VariMu tube replacing oddity

Ok, so today I had some time to kill and thought I’d swap the tubes in my 2bus vari-mu. I got it second hand a year or so ago and it had the previous owners tubes in it, not sure how long they had been there, but I ordered a quad of 6N1P-ew and a pair of diods for rectifiers from tube doctor at the time but didn’t get around to swap until today. First of all I had to zero the meters quite a bit, went all to the right with new tubes, the sound became better, smoother and bolder i’d say. But what hit me was that the compression became waaaay more subtle. I didn’t use to be able to do more than 1-2 steps down on t-hold and cranking the input gain just some made the comp a grabber. Now I can max out input and t-hold and it will still sound like a song. So I usually do 1-2db gr. Now that amount kinda sounds like less compression than before, or is it just that much smoother… i’m kinda confused… but maybe in a positive way. Just wondering could someone explain what’s going who knows more than I. Was it so that the old tubes where really worn? Or can the values just have so much effect on it?[/quote







Manley has a lot of info on their site regarding the Vari-Mu. Did you check out their site?

www.manley.com/tech-pages/variable-mu-identification

I sent mine to Manley and I would have to take it out of my desk to see what I have in mine. I guess first you need to know what version you have by looking at the serial number. I’m not sure what Manley put in mine. It’s easier to just email them to ask because taking it out of my desk is a real chore, but I will if you want me to tell you what I’m using.
I haven’t experimented with tubes in my Vari-Mu, I left it up to Manley and they replaced several pieces and sent everything they replaced in a ziplock.

I don’t have a manley, sorry for lack of specification, I have an IGS Tubecore. Checked back then with the maker, tube swap i straight forward as long as it’s a matched quad.