Members paulsitive Posted February 11, 2009 Members Share Posted February 11, 2009 Whats up dudes. Forgive my stupidity but I am new to tube amps and am in need of some answers. I just purchased a Crate Blue voodoo bv120h off craigslist for insanely cheap. first i'm trying to figure out if this amp is a self-biasing kinda thing. A couple people plus the guy I bought it from told me it IS, but I mailed Crates tech support and they tell me it's not. So what's the deal? Also, with the power tubes...do I need to use all the exact same kind of tubes (brand plus tube type). The guy included 3 6l6C groove tubes and i have one 6l6GC groove tube. any info would be awesome, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mcr23 Posted February 11, 2009 Members Share Posted February 11, 2009 Whats up dudes. Forgive my stupidity but I am new to tube amps and am in need of some answers. I just purchased a Crate Blue voodoo bv120h off craigslist for insanely cheap. first i'm trying to figure out if this amp is a self-biasing kinda thing. A couple people plus the guy I bought it from told me it IS, but I mailed Crates tech support and they tell me it's not. So what's the deal? Also, with the power tubes...do I need to use all the exact same kind of tubes (brand plus tube type). The guy included 3 6l6C groove tubes and i have one 6l6GC groove tube. any info would be awesome, thanks! He gaave you 3 power t00bz? :lol: you probably want to go to www.dougstubes.com and get 4 matched toobz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paulsitive Posted February 11, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 11, 2009 up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greg apocalypse Posted February 11, 2009 Members Share Posted February 11, 2009 Get 4 matched tubes. If you were to give a call to Doug's Tubes, they're great to deal with. They'll get you a great matched quad that should help hit the tone you're after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paulsitive Posted February 11, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 11, 2009 i've heard a lot of people say with the blue voodoo that the jj's are better, what is up with groove tubes? should I go with something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members primeholy Posted February 11, 2009 Members Share Posted February 11, 2009 Is it one of the older blue tolex or black tolex? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paulsitive Posted February 11, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 11, 2009 one of the older. blue tolex. crazy (awesome) 90's style crate logo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members knucklefux Posted February 11, 2009 Members Share Posted February 11, 2009 troll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members primeholy Posted February 12, 2009 Members Share Posted February 12, 2009 Yeah, mine has the older blue tolex also. Havent played it in a while, but I had mine biased when I got new tubes put in. That is what Crate customer service told me to do too. I would suggest getting it biased. I would also suggest throwing an eq in the loop to get the brittleness out of the clean channel. (very harsh and trebbly) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RICK330MAN Posted February 12, 2009 Members Share Posted February 12, 2009 I have one. It is not self-biasing. You have to open it up and find the bias pot. My Blue Voodoo runs at about 460 volts on the plates. Be careful biasing or you'll get killed. It does take very well to JJ 6L6GC power tubes. You must use a 12AX7 in V1for your clean channel. Anything else in V1 sounds anemic. V2 is the gain channel. The gain is way over the top. Do not use the factory recommended 12AX7 in V2. You'll get a ratty, fizzy, harsh, way over-the-top overdrive. Use a 12AY7 or 12AU7. I'm using the latter. The overdrive sounds great at 7.5 sounds great with when using 12AU7 in V2. A 12AT7 will get you similar tones at about 4, but it tends to be a somewhat less musical tube - at least to my ears. I also recommend that you use a 12AT7 or a 5751 in the phase inverter. With a 12AX7 there, the amp tends to have these harsh highs. I'm using a JAN Philips 12AT7 in V4 and I am really happy with how the Blue Voodoo takes to it. With the right tubes, this is a very good sounding amp that is available for very reasonable dollars. Hope this information helps you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members R0B0 Posted February 12, 2009 Members Share Posted February 12, 2009 Take it to a tech for biasing if you aren't familiar with the dangers of a tube amp. You could have a very shocking experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pr3Va1L Posted February 12, 2009 Members Share Posted