Project - new strings, new tubes

As part of my goal to have a fresh set of strings on everything by the end of the year, I spent a good chunk of the morning/early afternoon today getting a few more guitars restrung. Over the past couple of weeks I managed to do the Gibson Country Western acoustic, Voodoo Guitar Works electric, and Rogue mandolin; today I worked on the ASAT Special, SG Standard, Les Paul Classic Antique, Les Paul Standard Faded, and H-535. Everything got a fresh set of Elixir Nanoweb 10's installed (except for the H-535 which got 11's), fretboards conditioned, setups & intonations performed, and finishes polished up. Oh, and everything got Nut Sauce. All in all, it's kinda like having 5 new guitars. :) Still have 11 guitars to go by the end of the year... next up will be the remaining (2) Custom 24's, (2) Legacy's, Firebird V, and Explorer Pro.

I also picked up some new tubes this week to experiment with in the Randall RM50B combo. Can't remember what it came stock with, but I installed a pair of Winged "C" 6L6's and a Celestion Classic Lead 80 speaker as soon as it arrived. In an effort to branch out a bit, based on the recommendations of some folks on the Egnater forum, I ordered a pair of TungSol 5881's and a pair of JJ 6V6's. I installed and biased the 6V6's yesterday. Pretty sweet overall... definitely give the amp a slightly warmer & fatter tone... feels a bit more compressed as well. Reminds me of what I liked about my old Deluxe Reverbs! I'll probably try out the 5881's later this week... folks say they're like a cross between 6L6's and EL34's. I've been kicking around getting a pair of THD Yellowjacket's (EL84's) to try as well, but they're relatively expensive ($100/pair) vs. the other tubes ($20-30/pair), so it'll probably be a while (read: until I can find a used pair on e-bay).

--B