Paging Mr. O'Neil...

[a.beck]

So... Gareth (at gigpiglet) has this UA LA610 Mk1 that sounds really good, and after doing a session there a while back, I decided I must have one. Apparently, Gareth's unit has had the valves replaced with something juicier, on the advice of one Rick O'Neil. Mine sounds great, but I reckon it's not quite as nice as it could be (still has stock tubes).

So I was wondering if someone (perhaps even the man himself) could chime in and point me in the direction of these magical tubes of awesomenessitude, por favor.

I thought about PMing Rick, but figured I'd post here so the info could be publicly available (apologies if this is the wrong forum or the answer is Top Secret!)

Thanks in advance,
-a.

[rick]

i reckon if your ring my cellar door and your asking questions to get answers that you want to hear
that was your first mistake !

i have really grown to dislike the ua 610
when it first came out i thought wow at last here is a company that gets it ... but as the subsequent years have passed i think other things
not many of them good

often when i hear a wierd reedy noisy sounding vocal on a record i ask the client .. is that one of those 610 things ? ,
"yes they say , i love it "
"its got so much character ...blah blah blah .."


"hmm its a pity its so noisy ..i say "...... " yes it is a bit noisy they admit "

"hmm its a pity it has wiped out the realness texture to the vocal .. " i say

" yes err i am still coming to grips with sound of it they say"

what tubes are in it i ask..?
"dunno they say ..."
and on it goes
its a pity those boxes look so good ...

on a whim when we were shutting down gibbens street i gave gareth a handfull of likley candiates for "swapping out" tubes on his one to see if things improved over the $1.50 crappola tubes they ship the preamps with ..

he reckons it made a big difference to the box

what tubes did i give him ... ?
i have no idea but they would not have been my AAA grade reserve stock more like nos rejects straight from the turtlerock cellar door
if anybody read the last issue of at you will understand why i have no idea what i gave him

err ok ...i am sure that whole diatribe is no help to you and your question

look up the tubes it uses 12ax7 ..ecc83 most likely
blow some money on some nos telefunkens from ebay .. see if you can buy them from anybody in germany first before you go to the sharks in the usa
because you have a better (in my experience ) chance of getting really good tubes cheap
swap them over in some scientific way .. like record your noise floor and freq response before you do the swap and after you do the swap

probably cost you less then $60 to do the whole box , so by two sets of tubes , try different brands i dunno ... report back in

or probably even better wake up one of the local guys on this forum ( wagga wagga sounds like a good town to start in ) raid his personal
aaa audio list
swap them in and report back.

when you find the best set for the box buy a stack of them off him ,
test them all mark them up on ebay 200% and sell them to every single 610 owner in the world
you will be doing everybody involved a favour

[rick]

oh yeah now ua have ruined the reputation of LA2As world over i am thinking of grabbing a couple of 2nd hand ones dirt cheap on ebay one day and putting the proper transformers back in them the right tb4 and some great tubes in them .
so many people that own one tell me .. yeah its ok but ...

"but .." i say " you should hear what it should sound like "

i should stop now before somebody asks me about the number of ua 1176s i have see getting repaired on tech benchs in the last couple of years

jeez

[rick]

did i just put nagging doubts into UA owners right across the forum ...
oh well its one of those nights

[Ben M]

classic! Post of the year.

[a.beck]

haha...well, thanks! (I think)

I actually love mine - but to each their own, I guess. Anyway, time for some adventures in valveland.

Cheers,
-a.

ps: perhaps the "weird reedy" etc. is the Mk2 box? They don't sound at all nice to me.

[Alistair]

I've got a Solo 610 and have used the LA 610 a couple of times.

I really want to like it, but it often comes across as a bit harsh- almost like there is a tiny element of the signal that get's replaced with a fuzz pedal. It definitely fattens up the sound ("warmth"), but I reckon it has a tendency to sound a bit fake too.
Very keen to hear if a tube change remedies that- I'd love to get it working, as it almost sounds great I think.



LDC--->610 output cranked----->1176 on ratio 12 still does a pretty good John Laws radio voice though!

[no-fi]

I love the LA-610 for synth bass sounds. and it's awesome on a TR808. I love what the preamp does, and I love what the EQ does, and I love what the compressor does.

Mine had issues when I bought it "new" (it had actually been a shop demo for quite a while) when it showed up at my place it wasn't working - but it had a full warranty so it went back in the box, and off for repair, and it came back a week or so later, it's been great ever since. very impressed with the distributor who went out of their way to have it fixed even though it was actually pretty old and had been powered up in a demo rack for years.

I don't really use any traditional instruments, but I think it's probably a bit much for vocals and if I was trying to record them I'd give it a miss - it does seem to change the sound a fair bit (or maybe I don't know how to use it subtly) how does it work as something like an electric bass DI, or for micing up guitar cabinet?

[wez]

I had an LA610 here for a while (MK1), liked some things about it more than others. on the right voice i think the 610-style pre is excellent, rubbish on others. the DI is excellent for bass and almost worth it for that alone. the EQ has a nice enough sweet spot (if you can find it).

the problem most people have is with the compressor. it is so hard to set up (at least for the home guy or relative newbie, who i would think would make up some of the target market) that i reckon a lot of people would think it's busted. you know how some gear is described as 'hard to get a bad sound out of'? well this thing is the opposite. it took me way too long to work out how to make that compressor sound good, and if i'm any good at anything it's compression.

but hey it's cheap and sounds pretty good in the right situation.

[dave01.cooper]

Sorry to bring up an old post but the replies in this thread are very interesting (seing as I just purchased a 6176 off fleabay!)

The model we bought was a 2004 model, is this post china UA assembly or did I scrape in?

I'm slowly creating and servicing our audio gear at the studio, albeit them usualy sitting on the table in 1000 pieces never to be touched again, so in regards to replacing & wiring in new toobs - is this a task I shouldn't attempt but leave for the pros? I'd love to learn upgrades of the alike so keen to jump into something like this... Aswell as making my TL audio 5050 sound even remotley like a 'decent' preamp, probably out of the question though!!!

Cheers

[Alistair]

No "wiring" of tubes to be done.
Just make sure you've got the right kind, or an equivalent and drop it in (with the unit off of course). From memory the 610 style is 1x 12AX7 and something lower gain? Either a 12AT7 or 12AY7- heaps of info on the web if you look it.