with Ruby 6L6s. I left EVERYTHING the same - same amp settings, guitar, mic position, etc. Well, that's not entirely correct - I did boost the gain a little on my mics so I had a good level into my PC crapass soundcard, and I also may have used a different waves reverb. But the basics were the same.

I can dial in more treble like the YJ clip with the 6L6s, but one thing I like about the YJs is that they compress a little more. Listen to the picked descending riff after the tapped part - it splatters all over the place on the 6L6 clip, but sounds a lot better on the YJ.

One thing that sucks though - the damned YJs do NOT fit in the headshell, I had to pull it out part way. I'm hoping they make a lower profile YJ, or I may have to look at the GT offerings depending on how tall they are.

Forgot to mention - since my amp is a clone, the 'real soldano' may have enough room. Be sure and measure your amp before you buy a pair, it would make for a sucky surprise if they didn't fit!

Pete

[charvelguy]

If I recall.. GT had a lower overall height to the tall version of YJ..BUT as has been mentioned by myself and Shaun Lutz, THD does make various versions- a short base version.

Yes. I agree.. YJ do do their job of power reduction and compression is a given when driven.. I thought the tone was warmer and the compression more natural with the GT's..same amp and settings.

wish my '57 had a good cartridge.. I'm sure I'll post my own clips with my rigs using the GT's.

In the meantime.. bench results don't lie.

http://www.groovetubes.com/assets/1778_GT928-PR_vs_THDYJSD_Test.pdf

[Twisteramps]

Charvelguy - on their bench results, a lot of it was their *opinions* on how the tubes sounded. The only bench result I really saw was that they claim 32 watts for a pair of YJs and 25 watts for their adaptors. Both seem really high, but even if it's correct, I bet you couldn't percieve the difference between 25 and 32 watts. Wattage has to double for a 3db increase - I suck at math, but I'm going to guess not much more than a 1db difference between 25 and 32 watts, if even that.

having said that, I'd like to try the GTs because *you* recommend them, not because of the GT website. Myles has been a little bit hyperbole-filled on harmony central in the past.

Pete

[Soloist1]

Sounds great! Thanks for the clips Pete. I see what you mean about the YJ tone getting thinned out somewhat and brighter. I wouldn't say in a bad way though. Somewhere between the two clips would sound perfect. Like you said the lead part sounds a bit better with the YJ's. I even thought the tapping sounded better also. If the chords and the lower notes had a bit more thickness like the 6L6's it would kick some major ass. Was that just 2 YJ's with EL84's or did you load all 4 sockets? I wonder what 2 EL84 YJ's and 2 6L6's would sound like? I'm probably going to order a couple of things from Lord Valve this week. Just been in the mode to play around with the tone a bit. Thinking about trying a pair of those new TungSol 6550's in it. I'm gonna order a quad of the yellow jackets also. LV has a great deal on them. A quad with tubes of your choice for $132. Hope he has the short ones. Here's a link that has pics of all the different ones. I'm guessing you must have the regular sized ones.

http://www.tubedepot.com/thd.html

[hippietim]

The problem with that test is that they were not comparing the technology of the YJs to the 928s properly. The right way would be to use the same EL84s in each. I am very skeptical of the wattage reported. I've never heard of a pair of EL84s ever achieving 25 watts much less 32 watts.

BTW, I have both the YJs and 928s sitting here but have not had time to test them yet.

[Soloist1]

Would love to hear your report when you try them Tim.

[charvelguy]

True.. and they are using an uncalibrated dial not a digital. I am familair with the math on the difference btwn a 100 watt Marshall and a 50 watt-3db. Both at wide open can make my ears hurt equally as much.
I really thought the volume was much more managable with the GT's than with the YJ's.

My little senario story;

I was very skepical of GT's and had the same reasoning as all that has been stated here. Since I bought the YJSD's first.. and paid about 85.00 with tubes for the pair slightly used.. I really had hoped they would live up to what I wanted from them or better.
I had tried them a bit, put them away and they sat in the box for years.

A year ago..Guitar center had the GT's on sale on Memorial Day for 70.00/pr. They looked better built..so I bought two sets for a quad. Then at Labor Day they were reduced to 59.00/pair. I bought another.

