what do you think

[iknowjohnny]

I have my V1 cathodes set up in a way that seems a bit odd or unorthodox. I used 5k pots with 820R's in series on each cathode to see where it sounds best I have .68uf caps on both and disconnected each at various times to see what worked and what didn't. After a day of constant fiddling i came to realize the one setting i kept coming back to was with the cap on V1B disconnected, but with V1A's cathode at full turn which was 6k ! I assume this is would be considered cold biased, but whats got me a bit bothered is i have never seen an amp like this. Any time i see a cold biased stage it's always a later stage, usually the 3rd at least.

When i set the pre up with two .68's i did it because my amp seemed to need a LOT of high end in the beginning to keep the distortion from getting flabby in the lows. It worked great even with two other sources for high end. (470uf/470k filters) By keeping the V1A cathode resistor very big in order to allow a bigger balance of highs from the cap and removing v1B's cap i found that this way i'm achieving about the same amount of highs as before but it's all happening at V1A instead of A and B, which seems like the better solution when you think about it because my goal was get the highs at the beginning, and this is generating them even sooner since it's all at the first stage instead of at the 2nd also. is there some reason this is not a smart way to go here ? I'm ready to remove the pots and measure them to add set resistors to the cathodes, but i don't want to do this is theres some reason i shouldn't I realize the answer is probably "if it sounds good to you, do it". But i often find when you do something this unorthodox you later realize why and end up going back. What do you all think about this?

[Jana]

I think the Huskies really sucked on Saturday night.

[John C]

Don't doubt yourself. I can really understand your hesitation to accept your "cold" biasing of the first stage, because you rarely see people do it! We hear people refer to stages biased closer to cutoff as sounding "cold", implying inferior tone. Don't believe it! Trust your ears. My ears like "cold" preamp stages too.

To speak to your concern about "later realizing why", I think the answer is the fact that, yes, you can bias too cold. Up to certain point, though, you can get soft and pleasing compression - before reaching the point of a buzzy, "cold", harsh cutoff.

Go for it, man!

[iknowjohnny]

I later found i WAS getting as you described a "buzzy cold cutoff". But at louder volumes when i first did it i didn't notice that. So i just put it back where it was before. i think the preamp is about as good as it's going to get barring some lucky magical find. So i am going to leave it at least for a while and look to the PA. I think thats where the big magic is anyways.

EDIT:i found it wasn't the circuit after all that was getting that buzz....the NFB wire was a cold solder joint and once i redid it the issue stopped. now i have to try that cold biased V1A again ! (wheres the koo koo clock smilie?)