Nothing beats the tone of old tube amps. I've had a bunch through the years.... I had one, I don't recall the brand..., I gave $100 bucks for it. It had a big rectifier tube in it that I replaced with a bridge rectifier. And the vibrato/tremolo was contained in a covered box inside the amp.... a neon lamp with a variable slow speed oscillator circuit, and a light sensitive tube to make it work....... to  the monsters like Ampeg with 6L6's and heavy transformers.... you needed to bring your pet gorilla to the gig or buy the crew a few beers to load that baby in and out. The one I had was rated at 100w with a pair of 12's in a combo. I picked up a Carvin VT-112 with 50w that blew the Ampeg away so I sold the Ampeg.
 
The Carvin VT-112 had EL-84's in it.... 4 of them.   That baby was a hybrid. Chips on the front end and tubes on the output. Sounded good though.  I carried spare chips because it had a tendency to blow the chips out. I think I still have a new chip in my guitar case, but the amp is long gone. 
 
After some time, I bought another Carvin.... this one was the 100w combo with a single 12" EVM speaker.... that baby was LOUD.  I believe it was the VTX-100 with 4 EL-34's  and sold the 50w Carvin some time later. 
 
After a time, realizing the 100w Carvin was way too much power for most country gigs, even flipped back to 50w half power...... I sold it and bought a Mesa Boogie Studio 22..... that sweet little baby runs 22 watts out of a pair of EL-84 tubes (AKA 6BQ5).   Love, Love, Love this amp. It gets the tone... both clean and singing, provides plenty of volume for just about any gig, and can be carried easily.   I bought it new for $450 and have been offered many times that amount.  It's doubtful I will get rid of it. I played it in a house band where the amp was set on a 4x12 cabinet behind me. I ran an extension speaker cab with a single 15" Jensen speaker tilted back on the floor at my feet. Talk about a nice way to grab some feedback and ride that wave..... wow....!!!  I sent the output from the Mesa into the two channels of a DCA-800 Carvin power amp, and each channel supplied it's own Lab Series 4x12 cabinet. One on each side of the stage. The DCA had "volume" controls.... they called them attenuators, so both the other guitar play and myself could control the volume of our respective 4x12 cabinets individually. Turn it up until you could hear or got the right fill and that was one.....sweet.....rig.  Tone from the Boogie, volume as needed from the DCA/speakers.
 
I was also taking a course in electronics repair during the "early years" and got a copy of a Marshall 50w schematic, bought the transformers from a music store, picked up the parts and cobbled together a workable amp. I think I bought some KT-88's for it just for grins ..(I'd have to look to be sure... I still have them and the transformers in my shop somewhere) ...and made that thing work for a time. I eventually took it apart when I got a good amp.... it was dangerous. All the wiring was exposed, including the 450vdc plate voltage.  I rebuilt it a decade or so later for grins, and managed to release the magic smoke that makes the amps work.... it stopped working in a dramatic way. I had something connected wrong or the grid bias was off a wee tad too far in the wrong direction.
 
The modeling amps are cool and very versatile. I had a Vox AD-30 that I used at church, I never knew what I was going to be playing from one week to the next so that amp did fine. It sported a 12AX7 preamp tube in the front end and power section was solid state. Might have been FETs. Not sure. It sounded good but never matched the Mesa's tone.  I sold it when I left the church band.
 
I'll always appreciate the tone of a clipped tube section.

That's livin on the edge....

If you work on gear long enough, it's only a matter of time until you get lit up. I put safety first and try to be as careful as I can, but it only takes a small slip or moment of distraction and WHAM! Glad I don't work on chainsaw's.

Here's my version of an AC15 inspired amp. Not as pretty as Karyn's, but it delivers the goods.
 

And the finished product.
 

 

Here's a point for discussion...
 
The chassis in my Vox, as y'all can see from the pic, is made in two parts.  The transformers, power supply and output valves are on a steel box, while the input stages and trem/vibrato are in/on an aluminium box.
 
I thought long and hard about this while I was restoring it, but it makes no sense to me why they didn't just make the whole thing from a single steel box.  I know it's "L" shape so the controls are on top, but that doesn't stop them making it all from a single bent steel sheet, and it would have been much cheaper to make it that way.
 
What are the advantages, if any, from having the input section in an aluminium box?

Karyn
Here's a point for discussion...
 
The chassis in my Vox, as y'all can see from the pic, is made in two parts.  The transformers, power supply and output valves are on a steel box, while the input stages and trem/vibrato are in/on an aluminium box.
 
I thought long and hard about this while I was restoring it, but it makes no sense to me why they didn't just make the whole thing from a single steel box.  I know it's "L" shape so the controls are on top, but that doesn't stop them making it all from a single bent steel sheet, and it would have been much cheaper to make it that way.
 
What are the advantages, if any, from having the input section in an aluminium box?

I don't have a definitive answer to that question. I use aluminium almost exclusively for a couple of reasons. It's such a great conductor that grounding at different points on the chassis is not a problem, and I always get a really quiet amp. No hums or buzz from grounding issues or circulating currents. It's also very soft and easy to work with, so drilling out a chassis can be done with light equipment or hand tools.

One of my first tube amps was a 1984 X-60, Compact Series. I ordered it with the optional Electro-Voice speakers because I had a friend at the time that was really into EV and he talked me into it. It was a very good amp, but I only kept it for about 5 years.

Like you Mettelus, there was no internet in those days, but I did an awful lot of research into that amp. Mail order only was a bit of a chance.

For an amp that has EL34 tubes, it would need to be re-biased to be able to use 6L6 tubes.

ampfixer
Cool to see the stuff folks have stashed. Kenny, you should really be on the lookout for the 6K11 tube in your super champ. If you find a good one, buy it. Nobody is making repro's and NOS or used originals are almost impossible to find. Ampeg used them in a couple amps, but I can't think of another Fender that used them. It's a triple triode, or 1.5 12AX7 tubes if you will.
 
The Vibrolux Reverb is one of the holy grail amps, in my opinion. Good for just about any venue and real punchy with the 2x10 speakers.
 
 

amp fixer ,  I haven't been around for a couple of days …i was caught up doing some music ..
6K11 , hhmm that is interesting sounding tip , I will look into it …..
 
I feel very fortunate to have The Vibrolux Reverb ,
this may sound strange , every time I have played out of it live in a club .
I just went straight in w only a guitar cable …there is something about the way the amp sags when it hits the power amp stage ….there is no other amp that I own that I was able to get that sound and vibe with ….
 
Kenny

BassDaddy
I wonder how the new Vibrolux's will sound with Celestions. LOL, you can tell which ones were gigged by the brown grill. If they have slightly green tint that tells you something too. 

I've seen them around …sure wish I could tell you …I do have a genuine love for tube amps .
I'm almost positive that I would enjoy playing my guitar out of one  
 
Kenny

Anyone using any 12AT7 tubes in the preamp stage?

How about some black plate 12AX7?

Anyone changing out their preamp tubes at all?

my mesa boogie Mark 2B, runs 6L6's.....
and i've always used mesa branded tubes, they sound and work well,
last a long time.
 
but
 
i have these in my mesa right now:

 

groovetubes "Substitubes", GT 928-PR
Allows the use of EL84's, and converts the amp to a Class A amp.
 
 
i really like this, it totally changes the feel and character of the amp...
they are hard to find now, 
but i like the way they work better than the more common Yellow Jackets
 
 

Wow, my stuff is primitive compared to that amp. My hat's off to you sir.