I hear a great deal about changing tubes for brand X/NOS whatever in order to improve your sound. Should I really bother about the brand of tubes I use? Is there a real NO$ mojo other than for the seller?

People are going mad for a dead Mullard 12ax7...

What's your take on this?



(originaly posted to old forum at an earlier date)

The brand and choice of tubes is of utmost importance for your sound. There is quite a variation of sound and of performance between tubes of different manufacturers. The result can be surprising.

NOS (New Old Stock) tubes do not guarantee you prime performance. One has to ask? Why have they not sold this 25 year old tube yet? Maybe because its a JAN issue Philips that is too microphonic to be of any use ( seen those, lots of those). Or maybe it's from a TV repair shop liquidation and the tubes have been kicking around in a sevice caddy. I bought prime RCA 12aT7's from Antique Tube in Tempe Arizona only to receieve totally useless noisy rejects with dirty pins in dirty boxes. So - Buyer Beware!

A dead tube is a dead tube.



(originaly posted to old forum at an earlier date)

Well, I decided to see for myself and retubed my amp with JJ's instead of EH tubes. I had heard lots of good things about JJ's so I figured "what the hell...". The difference was not that big but it made the amp sound better. I experimented just a bit by installing each new preamp tube (actually V1 and PI) one at a time and then play for a while. V1 made the most difference. More frequency response and a more musical high end. I got a an 12ax7 with balanced triodes for the PI and thought the sound the be a bit clearer when pushed in overdrive. I had a set of JJ EL84 as well. I did not rebias but made sure the plates don't glow. The JJ El84 made the amp noticeably louder and punchier.

So, for 50 bucks, I had some fun and my amp sounds a bit better.

I would like to try the new so-called "mullard" clone 12ax7 that GT put out recently. Anyone here did?



(originaly posted to old forum at an earlier date)

Tried the Mullard AX7 GT copy--two of them installed in my 80's Rivera ConcertII Fender--Great tone and very dynamic/responsive! Put them in the overdrive channel--they worked better there. I kept regular NOS in the clean side, as I like the Fender spank/sparkle there--I play blues and blues/rock for 30+ years now, and have a pretty good since of what sounds and FEELS good(to me anyway)--Try the Mullard--you will probably like it--I usually buy nothing BUT NOS, and I dug them!!
DF


(originaly posted to old forum at an earlier date)

Picked some some NOS? Siemens preamp (both ECC83 and E83CC's) and (matched?) EL-34's for my H&KTriamp off Ebay. Of the 11 preamp tubes, two were so microphonic as to be unusable. The rest, while being very musical, were merely average as for microphonics. As for the 3 quads I bought, the first quad had two were matched, one a bit off and the other too far off to use. The other two quads all matched each other. BIG difference from the stock tubes. Rick even pushed the bias [36] way beyond what H&K states and they really came alive and didn't glow at all. So to summarize, it might have been my bad luck but the preamps were of questionable value sonically and quality-wise. The power amp tubes on the other hand - Look up Siemens on Ebay and grab yourself a pair or quad before they're all gone. At $149USD for a quad BIN, they're a great deal and really wake up and turned what was a pretty good head into something very impressive. However with respect to Rick, his triple channel 100W sounds so much better.



(originaly posted to old forum at an earlier date)