Hot Rod DeVille 2X12 questions/suggestions

[posvibe]

Hey y'all.
I have a Hot Rod DeVille 2X12 that needs new power tubes. I liked the way it sounded with the stock GT power tubes but am curious what's being used by others. Is this amp "fixed bias"?
Also, I changed out the crappy plastic input jacks w/ones from Diaz and am wondering if I can change out the crappy footswitch jack the same way? I'm sure these questions have been asked before so if you can lead me to a thread that would be great and all suggestions and tips are appreciated. Best wishes. Walter

[don jon]

I would recommend Tung-Sol 5881's and pre-amp tubes. I have also had very positive experiences with the newer EH tubes. You will need to adjust the bias when switching power tubes and you should use a matched pair for best results. I believe in your HR there should be a trim pot accessible from the rear of the chassis, but if you have never biased an amp before or don't own a multimeter you should let someone else do that for you.
You can certainly upgrade all the cheap plastic jacks with switchcraft (preferably not using the ones that solder straight down to the PCB). All the jacks in these HR amps are corner cutting parts. As a side note I prefer my 212 Blues Deville biased slightly cooler than most. And I run a 12AT7 in V2. Both of these tricks really have helped keep that nasty drive channel more tame and useable.

[scoots]

welcome posvibe, i'm still running the stock gt's in the power section as well and i'm going to keep these here for now but i put a old ge 5751 in the v1 and i'm really happy with the results here. it took the "edge" off(at least to my ears)and also brightened up the mids. this doesn't really answer any of your questions but this single tube has had the most postive impact on my sound. personally, i think these things should come stock with a 5751 here. if you're gonna do some tube swappin' maybe try one of these and see what you think?

[posvibe]

Hey guys, thanks for the advice. After reading my post I realized I meant to say Torres for the jack swap out kit instead of Diaz. Duhaaa. Again, thanks and best wishes.