Yellow Jackets and El84s

[bnwitt]

Have any of you wreck guys every put yellow jacket adapters and EL84's in you EL34 amps for lower wattage? If so, what did it do to the tone and output power. I've done this with Marshall amps and liked the earlier distortion at lower output levels. To be honest though, there's not a huge difference in 18 watts from 50 watts. Anyone?

[greiswig]

I haven't done it with a TW, but I've tried Jester's "Blackjack" adapters (which he claims to be the original design for the Yellowjackets) in a couple of different amps. To my ears, they were pretty harsh and lacked bottom end compared to EL-34's. Whether that was the tubes or the adapters, I don't know...

[David Root]

That sounds like an EL84 to me. I bought a pair of Yellowjackets four years ago and put 'em in my '62 Deluxe. Didn't care for them either.

[greiswig]

That sounds like an EL84 to me. I bought a pair of Yellowjackets four years ago and put 'em in my '62 Deluxe. Didn't care for them either.

Only reason that I'm inclined to think it is how the adapters compromise things is that I've heard Matchless amps with EL-84 sections that had plenty of bottom end. Does this mean that if you're going to use EL-84s, you have to voice the preamp accordingly?