February 12, 2009 I have one. It is not self-biasing. You have to open it up and find the bias pot. My Blue Voodoo runs at about 460 volts on the plates. Be careful biasing or you'll get killed. It does take very well to JJ 6L6GC power tubes. You must use a 12AX7 in V1for your clean channel. Anything else in V1 sounds anemic. V2 is the gain channel. The gain is way over the top. Do not use the factory recommended 12AX7 in V2. You'll get a ratty, fizzy, harsh, way over-the-top overdrive. Use a 12AY7 or 12AU7. I'm using the latter. The overdrive sounds great at 7.5 sounds great with when using 12AU7 in V2. A 12AT7 will get you similar tones at about 4, but it tends to be a somewhat less musical tube - at least to my ears. I also recommend that you use a 12AT7 or a 5751 in the phase inverter. With a 12AX7 there, the amp tends to have these harsh highs. I'm using a JAN Philips 12AT7 in V4 and I am really happy with how the Blue Voodoo takes to it. With the right tubes, this is a very good sounding amp that is available for very reasonable dollars. Hope this information helps you. The Gain seems right on mine.. Only with the boost it sounds like crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members primeholy Posted February 12, 2009 Members Share Posted February 12, 2009 I have one. It is not self-biasing. You have to open it up and find the bias pot. My Blue Voodoo runs at about 460 volts on the plates. Be careful biasing or you'll get killed. It does take very well to JJ 6L6GC power tubes. You must use a 12AX7 in V1for your clean channel. Anything else in V1 sounds anemic. V2 is the gain channel. The gain is way over the top. Do not use the factory recommended 12AX7 in V2. You'll get a ratty, fizzy, harsh, way over-the-top overdrive. Use a 12AY7 or 12AU7. I'm using the latter. The overdrive sounds great at 7.5 sounds great with when using 12AU7 in V2. A 12AT7 will get you similar tones at about 4, but it tends to be a somewhat less musical tube - at least to my ears. I also recommend that you use a 12AT7 or a 5751 in the phase inverter. With a 12AX7 there, the amp tends to have these harsh highs. I'm using a JAN Philips 12AT7 in V4 and I am really happy with how the Blue Voodoo takes to it. With the right tubes, this is a very good sounding amp that is available for very reasonable dollars. Hope this information helps you. Thanks. Looks like I have some tinkerin to do this weekend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paulsitive Posted February 12, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 12, 2009 so should I not go with groove tubes? my only reason to do so would be because they're definitely cheaper than jj's, is the tone THAT much of a difference? The reason I bought this amp is because people were saying it had over the top gain. I'm into this. haha. I'm starting a little side project with some friends and definetly wanna go for a trebly pantera esque crunch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RICK330MAN Posted February 13, 2009 Members Share Posted February 13, 2009 If you like the over-the-top gain, I'd suggest you stick a good NOS 5751 in V2. It will tame the amp just a little and it will be more musical than any 12AX7 being made today. Buy a new set of JJs from Eurotubes. From memory, I think my Blue Voodoo came with #4 rate Groove Tube 6L6CHPs. Eurotubes has a rating system for power tubes. I think the ones that popped right in and did not require a re-bais were rated 49. SEDs also sound very good in this amp. A set from thetubestore.com rated 25 on their scale also biased up well without adjustment off of the factory setting. The only Groove Tube 6L6s I would use are the 6L6GEs. These are a lot more expensive than the JJs or SEDs. No need to spend that kinds of $. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paulsitive Posted February 15, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 15, 2009 so I should definitely get JJ's and stay away from the 6L6C groove tubes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members primeholy Posted February 17, 2009 Members Share Posted February 17, 2009 Man, I just plugged into my blue voodoo for the first time in a long time today. The lead channel on that thing fucking smokes my valveking!!! The gain gets up there a lil too quick though. Tons of gain with much more clarity than the peavey! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stan Hawkins Posted January 7, 2020 Members Share Posted January 7, 2020 I have a bv120h with gt6l6r power tubes and gt12ax7r preamp tubes. Had it for about 5 years. Bought used and wondering if I can get tubes that are suited better for heavy down tuned guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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