I'm in the process of shopping for some Heyboer Iron and tubes to go in my EL34 HRM build and was wondering what light the combined wisdom of the garage may have to shed on the following:
Any preferences for Heyboer Marshall OT: JCM800, JCM900 or plexi?
Appropriate choke: Twin or Marshall?
EL34 brand experiences? Reliability/tone?
Thanks in advance for any responses anyone can give, it's always more reassuring to get the opinions of others, before parting with my hard earned cash.
I've used these and like them a lot. I use a 330 ohm resistor instead of a choke. HTS-7232 PT, HTS-7338 OT. You need to wire the PT with a fullwave bridge rectifier but you can check most old 100 watt Marshall schems for the proper wiring. The Winged C EL34 are pretty robust and popular. I'm in the minority but I like the older Sovtek EL34G's, I've been using them for over 10 years and I've never had one fail yet myself.
For 100 watts, I would probably go for plexi iron ( M27 steel might be worth trying, too). However, one of my favorite amps I have ever built was a 50 watt HRM with Heyboer JTM 45 iron.
Winged Cs for a lot of people are the only way to go.
tubedogsmith, I checked out the Metroamp trannies and they do look good, although I will stick with Heyboer because I can get them here in the UK and at trade price.
I've got Sovtek's in another amp of mine, so I'll look at the winged C so that I've got something to compare.
dave g, given the choices, I think the plexi iron is a strong contender.
+1 for the Heyboer JTM45 50 watter. I have JJ KT77's in that amp right now. That's the HRM and I have a Fender-based non-HRM with 6L6's. Mojo sells those transformers but they don't have much technical expertise at the sales desk -- you need to know what you want first. Skip
I'm looking at doing a 100 watter as my 'base line' amp so I can see what all this talk of 'girth' is about. No doubt, in the future I will have a go at a 50 watter and I will try the JTM45 iron.
