Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I am constantly amazed at the sound of my SWR Baby Blue II combo with two 8" Celestions and a 5" Bag End mid/tweeter.

I had a chance to play with the Amp a bit more and had a little drawback about the tube drive, which sounded too muddy to my ears. I simply changed a few settings, and also swapped the Sovtek 12AX7WA tube for a JJ Tube and it helped getting more clarity when the tube drive is used. Definitely, the Amp delivers great harmonics and definition. I never heard the V63 sounding so good when playing chords on it. The 8 X 8 Cabinet is something you guys have to try out, either the Yorkville or the SWR. The Yorkville Cabinet is really well built with no flaws and is surprisingly easy to move around for its weight.

Stephan, this was on the XS800 amp, not the YBA-200 .. yes ?

By the way for all of us who use valves, there's a good review section on the The Tube Store This site has a really good cross reference section, and you can review by type, e.g. 12ax7 wherer it will list them by price, by manufacturer, and in a lot of cases they folks there have reviewed the various types.

Even taking into account that any review is subjective, the information still helps whene choosing new valves.

And for all you Ampeg owners, remember you can use a 6L6 as power tubes perfectly safley and a lot more cost effectivley than 7027's which can be almost double the cost.

You can even jump a couple of pins and swap from 7027's to EL34's which are again a lot less expensive.

If anyone would like more information about this, fire me an email and I'll send you the information.

Jim,

I swapped the tube on the XS800H. To be honest, the YBA200 did not impress me, to my taste. Ans I tried it with different cabs as well, not only the Y1510. Side by side with the XS800H and XC808 cabinet, it was simply just not performing.

I tell you, the XS800H and XC808 rocks. I am the first surprised to like the 8" speakers that much !!!

Hi Stephane, I figured it was the XS800H you meant, I wanted to verify. I'll have to give both an audition since they are so close in price ..... thanks for the update !!

Give the XS400H a rumble too Jim. I'm still lovin' mine!

Thanks Chris,
I'm going to audition all three, and also hopefully a couple of Traynor's combo's as well ... I'll keep you all posted ...

I also tried the XS400H, which is a great head as well. Let us know what you think Jim. I bet you will end up with the XS800H.

Hey Jim, I just swapped out 2 of the preamp tubes on my YBA-200 and replaced the Sovtek 12AX7 tubes with Mullard's 12AT7's. Took some of the gain away and gave the head a more soft, and creamy sound. I'm still lovin it.

Telefunken's work well there too...If ya can find 'em

I tried the XS800H last evening at rehearsal for a good two hours and a half. Sounded great. To let you know, just after the rehearsal, I checked if the amp was hot and it was not. The fans seem to really work well, and they are really not noisy. There is no heatsink on the amps, this reduces the weight of the amp quite a bit.

Tiens, y a un Français ici...
Salut Stephane !

Bonjour Victor !!!
On est plusieurs qui parlent Français ici !!!
Salut!