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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
ECC832/ECC823
ECC832/ECC823
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hvyj
3419 posts
Aug 08, 2017
2:49 PM
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I was changing tubes in my Fender Super Reverb Reissue yesterday. I use an ECC832 (equivalent to a 12D/W7) in the phase inverter slot. It's one half 12AU7/ECC82 and one half 12AX7/ECC83. The folklore is that using this type of unbalanced tube in a tube amp with a "long tail" phase inverter will help control feedback and fatten tone for harp. I think it does help control feedback, but I haven't experienced any significant fattening of tone.
Anyway, I bent the pins on the new ECC832 trying to put it in and broke the tube. I didn't have another one but I did have a new ECC823 laying around which is like an ECC832 but has the unbalanced triodes in the opposite order--the AU7 side is first on the ECC823 and second on the ECC832. I got to thinking unbalanced is unbalanced and that the ECC823 should work as well for that purpose as the ECC832. So I put the ECC823 in the PI slot of my SRRI.
Guess what? The ECC823 sounded great and audibly fattened the tone in a way the ECC832 never did. Both help control feedback about the same but theECC823 just sounds significantly better. Go figure...
Btw, I had the ECC823 laying around because I use that tube to tube down the cathodyne style PI in my Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue. After I had a beefed up Mercury Magnetics Axiom "fat stack" output transformer installed in my Princeton I was teetering on the feedback threshold too much even after I replaced the stock speaker with a Weber hemp cone speaker. I usually get good results tubing down the back end of the preamp tube string and I wanted to tube down the 12AX7/ECC83 in the PI slot on the PRRI to help control feedback. Amps with a cathodyne style PI just use one side of a tube for the PI, and in the PRRI the other half of that tube drives the vibrato. The problem is that the unbalanced triodes are in the wrong order for an ECC832 to be used for that purpose in the Princeton, but the opposite order of the triodes in the ECC823 allow me to have an AU7 for the PI and an AX7 for the vibrato, so I use that tube in my PRRI This is why I had an extra ECC823 laying around.
Last Edited by hvyj on Aug 09, 2017 9:29 AM
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hvyj
3421 posts
Aug 09, 2017
2:21 PM
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Well, since my OP got such an overwhelming response, I thought I would supplement it .
Another use for an ECC832/12DX7 is to step down a drive channel. My Peavey Delta Blues has a clean channel and a drive channel. On the recommendation of EuroTubes, I put an ECC832 in V2 of my Peavey Delta Blues, which uses both sides of the V2 preamp tube as cascading gain stages just for the drive channel. Putting an ECC832 in that slot steps down the second gain stage that is exclusive to the drive channel and that gain reduction makes the drive channel usable for harp.
Now, I don't use the drive channel very often, but I have used it. In any other amp, trying to play through the drive channel has been a prescription for uncontrollable feedback. But with this tube configuration, the drive channel is usable and sounds pretty decent if you like that type of sound.
So, these unbalanced preamp tubes (12D/X7 variants) are pretty useful for voicing a guitar amp for harp. And, for the most part, I prefer to play through guitar amps anyway. FWIW.
Last Edited by hvyj on Aug 10, 2017 7:20 AM
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Honkin On Bobo
1463 posts
Aug 09, 2017
2:33 PM
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Personally, I'm very partial to the flux capacitor. It rocks.
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