THD Yellowjackets YJSD

These are adaptors with EL84 tubes that plug into your amp's power tube sockets to give you class A cathode bias El84 (like Vox) operation with lower power (power tube distortion at a lower volume). Sweet clean, sweet/raunchy distortion

I play a Les Paul with a Seymour Duncan JB into a Fender Bandmaster head with a Scholtz Power Soak. Stooges/Stones/NY Dolls type riffs. My basic tone is essentially the overdriven amp. This product gives you the classic, REAL tube amp tone. Totally different than preamp overdrive. It acts like an acoustic, but hitting it harder gives your more compression, distortion, and harmonics.

This is a well-made product. THD knows what they're doing. The operating voltages and currents of an EL84 are lower than those of a 6L6 or El34, so the amp's transformers get more tone from less work. A lot of amp mods try to accomplish what these adapters do, but with the original tubes. These work with smaller tubes that will generate less heat in the amp's transformers. You can fry the EL84's (cheap little guys, look it up), get a great sound, and your amp won't suffer a bit.

They are great. This is important! Call or email before buying. They have many versions not available through dealers. They will make sure you get the model that works.

I've been playing about 15 years. You've read about crank-it-up tone. this is it. The Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, even BB King used amps that these can duplicate. Warm, sweet, crunchy. Amazing detail. The difference between a great clean and great dirty tone is in the guitar volume. And it's at a much lower volume than a Marshall stack. My amp cost me about $200. By adding these it's comparable to $1000+ amps. Not a metal tone at all, but some incredible classic rock/blues/jazz tones are right there and ready to use. Don't blow your money on the latest cold/fuzzy Marshall. Stick these in a silverface Fender and get a good pedal for leads. This is the sound of old tube amps. 'Nuff said.

These are power tube converters using low power EL84 output tubes(included). You just pull out your EL34's, 6L6's, 6V6's or 6550's and put these in their place. BTW, "YJSD" is the model number for this and covers all the tube types I mentioned, not a different model for EL34's vs. 6L6's. They all work with these converters. I'm not going to rate this category because it's just a pair of power tube converters. This section was meant for amps. I guess a feature would be that you can try these in many amps and not have to re-bias. Or you can try different brands of EL84's.

I use a Gibson Flying V with EMG 81's and an Ibanez RG550. My amps Marshall 3203 Artist & Marshall JMP Mk2 50watt(heads). Marshall 1960 cabs. I love these things! It made the already great sounding 3203 better with more distortion. It does thin out the sound at lower volumes but the point of these things is so you can turn it up. Then it starts to thicken up again. I like power tube distortion and warmth. I have a Power Brake but didn't like bringing it to shows and the loss of high end. The Yellowjackets has the high end in spades! Not in a bad way. I bought these, went to my rehearsal space, plugged them in and when I heard the sound I was laughing because it sounded so good. I played all night.

Like someone else wrote, they did smell kinda funny at first. You know that 'electronics on fire' kind of smell. I played the day after I got them outdoors in 90 degree heat without a problem but I still brought a backup. I've only had these a couple days so I can't rate this. But if it blows up my amp I'll be back.

E-mails are returned quick. Really helpful.

I've been playing 22 years. I'd get more of these if I had to. They're a cool option to have, you can always put your old tubes back in with no changes and it's simple. I haven't owned that many amps but this is the best sound I've had so far.