Well, Lordathestrings is going to kill me if I keep on asking him questions, so I thought I'd at least give someone else a chance. He can post here, anyways, I guess (and I hope!).

Let me preface this all by saying that my knowledge of tubes is, at this point, non-existent.

I have a Traynor YCV40 amp. According to Yorkville's online spec sheet, it uses 3x Sovtek 12AX7WA Dual Triodes in the preamp and 2x Sovtek 5881 Beam Power Tubes in the power amp (however, I've read that it uses 6L6's elsewhere, so perhaps 5881's and 6L6's are the same).

Also, I'm interested in the Gibson Skylark amps, which apparently use a 6X4, a 6BQ5 and a 12AX7 (however, I'm getting different answers on that, since there seem to be more than one Gibson amp model named Skylark, and perhaps some tubes have different names/equivalents).

My main questions have to do with changing tubes and the effect on sound. E.g. in my current amp setup - would changing the tubes have any effect on my tone (obviously it would, but to what degree)? If I want it to break up at lower volumes, what tubes should I use? How would changing the tubes in the Skylark affect tone?

Any other comments on tubes and their effects on/importance to tone?

Thanks for your help!