# what tubes?



## rcacs (May 4, 2011)

Hey all, I have several small (10w and less) amps. Most of them have a nice degree of gain/distortion to them. My most recent acquisition is a Northland Baffin 1 (late 60's/early 70's) which is purported to be be around 8w. Although I have not pulled out the tray, I can see it has 5 tubes. Controls are volume, tone and speed, depth for a tremolo effect. This particular amp does not have much distortion to it at all, and the tremolo works, but isn't very impressive.
Here are my questions.

1. Is there a particular tube I can switch out to get more distortion, not looking for anything wild but something at least noticeable.

2. Not nearly as important, but I wouldn't mind if the trem was a bit more functional, any tube changes there?

Thanks in Advance.....


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

Depending on what preamp tubes are in it they could potentially be swapped for higher gain factor ones. It's probably a single ended amp, so to get more power tube gain, just crank it!

You could also potentially bias the power tubes hotter too


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

Your tremolo tube may need to be replaced. There could be other issues with it, or it might be just the way it works. 



cboutilier said:


> You could also potentially bias the power tubes hotter too


That will give less distortion.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

dtsaudio said:


> Your tremolo tube may need to be replaced. There could be other issues with it, or it might be just the way it works.
> 
> 
> That will give less distortion.


I thought it would give more distortion, albeit at a higher volume. I'm probably wrong though


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

The hotter the bias, the less distortion as you are biasing closer to the tubes most linear range. In a push/pull amp hotter bias means running closer to class A and very low distortion.
Running hotter can also cause the power supply to sag, and you get less power not more.


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