From jjmcs49@yahoo.com Wed Nov 24 21:33:28 2004
Subject:Re: XK-3 with Speakeasy or not (was: Help mail ordering an XK-3)


This is basically a "Whatever floats your boat" issue. I happen to
think that the XK-3 is great out of the box. The tone is authentic
and the tube overdrive is excellent. But hey, what do I know. You
are right in that time is money (actually at this stage, money is
time)and adding an additional preamp is quick and easy. But, if you
buy it and decide it doesn't add to what you already have you are
faced with getting rid of it (now time is money) and hopefully you
don't lose much selling it on ebay or wherever. To me, trying other
tubes is primarily just for fun. Kind of a tweak the carburetor(back
in the day)/timing to see if the car will go faster or see what's
around the next bend kind of thing. The old GE tubes I have in it
now affect the tone in a way I like. So I'm a happy guy. My boat's
afloat. I also use a Soldano Space Box reverb. I replaced the two
Sovtek 12AX7LPS tubes with a GE 5751 on the input side and a
Raytheon 12AX7 on the recovery side. The Sovteks seemed to hit the
springs too hard and overdrive some. The tubes I put in provide a
nice smooth reverb without any overdrive or distortion. My boat's
floating smooth for a total of $77. And if the need arises, I can
put the Sovteks in the XK-3, the XK-3's Ei tubes in the reverb and
the son of a gun will scream.

I don't have anything against the Speakeasy products. They seem to
be well made and good at what they do. To me, tinkering is half the
fun. That's all.

> ;)
>
> Yiorgos