They're actually equipped with 7189s (also called EL84Ms - but there's a big difference in plate voltage - and there's a Russian tube designation as well).
They were designed to military specs, and have a 50,000 hour operation life. I got my DG30 in 2014, and it's still on the original 7189s!. I'm told that they were also used in some early amps like the Magnatones, etc. Regular EL84s would literally melt in a DG30. In fact, the amp has two fans to keep the 7189s from overheating.
If Tahlee's has the Brimars, chances are it's a "First 20", about which more, below.
Mine has a very different clean sound from my HXDA, though my HXDA can get VERY sparkly clean.
The DG's clean tone is actually fatter, because it has more midrange balance (even clean) and as you say, it's very lush. But it's not all due to the power tubes; the circuit design is different, I think the transformer is different, it's tube rectified where the HXDA is solid state rectified, the position of the phase inverter in the circuit is different, and other stuff that really matters. I'd bet that if it had EL34s, it'd still sound pretty much like a DG30, and not like a Plexi.
At first, I used the DG30 as my clean amp, and the HXDA as my dirty amp. However, I discovered I was really missing out both ways.
Regarding whether it likes to get dirty, you bet, the DG30 can get plenty dirty, in a different way from a Marshall style amp, and it can rock pretty hard. It is definitely a great pedal platform, but so is the HXDA when used to its potential. The HXDA has sparkly, very bright cleans when the guitar volume is rolled back, and I was missing out on that at first, too! So the choice of which of the two to use on a track can be pretty interesting, and the inherent tone of the amp is called into play, not just whether I want clean or dirty.
I set both amps up with my guitar volume up a little over halfway (PRS guitars do this very well because they retain their highs with the volume rolled back), so the amp is just on the verge of breakup. Lower the guitar volume for cleans, raise the guitar volume for dirty, and suddenly you have Tone World right at your fingertips!
I've used both amps with overdrives and boosts, and without them. Now when I use gain pedals, I don't use them for more distortion -- I get that with the guitar's volume knob. I use them to add color, so I turn the pedal gain to unity.
The amp's rear panel Boost control pushes the amp in a different way than the standard setting. The top-cut control on the back panel is pretty cool. You'd think you only need the treble control on the front panel, but the two combined create different high frequency Q and turnover points, much like using an old Pultec EQ with its boost and cut controls used at the same time. So the amp can be dialed in to give you a nice high frequency push, a little more high end grit, for example, and the cut control can be used with it to prevent an ice pick sound.
It's pretty slick, and the turnover frequencies are very well chosen, both for live performance and recording.
Seems to me there are a lot of tone influences in the DG30 that of course aren't in the HXDA, which is purely late '60s Plexi. I once put the DG30 in a Tweed category, but in retrospect, I think that was incorrect. I
do hear a bit of Tweed influence in the midrange, but it's tighter in the bass, and not as brittle on the high end as a Tweed amp. A Tweed Deluxe, for example, will get mushy (in a good way, of course) in both the low and high frequencies.
The high end responds a little bit like an AC30, though a Vox has more "crushed glass" in the higher frequencies. The DG is smoother, unless you crank the treble, and the DG has much more bottom than a Vox. A friend has an old Magnatone, and I hear some of that; maybe it's the influence of the 7189s?
But at heart, I think you'll find that the DG30 is its own, independent, tone beast, with a lot of surprising tricks up its sleeve.
Anecdote time:
Doug Sewell told me that Grissom put a lot of himself in this amp. When the first ones were introduced at Experience in the fall of 2013, and they were putting the last-minute finishing touches on the amps literally the night before it opened, Grissom wanted the amps to go over so well that he was actually helping to select and install the tubes in the shop!
This isn't just an amp with some star's name on it. Blood, sweat and tears when into designing and building these. I'm lucky enough to have gotten one of these "First 20", and they have some pretty sweet NOS glass that was installed at the factory (Brimar preamp tubes, for example, that at the time were going for over $100 apiece).
And of course, a tone demo:
I wrote the little piece of music below to demonstrate the DG30 with my 594 Soapbar and 594 guitars a couple of years ago. The Soapbar is first. I used a Fulltone OCD at unity gain, just to add some color with the humbucker 594. I did not change the gain of the amp for the cleanish rhythm track or either of the lead parts. It's all guitar volume control and pickup selection stuff.
I've posted it before, but it does show the amp's capability off pretty well, and damn, the Soapbar guitar sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it? The Soapy is the first solo, the 594 is the second solo.
https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/messy-20
