Changing tubes on Laney Cub 10

lincolnblue

My Laney Cub 10 is a superb amp - I love the clean tones and it can break up really well too.

I'm considering selling it but if I don't I wonder if some different tubes would give it a bit of a different character?

At the moment is has the stock 2x ECC83 pre-amp valves and 2x 6V6GT output valves.

I don't know much about how valves differ so no idea whether these are good valves or not. I love clean amps (pushing with pedals) so would any other valves make a good improvement? If so, would it be an easy DIY job or would I need to get someone to change them?

Voxman

I have a Cub 12R that came stock with Ruby tubes. I recently retubed it with JJ hand tested premium tubes. Huge improvement, glassier cleans, a little more headroom and volume, and crunchier more musical gain. Very pleased with the results. I recommend paying a little more for hand tested premiums...better quality and lower microphonics than the standard tubes. The power valves were a matched balanced set. Strictly speaking Laney say that provided you change all the power valves as a matched set you can get away without rebiasing the power tubes but its best to have them rebiased for optimal performance. I'm assuming this goes for the Cub 10 too but you should check the manual or with Laney here as the Cub 10 has 2x6V6GT's and isn't the same configuration as my Cub 12R which has 2xEL84's

ICBM

What speaker does it have?

That makes a much bigger difference than the valves.

lincolnblue

It has a Celestian Tube 10 speaker

Voxman

ICBM said:

What speaker does it have?

That makes a much bigger difference than the valves.

  I changed the stock Celestion Rocket 50 for a Vintage 30 - huge improvement in both tone and volume. But the valve change (which was done after the speaker change) made a huge difference to the quality of tone and feel of the amp too. 

ICBM

Voxman said:

I changed the stock Celestion Rocket 50 for a Vintage 30 - huge improvement in both tone and volume. But the valve change (which was done after the speaker change) made a huge difference to the quality of tone and feel of the amp too. 

I don't disagree at all, but the speaker makes *more* difference to the overall character, and with some of the crap ones that some manufacturers fit - which includes the Rocket 50 - changing the valves without first changing the speaker will be fairly pointless.

lincolnblue said:

It has a Celestian Tube 10 speaker

Not too bad, although it could be improved.

What are you looking for in the way of a different character?

lincolnblue

ICBM said:

Voxman said:

I changed the stock Celestion Rocket 50 for a Vintage 30 - huge improvement in both tone and volume. But the valve change (which was done after the speaker change) made a huge difference to the quality of tone and feel of the amp too. 

I don't disagree at all, but the speaker makes *more* difference to the overall character, and with some of the crap ones that some manufacturers fit - which includes the Rocket 50 - changing the valves without first changing the speaker will be fairly pointless.

lincolnblue said:

It has a Celestian Tube 10 speaker

Not too bad, although it could be improved.

What are you looking for in the way of a different character?

To be honest I'm not sure. I guess anything that cam improve the clean tone to make it more 'glassy' and give more volume/headroom

ICBM

lincolnblue said:

To be honest I'm not sure. I guess anything that cam improve the clean tone to make it more 'glassy' and give more volume/headroom

In that case I would suggest a Jensen speaker or similar - that will give a much clearer, brighter, and slightly cleaner tone. More 'American', basically. (Laney do use Jensens in some of their 10"-speaker amps as well.)

If you do want to start with valves - and to be fair it's cheaper and less hassle - you probably need to change valve *type* rather than just brand. A 12AT7 has less gain and a clearer, glassier tone than a 12AX7, and is safe to try in either position in that amp. It will make more difference in V1 (closest to the input jack), and less but probably still useful in V2. You can get decent 12AT7s for as little as about £10. Start with one and try it in both positions - two would probably be too much.

You may get more clean headroom that way, but not more volume - you would need to change the power section substantially to achieve that, if it's even possible at all. You can't easily replace the power valves, there's nothing directly compatible with 6V6s, although JJs do seem to be slightly cleaner than most other 6V6s.

lincolnblue

Thanks very much. Is it easy/safe to change valves? (Never done it before)

ICBM

lincolnblue said:

Is it easy/safe to change valves? (Never done it before)

Yes, pretty easy. You need to take the back grille off obviously, but not the chassis out if you're only changing preamp valves, so there's no risk. Just make sure the amp is turned off and the valves have cooled - the 12AX7s don't get too hot but the 6V6s do. Flip off the little spring clip - it pushes straight back, don't try to lift the narrow bit over the point on top of the valve - and gently pull the valve out by wiggling it slightly in a small circular motion.

The new one goes back in the same way, line it up by looking at the socket and you will see a gap in the ring of holes, which lines up with the same gap in the ring of valve pins. Be careful not to bend the pins. (Actually check they aren't bent before you start!)

Preamp valves don't need biasing so no need to worry about that. If you were changing the 6V6s it's probably best to get the amp bias checked and adjusted - this amp does have a bias control.

Voxman

A big +1 to ICBM here re Jensens. In addition to my Cub I have a Laney VC30-210 that has Jensen C10Q16 speakers that really are very good and help to give it much glassier, sparklier cleans than from the 1x12 or 2x12 versions. With your cub you'll need the 8 ohm version of course.

ICBM

Interestingly if you Google 'Laney Cub 10' images, one of the first pics is one fitted with a Jensen N10/100 neodymium speaker. While they're not cheap, they do have a sensitivity of nearly 99dB, which is very high for a 10" and will probably give noticeably more volume as well as a cleaner and brighter tone.

I'm not a huge fan of neos, but they do have their uses in the right amps.

ecc83

Out of interest ICBM, which Celestion 10 incher would you rate as the best?

Dave.

ICBM

Probably the G10 Greenback, or the Gold if you can afford it! The G10 Vintage is a *very* 'Marmite' speaker, more so even than the V30 - it's even more midrangy and dark, I really don't like it for clean sounds at all, although it might possibly suit a shrill-sounding amp. The G10N-40 is the best of the cheaper ones, I think.

I have heard nowhere near as many 10s in different amps as 12s though, so it's possible there are more good and bad combinations I don't know about.