In the meantime..I dug out the YJ's and tested the tubes. then I tested the GT's. Funny that GT considers a 'matched pair' to have such differences in value to one another. That the same rating on a pair could vary in actual read on the exact same product of a differing pair. They probably were within 2-3% but were not perfect match.
When putting them in a tube socket..YJ's had a better initial fit.. I could not get the GT's to seat all the way in the tube sockets new..out of box. They sat about 1/4 inch up and I was pushing on them with a good deal of pressure. I really was worrying that I would break the convertor or the tube socket. The slotted pin orientation was correct..one GT had a bent pin right out of sealed box.
So.. I emailed GT and Myles referred me to 'Jimmy'..who.. wasn't exactly helpful- a few sarcastic words on how the competition was 'yellow'.
I was ready to take all the 928's back to GC and get my money back.
I had done alot of research on the Yellow Jackets before buying them and read the same negatives but decided to give it a shot anyhow.
Then I decided to try them in an audio comparison to one another...and I could tell the difference right away.
I thought the same thing about the link Myles gave me as well.. "Biased product test.. they probably bought them off"
Now given I was ready to take three pairs of 928's back to where I bought them based upon GT's customer service.. and to have just the tone change my mind... well.. you know how I feel about the two and my preference.

I have since bought a few more pairs and plan to run them in my poweramp or Mesa's.

Pete.. if you want to borrow a pair and not shell out for something untried.. I'd loan these out to you to try on. I'm sure everyones tone tastes and what is acceptable to what is preferable tends to vary quite a bit.

[Twisteramps]

Ok, one last clip...

http://members.cox.net/vhpete/inmydreamssoldanoyj+ruby.mp3

That's with two YJs in the center, ends w/Ruby 6L6s. The other clip I posted had 2 YJs in the middle only, and I left the impedence selector alone. one interesting thing about running it 'split' like this is that the YJs influence the tone and feel more than you'd think. I can't really open the amp up volume-wise here, so I'm sure the louder it gets the 6L6s would probably dominate more. But this was at loud TV levels, just like the other clips, FYI. This had a nice blend of compression and the 'bite' that each note gets when you run 6L6s on their own. once the amp cools down I'm going to measure my YJs and see how tall they are.

Pete

[Soloist1]

That's nice right there. Definitely thickens the tone for the rhythm but has the harmonic clearity of the EL84 lead tone. Maybe I'll just go for a pair of the YJ's and the 6550's and try different combos. Got the KT66's now. So that will give me a lot of options. Thanks Pete.

[jgcable]

So.. which style Yellow Jackets would fit in my 1987x? I am very interested in picking up a pair because I have always been a fan of EL84's.

[Twisteramps]

So.. which style Yellow Jackets would fit in my 1987x? I am very interested in picking up a pair because I have always been a fan of EL84's.

Well, the ones that won't fit in my SLO clone are the 5 3/8" tall ones. However, they fit fine in my peavey VTM60. The smaller YJ's are 5" tall. Measurements are from bottom of tube adapter pins to top 'nipple' of the EL84.

Pete

[Soloist1]

Got a quad of the shorty YJ's and 2 different quads of EL84's on the way. One set of EL84's are the JJ's and the other is a NOS russian EL84 that is supposedly bulletproof and darker sounding than most. I'll see how that affects the increased brightness and thinness the YJ's give the amp.

[Soloist1]

Hey Pete your mailbox is full. Had this question for you.

"Hey don't you have to half the impedance selector if you only have 2 YJ tubes in a amp that would normally have 4? IE the selector would be at 8 for a 16 ohm cab? Just wondering because I noticed you said you left the selector alone."

[Twisteramps]

I tend to leave the selector alone - impedence mismatch is something that a lot of guys disagree on. O'Connor says to use it like a tone control! I was lazy, I just left it alone. I also left the amp on with the YJ's for several hours just to see how it would do - transformers were cool to the touch, which is a good sign.

Pete

[Soloist1]

Got ya. Yeah I recalling the tone changing quite a bit when I tried the different outputs of the Mesa 20/20 into my cab. One sounded shitty and the other didn't. lol Supposedly those things take strain off your transformers. Hope I get the tubes and the YJ's before Saturday. Looking forward to trying them on the weekend.