Valveking 112 tubes

Hey, I'm gonna need to replace my tubes in my VK112 pretty soon and I was maybe gonna replace all of them (ie preamp tubes too). I was just wondering if anyone knows of a tube I should look for that would give me a more modern hi-gain sound. I want a more metal sound out of it, tighter distortion and the like, right now its pretty loose sounding. I may replace the speaker too, the Vintage 30 seems to be the speaker of choice for most people so I may go with one of those. Will a vintage thirty sound ok quiet though? I dont get many opportunities to crank my amp so a decent low volume tone is important. ANy way I just wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions. I'm just looking for some nice tubes really.

The preamp tubes should last for many years, so they won't need to be replaced, except to change the tone. IIRC, your amp uses 12AX7 tubes, so you're not likely to get significantly more gain with new tubes.

I think you're more likely to get the sound you want by adding a pedal to your rig.

The stock preamp tubes in the Valveking already are pretty high gain, so you won't get much change there. With my Valveking, I swapped the preamp tubes out for some JJ ECC83's (12AX7) that I had laying around, and swapped the power tubes (the stock ones are the worst I've ever heard) out for some Ruby 6L6GSTR's. I also swapped the crappy speaker out for an Eminence Wizard. I also tried a Governor, which is supposed to be very similar to a Vintage 30, and hated it! The Wizard really opened it up, and tightened the bottom end up, and made it louder. The tube swap was also a big improvement, giving it a punchier and meaner tone. I usually run it with the Texture knob completely clockwise (to the right), and the resonance button set to tight. At lower volumes, you might prefer it set to loose, and the Texture set closer to the left side. You'll just have to play with these two settings to see what you like best.

The Valveking is really a good amp for the price, but with a tube and speaker change, it can become a great amp! You might also want to invest in an EQ pedal, and an overdrive pedal. This will help you shape your tone, and give you a gain boost if you need it. I use an MXR 6-Band EQ, and an MXR ZW-44 overdrive. If you don't want to spend as much, I've heard some great things about the Danalectro Fish 'n' Chips EQ, and the Boss SD-1 Superdrive is extremely close to the MXR ZW-44. Try using the EQ in front of the amp, and also in the effects loop. In front of the amp, if you boost any frequencies, you will naturally get more hiss, and this is just going to happen when boosting the front end of an amp. However, this is the quietest amp I've ever heard, so it's never been a problem for me. I'm not referring to volume either, just the hiss that some amps have.

I am looking at a Pod Xt live actually to satisfy that pedal option (I want it for other reasons but I think that would work for that). I have also heard good things about the Visual Sound pedals. But I have been looking at upgrading my amp recently. Is 50 watts enough to power a half stack, if I wanted to gig with it. I don't really want to spend a ton of money on my amp if its not going to work when I start giging, hopefully next year sometime.

Thanks for you guy's help.

I use my PODxt in the loop (guitar into POD, not amp), and it works great! 50 watts is plenty to power a half stack!