Jester Enterprises -- 3 products to switch to lower-wattage power tubes. You could:
Jester Enterprises, Inc.
12628 Roseberg Ave.S.
Seattle, WA 98168
phone:(1)206-243-9271 fax:(1)206-243-9278
http://www.jesterenterprises.net
jesteren at jesterenterprises.net
The Triode Convertor enables you to replace a power tube, such as the EL34 (6CA7), 6L6 (5881), or 6V6 [what about EL84?], with a double-triode preamp tube, such as the 12AU7, 12AT7, 12AX7, 12BH7, or 12BZ7, to bring down the wattage of your amp to 2 watts. This changes EL34, 6L6, and 6V6 tubes to a triode Class-A sound. $48 list.
Triode Convertor mentioned here.
The triode convertor product originated at THD as part of the THD Yello Jackets line. According to the designer at THD with whom I spoke, the triode convertor would *only* work with *American* NOS preamp tubes (12AU7 and one other type). Customers would supposedly have trouble finding these tubes, so THD didn't want to market them. Jester tried to market them, without success. I am surprised that the American NOS 12AU7 is so hard to find: with today's interest in tubes, there are many tube suppliers, and if there are any of these tubes lying around, they are surely available through catalogs. I hope that this type of convertor wasn't held back by THD due to generating less profit than the (excellent) THD Hot Plate attenuator. I should look into the availability of American NOS 12AU7 tubes.
[No hits for "triode convertor" at Harmony Central, DejaNews full archive, or Alta Vista. At all!]
From: "The Jester"
To: Michael
Subject: Re: Please send info about Triode Convertor
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 22:17:35 -0600
>Please send any information you might have about the Triode Convertor. This stands to be a red-hot product! Do you *know* what a *tremendous* demand there is, lately, for products that enable quiet cranked-amp tone?! I have put together a major site about such products, based largely on input from other people who, like me, have been seeking a way, for years, to get authentic cranked-tube-amp tone at low levels.
It didn't looked like as a red hot product to us, we stopped the production of the triode converter three weeks ago, we sold the rest of the stock to a company in Japan. We marketed the triode converter for two years, sent to all major magazines a set of BJ EL 84 converter and triode converter, with no response. In those two years we sold two pairs here in the US! All other of the 500 units produced went to Japan.
>The entry in the 1998/99 Guitar and Bass Buyer's guide only says, "Changes EL34, 6L6, and 6V6 tubes to a triode Class A sound". But what they don't say, the most important thing, is that this "triode Class A sound" is attained by using any standard *preamp* tube, resulting in just 2 watts of output.
Yes, the basic idea was to change the output tubes of an existing amp to EL84 (with BJ84) to get a 15 Watt output, or even between 1 watt (12AX7), 2 watt (12AT7), 5 watt (12AU7) or 5.5Watt (12BH7) with the triode converter. Both converter types change the existing output stage to Class A. We still offer the EL84 converter but are considering stopping production on that as well.
>The ADA Ampulator used a comparable approach, to achieve tube power amp saturation into a load by using a 12AX7 "preamp" tube configured as a power tube, with 1 or 2 watts out. Most users exclaimed that this power-tube saturation pedal (actually a rack unit) works very well and preamp distortion can't even come close to the creamy power-tube saturation. So I expect that the Triode Convertor could sound as great as the Ampulator.
I checked out your web-site. It looks fine to me; there are only a few minor technical errors.
Thanks for your mail,
Best regards,
Oliver
Jester Enterprises, Inc.
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